uhh hello there, my name is rollcake! welcome to my lil corner of the internet. im a huge multifandom nerd, enjoyer of ikea rats and broadcasting enthusiast. i'm also autistic if that matters.
Fandoms:
my little pony (g3 in particular)
animal crossing
chiikawa
pokemon
club penguin
the simpsons (adult animated sitcoms in particular)
ttte
warrior cats
object shows (osc)
hamtaro
lalaloopsy
Musical Artists/Bands
the avalanches
jamiroquai
oingo boingo
spacehog
jellyfish
gorillaz
Misc Interests
doodling
broadcasting (radio stations in particular are a huge interest)
Why I love the hidden details in RSE's Maxie's design, a yapping
Opinion on his OG designs and redesigns seems to be massively divided, and most seemed to prefer his redesign which outwardly shows him as a "nerdy evil scientist" to contrast with team Aqua's "Hunky supermodel superheroes", but was the OG design really that shallow?
This is my yapping about my speculation on RSE's Maxie's design and how it might not be as random as most people think. It might have hidden details most probably never expect too but again, this is just my speculation and might be unintended reading.
The strange looking "man dress"
It actually exists in real life called Howie Coats. They look like that to add more protection on the front. But in this case, colored black probably to show villainy? (and a throwback to team rocket of the past)
But that's not all
Someone speculated that RSE's Maxie's was also inspired by Mongolian Deel, that accompanied with his iconic pokemon, Camerupt (which was inspired by bactrian camels), I think they wanted something more Mongolian on the side.
I don't know why they chose this imagery, or if it's intentional or unintentional. But pokeymans developer usually shows much more detail in designing than it meets the eyes. For example Poliwag's belly spiral wasn't a random choice, but it was inspired by real life tadpoles intestines
Parasect even used Cordyceps as an imagery (along with cicadas/nymphs), for example. But it's easily mistaken as a strange crab.
Why Demons though
Aside from the Magma -> Volcano -> Hell imagery, I think there's another reason why they made the enemy group opposing the pirates was "demons".
You see, there's this one hot springs/onsen located in Kyushu called the Beppu Onsen, also known as The seven hells of Beppu.
Oni demons are their mascots. I personally think that team Magma's design wasn't just supposed to be just a typical red (christian-esque) demon, but alludes more to the Oni of japanese folklores.
Shuten Douji?
(SMT jumpscare!)
People sometimes wonder "why is Maxie's the one who's all plastered in the manga and not the pirate?!!!", Perhaps the artist thought about Shuten Douji because Maxie's team looked demonic (and he lived in caves as a hideout?)
Shuten Douji was a legendary Oni king who terrorizes humans along with his band of demons. They lived in the mountains of Ooe where they kidnap a lot of people to eat and slaughter them.
Shuten Douji loved alcohol so much that it was the cause of his downfall. A band of heroes led by Minamoto no Raikou spiked his alcohol and decapitated him.
Perhaps this was also the reason why he's portrayed that way in the manga.
What about the remakes?
personally I think that the remake had more... Western? approach to the redesigns? I think the beta stories where Maxie (or Urushida) was supposed to be the pure evil type villain while Archie was the misunderstood anti hero played a role in the redesign.
Team Magma was the evil comic book "evolutionary" mad scientist supervillain while Team Aqua was the Aquaman anti hero-superhero fighting for pokeymans rights (albeit misguided) hence those wetsuits, cape and heroic build.
So of course their designs are getting more exaggerated along with modern pokemon design sensibilities.
Perhaps Maxie's beta sprites also played a part in the redesign.
Again nothing wrong with the remakes, it does feel like the remakes had their own preferred aesthetic. Old and new pokemon does seem to have a diverging design choices (alongside their newer pokemon design) even though they share the same fundamentals (inspired by real life things)
Old versus New
I think people also underestimate the limitation of designs you can show in pixels.
For example, Kazuma Kaneko of shin megami tensei fame talked about the limitations, so he drew the pixel art first then he could make a concept art out of it.
There's also ace attorney developer stories where certain character had to be cut out or made shorter due to memory constraints
idk if it was the case with pokemon, but in pixels, they probably had to make do with the simplest - but - striking character designs
Also unrelated, but sometimes I think, because gen 3 was meant to be a reboot of the series (like how SMT nocturne eschewed classic alignments in favor of a more nuanced reasons), (beta, at least) Maxie and Archie's supposed to symbolize 2 different types of villains. The old (Team rocket esque villainy) versus the new (post gen 3's misunderstood villains) . While this kind of plot ended up becoming a limbo in gen 3, seems like these elements made it to the remake and eventually influences the character designs.
I don't wanna sound like a genwunner (ironic! I wasn't born at that gen 1 era lol), but it seems like in the old pokemon games. They have a more grounded "raw" execution plot. The pokemons are treated more like an everyday animals (just happens to spew fire, etc) and so the villains are mostly gangster exploiting and poaching them like animals in reality.
The closest would be like monster hunter in terms of monster depiction. While the newer one seems to put emphasis on them as "Magical creatures pet!" and the stories eventually revolves on legendaries or world ending shenanigans by cults.
The world setting depiction, naturally became different too.
Like this picture I draw of them (OG and remake) set in a dingy pempek restaurant. The OG looked like an everyday gangster on the streets while the remake looked super out of place, like a cosplayer who takes a break from the comic con.
These 2 designs might have the same roots, but eventually branched to fit the franchise's changing aesthetic.
personal Maxie maxxing thoughts
I know his remake are much more preferred, but I have deep attachment to the original designs because how gangster they looked like (Archie included, he's so home-y for some reason lol. Reminds me of the stinky balding old street thugs in my country which gives him oddly more erotic vibe)
Plus, OG Maxie won't look weird lined up with the cast of ATLUS's old Kazuma Kaneko era games (Pictured above the scientists of Maken X). He had this eastern gangsta vibe which, while not flashy and outward as the remake, still wins my preference lul
But again, I do appreciate the rawness of early gen pokemon in terms of storytelling and unhinged moments (Mew "gave birth", team rocket's confirmed murder, Bill fusing SMT-style with a 'mon), I think that's why I preferred a more down to earth gangster look for the ruby sapphire villains, even if people calls it "generic"
well it's not that generic looking when you deep dive into their designs now...
OG Maxie looked pretty demonic too, which reminds me of this guy from megami tensei (the notlucifer louis cypher)
more reasons to love him because I love occult stuff lul
