Mr. Mime

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This article is about the Pokémon species. For The Powerpuff Girls character, see List of The Powerpuff Girls characters § Rainbow.

Mr. Mime
Pokémon series character
Pokémon Mr. Mime art.png
National Pokédex
Starmie - Mr. Mime (#122) - Scyther
First gamePokémon Red and Blue
Designed byKen Sugimori
Voiced byKayzie Rogers (English, from Indigo League era to Sun and Moon era)
Michele Knotz (English, since Sun and Moon era)
Yūji Ueda (Japanese)
In-universe information
Species
Gender♂ Male / ♀ Female
TypePsychic Fairy

Mr. Mime, known in Japan as Barrierd (バリヤード, Bariyādo), is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Mr. Mime first appeared in the video games Pokémon Red and Blue and subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise. Mr. Mime is voiced by Yūji Ueda in Japanese and in English, was originally voiced by Kayzie Rogers and currently by Michele Knotz.[1]

Known as the Barrier Pokémon, Mr. Mime are gifted with the art of miming at a young age and as they mature they gain the ability to psychically generate invisible objects such as walls and other barriers. In the anime, a Mr. Mime appears as early on as a house cleaner and helper to Delia, protagonist Ash Ketchum's mother, while others are shown as entertainers or cooks. In the Pokémon Adventures manga, its abilities are utilized to create training rooms and surround an entire city with a barrier to prevent access from the outside world.

Mr. Mime's appearance has been heavily criticized by sources such as 1UP.com due to its humanoid design, as well as for combining the worst-perceived aspects of mimes and clowns. However, the character's design has also been praised by other sources in comparison to more common series characters.

Design and characteristics[]

Mr. Mime was one of 151 different designs conceived by Game Freak's character development team and finalized by Ken Sugimori for the first generation of Pocket Monsters games Red and Green, which were localized outside Japan as Pokémon Red and Blue.[2][3] It was originally called "Barrierd" in Japanese, but when Nintendo decided to give the various Pokémon species "clever and descriptive names" related to their appearance or features when translating the game for western audiences as a means to make the characters more relatable to American children,[4] it was renamed "Mr. Mime", based on its masculine appearance and behavior.[5]

Appearing as an anthropomorphic creature, it has a pink head with red cheeks and blue, frizzy hair, a round, white body with a red spot in the middle, light-pink arms and legs are connected to its body by red spheres, white, five-fingered hands and blue feet that curl upward at the tips. Their hands are depicted with four fingers and an opposable thumb, with larger fingertips and red dots on their underside. However, game representations of the character featured only three fingers on each hand until the release of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.[6]

Appearances[]

In video games[]

In the video game series, Mr. Mime can be acquired from an in-game trade in Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.[7] It appeared in several sequels, including Pokémon Gold and Silver, Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Mr. Mime gains a new pre-evolved form, Mime Jr., which evolves when leveled up while knowing the move Mimic.[8] In Pokémon Sword and Shield, Mr. Mime received a Galar-regional form of the Psychic/Ice type, which has a region-exclusive evolution, Mr. Rime, that evolves through leveling up.[9] Gym Leader Sabrina uses a female Mr. Mime in every game she appears in except Pokémon Yellow, in which she does not have a Mr. Mime. In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Elite Four Lucian owns a Mr. Mime.[10]

Outside of the main series, Mr. Mime has appeared in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, the Pokémon Ranger games and PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure. In Pokémon Stadium 2, Mr. Mime stars in its own minigame called "Barrier Ball". Poké Balls appear on the field and by using Mr. Mime's Barrier, send the Poké Balls to the other player's fields.[11]

Mr. Mime appears in Pokémon Go, but is a regional Pokémon that is catchable in Europe only.[12] It also appears in Pokémon UNITE[13] and New Pokémon Snap.[14]

In other media[]

In the anime, a Mr. Mime lives with Delia Ketchum. It does housework for her in exchange for room and board. Ash dressed as a Mr. Mime to inspire a real Mr. Mime who worked for a circus. Delia knew about this, so when a wild Mr. Mime came to her door and wanted lunch, she thought it was Ash in costume and provided it with food. When the real Ash showed up, still in costume, she was quite puzzled, but wound up keeping Mimey as her live-in maid.[15] It will only listen to Delia and if anyone else, even Ash, gives it orders or asks it to do something, it will normally ignore them. It used to be unknown if Delia caught Mimey or not, as she was not seen with its Pokéball. However, as of Pokémon Journeys, we now know that Mimey does indeed have a Pokéball and he was in fact, caught. When Ash and his friends returned to Pallet Town following the Orange Islands saga, it was revealed that Brock and Mimey had become rather competitive regarding household tasks while the two of them were sharing the house with Delia.[16]

