Otakana

Character · Pokemon

Eevee

One small brown animal with famously unstable genes and, at the current count, eight separate adult forms.

In Otakana the clue reads: Brown fox-like creature with many evolutions

Type
Character
Series
Pokemon
Letters
5 · Easy

Most Pokemon evolve one way. Eevee evolves whichever way you push it: a Water Stone gives Vaporeon, Thunder gives Jolteon, Fire gives Flareon, friendship in daylight gives Espeon and at night Umbreon, and later generations added Leafeon, Glaceon and Sylveon through moss, ice and affection. The in-game explanation is an irregular genetic code that adapts to whatever the environment throws at it.

That makes it the rare creature whose appeal is a decision rather than a design. Every player who raised one remembers which they chose and usually why, and the fandom coined a word for the set that the company eventually started using in marketing.

It has been a mascot in its own right since Pokemon Let's Go, Eevee in 2018 put it opposite Pikachu on the box, and it turns up in more merchandise lines than most of the legendaries. For a plain brown animal with a fluffy collar, it has done extremely well out of being undecided.

Spelling EEVEE

EEVEE is five letters and three of them are E, arranged as a pair at each end with the V holding the middle. Once the E's land the row finishes itself. The English name is built out of the word evolution, doubled up, and the Japanese one is stranger still: a katakana string that sounds out the English letters E and V. Two E's, then V, then two E's.

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