Why the hate for bipedal/humanoid Pokémon?

[Greninjaman]

I just don't get this at all. Like, at least none are not like Angewoman from Digimon:

Angewoman is literally just a human in fancy clothing. What is wrong with a Pokémon going bipedal? At least none of the Pokémon are like this.

 

[Daren]

Most of what I see is annoyance at how starters now overwhelmingly start as animals/beasts then turn into humans or human based professions in animal costumes, pretty much since gen 6 (arguably 5) every starter has done this to varying degrees. Incineroar really is the best example; first two forms are cats then it turns into a hulked up wrestler dressed as a cat.
A bit of variety in starters would be nice.

Digimon is pretty different, partly because it's always had a different design style, partly because you have multiple options for what to change into instead of being locked into just one.

 

[Emmy]

Ayy, leave off Angewomon. She's exactly what she's supposed to be - an angel woman. People outside of the fanbase really don't seem to get that the Digital World is directly influenced by data that bleeds in from the Human World's digital technology and so there are many Digimon born as a result of human concepts like angels and demons and cryptids.

But as for your question, many people tend to see humanoid Pokémon as the least inspired in terms of designs and at worse looking like people in fur suits due to there not being as much variety when your limited to an anthropomorphic state of design. It gets worse when the Starters themselves have consistently gone in that direction since they're intended to be your main partner that stuck with you from the beginning and get lots of merchandise focus as a result. I myself am okay with most of the "humanoid" designs but I get the complaints, especially when it comes to stuff like Throh and Sawk who are literally just wearing Judo/Karate outfits.

 

[Greninjaman]

Most of what I see is annoyance at how starters now overwhelmingly start as animals/beasts then turn into humans or human based professions in animal costumes, pretty much since gen 6 (arguably 5) every starter has done this to varying degrees. Incineroar really is the best example; first two forms are cats then it turns into a hulked up wrestler dressed as a cat.
A bit of variety in starters would be nice.

Digimon is pretty different, partly because it's always had a different design style, partly because you have multiple options for what to change into instead of being locked into just one.

Ayy, leave off Angewomon. She's exactly what she's supposed to be - an angel woman. People outside of the fanbase really don't seem to get that the Digital World is directly influenced by data that bleeds in from the Human World's digital technology and so there are many Digimon born as a result of human concepts like angels and demons and cryptids.

But as for your question, many people tend to see humanoid Pokémon as the least inspired in terms of designs and at worse looking like people in fur suits due to there not being as much variety when your limited to an anthropomorphic state of design. It gets worse when the Starters themselves have consistently gone in that direction since they're intended to be your main partner that stuck with you from the beginning and get lots of merchandise focus as a result. I myself am okay with most of the "humanoid" designs but I get the complaints, especially when it comes to stuff like Throh and Sawk who are literally just wearing Judo/Karate outfits.

The way I see it, as long as they at least LOOK like a creature, I am fine with it. Angewoman (I understand that there are Digimon fans that like her/it), is just a human in fancy clothing. Look at Incinaroar. It's Tony the Tiger, but very muscular with more red fur. That is what I see. I do agree that Pokémon wearing clothing (like Sawk and Throh) is weird.

 

[Norzan]

Because they are starting to overuse it instead of an healthy balance between bipedal and quadrupedal. The starters have it worst, specially with GF now making them based on real world jobs.

And this is personal but the designs of the recent starters being mostly mid make the overuse of bipedal worse to me.

 

[Zweilous]

The way I see it, as long as they at least LOOK like a creature, I am fine with it. Angewoman (I understand that there are Digimon fans that like her/it), is just a human in fancy clothing. Look at Incinaroar. It's Tony the Tiger, but very muscular with more red fur. That is what I see. I do agree that Pokémon wearing clothing (like Sawk and Throh) is weird.

I mean, that's an interpretation of an angel. They're beings that can have human shapes and clothing, but command great power and sway due to their ties to a greater being. They have just as much a place among monsters, demons, cryptids and other such beings, especially in a franchise whose world and lore lend for such designs to exists. Regardless, as said before Pokemon and Digimon have different design philosophies so Angewomon's existence means nothing to the problem people are bringing up for Pokemon.

