#251: Celebi

From the formidable and magnificent Lugia and the gracful and colorful Ho-Oh, we move on to... a tiny fairy-like Pokémon that isn't even a fairy type. Well, re-typing a mythical Pokémon would have been a bit of a stretch, so I'm not bothered in the slightest.

Celebi and Mew, two 'pixie' Pokémon.

No, Celebi is a psychic/grass type instead, and it appears to be a forest guardian of some sort. Known in legend as the "Voice of the Forest", it can bring deceased Celebi back to life and restore plants and trees to perfect health, letting them grow in unimaginable abundance. The most remarkable thing about this Pokémon is that it can travel through time and exist simultaneously throughout time, protecting forests and recovering or planting them after times of conflict. However, it only shows itself in areas and times of peace, and it has been regarded that a prosperous and bright future is still in store for the Pokémon world as long as Celebi are seen throughout the world. Being a forest guardian, Celebi is probably based on a dryad or Δρυάς, a tree nymph from Greek mythology, or the Japanese myth of the kodama, which is also a kind of tree spirit. I see what Game Freak wanted to go with here. There is just one Pokédex entry, from Pokémon Silver and Pokémon FireRed, that thoroughly confuses me, though: "When Celebi disappears deep in the forest, it is said to leave behind an egg it brought from the future." What is this egg? Is it Celebi's? What will hatch from it? And why did Celebi bring it to the past (or present, depending how you look at it) from the future? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and so far Game Freak haven't made an attempt to clarify this entry. The egg is still shrouded in mystery and we're probably never gonna find out what exactly it is all about.

Celebi lying on the Ilex Forest shrine, where it could be
encountered in Gold, Silver, HeartGold and SoulSilver. 

This does not leave Celebi underexposed compared to Mew, however. Even though it wasn't as successful as Mew's, Celebi got its own movie in Pokémon 4Ever - Celebi: Voice of the Forest, in which a Celebi is hunted by a Pokémon poacher 40 years in the past and teleports both itself and a young Sammy Oak (the same Samuel Oak we know as the Pokémon Professor) to the future. Here, the now aged poacher is intimidated by an elite officer of Team Rocket, the Iron-Masked Marauder, and forced to tell everything he knows about Celebi, while Sammy Oak obviously comes across Ash and Pikachu for storyline purposes. Celebi was also used in a HeartGold and SoulSilver event, in which the player encounters it at the Ilex Forest shrine. The player is sent back three years in the past in order to see Giovanni abandon his son Silver after having been defeated by Red in Kanto, and then further ahead in time to battle and defeat Giovanni in order to prevent him from reuniting with Team Rocket during their takeover of the Goldenrod Radio Tower. In a 2008 interview with anime director and storyboard artist Masamitsu Hidaka, it was revealed that the anime creators planned to use Celebi in a Johto storyline arc. It was contained in the GS Ball, but the writers decided to move the plot to the fourth movie and hoped the viewers would just forget about the GS Ball when Ash and his friends left it with Kurt. Furthermore, Celebi was included in some spin-off games: it can purify Shadow Pokémon when it is summoned to Relic Forest with a Time Flute in Pokémon Colosseum, it can be seen in a couple of Smash Bros. games, and a shiny Celebi guides and supports the protagonist in the main storyline in two Mystery Dungeon games.

Both Celebi and Virizion (one of my top 10
favorite Pokémon) are green, but have been given
pink shiny forms with a hint of green. Beautiful.

Lastly, Celebi is a very viable Pokémon to use in the main competitive metagame. Its base stats are 100 across the board, like Mew's, and it can be used offensively as well as defensively, or even a mix thereof. It has access to Nasty Plot, which is a move that sharply raises its special attack and is perfect for setting up against bulky water types. Its special movepool is vast and consists of moves like Leaf Storm, Giga Drain, Energy Ball, Psychic, Dazzling Gleam, Shadow Ball, Charge Beam, Earth Power, Signal Beam and even Water Pulse if you really need it. With a Life Orb attached, Celebi deals some massive damage, and a Timid nature should let it outspeed quite some Pokémon. Nasty Plot is event-only, so Calm Mind could be an alternative option should you not have an event Celebi at hand. However, if you run a Bold or Calm Celebi, you can go the defensive way. And it learns quite some support moves to go with this tactic: Recover heals half of its HP, Perish Song lets both Pokémon on the battlefield faint in three turns and forces the opponent to hard-switch into another Pokémon, Baton Pass passes on stat changes to another Pokémon on your team, Stealth Rock can be used to set up an entry hazard, Thunder Wave and Toxic inflict the paralyzed or poisoned status condition on an opponent, Protect lets Celebi Toxic-stall, Heal Block prevents the opponent from using any moves or items that heals it, Healing Wish lets Celebi faint but completely heals another Pokémon when it enters the battlefield directly after Celebi, Heal Bell heals all status conditions on your team, Reflect and Light Screen are screens that respectively raise the entire team's defense and special defense (works great with the held item Light Clay, which extend the number of moves the screens are in effect), Substitute lets Celebi create a substitute that takes all the damage from an incoming move in exchange for 25% of its health, Magic Coat bounces any status move back to the foe, and even the Rest/Sleep Talk combo might just fucking work. You are spoiled for choice. And when it is holding the Leftovers, you can expect Celebi to last on the battlefield for quite a while.

Celebi with Jirachi, another 'pixie' Pokémon. 

Except for Perish Song, Baton Pass and Healing Wish, Mew can do the exact same thing (it doesn't learn Recover, but it has access to Roost instead). Despite its many weaknesses - seven, including a nasty quadruple one to bug - Celebi isn't any less viable than Mew. On the contrary, because Celebi is as bulky and offensive as Mew, and a STAB grass-type attack could always come in handy. I'm not that big a fan of Celebi, but I'll be the first to acknowledge its competitive viability, especially as a support Pokémon. Do people actually run a Swords Dance set with Seed Bomb, Zen Headbutt and either Recover or U-Turn, too? I mean, it is an option. In any case, Celebi is the last Johto Pokémon I'm rating; in a couple of days you can expect some... ehm... rough reviews of the Hoenn starters.

Ah, who am I kidding? The Hoenn starters are the best starters in existence (aside from Litten and Torracat, obviously).

Rating: 4/5