#58 - #59: Growlithe & Arcanine

Cute little Growlithe chasing (about to chase?) its tail, as befits
a dog.

One thing I love about Growlithe and Arcanine is that there is so much cute and cool fan art to be found on the Internet. Just insert Growlithe in Google Images and you'll get lots of cute fan art, while Arcanine is mostly depicted as wild, ferocious and dangerous. In my opinion, both are such distinctive Gen. I Pokémon and I like them a lot. I am probably contradicting myself now, because in Meowth and Persian's entry I said that I do not like real-life dogs at all, but fortunately my dislike for dogs does not make me dislike canine Pokémon at all, so I'll be able to go into this review completely unbiased. Having said that, I have to say that Growlithe's characteristics are so... ordinary. It is loyal and obedient and it will bark at, bite and chase away any threats and will defend its Trainer and territory from them. It also has an amazing olfactory sense and never forgets a scent. Except for the fact that Growlithe uses its sense of smell to detect the emotion of others, all of this sounds like it is an ordinary dog, to be honest. That can't be said of Arcanine, who is capable of running 6,200 miles (10,000 kilometers) in 24 fucking hours. Arcanine is admired for its beauty and speed and anyone who hears its bark will grovel before it, hence its classification as the 'Legendary Pokémon', even though, strictly speaking, it isn't a legendary Pokémon by any means. Considering both it and its pre-evo Growlithe are based on Japanese artifacts called shisa or komainu, guardian statues that resemble lions and have traits of dogs and tigers, its classification isn't even that farfetched. To top it all off, the source of its power is a flame blazing wild inside its body.

You can't talk of dog-like features in this case, can you?

Some awesome fan art of Arcanine. These show
the beauty, elegance and strength of Arcanine.

But that is exactly what fan art likes to show you: the beauty, elegance and strength of Arcanine. Strength? Yes, because no matter how you look at it, Arcanine is one of those Pokémon with very balanced stats. Its defenses are decent and it has some nice HP to back them up, its speed is good and it will be even better when it's holding a Choice Scarf, and it is capable of using both attacking stats for some heavy damage. It sits in the UU tier of the competitive scene and despite this tier's name (UU means underused), Arcanine is quite a popular Pokémon. Most people use it as a fast physically offensive sweeper with a moveset consisting of Flare Blitz (be wary, as this move causes recoil damage), Close Combat (to counter one of its weaknesses, which is rock), Wild Charge (to counter another one of its weaknesses, which is water) and Extreme Speed (a Quick Attack on steroids; it's nice to have for some priority) and a hold item like Choice Band, Choice Scarf or Life Orb. You could even ditch an offensive move and throw in Morning Sun for healing purposes. If dragons are a threat, you can teach your Growlithe Outrage, which it learns by level-up, while Crunch, Iron Tail and Iron Head are also viable options for some coverage. These might only be useful for in-game purposes though, because steel is not an overly useful offensive type in the competitive scene - even though it is fantastic defensively. If you want to surprise your opponents, you could rock a specially offensive Arcanine. Its base physical attack (110) is slightly better than its base special attack (100), but the latter is more than usable. The only downside to using a special Arcanine is the lack of special moves. The best it gets are some strong fire-type moves. It also learns Dragon Pulse and some other weaker coverage moves, but those aren't even worth the hassle.

Arcanine vs. Luxray. Some people apparently see Luxray as Arcanine's feline
equivalent, as there is some fan art with these two to be found on the Internet. 

Now, I know that Arcanine was number 25 in my list of favorite Pokémon two years ago, but I think I'm going to reconsider that position. Don't get me wrong; Arcanine is still one of those cool Pokémon that are definitely worth your while, and I totally love the fan art that's made of it. Don't worry though, it will still get a perfect rating from me, especially considering the fact that I am currently using Arcanine in a playthrough (it is such a monster!), but there are other Pokémon I've come to love a lot more than I actually did. Maybe I'll make a top 100 of my favorite Pokémon - just a list with the names of my 100 favorite Pokémon, by the way - after I've rated all 721 Pokémon (that's still quite a while away, though).

Rating: 5/5