Anyway, to get to your point, there's been a general increase in disdain for anthropomorphic designs and I feel a big part of that is the Starters. They're the first Pokemon you get and are meant to be the ones players will get the most attached to, so for many players going through the game and then getting a starter that follows a design direction that they don't care for stings. This problem hasn't been helped by the fact that many of the past Starters have followed the same general direction, with about 3/4 of the past four groups of Starters being humanoid to varying extents. It also doesn't help that two of the four generations had exclusively humanoid Starters so if you don't like that design direction you had no choices to go with. So the lack of variety within one of the most prominent groups in Pokemon compounded the disdain and caused a lot of backlash against anthropomorphic designs as a whole.

 

[Esiouqrut]

Well I think comparing Digimon to Pokémon is really like comparing apple to orange. Indeed they both are "monsters", but they have different concepts and lores altogether.

As for why the hate, I agree with most that it's most likely because of the design choice for the last few gens' starters. It's became stale and leave no options to those who don't like humanoid Pokémon in the first place. At least in gen 3 and 4 you can choose the more-beastly-looking starter, and that might be why Blaziken and Infernape didn't receive as much hate (to my knowledge). I personally didn't mind humanoid Pokémon as long as they don't make it too much like a human.

 

[Emmy]

Something I have been thinking about since S/V are upon us and the Starters still have not had their Evolutions officially revealed, was that I think people would be more accepting of humanoid Pokémon designs if they really stretched the anthropomorphism. A good example would be last Gen's Water Starter - Inteleon since coincidentally, we also got a sniper Digimon revealed within the last couple of weeks for an upcoming Digimon Toy that is also vaguely humanoid.

Spoiler: Ghilliedhumon

(The name is a play on the "Ghillie Dhu", a woodland Fairy in Celtic folklore and the "ghillie suit", a type of camouflage used by snipers.)

It makes me wonder, if Inteleon had been more "out there" like this (I don't mean that as "has a literal gun" though) and not just a humanoid chameleon, would people have liked it more?

 

[KerfishSea]

Personally I quite like the humanoid Pokemon, I think it adds you know...diversity to the series. Out of all of them I'd say my favorite is either Mr. Rime or Gallade (and its Mega form).

 

[Gengarzilla]

Personally I think it shouldn't matter. Ever. At all. I think all this "under the skin" stuff; types, abilities, movepool, stats, et cetera, is more important than how much legs something's got. Can someone try and tell me when something as superficial as posture actually made a lick of difference against gym challenges or Pokémon Leagues? Folks have recently been letting this point influence their decisions and preferences so much that it's starting to come off as borderline insane.

Me? I'll take anything that can pull their own weight, no matter what they look like. I'd sooner have a functioning team of Pokémon over a flashy clique of supermodels. If that means I'm ever in a scenario where we need Simisear's particular talents then I say so be it.

 

[Kelleo]

My issue isn't so much having humanoid designs, it's that quadrupedal starters are rarely allowed to stay that way. Bulbasaur and Turtwig have been the only ones that start out on four legs and stay on four legs. Incineroar could've been a super cool quadrupedal tiger, instead it's this dumb bulky two-legged wrestler cat. As an example.

 

[Beer&Nyquil]

the idea with pokemon is that theyre animals like pets. having something that looks like a person takes away from that

 

[colours]

i'm largely ambivalent towards them. while my preference will be towards more animal-like pokemon, bipedal pokemon are okay too, and they can even be really well designed (decidueye, meowscarada), so they're not all bad.

 

[Palamon]

I... don't get it either, honestly? Pokemon come from many inspirations. Animals, plants, monsters, yokai, and even some real life humans. But, I guess people don't like the concept of anthromorphism. It is what it is, honestly. But, Digimon having creatures that are just humans is a whole different level of weird.

 

[Nichole the Otter]

It's because players love the idea of their starter being like a pet, and the increased anthropomorphism makes them feel not like a proper animal companion anymore. There's also the disturbing trend of recent starters being based on real-world human professions, or pushing a blatant theme with them such as RPG classes (X/Y), British culture (Sw/Sh) or performers (S/V).

