Pokémon are pretty damn weird. When the new species from Gen 7 were revealed, some people cried, “why are they making stupid Pokémon?! They should be more like Gen 1!” Others rightly pointed out the atrocities that appeared in the first wave of pocket monsters, including Muk, Jynx, and Lickitung.
I will always defend the sandcastle ghost but I never thought I would defend the aesthetics of Lickitung. I never liked the fact that its tongue always hung out of its mouth, not to mention the length of the thing. While Lickitung stands at 3’11”, its tongue measures 6’6”. My brain doesn’t want to process that information. I don’t know if I should be frightened or saddened by this creature but I’ve always settled on not thinking about it.
I should also mention Greninja. There is a Pokémon who wears its tongue as a scarf. I like Greninja but I don’t know why. I mean, I know why its cool, it’s a badass ninja frog, but the tongue… I guess it’s easier to dismiss Greninja’s oral organ as apparel.
And then Lickitung makes an appearance in the latest Detective Pikachu trailer. I braced myself, loaded up the video, and…
That’s actually not bad. I’m also in the pro-fuzzy Pikachu camp, (I also think Jigglypuff looks great, fight me) so factor that into my opinion here. I think Lickitung actually almost looks cute. Am I sick? Yes, because I envisioned the real-life Lickitung to be much more horrific than the momentary glimpse we got. So if less-horrible-than-it-could-have-been is what they’re going for, I think the team did a great job.
Detective Pikachu will delight and weird out audiences on May 10.
Handheld History 