The Poison/Normal-type Grafaiai has just received an official introduction to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's collectible creature lineup, and it's possibly - if not easily - the best Pokémon design revealed for the generation so far. The Toxic Monkey Pokémon has a scrappy and ungainly yet charming look. As the name might set a fan up to expect, it oddly resembles a graffiti artist - the fur pattern around its head and upper body is reminiscent of a black hoodie, and it has one long claw on each forepaw that drips with vivid paint. Its eyes are of a size that would look puppy-like and cute if it weren't for the glowering expression that the creature wears, befitting of its moody and solitary nature.
One look at Grafaiai conveys an abundance of personality that immediately draws consideration for it as one of the better, newer original Pokémon designs, and that's even without having the context of what creature is based on. The aye-aye is a species of lemur that, like its Pokémon counterpart, attracts appreciation for having an off-putting yet endearing appearance. It resembles a cross between a bushy-tailed black cat and an opossum with large, intense eyes. Grafaiai takes both the rodent-like front teeth that give its visage an extra bite, and the single distinctive long finger it has on each hand from the aye-aye. It's such an unforgettable and distinctive animal that it's almost surprising that the Pokémon franchise hasn't included one before.
Grafaiai's impact results from how neatly its design combines two otherwise completely unrelated concepts into such a strong and logical character. Game Freak first teased the Poison-type's existence on the official Pokémon SV directly based on a real-world location, Basque Country's Forest of Oma. Then a video posted to both the Twitter and The Official Pokémon YouTube channel on September 1 fully revealed the culprit as a creature whose real-world equivalent's solitary behavior and feeding habits had been combined effortlessly with the ways of an independent painter. While Grafaiai is an artist, its work serves the practical purposes of marking territory and capturing prey via its sticky natural pigment.
Pokémon Scarlet And Violet's Grafaiai Is Pleasantly Surprising
Grafaiai's concept benefits from not having taken a more obvious route for an aye-aye monster - and such routes certainly existed. Amongst those who know of the animal, it's not uncommon knowledge that aye-ayes are considered to be ill omens that humans must kill to thwart in their native Madagascar, a fact that has contributed to their status as an endangered species. That morbid real-world background could have easily laid the groundwork for a sinister Dark-type like Grimmsnarl or horrifying Ghost-type Pokémon like Yamask.
But while those types would have fit, they likely would have most easily lent to more literal spins on the animal and its associated folklore. Instead, Poison is just the right fit for both Grafaiai's imaginative synthesis of aye-aye behavior with the concept of painting and the appropriate counterculture attitude it exhibits for the fantasy re-imagining of an elusive animal with a dark reputation. After all, the Poison type is the Dark type's equal in holding common association with punk aesthetics in the series, as seen in the Pokémon Toxtricity and Gym Leader Roxy. The sum of Grafaiai's design and its perfect inspirations is a creature that looks decidedly odd without necessarily being threatening - it's not one of the many cute mouse Pokémon. But in its strangeness, it's anything but generic, and it comes with such focus and strong characterization that it's less likely to alienate a trainer than it is to be a Pokémon they didn't know they wanted.
It'll take seeing Grafaiai in action to tell if it genuinely lives up to the potential that it holds in both appearance and overall theory. There are plenty of conceptually exciting Pokémon out there that have proven to be lackluster team or general in-game presences, and it's too early to promise the artsy lemur won't be one of them. However, plenty of future Pokémon Scarlet and Violet players are already raring to give it the chance to go all the way in winning their hearts.
Sources: Pokémon/Twitter, The Official Pokémon YouTube channel
