Where was I?
...oh.
...oh.
No wonder I stopped for nearly a year. Fuck me.
Taillow: Nothing too fancy. It is an okay bird. I was gonna ding its stupid face, but the sprites look decent enough for me to forgive it. The colors are nice, but I wish it had some Pidgey-esque texturing or something more interesting than the tail split or wing tips. 3/5
Swellow: Uh... basically a better looking Taillow. The head still looks worse in the official art then anywhere else (too flat), but everything else is fine. Nice sharp build for a predatory bird, the coloration is even better with the fancier red, and the head feathers are pretty great. Tail is distinct too. I dunno, the more I look, the more I like this bird. 4/5
Wingull: This bird, on the other hand... mmmmm. Have I gone soft? I want to hate this thing, but looking at it, it does kind of achieve "cute" decently. A lot like clefairy from way back when, it is how relatively simplified the design is. The beak is the biggest problem I think, not really looking like it fits with the otherwise kinda cute and compact body vs the long wings. And the color scheme is pleasant and stands out. 3/5
Pelipper: This on the other hand. Pelicans look stupid to begin with, this doesn't help. The anchor shape on the body is sorta neat, but the body/mouth split is honestly kinda grotesque. The little glued on feet are stupid and it'd probably be better to lose them. Those wing fingers are worse than Lugia's. And I have no idea what's going with your fucking eye, mate. 1/5
Ralts: Ralts is great and a lot of what human shape Pokemon to be. It suggests the idea of a humanoid without falling deep into the uncanny valley like Hitmonchan does. I'm kinda hard pressed to focus in on what I like about Ralts. The colors are, again, nice (I might be failing to remember things, but is there more white in this generation?), and the looks good together. The bowl cut hair looks a bit doofy, but otherwise the body has a really nice flow (thin to wide, with the circle head being conveniently disrupted by the hair) and is simple enough to just be super cute. It really suggest a child wearing clothes too big for it (that it will eventually grow into) without getting too close. 5/5
Kirilia: Hello awkward teen years. You are here, looking awkward. So, again, it at least does the looking humanoid without looking too human thing, but I really dislike a lot of the design. Primarily the body, which trades a really nice, smooth flow for the super poofed out skirt into comically narrow legs. Also like half the sprites have its butt sticking out, which is weird. I go back and forth on the head. The twin-tail idea (with the shards standing in for bows or something) is neat and the "beak" helps create a nice, unique shape, but the way it all falls again messes with the nice smooth flow Ralts had. Looking close, I hate it less than I thought I did, but eh... 3/5
Gardevoir: A pretty logical endpoint for Ralts, really. Really... *sigh* Shut up Grefter, Zenny, Sopko, whoever else... the curves on Gardevoir are super nice and carry through the entire body, giving it a really elegant look that again captures the idea while looking rather fae-like. The stronger white/green blending is a nice touch. The pointy ears help break up the round head stuff and go well with the beak and swooped hair. About the biggest complaint is the red pick thing which ends up in a weird place given the previous two evolutions. I like the final placement, but it is odd to go from head to chest like that. 5/5
Surskit: I wish I could like you more. You're cute and a cool idea, but when I really look at you, I'm hard-pressed to actually justify liking you. The blue and yellow is ugly together, IMO (fuck your complementary color BS) and the stem is just... goofy. The extra lines make it look like a dumb hairdo. I kinda suspect I'd have liked it better if it just had a round top. I also think the little marks under its eyes would be a bit nicer if they were less pronounced. Blah. 3/5
Masquerain: The first pokemon this topic has really hurt in my view. I actually used to like Masquerain a lot, but when I look close... ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh. So the front of the design IS cool with the fake eye wings and a very clean, clear evolution from Surskit (colors aside). The single eyelashes are a big weird, but otherwise everything continues nicely. Then I realzed it has some weird tiny body with wings behind all that (I originally thought the wings were attached to the main body) and it just sort of ruins it for me. Like, it just looks so awkward and gross. The reference sheet with the "body" below it and using the little wings as legs looks okay, but ultimately I think the extra torso with horizontal flight is just eeeergh. Still, there is a lot of cool here. 2/5