 

[RexMissingno]

It might come if you view Pokemon as monsters vs. Pokemon as animals

 

[Stratelier]

Can someone try and tell me when something as superficial as posture actually made a lick of difference against gym challenges or Pokémon Leagues? Folks have recently been letting this point influence their decisions and preferences so much that it's starting to come off as borderline insane.

Didn't a certain Gen 1 NPC opine that a good Trainer should try to win "with their favorites" or somesuch?

Favorites are the reason I literally never put a Poison-type on my team (prior to Gen 7) if I could help it, same with Fighting types prior to Gen 4. I didn't care about the stats or movepool so much -- I just couldn't stand to look at those specific creatures' designs.

 

[guzmania]

in response to the above, i'd like to say if you want to play with your favorites, so be it, and if you want to play with good competitive mon, so be it, but it's not quite anyone's place to suggest to others that they HAVE to use a competitive team or they HAVE to go with whatever they just happen to like. the thing about pokemon is that you can, in fact, use whatever mon you want. both ways of forming teams are valid and nobody is better or worse than anyone else for their way of playing the game. (coming from someone who uses competitive teams in playthroughs.)
to answer the question, a lot of people think they're "furry bait" or whatever the term is. and some people just prefer more animalistic mon, which generally translates to "more than two legs." i don't really have any strong feelings on the matter.

 

[Morningstar]

I think the large issues boil down to

1. the aforementioned idea that pokemon are usually animals first and foremost (which I bring up Jynx, Alakazam, Machamp, Mr. Mime and Mewtwo as counterpoints. all three are varying degrees of humanoid and one of them is one of the msot iconic and well liked mons)
   1. However two of the others are not as much liked so it might had left a bad first impression for most folk
2. The idea of the Uncanny Valley, a range where attempts at aping soemthing fmaailr (in this case humanity) makes it comes off as creepy intentionally and otherwise. (side note, Pokemon did dabble in intentional cases with the UBs and Paradox mons)
3. A different source of creepiness. Namely from the stereotype of furries being fetishists, which is likely unhelped by Gardevoir and Lopunny's reputations. Unrelated to the reception towards the Furry Fandoms, there are other uncomfortable aspects considering the breeding mechanic in general and how it might pertain to certain designs. Because of this possible mindset, some humanoid designs might be okay with them such as Mewtwo, Zeraora and Lucario
4. Another aforementioned aspect being starter design. As previously mentioned, the starters had trended towards anthropomorphism since around Gen 3-4 (Blazikin, Infernape and Empoleon) or arguably Gen 2 (Typlosion and Feraligatr being bipedal). This overlaps with point 1 and the cases of the Fenniken, Poppleo and maybe Sprigatito lines past the initial stages overlaps with point 3
   1. Legendary/Mythical design is also affected but not as much. On one hand you have Meloetta, the Tapu quartet, Zeaora, and Mewtwo. Very humanoid designs with the latter two being very furry. But on the opposite end you have the Birds, the Cats, The Timespace trio, the Swords of Justice, the Weather trio, the Eon duo, etc. More animalistic designs that outnumber the former group. And then you have those in the middle with a more fairy-like design like Diancie, Jirachi, Calyrex, etc.
5. There might also be a strain of thought that both dislike cuteness as a quality and thinsk that humanoid designs make Mons cuter. Like steming from a distaste towards moe anthropomorphism and cutemons like Eevee and Pikachu specifically. These types are more likely to flock to more "badass" designs like Charizard, Corviknight
   1. I should point out that the number of mons deliberately designed with cuteness and anthropomorphism in mind are a very small minority, mostly Meloetta (again) and mid stages for more older looking mons (Kirlia, Braixen, Steenee, Hattrem [the last one is arguable]) or have a basis is humanoid creatures and a design that makes them bipedal but arguably not humanesque (Hatenna line and the entire Tinkatink line)

 

[kiwichu]

Bipedal pokemon are really cool! And to negatively shun them is shunning pokemon as a whole.