It’s once again that time of the week; time to talk about one of the more interesting creatures of the Pokemon world. This week’s specimen is not only interesting, but a bit creepy as well. And while it’s classified as one of the evolved forms of a certain Pokemon, it could be considered more of an evolutionary byproduct. I’m talking of course of one of the third generation's Bug Pokemon, Shedinja.
Let me start by saying that I hate cicadas. Sure they’re harmless, but they’re also probably the grossest insects on the whole planet. They’re big, they have those huge wings and beady little eyes, and at times they swarm. Plus there’s that one variety that only comes out every seventeen years, which sounds like something out of a horror movie. Why bring this up you ask? Because Shedinja and its two evolutionary relatives are based on the cicada, with Shedinja specifically being based on the shed exoskeleton of a cicada nymph.
Of course I have nothing against Nincada, Ninjask, and Shedinja. I just want it known that I hate cicadas. Anyway, the main reason that Shedinja has landed in the Interesting Specimen category is because of the way it evolves. You see when Nincada evolves; it evolves into both Ninjask and Shedinja at the same time. That’s because Shedinja is Ninjask’s leftover exoskeleton from its time as a Nincada, but more on this unique evolution later.
In the Games: Nincada are fairly easy to find and capture in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, and they evolve into Ninjask and Shedinja fairly quickly. As for Shedinja itself, it’s kind of an interesting Pokemon to train. The bad thing about Shedinja is that they have only one hit point, which means that just one attack can knock it out. However, Shedinja also has the unique ability known as Wonder Guard. Wonder Guard prevents moves that aren’t “super effective” against it from doing any damage.
Being a Bug/Ghost hybrid means that there are only five Pokemon types that Shedinja is weak to, Flying, Rock, Ghost, Fire, and Dark. This does make it difficult to train Shedinja against wild Pokemon, as you can find most of those types of Pokemon practically anywhere. I mean just about every area has a Flying-type species of some kind, and you can’t walk four or five steps in a cave without tripping over a Rock-type. My advice would be to either slap the Exp. Share on Shedinja or train it while Surfing. As for trainer battles, you could probably use Shedinja in a few gyms and maybe even against certain Elite Four members, but I’m not sure I’d use it in a game link battle.
Evolution: So as I’ve mentioned before, Shedinja is more or less a byproduct of a Nincada’s evolution into Ninjask. All that’s needed is a spare Pokeball and a single space in the party, and the empty shell will come to life (well some kind of life anyway). Shedinja for some reason, have no gender, which is somewhat peculiar because Nincada and Ninjask do. Maybe it’s just because Shedinja are an empty shell, I don’t know. But in the end I guess it doesn’t really matter.
Shedinja’s appearance somewhat gives the impression of an angel. It even has a halo. To me Shedinja kind of reminds me of some video games or cartoons where when the character is slain, you see their soul flying up into the afterlife. According to something I read about on Bulbapedia, Shedinja are apparently protective of Ninjask. So I guess it’s suggested that each Shedinja is the personal guardian angel of the Ninjask that produces it, which is kind of a creepy guardian angel really.
That pretty much wraps it up for this post. I’ll probably have another Interesting Specimen to talk about next week, so stay tuned.
