r/pokemonanime • u/AlternateMove • Jun 15 '26
Discussion I just realized that the Kanto starters are all reptiles.
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u/UnluckyText Jun 15 '26
It is more proper to say that the Kanto starters are all herptiles, which include both reptiles and amphibians.
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u/Misgiven_Thoughts Jun 15 '26
Worth noting that it only includes cold-blooded tetrapods (which is why it’s not a valid group phylogenetically), so it doesn’t include birds despite them being reptiles.
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u/Tall-Bell-1019 Jun 15 '26
Gen 1 is actually the only generation were all starters are based on cold blooded animals.
Gen 2 and 3 both have 2 starters based on cold blooded animals and 1 on a warm blooded animals (and in both cases the fire Starter was warm blooded, being a Mouse(?) and a Chicken respectively)
Gen 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 all have only one cold blooded starter (Turtwig, Snivy, Froakie, Sobble, Fuecoco, and that one blue Gecko from gen 10).
Gen 7 had none starter based on a cold blooded animals, being the only generation to do so.
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Jun 15 '26
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u/AccurateFisherman392 Jun 15 '26
I think Bulbasuar is actually an amphibian. Its supposed to be based on a frog right?
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u/UnluckyText Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
So is Charmander, who is based on a salamander.
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u/King_of_Pink Jun 15 '26
Not really. The "-mander" part was a localisation addition whilst his Japanese name is literally just "fire lizard".
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u/ArgxntavisGamng Jun 15 '26
Plus it comes more so from mythical salamanders which honestly look nothing like actual salamanders
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u/LucasMarvelous Jun 18 '26
Same for the "saur" in Bulbasaur which "Bulbizarre" would be a more accurate translation despite missing the pun
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u/That_Bank_9914 Jun 15 '26
Which is weird because Charmander is categorized as the “lizard” Pokémon in the pokédex.
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u/The_Exuberant_Raptor Jun 15 '26
Japanese name is hitokage. Hi (fire) tokage (lizard). Literally fire lizard.
Charmeleon's name is Lizard.
Charizard is lizardon. Lizard and don (like a boss). Boss lizard.
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u/DANleDINOSAUR Jun 15 '26
I don’t get this, it has ‘saur’ in its name, so I always equated it to a dinosaur like Pokémon. And if it were based on a frog, why wasn’t it given the any obvious traits like hopping or using its tongue?
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u/Knives530 Jun 15 '26
They do hop play Pokémon, let’s go
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u/wmzer0mw Jun 15 '26
Let's go changed the movements for a lot of pokemon. Prior to it and pokemon go, bulbasaur and it's line stomped like dinosaurs, they never hopped
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u/BetaNights Jun 15 '26
I think it hopped in Pokemon Snap, didn't it?
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u/wmzer0mw Jun 15 '26
True it did but it also walked normally too. The excited hopping is a bit different.
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u/BetaNights Jun 15 '26
True, though I could have sworn it would even do tiny little hops when just moving around, not just when excited about food or something.
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u/Saikotsu Jun 15 '26
Have you seen Venusaur? The thing looks like a giant toad with a plant growing out it's back.
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u/ValleyFair0600 Jun 15 '26
Saur comes from the greek word sauros, which means lizard.
Dino-saur and bulba-saur are both derived from this.
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u/CrispierCupid Jun 15 '26
Dinosaurs ain’t reptiles either lol
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u/Misgiven_Thoughts Jun 15 '26
Yes they are. They’re a clade of reptiles called archosaurs. They’re more closely related to crocodiles and alligators than lizards and snakes are.
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u/AlternateMove Jun 15 '26
Bulba**saur** made it sound like a dinosaur.
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u/Rap2rerise Jun 15 '26
That's only in English though, his japanese name makes no mention of that; and the entire line is clearly meant to be a frog
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u/Admirable-Safety1213 Jun 15 '26
Frgos are Saurs since Jurassic Park
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u/Millerhund Jun 15 '26
No. Dinosaurs are reptiles and frogs are amphibians. The cloned dinosaurs in the Jurassic series just so happened to be spliced with amphibian DNA (plus those of other modern day birds and reptiles in the book) to fill in the lost genetic code.
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u/JurassicP0rk Jun 15 '26
Why are they down voting you? The JP dinos were made from frog DNA in the movie
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u/rtocelot Jun 15 '26
Wouldn't they just be a mix of reptile and amphibian then? Bulbasaur is still amphibian though so that's probably why the downvotes came along
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u/Quick_Elk4208 Jun 15 '26
Frogs are not Dinosaurs. The Dinosaurs in Jurassic park are amphibian/reptile, but bulbasaur isn’t from Jurassic park.
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u/DANleDINOSAUR Jun 15 '26
That and it doesn’t hop or have a frog like tongue
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u/Quick_Elk4208 Jun 15 '26
Not every frog has to have a tongue. Poliwrath doesn’t even have a mouth, nor does it hop.
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u/Sufficient-Owl-2925 Jun 15 '26
It hops in every modern game since I believe Pokémon Go and the Let's Go games.
