Having an elemental trio of starterPokemonis a tradition as old as the series itself, and two of those starters — Charizard and Greninja — have become iconic enough to take high spots in Google’s 2020"Top 10 Pokemon of the Year" list. Scorbunny, Sobble, and Grookey, the monsters headliningPokemon SwordandShield, have also drawn extra attention around Pokemon Day this year because of their similarities to the trio of superhero girls from Cartoon Network’s iconic showThe Powerpuff Girls.
There’s an argument to be made that every new generation could fit a “Powerpuff Girls” archetype, as they all have Fire, Water, and Grass-type starters with red, blue, and green color schemes. However, the starters inPokemon SwordandShieldhave more specific similarities: Scorbunny’s ears resemble Blossom’s bow, Sobble’s forehead looks like Bubbles' hairline, and Grookey’s ears are the same shape as Buttercup’s hair.
RELATED:New Master Ball-Themed Nintendo Switch Controller Revealed
The introduction ofGalar’s newest Mythical Pokemon Zarudehas added more fuel to the Powerpuff Girls theory, as the black-toned monkey looks a lot like Mojo Jojo when you add the villain’s iconic helmet. A number of images comparing the two series have circulated online, and a few were gathered by Reddit user euein and posted to the r/gaming subreddit Friday.
The Powerpuff Girlshas been a staple of popular cartoons since the ’90s, when Professor Utonium first accidentally added Chemical X to his formula for creating the perfect little girls and spawned a family of heroes.Their series was rebooted in 2016, starring new voice actors for Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, and has thus far run for three seasons on Cartoon Network– despite most fans generally agreeing it wasn’t as successfully executed.
While the introduction of Zarude broughtSwordandShield’s visible connection toThe Powerpuff Girlsback into the limelight, the Galar starters have been mostly overlooked for Pokemon Day 2020. The Kanto starters, alongside theLegendary Pokemon Mewtwo, have received more official attention through a limited series of Max Raid Battles currently available on the Switch titles.
Those Kanto starters are also garnering attention in DeNA’s mobile gamePokemon Masters, where thesix-month anniversary trailer featured Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur. But that doesn’t take away from how perfectly Scorbunny, Sobble, and Grookey look like they would fit in saving the City of Townsville from Zarude.
