I'll never understand why this guy isn't the mascot

>>29191747
You go back in time and give the protagonist of the mango and the a-NI-may a polywhirl and maybe it will happen. None of the protagonists had one in the original series at all.

I would say it's probably because the lack of a mouth and colder color palette make emotional signaling much harder in a visual medium. There is also less dynamic shift from the start to end of the evolutionary line. If they had made a decision to have Pikachu evolve, it would have been a more striking difference in visualizations as a silhouette and with color.

>>29191864
Derp derp, Misty did have one and I'm half an idiot.

>>29191747
Red's first Pokémon in the Adventure manga is a Poliwag, and it ends up as a Poliwrath.

>>29191747
He was the mascot of the first Pokemon Center before it relocated and had a giant statue of him in the entryway.

It has since been moved to the Gamefreak Office.

>>29191747
He and Tangela are my favorite Kanto pokemon.

>>29191747
Spirals are no symmetrical!

>>29191747
I still like Poliwhirl and use it on playthroughs. Too bad I dont like the designs of the evolutions and Poliwhirl itself is not strong enough in the late game.

Not as cute as Pikachu, not as cool as Charizard

It was considered tho, Poliwhirl, Clefairy and Pikachu were all considered for the mascots of the series and in the end Pikachu won, Clefairy only got that weird manga while Poliwhirl apparears in Pokemon Special but its not the main mon of Red.

File: time.jpg (165KB, 400x527px)

165KB, 400x527px

The mother fucker was on the cover TIME magazine ffs

>>29193343
I mean most of the people who read Time then probably weren't the ones who were deep in Pokemania. They were probably mostly adults that thought it was satanic or some shit, so I doubt being on the cover of time would do much in the way of Poliwhirl's popularity.

>>29191864
Red had Poliwhirl.

>>29193343
>>"addiction"
Ok seriously did people in the baby boomer era not have hobbies or interests?

>>29191747
It's a mid-evo, so nobody really cares about it. Had it been Poliwag or Poliwrath, it might have stood a chance. Better yet, they should have had Politoed be its final evo from the beginning, since Poliwrath is just an angry Poliwhirl.

Another issue is that it's such an average Pokemon in general, with only minor gimmicks like swimming, slaps and hypnosis that other Pokemon are far more notable for.

>>29193430
The article itself is surprisingly impartial and favorable towards Pokémon which is refreshing for its time frame. The author was apparently salty as fuck, however, since there's a few jabs at the franchise scattered throughout.

>>29191747
Really hope the evolution line gets alolan forms. I want to be able to use them but they're just so shit competitively

>>29193343
>cartoon and games for kids are an evil addiction
>but paying less for prescripted drugs, let's celebrate that!!

>>29193343
He was front and center.

>>29193510
They don't want you to know that, it pokes holes in their demonization of everything they don't like.