Character · Pokemon
Gengar
Waits inside your shadow, grins, and is officially blamed by the game for the cold you suddenly feel.
In Otakana the clue reads: Purple grinning ghost that hides in shadows
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- 6 · Normal
Gastly, then Haunter, then Gengar, and the last step only happens if you trade the thing to another player, which in 1996 meant owning a cable and a friend. The Pokedex entries are unusually mean for a children's game: it hides in the shadow of whoever it is following, steals their body heat, and enjoys the fright. The design is a grin with legs.
It has been near the top of competitive play for most of the series' life, because a fast Ghost and Poison attacker with a deep move pool solves a lot of problems. Trainers who never touch competitive play still know it, mostly from the Lavender Town tower, where a purple shape appears in a graveyard while the music does its worst.
It is one of the original 151 and one of the few from that batch that has needed no redesign, no spin-off and no film to stay in circulation. Trainers who never touch competitive play still know the shape, mostly from the Lavender Town tower, where a purple grin appears in a graveyard while the soundtrack does its worst. Thirty years of merchandise later, the grin has not changed.
Spelling GENGAR
GENGAR ends in a long vowel in Japanese, written in katakana as something a careful romanizer spells Gengaa. There is no R in it. English hears that drawn-out A and prints an R anyway, the same swap that turns kaa into car. Six letters, two G's, vowels E and A. Most people spot the name sitting inside doppelganger the moment somebody says it aloud.