981: Farigiraf

Finally hitting on an old-forgotten of Gen 2, we've always had a bit of a soft spot for Girafarig. It wasn't a stellar design, but it was funny as a member of some of Gen 2's more quirky and out-there ideas. It just always felt a lil understated, with it being a giraffe that looked more like a gazelle. Understandable, given sprite limitations at the time, but this is the age of 3D! We can properly commit to Pokemon of preposterous proportions!!

Joining the long-neck crew is Farigiraf! It's a bigger, way taller Girafarig, but instead of having a bitey tail, the tail turned around and enveloped the head into its mouth, like it's wearing is friend like a built-in kigurumi! And it's a shame Pokemon's STILL not made a hoodie of this thing, complete with teeth to dangle over your face when you have the hood up. Like c'mon, TPC, if you're going to blatantly degrade a video game series into just a merchandise machine, at LEAST do it right!!

If what Gamefreak stated is true, they do their best to ignore and not see any Fakemon art online. Understandably, as to avoid subconscious copying. But this really does feel like it was made specifically avoiding any fakemon evolution ideas for Girafarig, which almost all universally emphasize the tail end more, switch the dynamic between the two heads up, or just make Beta Girafarig again.

Instead, we wind up with something that puts a cool, equal emphasis on both heads, while still looking really fun and weird. I'm already a fan of "face contained within a mouth" as a design trope, but this takes it to a funny extreme. I just think the neck would've looked better if it was pure black, rather than this brown. And sure, it loses some of its half-and-half-ness, but I think it makes up for it by being a weirdo giraffe with a chain chomp for a secondary face that also just happens to have psychic powers.