Chinchou

Chōchin, the paper lantern

The Japanese name is チョンチー, Chonchie, and it comes from 提灯 chōchin, the paper lantern, or 提灯鮟鱇 chōchin-ankō, the fish’s name: literally “lantern anglerfish”. The real animal is the footballfish, a deep-sea anglerfish from the Himantolophidae family, one of those fish with a glowing lure hanging from its forehead.

That is where the design takes a detour. In the real fish, the lamp grows from the head; here, the two antennae sprout from the rear, where the tail ought to be, and curve forward over the body. And instead of bioluminescent bacteria, what lights them up is electricity.

The English name, Chinchou, keeps the consonants from the Japanese and flips the vowels around. Spanish simply copied it. Other languages preferred to translate the idea: the French Loupio comes from loupiote, little lamp; the German Lampi from Lampion; the Chinese 燈籠魚 is directly “lantern fish”; and the Korean 초라기 combines the name of the deep-sea anglerfish with 아기, “baby”.

A Pokémon that can only be fished up

Since Gold and Silver, it has been obtained with a fishing rod, and that has remained the constant. In Ruby and Sapphire, you had to dive in the southern routes; in Scarlet and Violet, it lives in coastal areas, and it arrived late: it was not in the original game, but was added in version 3.0.0.

Bulbapedia points out a funny inconsistency. In the anime and the games, it can be seen walking on dry land on its two feet, but it can only be caught in water, and it has no recorded footprint.

As a reward for defeating it, it has gone downhill: it gave 90 base experience in games before Generation V and gives 66 today. Its starting friendship, on the other hand, rose from 50 to 70, a change applied to almost the entire Pokédex from Generation VIII onwards.

From Water Gun to Hydro Pump

There is a fundamental problem with its level-up list: three of its late moves are physical and do it no good. Spark at 20, Flail at 36 and Take Down at 40 crash into its 38 Attack. Flail is the extreme case, because it also requires being half-dead to hit hard.

The useful stuff arrives early. Electro Ball at level 4 gets stronger the faster you are than the opponent, and with 67 Speed that works well against a good part of what you run into at the beginning. Thunder Wave at 8 paralyses and is, by far, its best tool in the early stages — with the catch that, since Generation VI, Electric-types are immune to paralysis, so there is nothing it can do against them. Bubble Beam at 12 and Confuse Ray at 16 round out the toolkit of a trainer who does not want to fight head-on.

From there, it is worth watching the schedule. It evolves at 27, and Discharge comes in at 28: in other words, almost everything it learns from level 28 onwards — Aqua Ring at 32, Hydro Pump at 44 — is learned as Lanturn already. As Chinchou itself, it barely gets half a dozen levels with decent moves.

What it is good against and what it is not

Its TM list is longer than its usefulness. It can learn Thunderbolt, Thunder, Surf, Blizzard, Dazzling Gleam and Muddy Water, but with 56 Special Attack none of them turn it into a serious problem for anything. The real value lies elsewhere: it absorbs Electric attacks, resists Fire, Water and Ice, and that makes it a clean switch-in against Water-type birds such as Wingull and against anything that relies on electrical attacks.

Ground-types are the wall. They are immune to its Electric half, hit it for double damage and have nothing to worry about from its movepool except Ice Beam. Grass-types are just as bad: double damage taken, reduced damage dealt back. With two weaknesses and a good handful of resistances, the typing is one of the best in the game; the body carrying it is not.