Back in my day, we spent hours just to level up the whole team and we LIKED IT

369: Relicanth

Yet another of Gen 3's many oddball loners, but this time the fact it doesn't evolve is arguably the whole idea. Ralicanth has obvious name similarities to the coelacanth, a "living fossil" animal. The whole coelacanth's order was first found as fossils with no living specimens in sight, so they were presumed extinct. That is, until 1938 when a live coelacanth was found and captured. Relicanth follows suit by being Water/Rock type, sharing the Rock typing like its Fossilmon "cousins." But Relicanth is just a Pokemon you can regularly find in the wild, no Poke-Necromancy required!

And Relicanth is a fun take on a coelacanth! Taking the "living fossil" angle rather literally and making it look old and wrinkly, hahaha. Even to the point where its eyes are all scrunched, too, as well as the exaggerated facial features and the underbite. The red spot feels out of place, and initially tricked us into thinking that WAS its eye, but oh well.

Relicanth is also taking the misinterpretation of what "living fossil" means and rolling with it, being a Pokemon that has apparently evolved very little over the course of millions of years. Even to the point of rather amusingly suggesting this must mean Relicanth is the peak of Pokemon evolution. The actual perfect life-form. Okay then! Again, this is a false definition of "living fossil", but it's fiction so we'll just roll with it.