To be fair, I think Karen's popularity has more to do with her cool 'good trainers win with their favorites' speech more than being conventionally attractive. It's arguably one of the most iconic quotes from an NPC in the series.

Lance: *Uses a cape* Twiins: Dork Clair: *Also uses a cape* Twiins: Dramatic and elegant Lance: OH, COME ON I really love that both use capes tho, it shows that they are related.

Falkner's clothes sort of look like the kind of clothes tengu (bird people) tend to be represented with.

I think the point of Karen’s design is that she doesn’t look like a dark type user since dark type is evil in Japanese it’s like purposely going against assumptions with the evil type user to wear bright colors and talk about using the Pokémon you love not the strongest ones and it’s like she’s wearing her favorite colors

Sad to see Jasmine lower on the list, but I do agree her design doesn't convey the Steel type very well. I love the contrast between her personality and her having these super tough looking Pokemon, but the outfits don't really sell it. Very adorable though. :>

It's a new world Twiins is in. It's a whole new video to see. It's a whole new game with brand new attitude. But she's still got rank them all And make the best of what they can be.

Honestly I think Jasmine could easily be bumped up if like, her hair pin things were shaped like Magnemites, and her jacket was a bit more grey. Keeps the cute aesthetic, but makes her steel typing more obvious.

I think I speak for everyone when I say We want to see the twiins iink gym leaders

9:58 Falkner's traditional design likely comes from the city he's a gym leader in. The Johto region is based off he Kansai region in Japan, which is generally more traditional than other parts, and was the original capital of Japan before it was moved to Tōkyō. Violet city seems to be based off the city of Nara, which is filled with temples, shrines, and other sites of religious and cultural significance, so it makes sense that the Gym leader would reflect this. (This is also why the sprout Tower is a prominent landmark in the city)

I could binge this channel for hours i swear to god 😭😭😭

Can’t wait for the inevitable Gen 4 design ranking. Cynthia and Fantina are top tier. As far as my favorite Gen 2 leader design, Claire. Terrible personality, but incredible design.

Me: ooo another twiins gym leader video can't wait to watch. Twiins: first up Karen Me: so you have chosen violence

Oh man I can’t wait for Unova. Favorite designs and storyline!

Weird fact about karen: it seems like how Jasmine was a Rock type leader before steel types were invented, karen has a huge array of fire types in the tcg leading me to think she was originally a fire type leader. Idk if that makes the design worse or better tbh

I like how Will's buttons look like a spoopy ghost smiling at you.

A neat thing about Whitney's design is that she is dressed like a baseball player, which can easily be seen in one of her earlier artworks where she is wearing a baseball glove. It also seems that she was originally going to have an Aipom on her team, as she is seen with one in the previously mentioned artwork holding a baseball with its tail, which would fit her baseball aesthetic. This likely explains why she has an Ambipom on her team in the Pokémon World Tournament in Black 2 and White 2, as to reference that old artwork.

I've always loved those designs where, the more time and designs are drawn, the difference in the designs are gradual but there, and Pokémon is one of the best examples of this.

I actually love this series so much, I think Jasmine is my fav design just because of the huge contrast

I remember when i was a little kid and didn't knew how to speak or read english and didn't knew how pokemon types worked, being surprised when i saw jasmine, i thought that she was another normal type gym leader just by her appearance and then i got annoyed when my grass type attacks wasn't doing much damage...... yeah i took a chikorita as my starter.....

Great analysis. I know nothing of fashion and characterization through design, so watching you point out these little tidbits is awesome. Can’t wait for you to do Unova!

Such a big fan of whenever you break down character design, and I get ecstatic every time you touch on Pokémon because I feel like they only get better and bolder with each gen. Personally, I never have much to say because I don't really disagree with your points or have anything to add. This is mostly me rambling. :> I am the biggest fan of redesigned Morty so much, but yeah, the way he doesn't use Misdreavus until AFTER you beat the League and can rematch him (he gets a Mismagius) is so weird?? They're literally _on his scarf,_ so it looks like he's got a soft spot for them. I understand wanting to keep to old teams they had but I doubt anyone would be against changes to initial teams if they made sense, and giving Morty a Misdreavus or 2 on his initial team would make so much sense (and would also keep him from being completely locked out of attacking you if you waltz up to his gym with that Extrasensory Togepi you get to keep because his team only has offensive Ghost-type attacks *cough cough*). Whitney switching over to Fairy would not only be cool, but 100% in character for someone like her! If they ever revisit Johto again, it'd also be hilarious in re-invoking the challenge she gave so many kids, since Steel-types would be impossible to get by that time, and her Miltank would most likely stomp out whatever Poison-type you'd bring. For Jasmine, at _best,_ there are the jewels on her sandals, but as you brought up already, they look more like precious stones, harkening back to when she used Rock-types. I'm also surprised Will was so high up! Most of my friends forget he's even around, whoops. I'd really love for GF to do more with him though, especially because they touch on the Psychic magician aesthetic again with Avery in SwSh; _this time_ with a goofy top hat! Will and Lucian being weird cousins would also just be so funny. Clair doesn't have to be the only one with a silly one-sided rivalry with her cousin, GF, it'd be funny-

I love this series so much! It’s so great to see a visual breakdown of what works and what doesn’t, I feel like I learn so much during these.

