#517 - #518: Munna & Musharna

Alright, so I was thinking I should shorten my reviews down significantly, giving you a brief summary of a Pokémon's origins and flavor and only mentioning its most common Smogon competitive set instead, but I know that would leave me greatly unsatisfied in the end. I will continue writing my reviews as I have done in the past three years, so perhaps you should get used to a less frequent posting schedule. At least I'll try not to take a two-month hiatus anymore, okay?

Munna, who has one of the simplest designs ever in Pokémon.

Having said that, the Kanto rip-offs really start with today's Pokémon. Purrloin and Liepard may be distantly based on Meowth and Persian - and only when it comes to their malignant personalities - but Munna and Musharna share much of their origins with Drowzee and Hypno. They seem to be based on traditional Japanese incense burners called koro, which are used in traditional tea ceremonies and have been developed to be used with insect repellent incense nowadays. These incense are often shaped like a pig and are richly decorated with all kinds of patterns painted on them, including the floral patterns that can be found on Munna - whose existence was even hinted upon in the very first Pokémon games, with an NPC stating that the Pokémon in the Rock Tunnel area are too chunky and that, quote unquote, 'there should be a pink one with a floral pattern!' The whole censer thing falls in line with Munna's ability to eat the dreams of people and Pokémon and project these dreams by expelling Dream Mist. This mist - which in Musharna's case is continually emanating from the mark on its forehead and can be used to create shapes of things from dreams it has eaten - will be pink-colored if the dream was pleasant, but Munna can seek out and cure people and Pokémon who are having nightmares, as someone whose dream was eaten by Munna will forget its contents. Musharna seems to distinguish dreams more adeptly, as the Dream Mist coming from its forehead changes into many different colors depending on the dream that was eaten.

That is probably why Fennel wanted the Dream Mist emanated by Musharna to finish her research on the Game Sync function of the C-Gear, a device that absolutely nobody in the entire world has ever used except to access the online single-player game called the Dream World, where wild Pokémon with their hidden abilities could be caught. You had to create an account at Pokémon.com (for international players) or the Pokémon Daisuki Club (for Japanese players) in order to get access to it, and at a certain point in time, players were given only one hour every 20 hours to explore the Dream World due to the large number of people accessing the site at the same time.

I never knew a Musharna plushie could be so cute, despite the
notion that its curled-up appearance is similar to that of a fetus
and the Dream Mist coming from its forehead looks like an
umbilical cord.

In any case, as Munna and Musharna seem to share some inspiration from the myth of the baku (fun fact: according to Google, Baku is - first and foremost - the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan), a tapir-like creature known for eating dreams, this is where Drowzee and Hypno come in. Pokémon Sun goes as far as to give Drowzee a Pokédex entry that states it is thought to share common ancestry with Munna and Musharna, indicating that the latter are, in fact, blatant rip-offs. As it was Game Freak's intention to sort of reboot the franchise with Black and White, it makes sense for them to hark back to some of their early designs, but Munna and Musharna are just different enough from Drowzee and Hypno to justify their existence. Even if you disagree with that, at least Drowzee's Sun entry is a nice attempt from Game Freak to rectify that. As for Munna and Misharna's names, they're derived almost entirely from Japanese, being a combination of mu ('dream') and mushamusha (onomatopoeia for eating, as they eat dreams) with a little bit of the Latin word for 'moon', luna, thrown into the mix. Additionally, there is a term/concept in the Japanese martial art aikido called munen or mushin, referred to as the state of no-mindness or no-thought, where the conscious mind becomes instinctual - which is a large part of what dreams are like - and isn't preoccupied by other thoughts. It seems a little farfetched, as Munna and Musharna are pretty motionless as is, but this martial arts term sounds an awful lot like their names.

Also, additional points to Game Freak for including the word 'yum!' (mjam!) in Munna's German name Somniam.

Musharna in the middle, with its kin sleeping on the Dream Mist
it is emanating. In the top left corner you can even see a
Drowzee trying to blend in with the rest of its alleged common
ancestors.

Last but not least, there is the question whether Musharna can hold its own in a competitive battle. Well, despite it being bulky as fuck, it was dropped to the lowest Smogon tier possible (PU) simply for the fact that it's not a very popular Pokémon to use. However, Base 116 HP and base 85 and 95 defense and special defense, respectively, are absolutely nothing to sneeze at and could make Musharna an excellent bulky pivot with Baton Pass, Moonlight, a STAB psychic-type move and either Thunder Wave or Toxic. Protect is an excellent move in order to scout what the opponent is going to do, while Heal Bell heals all status conditions inflicted on your Pokémon in battle, Magic Coat bounces any status move back to the opponent, Sleep Talk can be used most effectively in combination with Rest, and Reflect and Light Screen provide for some additional bulk to your entire team. Calm Mind - which raises the special attack and special defense stats by one stage each upon use - can be an option to make use of Musharna's excellent base 107 special attack, especially since it's able to learn a wide variety of special attacks. These include Psychic and Psyshock, but also type coverage moves like Dazzling Gleam, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball, Signal Beam, any type of Hidden Power and even Shock Wave and Charge Beam. Moonlight is basically required on any Musharna set, since it provides reliable HP recovery, so just pick a STAB move and one type coverage move that you feel is necessary in your upcoming battle. Just be aware that some moves can only be learned by Munna because of it being a stone evolution (in this case, Munna evolves into Musharna by exposing it to a Moon Stone).

Because Calm Mind raises Musharna's special defense and its base defense is lower anyway, I'd go for a Bold nature for it to take physical hits better, of course supported by the Leftovers as its held item. If you're really scared of a possible incoming dark-type attack, a Colbur Berry isn't a bad option at all. Some sets suggest a Life Orb or Choice Specs for offensive utility, but since Musharna is slower than molasses in January and has to take a hit first, that's asking for trouble. As for abilities, the only useful one in singles is Synchronize, which inflicts the same status condition to the opponent as Musharna was inflicted with by the opponent in the very same turn.

Some more amazing Musharna fan art,

As you're all probably aware of by now, I am not the biggest fan of Pokémon that look fat. To me, Musharna falls into that category; and even though its origins and flavor are interesting enough, they're so blatantly ripped off of Drowzee and Hypno's not-so-signature characteristcs that I wish Game Freak had put a little bit more effort into these 'new' Pokémon. I don't hate Munna and Musharna by any means, and their designs are totally unlike Drowzee and Hypno's, which I can appreciate, but they're by far my least favorite Pokémon introduced in the fifth generation. Still, if my least favorite Unova Pokémon gets three stars, you know what's in store for the rest of the Unova roster.

Rating: 3/5