In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Mr. Mime was first seen under the control of Sabrina, generating a Light Screen to seal off the whole of Saffron City.[17] The same Mr. Mime was seen again during the Gym Leader faceoff, using its miming powers to trap Bugsy and defeat his Heracross.[18] Mr. Mime has also appeared under the ownership of Crystal and has the ability to create invisible walls and rooms, much like Sabrina's Mr. Mime. It creates a training room for Ruby and Sapphire and Emerald to teach their Pokémon the ultimate moves Blast Burn, Hydro Cannon and Frenzy Plant.[19]

A Mr. Mime appears in the film Pokémon Detective Pikachu, getting interrogated by the title character (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) and Tim Goodman (Justice Smith).[6]

Critical reception[]

Since appearing in the Pokémon franchise, Mr. Mime has received a generally mixed reception. 1UP.com named Mr. Mime the "lamest Pokémon" in the franchise, finding it dubious that a mime Pokémon could come to exist.[20] Retronauts stated similar, saying that it was "everything that's wrong with mimes and clowns."[21] GamesRadar named it one of the most "fugly Pokémon" in the series, calling it creepy for its humanoid shape and dangling arms.[22] GamesRadar staff, however, noted it was among the more popular Pokémon.[23] IGN editor "Pokémon of the Day Chick" has expressed her dislike of the character in multiple articles, describing it as an "abomination" and suggesting that designers were on drugs when they created it.[24] GamesRadar editor Carolyn Gudmundson called Mr. Mime one of the most "infamous" examples of humanoid Pokémon in the series, which listing Mr. Mime and Jynx as two of "the most infamous" examples.[25] Jim Sterling of Destructoid included it in his list of 30 "rubbish" Pokémon, describing Mr. Mime "as easily one of the shittiest Pokémon in all of history."[26] Kyle Hilliard of GameInformer claimed that Mr. Mime as the weirdest Pokémon, and said it is the only Pokémon to date with a title, "I’m not entirely convinced Mr. Mime isn’t just a failed clown trying to disembark from the human species."[27] Joe Anderton of Digital Spy criticize Mr. Mime in the film Detective Pikachu and called it as the worst Pokémon, by stating that "Its name doesn't make any sense. It gets outclassed by most Psychic types, and it's just plain creepy."[28]

However, other sources have instead praised the character's appearance. In the book Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific, David Surman defended Mr. Mime's design, suggesting that Sugimori developed it—along with Jynx—to draw upon the humor of heta-uma (a term meaning bad/nice). The book notes that the designs "oscillate between the poles of good and bad," and as a result offer diversity within the game and invite scrutiny from players.[29] The Coventry Evening Telegraph also praised its design, stating the character was "more interesting" in comparison to more popular Pokémon like Squirtle.[30] Elijah Watson of Complex described Mr. Mime as the best Pokémon, and stated that Mr. Mime is "weird looking," but it's also equipped with a good selection of non-damaging and damaging moves.[31] Steven Bogos of The Escapist listed Mr. Mime as their 21st favorite Pokémon, describing it as "super unique and clever."[32] Patricia Hernandez of Polygon stated that Mr. Mime "stole the show" in the film Detective Pikachu,[33] while Austen Goslin of Polygon called Mr. Mime's appearance in the movie "terrifying."[6] In an interview with GameSpot, lead actor of the film Justice Smith revealed that the Mr. Mime interrogation scene was one of his favorites.[34]

References[]