Fun fact that may very well have been obvious to others: the Hammerlocke gym trainer outfit is designed to pay homage to Lance's HGSS outfit

Appriciate this ranking series and all the uploads recently, you've been killing it! 5:14-ish: Jokes on you, Chuck recieves some love in an small appareance in the lastes pokemon series when Bea and Ash had their rematch!

I THINK that birdkeeping, specifically falconry, has a place in traditional Japanese culture. According to wikipedia (amazing source, ik, page here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takagari) falconry has been found in Japanese since the fourth century. I've seen some ancient characters in anime with falcon companions too. Also, I'm like 80% sure the wrist bands on Falkner's design are meant to emulate the gloves used in falconry that the birds land on.

Lmao yessss!!! Finally another person that sees how much of a himbo Lance is. It's why I love that dorky goober. 😭 He has strong "Wanna see me take a Hyper Beam to the face? 😏" energy and I love it! Also this is probably because Im a huge nerd and used to edit and mess around with the character art but I always loved Karen's HGSS design because if you invert the color palette of her hair and clothes she'll end up with a way more typical color scheme for a Dark-type user (similar to a Shiny Umbreon!) and I always thought it was cool because I associated inverted colors with a dark/evil version of something and it sort of worked as a visual representation of how she subverts the type's expectations! (Similar to Jasmine!) That and also because it's just a strong design imo, well...color palette-wise that is, her actual design could use some flair. I really love how she stands out among the trainers in a type that's always represented with black, red and white! :^) Anyway, I honestly love this series! You have a good eye for character design and I can't wait to see your thoughts on Sinnoh's E4 haha! 👀

Seeing that dark type in Japanese is called “evil type” I felt like Karen’s glare conveys it pretty well, but her outfit is a big miss. I always believed the angle they were going for was beautiful japanese female yankee, but adding some spikey bracelets or piercings could’ve been cool. Also her hair sorta reminds me of a witch, and her signature Pokémon in Pokémon puzzle challenge (my introduction to the character) is Murkrow so I thought that fit well. Also unrelated to the vid, but just wanted to say Karen is still one of my favorites even though her design is lacking, because her team’s moves set definitely conveys an underhanded way of fighting to win if that is what it takes. Confuse ray, spite, roar, double team, etc.

I love watching you rank the designs It's really fun

Karen also had some instances of characterization to make her memorable, especially in Crystal where her refusal to surrender the Rising Badge until the player was approved by the elders in the Dragon's Den. She's still one of the comparatively few gym leaders with a post-battle quest attached.

Morty gets such good dialog in that pokemon masters game I love it he's my fav. He literally is like "I figured pumpkaboo was trying to lead us to the after life but I thought it rude to interrupt" MORTY PLEASE YOUR GOTH IS SHOWING. But it fits because he's not scared of death he's the seer, he knows it's all chill bruh. (BTW his eyes always reminded me of hooded eyes ((like me!)) it's so hard to look surprised or emotional with them, add to that, he's probably spent more time with pokemon who emote differently than humans so he's got one hell of a poker face. ) one of his pairs in the game is mismags and I think a different one is drifblim. I'm trying to get all the ghost pairs And uuugghh agreed, stop giving them gengar. Allister is the only gengar pair worth getting imo because of the extra punch of how dynamax works in the game. Btw!!! Speaking of my son, when you get to galar I hope you mention his cute frilly socks n shoes. The galar squad is all about the accessories because of the uniform thing. As someone into egl fashion (which is heavily influenced by Victorian and roccocco elements) I spotted those shoes a mile away. Same with that one poison type guy with an ascot. We got some historical fashion fans!!!

I thought that having cyan and vermilion as the main colors on Jasmine’s HGSS design was supposed to allude to copper oxidation (changing from orangish to turquoise/green as it ages). It’s a fun way of subtly hinting that she’s a steel-type gym leader.

