have you ever done Donphan?
Donphan!!!! The Armor Pokemon!
So, after all that weirdness with Raichu and Indian elephants, we come to our first actual elephant pokemon: Donphan! This fellow existed well before the Indian elephant dex entries were written, making the references to real-world elephants doubly weird, but Donphan is also a Ground-type so it would be immune to the high-voltage Electric attacks of Raichu.
One notable thing about Donphan is how it was one of the very first Gen II pokemon to be revealed – appearing in the opening scene of the first movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back. Although Ho-Oh had appeared in the anime’s first episode, and Togepi had already hatched under the care of Misty, Donphan felt very significant. Perhaps this was because it was the first Gen II pokemon to be seen engaging in a genuine battle. This battle also featured the debut of the Gen II attack Rollout, being one of Donphan’s most-associated moves. Rollout showcases Donphan’s primary gimmick: its ability to curlup into a tire-like ball, then roll into the opponent at high speeds. Donphan is said to have difficulty stopping, however, which is appropriate given how the move forces you to continue using it for several turns. The dex also makes numerous references to Donphan’s ability to destroy a house with a single Tackle, which is notable considering Tackle is one of the weakest attacking moves.
Despite being based on an elephant – the world’s largest living land animal – Donphan is a mere 3 feet and 7 inches tall (1.1 m). Also unlike an elephant, its ears are very long and thin, which makes sense given it likely needs thin ears to be aerodynamic when spinning. The rolling tire concept is of course the core theme here, and it’s one that’s obviously quite distinct. Usually such attack methods are given to armadillos and hedgehogs, so having an elephant instead is a unique spin. That said, it does kinda seem like the tusks would get in the way. Donphan’s gray color does unfortunately feel a bit flat – its body used to have a pleasant purple tint to it that gradually got abandoned.
Like numerous pokemon, Donphan’s shiny coloration got radically changed over time and it’s…..frankly kinda disgusting at this point. Originally, Donphan’s shiny was a modest brown color, which then got saturated into an odd orange-and-yellowy color for awhile, before XY darkened it into this gross sickly green and bronze. I really don’t understand why, given they were willing to edit shinies, they decided to make so many look worse. Like???? If you’re gonna change them shouldn’t they be made better????? This shiny is…..abominable. But at least it’s pretty distinctive, I guess.
Donphan’s a pretty cool pokemon that, while a big deal for one brief moment in time, has unfortunately become pretty obscure. Even its status as the franchise’s only fully-evolved elephant was recently lost, with the introduction of the much more ostentatious Copperajah in Gen VIII. A pleasant pokemon nonetheless.