Electabuzz

Electabuzz
Pokémon character
Electabuzz artwork by Ken Sugimori
First game	Pokémon Red and Blue (1996)
Designed by	Ken Sugimori (finalized)
In-universe information
Species	Pokémon
Type	Electric

Electabuzz (/əˈlɛktəbʌz/), known in Japan as Elebu (エレブー, Erebū), is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise.

Conception and design

Electabuzz is a species of fictional creatures called Pokémon created for the Pokémon media franchise. Developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo, the Japanese franchise began in 1996 with the video games Pokémon Red and Green for the Game Boy, which were later released in North America as Pokémon Red and Blue in 1998. In these games and their sequels, the player assumes the role of a Trainer whose goal is to capture and use the creatures' special abilities to combat other Pokémon. Some Pokémon can transform into stronger species through a process called evolution via various means, such as exposure to specific items. Each Pokémon have one or two elemental types, which define its advantages and disadvantages when battling other Pokémon. A major goal in each game is to complete the Pokédex, a comprehensive Pokémon encyclopedia, by capturing, evolving, and trading with other Trainers to obtain individuals from all Pokémon species.

When making the games, the design first started as pixel art sprites by the development team, created with a single color identity chosen to work within the Super Game Boy hardware limitations. While conceived as a group effort by multiple developers at Game Freak, once development was complete Sugimori re-drew the species along with the others in his own artstyle in order to give the game a unified look and finalize any design elements, while also trying to maintain the original sprite artist's unique style. When the games were localized for English-speaking audiences, Nintendo of America gave the various Pokémon species descriptive names related to their appearance or features as a means to make them more relatable to American children. Originally called Elebu in Japanese, its name was localized to Electabuzz, a combination of "Electric" and "Buzz".

Electabuzz stands 3 ft 7 in (109 cm) tall.

Critical reception

Since its debut, Electabuzz has received mostly positive reception. IGN in their "Pokémon of the Day" series of articles stated that while they had overlooked the species in Red and Blue, in Gold and Silver Electabuzz had quickly become a favorite of theirs and appreciated its "unique charms" and variety it brought to the game's Electric-type Pokémon. In another article for the site, editor Jack DeVries described the species as resembling "an electrified Sasquatch", and though he called it a "love it or hate it" sort of character observed it was not without fans. Kyle Hilliard described it as an "electric cat with antennae and clawed feet", and praised it as a "novel concept". Jerrad Wyche of TheGamer on the other hand denounced it as one of the franchise's ugliest designs, stating that part of the issue was due to how "uncanny its human-like anatomy is". Echoing DeVries' comparison to a Sasquatch, he felt that this was contrary to how many Pokémon could more readily be compared to real-world counterparts to help viewers comprehend them.

Other aspects of discussion revolved around Electivire, and Electabuzz's design in light of it. Nathan Ellingsworth of Pocket Tactics called Electabuzz one of the best Pokémon designs introduced in the series, stating while he appreciated the introduction of Elekid later on, he felt Electivire was unnecessary as to him "Electabuzz was all good" being the final part of its evolutionary line and able to stand on its own strengths. On the other hand Robert Grosso of TechRaptor disagreed, stating that "Electabuzz was always a goofy-looking Pokémon" with a "somewhat silly design", and he felt by comparison Electivire "exudes confidence and presence when you first look at it." Oliver Brandt of Parade added that while Electabuzz was "fine", it always felt lacking to them and had the "vibe of a Pokémon that was meant to have an evolution but just never did". He further described Electivire as one of the "most ridiculously cool Pokémon ever to exist", calling its design perfect and that it did "the awkward teenage Electabuzz" justice.

In the anime, Electabuzz's animal cry is different from many other Pokémon in the series: instead of parroting its name, it will make a sound akin to "that which is made when rocking the head side to side while loosely "buzzing" the lips". Edd Rose of Comic Book Resources felt this was a clever way to avoid having the cry sound human, and while jarring was a memorable aspect of the adaptation. Laura Thornton in another article instead observed that the sound seemed to be a pronunciation of the species' Japanese name instead, and suggested it may be an attempt to mimic the sound of one being electrocuted. Alternatively, she suggested the character's design may be a reference to oni, a type of Japanese yokai that wear tiger skin apparel and sometimes control lightning, and in this context the cry could be intended to "inspire fear in their adversaries by invoking that resemblance". Though she noted that much later in the series the cry was changed to match other Pokémon, she felt this "removed one small touch of humor from the show in favor of a bit more gravitas", and that the initial sound team's effort's left a lasting impression of the character on viewers and presented "a unique cry that can never be imitated or forgotten".

Due to many shared aspects, such as receiving new elements of their evolutionary line in the same games, while at the same time only being available for capture in separate titles within each pair of releases for the franchise, fans of the series have come to regard Electabuzz and Magmar as rivals. TheGamer's Editor in Chief Stacey Henley called the rivalry one of the franchise's few long running arcs, and one of its best stories. While she pointed out they were not the only rivalry in Pokémon and how each of those others had their own stories, they felt "in the shadow of the OG head to head". Henley expressed what made it a good rivalry in her eyes was that Electabuzz and Magmar felt evenly matched, and while she personally preferred many aspects of the former, she felt the latter had more impact in the anime series overall. She expressed hope Pokemon as a series could lean into it more, though at the same time wanted it to remain in the background and more spontaneous, drawing comparison to Family Guy's Peter Griffin and his recurring feud with the Giant Chicken character, and in how the "the joy is in the unknown, in the ways it could be constantly coming to a boil, in where it might go next".

In an article for Game Developer, Caleb Compton cited Electabuzz in a comparison between the designs of Red and Blue and its sequel titles, specifically comparing it to another Electric-type Pokémon introduced in the latter named Ampharos. He observed that while both were primarily yellow with black stripes, the placement of the stripes on Ampharos felt more like a deliberate design choice, while with Electabuzz while there was design consideration the stripes seemed more a part of its fur, and an example of how Gold and Silver's Pokémon designs had shifted away from a more natural feel.

External links

• Electabuzz on Pokemon.com
• Electabuzz at Bulbapedia, a Pokémon wiki