  1. ^ Willis, John; Barry Monush (2002). Screen World 2001. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 1-55783-479-2.
  2. ^ Staff. "2. 一新されたポケモンの世界". Nintendo.com (in Japanese). Nintendo. p. 2. Retrieved September 10, 2010.
  3. ^ Stuart Bishop (May 30, 2003). "Game Freak on Pokémon!". CVG. Archived from the original on February 8, 2008. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  4. ^ Chua-Euan, Howard (November 22, 1999). "PokéMania". TIME. Archived from the original on February 20, 2001. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
  5. ^ "#122 Mr. Mime". IGN. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c Goslin, Austen (November 12, 2018). "The infinite horrors of Pokémon's Mr. Mime". Polygon.
  7. ^ IGN Staff. "Guides: Pokemon: Blue and Red". IGN. Retrieved September 30, 2009.
  8. ^ "Pokemon Platinum Version - ds - Walkthrough and Guide - Page 151 - GameSpy". GameSpy. Retrieved September 30, 2009.
  9. ^ Becht, Eli (November 15, 2019). "How to Get Mr. Rime in Pokemon Sword & Shield". Heavy.com. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  10. ^ IGN Staff. "Guides: Pokemon Platinum Guide (DS), Pokemon Platinum Walkthrough". IGN. Retrieved September 30, 2009.
  11. ^ IGN Staff (December 20, 2000). "IGN: The Games of Pokemon GS: Part 1". IGN. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
  12. ^ Their, David (July 12, 2017). "This Looks Like The First Chance To Get Locked Region Exclusive Pokémon In 'Pokémon GO'". Forbes.
  13. ^ "Pokemon Unite is coming to Switch in July & mobile devices in September". Shacknews.
  14. ^ "Pokémon Snap: How to Unlock Ocean Illumina Orbs". ScreenRant. May 7, 2021.
  15. ^ Hideki Sonoda (writer) (September 27, 1999). "It's Mr. Mime Time". Pokémon. Season Indigo League. Episode 64. Various.
  16. ^ Yukiyoshi Ōhashi (writer) (October 7, 2000). "A Tent Situation". Pokémon. Season Adventures on the Orange Islands. Episode 64. Various.
  17. ^ Kusaka, Hidenori; Mato (August 5, 2001). "Chapter 28". Peace of Mime. Pokémon Adventures. Volume 3: Saffron City Siege. VIZ Media LLC. pp. 5–19. ISBN 1-56931-560-4. |volume= has extra text (help)
  18. ^ Kusaka, Hidenori; Satoshi Yamamoto (August 8, 2002). "Chapter 158". Mighty Cuts, Scyther!. Pokémon Adventures. Volume 13. VIZ Media LLC. ISBN 4-09-149713-6. |volume= has extra text (help)
  19. ^ Kusaka, Hidenori; Satoshi Yamamoto (November 27, 2008). "Chapter 331". The Final Battle IV. Pokémon Adventures. Volume 29. VIZ Media LLC. ISBN 978-4-09-140743-6. |volume= has extra text (help)
  20. ^ Bailey, Kat. "Top 5 Lamest Pokémon". 1UP.com. UGO Networks. Retrieved June 9, 2009.
  21. ^ Jeremy Parish, James Mielke, Ryan O'Donnell, Richard Li, Shane Bettenhausen (April 5, 2007). "Retronauts Episode 18". 1UP.com (Podcast). UGO Networks. Retrieved September 30, 2009.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link]
  22. ^ Staff (October 10, 2007). "Fugly Pokémon". GamesRadar. Future Publishing. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  23. ^ Vassar, Darryl. "PokemonRadar, Week 22". GamesRadar. Future Publishing. p. 2. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
  24. ^ pokemonofthedaychick (July 28, 2003). "Pokemon Ruby Version Pokemon of the Day: Aipom (#190)". IGN.
  25. ^ Carolyn Gudmundson (July 23, 2010). "The most overused Pokemon designs, Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver DS Features". GamesRadar. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  26. ^ "Thirty rubbish Pokemon: Red/Blue edition". June 26, 2008.
  27. ^ Hilliard, Kyle. "23 Of The Weirdest Pokémon". Game Informer.
  28. ^ "Detective Pikachu director had to wait 2 years for particular Pokémon". Digital Spy. April 20, 2019.
  29. ^ Hjorth, Larissa; David Surman (2009). "9" (PDF). Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-99627-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 20, 2010. Retrieved June 6, 2009.
  30. ^ Tim, Frings (December 22, 2000). "CINEMA: PEAK emon!". Coventry Evening Telegraph.
  31. ^ "The 50 Best Pokemon Up to "Pokemon Crystal"". Complex.
  32. ^ "Top 100 Pokemon - From 40 to 26". February 25, 2016.
  33. ^ Hernandez, Patricia (May 10, 2019). "Mr. Mime was almost considered too creepy for Detective Pikachu". Polygon. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  34. ^ Rougeau, Michael (May 13, 2019). "Why Detective Pikachu's Mr. Mime Scene Is So Damn Good". GameSpot. Retrieved September 27, 2019.

External links[]

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