A little more justification for jasmine to have more of a crystal colored is her Steelix. In Steelix’s gold and sliver entry it said that Steelix either has been compressed underground for a long time, or being a Onix that has lived for over a 100 years, but either way the result is Steelix’s skin/composition(game’s words, not mine) is like a diamond and in gold it says to be harder then diamond. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

Been waiting for this one and absolutely knew Clair was gonna be number 1 ! Keep up the good work btw!

for Pryce’s waterfall conveying… what about having him shirtless but wearing high rise winter pants and boots and a winter overcoat like he just came from the waterfalls also Falkner’s red wrist bands probably reference back to the Pidgey and Spearow evolution line color palettes. I can’t say much for Morty aside from I remember I liked him in the anime a lot…? or I just remembered seeing him in the opening cause the Johto openings were my favorite. Can’t defend the yellow much but the blue maybe is meant to look like a ghostly spirit? Like how Ash was a ghost in the anime first region and reference back to Soul Eater human soul colors. It’s a close ish light blue

“The cool ones. The good ones. The boring ones. Aaaand Karen.” Bruh XD that last part got me lol

1:20 IT'S PIKACHU! "Karen" FUCK!

…idk I just like Karen’s design. I actually like the color combination and the hair. I just find her nice to look at. More so than most of the others on the list.

The arm bands could be similar to falconer gloves. The red could have just been to say 'not a water trainer'.

This two videos are like my favorite comfort videos, and I really hope you keep making these

One of the problems I see in most of the lower ranks is that they just don’t push towards their type colors more…I mean, kinda thought that would be the first thing in mind while making them. I enjoyed this, it was fun to hear the rankings!

I think I cracked the code behind Jasmines design! Her dress is colored teal, which almost sounds like and rhymes with steel. Mind. Blowned.

Yay I was looking forward to this. Another good video I hope to see this series continue.

I’m pretty sure the red on Fawlkner is to be a falconer guard where birds would land on his arm and believe it is red to make it easier for the bird to know where to land

I'm excited that you're mixing your character design analysis with Pokemon.

My head cannon is that will is luschion's magician alter-ego, and no one can convince me otherwise.

Me: the Kanto video was a fun watch, I dig how you analyze character designs in this series, let's continue with Johto You: Puts Karen in last Me: I've known about you for 20 minutes and you've already betrayed me. In all seriousness, this one was good too, and as much nostalgia I have fit her HGSS design, her og look has grown to be my preferred on the character more recently for basically the exact same reasons. Just wouldn't ever think it's "worst in the series" level of course lol. In general, the Johto girls are ones where I've grown to prefer their gen 2 designs over the hgss ones as the years have passed. Definitely for Whitney and Karen, while with Clair and Jasmine I flip flop.

i asked my brother if he remembered all the photo gym leaders, and knew all of them except chuck. he actually thought there were only 7 gym leaders he's that forgettable to him!

I really enjoy seeing you talk about Pokémon! I hope to see you do more on the series because I am in love with how it has so many diverse and unique designs for not just their Pokémon, but their trainers as well! We have designs ranging from cute, to cool, and to downright beautiful! Although there are some designs that are kinda lazy…. There are still plenty more pokemon designs to love! I’d love to see you talk about which designs are your favorite!

Yes! I loved the mango vid! I hope ur doing every region

Also i never realized the relation of Bianca pigtails with the spikies elements of the clefairys, now i cant unseen and i love it

Great video as always!

I think Faulkner might be dressed like that in order to reference tango which I like bird creatures in Japanese mythology and he's a flying type trainer and they can sometimes control wind and modern tellings

I've been looking forward to this one! :)

Nice. I loved the kanto leaders one. So it makes sense that I like this too although next region is my pokemon home so hyped for that.

I think that Falkner's bracelets are supposed for his Pokémon to safely rest on his arms, without their talons scratching him while doing so. Maybe the red accent was also chosen for this reason, to give them a clear indicator on where to land exactly? It's also funny that I instantly recognised what Clair's outfit was "missing" for me the moment you showed her manga appearance and by seeing it for the first time. A whip would totally fit her current design quite well and while I always found them to be rather out of place in Pokémon since the beginning, I do think that Clair would look even better with my favorite weapon of choice equipped. The way you described Jamine's outfit in relation with her preferred type of Pokémon has made me love her asthetic even more, especially in contrast to all the other Steel-type specialists. I guess that would also explain why I find Elesa so appealing, though she does invoke her associated type better than Jasmine. Anyway, I did enjoy the second round of *Twiins iink chic Runway!* and do look forward to next time with Hoenn. And please excuse any odd wording or outright wrong grammer on my part, as english isn't my native language~ ^^'

I haven’t played the Johto games, so when I saw Karen, I immediately thought she was an electric gym leader, like Elesa from Black and White, which I did play and still have very fond memories of.