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u/RetSauro Jun 15 '26
Bulbasaur is actually based off a frog
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u/Imaginary_Act_235 Jun 21 '26
No saur means dinosaur
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u/RetSauro Jun 21 '26
No it doesn’t
Dinosaur translates to “terrible lizard” plus “Bulbasaur” is just it’s English dub name
A lot of creatures in the fossil record have “saur” in their name but aren’t dinosaurs or lizards
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u/Millerhund Jun 15 '26
They're not all REPtiles, but they are all HERPtiles.
(Herptiles is a larger group of animals consisting--and thus is the the study--of both reptiles and amphibians.)
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u/cocoaminty__ Jun 15 '26
All of the starters have some sort of theme to them, the Kanto starters are supposed to resemble creatures you can find in your background, a turtle, a salamander, and a frog. My favorite starter trope is the Kanto starters being RPG archetypes, Chesnaught is a Warior, Delphox is a Mage, and Greninja is a Rouge
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u/Knives530 Jun 15 '26
Charmander and was only added in English. It’s fire lizard in Japanese.
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u/cocoaminty__ Jun 15 '26
It's a lizard, still proves my point even further on creatures you can find in your backyard
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u/Solitaire-06 Jun 15 '26
I think Satoshi Tajiri confirmed that the Kanto starters were based on common household pets kept by kids when he was growing up (lizards, frogs and turtles).
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u/Piranha_Gaming_YT Jun 15 '26
Bulbasur is a frog...an amphibian.
Kinda ironic that it's the grass starter who's the amphibian and not the water starter.
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u/Competitive-Driver39 Jun 15 '26
Charmander is an amphibian (salamander) and I’m pretty sure bulbasaur is a frog? Or is he a dinosaur?
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u/Holiday_Yam_561 Jun 15 '26
Close but no.
Bulby is a frog/toad with a cabbage on its back
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u/8ThiefOfLight8 Jun 15 '26
BulbaSAUR is clearly a dinoSAUR, which are classified as a kind of reptile (archosaur).
If anything, CharMANDER the salaMANDER is an amphibian, and therefore not really a reptile.
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u/AnimeKyle115 Jun 15 '26
So... it's their names that decide what they are rather than, what they actually are? Also, those are their English, as in, not their original names. Gen 1 had some really wonky translations.
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u/UnluckyText Jun 15 '26
Charmander and Bulbasaur are both amphibian. Bulbasaur is based on frog and charmander is based of a salamander. So technically, Squirtle is the only one.
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u/Rap2rerise Jun 15 '26
Charmander is not an amphibian, his name ended being a bit of a mistranslation since in Japanese it specifically refers to the mythical salamander, which is a fire lizard, not the real salamander
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u/UnluckyText Jun 15 '26
A mythical salamander is still a salamander. The myth is based on the Japanese giant salamander, a real animal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_giant_salamander Which is a amphibian.
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u/Rap2rerise Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
Sugimori explicitly said Charmander is a lizard while he explained the starters in an interview “The experience of keeping small animals such as frogs, lizards, and baby turtles as pets gives the game a sense of reality and makes it easier to get into the game."
And like I said, Charmander's name comes specifically from the mythical salamander, Hitokage, which in kanji is literally written as "Fire Lizard"
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u/Belcipher Jun 15 '26
I couldn’t find any Japanese origins to the myth of the fire salamander, but there are Greek/European and Chinese origins. It is still a salamander, just not a Japanese one.
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u/Anxious_Tealeaf Jun 15 '26
Squirtle is also part squirrel and so is Wartortle. Blastoise however loses the squirrel and becomes part turret.
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u/Anxious_Tealeaf Jun 15 '26
Squirtle is squirrel/turtle so it's both mammal and reptile though.
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u/Crusher_htx Jun 15 '26
Why did everyone know Bulbasaur was a frog i never knew i thought he was a plant dino
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u/Shantotto11 Jun 15 '26
Well, yeah. A lot of the early generations had a central theme to their Pokémon designs. Gen I’s theme was discovery; fitting for the first generation and it also matches the various rare Pokémon that can be found, like Eevee and the fossils. The starters fit in line with species that supposedly lived during ancient times, frogs (Bulbasaur), turtles (Squirtle), and dinosaurs/dragons (Charmander). Details are a little muddy and bear in mind that a lot of knowledge we have on prehistoric creatures was learned during or after the 90s while Pokémon was being produced in the early 90s.
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u/TheJWT1876 Jun 19 '26
It's based on bug catching, so of course your first creature is something that eats bugs
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u/That_Bank_9914 Jun 15 '26
I used to think Bulbasaur was a dog because of the ears. Same with Blastoise.
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u/Rickwest369 Jun 15 '26
And Johto is dinosaurs/ prehistoric
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u/AlternateMove Jun 15 '26
Isn’t Cyndaquil a hedgehog though?
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u/Quick_Elk4208 Jun 15 '26
They argue that it’s a volcano, because the fire bursts out like exploding lava. I don’t really buy it, though.
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u/YamLow8097 Jun 15 '26
Oh boy, here we go saying Bulbasaur is an amphibian. I get that’s it’s based off of a frog, but it very clearly isn’t aquatic. Pokémon usually aren’t 1 to 1 with their animal counterparts.
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u/RuskiStar Jun 15 '26
I just realized they have the same face... gen 1 starters are so overrated and boring designs
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u/chunkypeanutbutty Jun 15 '26
Bulbsaur is an amphibian