#390 - #392: Chimchar, Monferno & Infernape

TCG art of Chimchar.

Let me confess here: I have never even used Chimchar in a playthrough before in my life and I definitely don't intend to do so. It's not that I hate it or anything, because I don't, but the fire/fighting starter hype was already wearing off at the time Diamond and Pearl came out and we were ready to face some brand new starter type combinations. In that regard, Torterra and Empoleon didn't disappoint. So what is it about Chimchar that makes me go "meh"? Why, first and foremost it's based on a monkey, which is something that has been done before in a much more original or humorous manner. Granted, Ambipom was introduced in the same generation as Chimchar and its evolutions, but its design elaborated on its Gen. II pre-evolution Aipom's design, so let's not nitpick about that. Second, we would be really tired of fire/fighting starters by the time Black and White came around, and the fact that Emboar was exactly that probably didn't work in its predecessor's favor, either. And last but not least, I really do love the other two Sinnoh starters to death. They have such creative and original designs, and Infernape just... doesn't.

Monferno... digging a hole, I guess? It's probably using Dig or
something. 

Now, Chimchar is pretty cute in its own right and doesn't deserve hate whatsoever, but the red patch on its rear - a baboon trait, although Chimchar is known as the 'Chimp Pokémon' and is therefore more likely to have been inspired by chimpanzees - is usually obscured by flames produced by burning gas in its stomach, which basically means that its flaming tail is a constant fart that only weakens when it becomes ill or go out when it's asleep. That's disgusting, Game Freak. Other than that, Chimchar doesn't have much going for it; it is good at climbing rocky mountain ledges, which is pretty much a cop-out because almost all real-life monkeys are good at climbing, but aside from that there's literally nothing left to mention about it. Of course, there's Ash's Chimchar from the anime, but that's basically a retelling of Charmander's story: it gets abandoned by its previous Trainer and Ash decides to be a Good Samaritan and adopt the Chimchar in the following episode. Monferno isn't that much better, with much of its flavor revolving around its goddamn tail, of all things. It skillfully controls the intensity of the flame on its tail to keep opponents at an ideal distance, its tail can be stretched in order to make Monferno appear larger, or it tries to impress the others in the pack by relying on the size of its tail flame and the brightness of its facial marking. The bigger the flame and the brighter its marking, the higher Monferno's position in the pack.

Monferno giving Chimchar a... love letter?

Some of Monferno's traits confuse me a little, among which its classification as the 'Playful Pokémon'. Nothing in its flavor indicates it's playful and it sure doesn't look that way, either. I also don't get why its French name Chimpenfeu has a reference to chimpanzees in it and Chimchar's French name Ouisticram doesn't. I get that ouistiti is French for 'marmoset' - an umbrella term for 22 extraordinarily fluffy monkey species, most of which don't get any taller than roughly 8 inches tall - but even though Chimchar is the child stage of this evolutionary line, it isn't actually that small and it doesn't share any traits with any of these species, either. Bulbapedia says Monferno seems to be a direct impression of monkey kung fu, a Chinese martial art that utilizes ape- or monkey-like movements as part of its technique and may explain Monferno's fighting type, but as far as I know there's nothing in Monferno's stance or movements that indicates it is based on monkey kung fu, especially not when it comes to launching aerial attacks from walls and ceilings. That's just plain monkey business, if you ask me; if anything, Mankey's stance is more 'kung fu' than Monferno's. Lastly, Monferno's Bulbapedia page doesn't mention chimpanzees in its 'Origin' paragraph anymore, as opposed to Chimchar's, even though some of its foreign names clearly contain some kind of reference to this species. But that's probably none of my business, right?

Okay, then. Maybe I am just being too finicky about a goddamn middle-stage evolution, but there are too many things that seem to make sense but really don't quite fit in my opinion. Anyway, let's move on to Infernape, because there are quite a few things to say about it.

Infernape fist-bumping a Pansear. Somehow Chimchar and
Monferno seem to be threatened by it, or at least a bit jealous.