7:22 Steel, not steal. Pointing out mistakes like this makes me feel like a bit of an arsehole, but its annoying me that I noticed

im loving this series and cant wait for the next one, hoenn is my favorite region and i absolutely love the leaders there, looking forward to know your takes on them 💗

I feel like if you make it to Unova , it’s gonna be really hard to rank them due to all the Gym leaders and Elite four having some good drip.

for falkners look i think it is absolutely the best cause when i look at him i immediately think of a Tengu if u dont know what it is look it up its awesome thats just my two sense pleaseeee love him more!

Idk if you ever watched Precure but would love your breakdown on Precure designs

In addition to Falkner, the pokemon's he used are his father's, not his.

Looking at old morty: Yep thats a dude Whitney looks a bit like shes wearing a softball uniform? Which would be cool since i think it was a fairly popular sport amongst amongst females in japan IF im remembering stuff rigth i read at like 2013 I think i lost my thougth process here oops

6:41 This is terrifying.

Yessss it’s finally here!

*Pounds hands on table* Hoenn Gym Leaders! Hoenn Gym Leaders! Hoenn Gym Leaders!

I must say I strongly disagree on Karen's design. I think the light colouring of her hair and clothing provides a nice contrast with her Dark-type specialisation. Had I first encountered her without knowing she specialised in the Dark type, I'm pretty sure I would've loved the surprise of finding it out in battle. Also, her naughty smile does give the player a small clue regarding her specialisation.

I know this video is old but I believe Falkner is designed the way he is due to Violet City having a traditional Japanese vibe to them

8:15 as I watched this I found a Steel Tera Shard.

Lucian is older than Will and they are confirmed cousins in the manga and their aunt is the mostly psychic type Frontier Master in the Battle Frontier in Sinnoh. Also both Will and Sabrina were experimented on and then worked for Team Rocket in the manga.

I really like this list and I can clearly understand the reasoning . If I could add to Bruno I wish he had had a tattoo on his back but would be weird for a kids game or maybe some color on his pants. Btw I agree with your Karen reasoning she could honestly be electric!

Honestly I think Falkner’s outfit reminds me of a Tengu of Japanese Folklore.

i have a weird theory about jasmine. i feel like originally, she was going to be an electric type gym leader, these makes sense because she loves the lighthouse and her team already consists of 2 magnemite, and chuck was going to be the steel type elite 4 member, showing off that his two onix evolved into steelix, and that he switched off incredible offence for incredible defense. however i think that they decided not to do that and gave jasmine the steel type instead because no other character fits the steel type like her. this also explains why there are two fighting type specialist, with chuck, who i feel was just trying to be the lowerteir bruno, and they didnt see him as being steel like bruno or jasmine, with his belly and the fact that he loves on an island, making him have poliwrath make a lot of sense. second theory is about falkner and his kinda traditional clothing, im pretty sure he is the son of one of the sages in sprout tower, probably the leader at the top or the one with a single hoothoot.

Am I the only one who pronounces Johto Jo-ho-to? Idk why, but that’s how I read it.

The only dark about Karen was her glare in her sprite lmao

Alternative title, judging pokemon drip

Lance's outfit took inspiration from the dragon type jersey in galar

These we're great but also turns out that with Lance's outfit it was based off of rhyhan's outfit

Twiins: Falkner Me: Fuckner

It's humorous seeing how Karen got Dark type (Evil type in JP) and then how the name "Karen" is perceived today but yea pls get a better look On another note, could this series be a precursor to a possible gym leaders redesign drawn out? 👀

It's been 90 years!

Falkner is a tengu base on his outfit

Justice for Chuck

4:07 at least he has cake

cant wait for alola 🙏

Lol I read the title wrong and thought you said rating JoJo designs

Gen 3 when😭

Personal favorites were Jasmine and Morty.

I love Jasmine and she's my favorite gym leader of Johto but even I need to admit her outfits are boring as fuck. When I first saw her with Ampharos I thought she was going to be an electric type gym leader who transitioned to steel because of her Mangnemite and I even had some ideas for outfits. Put some silver-looking bracelets on her arms. Make her hair ties yellow instead of that weird red, give her her workman's bag from the TV show plus a giant wrench and voila! Jasmine being as cute as ever with all her neat little quirks.

More regions!

Why isn’t red is this video

Well how would u design a steel type trainer 😭😭😭

Growing up playing gen 2 I always thought will was Lorelei who came out as trans for the longest time

:D

Idk why but this vid sounded unusually…..”charged” eh maybe it’s just the persona

“dumb-o” ah yes, insulting mute people for no reason

Why did you diss my boy lance? He just doesn't give a damn. When all other champs have a balanced team he arrives with three (3) Dragonites. He already knows what he wants. Let the man cosplay as a dragon tamer in peace.