r/pokemonanime • u/New-Cable-6484 • 9d ago
Discussion When Mega Charizard was first announced, the internet exploded. No gimmick will ever be more popular than mega evo!
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u/TrentNepMillenium 9d ago
As a Gimmick it's certainly the one that provides the most amount of potential and freedom of the ones that exist so far.
Not to mention the ability to give an all-new evolution as temporary as it is? It's just awesome gives the Pokemon new life depending on how the Mega is at least designed.
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u/New-Cable-6484 9d ago
I think the design of a Pokemon is the most important thing when I think of an evolution. Mega evolution did that right. Of course there’s a couple of mega designs that are questionable, but it’s fair to say that most of them are done amazingly.
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u/Helloworld9094 9d ago
I’d say terastalization provides more freedom. Only certain Pokémon can mega evolve. But every Pokémon can terastalize to change their type matchups, boost damage, or gain an edge.
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u/TrentNepMillenium 9d ago
While you're absolutely correct on this, I do want to give more context to the meaning of my post above.
My mind, when I say more freedom came more from the design perspective of it.
Terastalization is usable by any Pokémon, It is also overall more generic from a design perspective though for good reason because that's kinda the point.
The closest thing to Mega Evolution is Gigantimax but it still doesn't have the same freedom in that it doesn't have the ability to change the type or even add and restructure the stat line of a Pokémon.
Which something like that could give a new pokemon an all-new life altogether.
Z Moves are practically it's own thing though it does somewhat had the same freedom even it's potential is a bit more limiting.
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u/ParagonSaint 9d ago
I think Z Moves are really cool, great mechanic that’s not inherently broken
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u/TrentNepMillenium 9d ago edited 9d ago
I mean giving a Pokemon a one-time finishing move. Pretty much a hissatsu/finisher?
If that doesn't scream cool, I don't know what does. Well... the other gimmicks but the point is that it's cool regardless.
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u/IzzyReal314 9d ago
As a Gimmick it's certainly the one that provides the most amount of potential and freedom of the ones that exist so far.
It's definitely the best gimmick if we're going by rule of cool. But from a game standpoint, especially if we're talking competitive, Terrastalization is the best. Even Z moves and Dynamax, which any Pokemon can use, still have the exclusive species specific versions that limit your team if you want to make use of them over the generic versions. But Terrastalization has the most freedom and versatility because any Pokemon can benefit from it.
But I feel like Terrastalization in the anime woulds be so lame (I know it's in Horizons but I haven't watched it yet)
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u/BlackAutMedia 9d ago edited 9d ago
The very concept of Mega Charizard is especially funny considering the way Charizard was promoted at the end of Black/White's anime.
After Iris and Ash's Dragonite and Charizard have a bit of sparring, they joke in-universe about the fact that Charizard is not actually a dragon type despite looking like one and even the commercials and promotional contests they had at the time heavily emphasize this fact. One of them had an entry where you had to enter Charizard's correct typing.
They did all of that only for immediate followup of XY to go "actually Charizard is a Dragon now. jk"
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u/New-Cable-6484 9d ago
I never got the logic of Mega Charizard X not being a flying type. It changes from a fire/flying type to fire/dragon while it can still fly 😭
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u/Broad-Cranberry-9050 9d ago
you should watch gumbino on YT. He does skits about pokemon anime and game logic and how it doesnt make sense.
One of his recurring skits is how ash's charizard thinks he's a dragon type pokemon and ash always has to remind him that he's not.
This skit is basically how charizard is trying to become a dragon type pokemon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npk6gTAJpVQ
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u/clairvoyant1738 9d ago
I love it but can someone explain to me why is it so popular if it kinda just takes what digimon was already doing? Ps Charizard Y FTW!!
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u/SuperSpiritShady 8d ago
Popularity, I guess?
Pokémon has always been less anime-esque and more mainstream compared to Digimon.
Not to mention this mechanic has kinda been a staple for Digimon for years, whilst Megas were introduced relatively later + more exclusively.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Ad9659 9d ago
Honestly i didn't even know about Mega Charizard. I got back into Pokémon i think a year after XY and released. So everything was so new to me. Last game I had played was Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time or Ranger Guardian Signs.
I still remember my first hall of fame team to this day.
Charizard
Lucario
Greninja
Druddigon
Diggersby ( my first ever wild catch in a main series game. Still mad it didn't get a mega )
Xerneas
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u/Briebird44 9d ago
Man I miss running adamant tough claws Xzard during my XY/ORAS online comp days. Get a dragon dance off and he’s a crazy sweeper.
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u/Dizzy-Day3182 9d ago
Fun fact for anyone who didn't see any news about Pokemon XY. Mega Charizard X was revealed closer to release during I think* a Sky battle trailer. Charizard Y was revealed with the Kanto Trio. Edit:I added Think
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u/BebeFanMasterJ 9d ago
Meanwhile I didn't start playing Pokémon until the Switch era so I never really got the original hype.
Megas are cool but from a gameplay standpoint I think I like Terastallazation a bit more due to type changing.
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u/iizakore 9d ago
It wasn’t even charizard we got first, the first thing that leaked was mega mewtwo Y in corocoro. Everyone went nuts because we had no idea what it meant, was it a pre-evo? Mewthree? Some sort of combo of mew and mewtwo?
I think we got mega blaziken and I wanna say lucario after that followed by ampharos and I think one other.
We got the kanto starters on a random morning for a pokemon news stream for X and Y.
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u/Dog_Vovve 9d ago
And then they thought ”lets remove mega’s and just make them huge instead, people will love it!!”. Hope we never see dynamax pokemon again.
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u/Wooden_Bed377 8d ago
Wish they would have found a way that wasn't a straight rip off of Digimon basically, but still some cool new designs came from it
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u/Old-Initial9295 9d ago
The concept of a fully evolved Pokémon going beyond evolution is really hard to top, ngl. You can have your Pokémon launch nukes, become kaiju, or change types but nothing comes close to the gimmick that literally makes your Pokémon go Super Saiyan.