The first thing I notice is that this evolutionary line's French names seem to be all over the place; while Ouisticram and Chimpenfeu contain references to marmosets and chimpanzees, respectively, Simiabraz seems to take a more vague direction with 'simian', an adjective used to describe something relating to or resembling monkeys or apes. At least they don't go into detail which monkey they're referring to this time. What's more important, though, is its Japanese name Goukazaru (ゴウカザル), which is most likely linked to the Dragonball Z character of Son Goku - or Goku for short. It is the Japanese interpretation of Sun Wukong, one of the main characters in the Chinese 16th-century epic Journey to the West. This classical novel, one of the four to be considered the greatest in Chinese literature, is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of a Tang-dynasty Buddhist monk who traveled to Central Asia and India to obtain Buddhist sacred texts and returned after many trials and much suffering. I'm not going into too much detail about the contents of te whole story; all you need to know is that Sun Wukong is a monkey with powerful abilities (often fire-related) who was sent with the Buddhist monk to serve as his protector as an atonement for its own sins, together with three others. The gold markings on Infernape's body seem to be a direct reference to this Monkey King persona as well, as they resemble some of the markings on the Monkey King's attire in some depictions of it.

Infernape creating a ring of fire with its 

Infernape seems to be using a special kind of martial art involving all of its limbs, and you can be sure that ain't a lie: it has access to various punching and kicking moves, perhaps more than other Pokémon at the same time, and it learns Close Combat by level-up. The latter isn't necessarily exclusive to Infernape, but it fits its flavor quite well. It is also often a staple move in its various competitive movesets, along with other strong moves that provide it either STAB or neat type coverage: Fire Blast, Flare Blitz, Mach Punch, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Gunk Shot, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Iron Tail, Grass Knot, Poison Jab, U-Turn, Shadow Claw, Focus Blast, Overheat, Acrobatics, Flamethrower, Vacuum Wave, Brick Break and even Hidden Power if you're really short on options for a specific type. You may have noticed these moves are both physical- and special-based, and the reason for that is because Infernape is often used as a mixed attacker due to its equal 104 base offensive stats. That's why most Infernape have a Hasty or Naive nature, which both boost its speed but lower one of its defenses depending on which one you have. At a base 108 speed it is indeed quite quick, but its Pokédex entry in Pearl that states that "it is beaten by none in terms of quickness" is actually false; it is outsped by quite a lot of other Pokémon. That's fine as long as it has a speed-boosting nature and its offensive stats aren't negatively affected. Although... it has to be said that a Jolly nature fits well on a Swords Dance set and a Timid nature on a Nasty Plot set, the latter move only being available to it through Chimchar. What remain are the item Infernape should hold (which is mostly a Life Orb or Choice Scarf, or maybe a Choice Band) and the ability you should breed on it (Iron Fist if you taught it punching moves such as Mach Punch or Thunder Punch, and Blaze if you don't).

Smogon also mentions a physically defensive set for Infernape, which sounds more like one of these dumb movesets recommended by a certain PokéTuber who goes by the name of Verlisify. Don't ever use Infernape as a defensive support Pokémon, because it wasn't made for that purpose in the first place and there are many, many other Pokémon that can pull it off much, much better. It may suffer from four-moveslot syndrome, but that doesn't include support moves. No sir, not in the slightest.

I may not think Infernape is the greatest Pokémon of all, but this fan art is definitely
very nice. 

Infernape is more of a hit-and-run Pokémon in the competitive metagame, but it's a very powerful one at that. Unfortunately, that doesn't particularly make me like it. I can't help but feel it is a little bit too overdesigned: the red crest above its eyes should have the same primary orange color and there are a couple of gold markings too many. I don't know whether it's the pads on its knees, wrists or shoulders or the marking around its waist, but something feels out of place and makes the design a little bit too messy altogether. I understand what Game Freak were aiming at when designing this Pokémon, but I haven't quite... warmed up to it yet. Not as much as to Torterra and Empoleon, by any means.

Rating: 3.5/5