Koga of Fucshia City

whoa, two updates back-to-back? don't have a heart attack now, people, let's all calm down.

Ninjas are cool. I think we can all agree on that. And while American-style ninjas are kinda goofy, Japanese ninjas are just badasss. Koga looks pretty badass himself here, dark colors for a sneaky Poison master.

I think it's really interesting how the idea of what a classic "ninja" is differs in Japan vs the USA. In America, a Ninja wears an all-black jumpsuit with a tiny slit for his eyes, like a burka. Or maybe they're in bright colors reminiscent of Tae-kwon-do belts, wearing headband bandannas.

But here, Koga is exemplifying several Japanese ninja traits - metal shingaurds? check. poofy thigh cloth? check. scarf that stands out? check. making those finger signs? check. All he's really missing is the headband with the metal plate in it, recently popularized by Naruto.


Thinking about it with a mature mind, I'm pretty sure this was intended to be a cherry blossom petal, not a heart. That's hella Japanese, which fits the Ninja-themed gym. But at the time, I was all "wow a heart wow this is lame and girly you guys are the worst ninjas ever wooooow"

Koga is one of my secret favorites. I don't really like Poison-types that much, but I really like Ninjas, and Koga has a solid ninja design that mercifully doesn't go overboard. I also like how he has this sort of story-line going on - he's the leader of the ninja clan, and as you can see by the greying temples in his second incarnation, he's getting up there in years. In Gold/Silver, he appears to have retired and let his daughter take the reigns. However, he turns up later as a member of the Elite Four! rather than retire, he seems to have moved up in the world.

I guess you could say that he looks just as much like a Dark trainer as a Poison trainer, and depending on his lineup he might appear to be more of a Bug trainer, but he's still pretty awesome.


Overall: 9/10