#174, #39 - #40: Igglybuff, Jigglypuff & Wigglytuff

Official art of adorable, round Igglybuff.

Who remembers that annoying-as-fuck Jigglypuff that occcasionally sang everybody to sleep in the first season of the anime series?

Yeah, that's what this article is about...

Seriously though, that Jigglypuff was incredibly annoying. And unreasonable too, for that matter, as it got mad and inflated when they fell asleep after its lullabies. The first time it got mad it stole a marker from Ash's backpack and started to doodle on their faces. Jigglypuff carried that marker along with it everywhere and never hesitated to use it when Ash and his company fell asleep once more. I never liked that Jigglybuff, though. It only interrupted the episode and it had no purpose in the anime whatsoever, so you can say that my 'experience' with this windbag (literally, because after mesmerizing its opponent with its eyes, Jigglypuff inflates its lungs to start singing a lullaby, endangering its own life by continuing to sing until its lungs run out of air if the opponent resists falling asleep) hasn't exactly been of a positive nature. It took a long time for me to actually start liking Jigglypuff. And then came Igglybuff...

Fan drawing of Jigglypuff (left) and Wigglytuff (right).

Like, was it really necessary to add another useless baby Pokémon? We've had Pichu and Cleffa now, who serve no purpose whatsoever (except maybe breeding the move Volt Tackle on Pichu in Pichu's case), and it's not even the last baby Pokémon to have been introduced in Gen. II. In fact, I am yet to review Tyrogue, Smoochum, Elekid and Magby, who have all been introduced in Gen. II as well. Gen. IV isn't much better, with a total of seven new pre-evolutions of Pokémon that already existed. Let it be clear, I don't hate baby Pokémon... I mean, they are cute and all, but what purpose do they serve other than being the result of introducing breeding (which, let's be honest, could have been introduced without adding weaker forms of already-existing Pokémon)? I don't want to rant about baby Pokémon and dedicate this whole article to it, but I had to put it out there. Again, this doesn't mean I hate Igglybuff; on the contrary, really, I just wonder why these Pokémon were added in the first place...

Cute.

Well, it can't be helped; Igglybuff is here, bouncing continually and uncontrollably once it starts with that, and with a sore throat of singing too much (if only the anime Jigglypuff had had this problem once in a while...). In the end, though, this article is largely based on one Pokémon: Jigglypuff's evolution Wigglytuff. Like Cleffa, Clefairy and Clefable, it is now a fairy type (just like Igglybuff and Jigglypuff), but rather than having been changed into pure fairy types, Wigglytuff and its pre-evolutions have had the fairy type added to their primary normal typing. Other than taking neutral damage from fighting-type moves rather than being weak to it, this type combination makes no sense. Game Freak might as well have changed them into pure fairy types, but whatever... The main thing is that Wigglytuff got a boost in its base special attack, making this stat halfway decent. Its defenses are still booty, but its massive HP stat makes Wigglytuff bulky, anyway. Combine its passable special attack with moves like Ice Beam, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Dazzling Gleam, Hyper Voice, Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Focus Blast and even Grass Knot and you have a Wigglytuff with so much diversity that you don't even know where to start when filling a moveset.

All in all, Igglybuff and its evolutions don't particularly pique my interest, but they are cute and interesting enough to pull off a decent rating. I mean, who wouldn't want a fluffy balloon? Indeed, Wigglytuff's pink fur is so soft that those who touch it (including its own species) will not want to stop, and its body is so soft and rubbery that it is able to inflate by inhaling, moving around by bouncing or floating while it is inflated. I want to see you find a fluffy bunny/balloon thing that can do that. And yes, eventually I did get over my annoyance with Jigglypuff, because I haven't watched the anime series in ages...

Rating: 3.5/5