The Origins of 3 Giraffe Pokemon & the Legends They Came From

Giraffe Pokemon are few, and the strongest of them is mostly based on something else. Raging Bolt is based on Raikou and on sauropods, and it counts here because its long neck also resembles a giraffe's.

See all 3 giraffe Pokemon in one list.

Here's every giraffe Pokemon:

All 3 Giraffe Pokemon

#203

Girafarig

Girafarig, the Long Neck Pokemon, appears to be based mostly on a giraffe, possibly a calf given its short neck, while its brown backside seems to come from the okapi. Its tail may be based on the Chimera of myth, a nod to the qilin, a mixed creature of Chinese mythology whose Japanese name, kirin, was later applied to giraffes. With its abrupt split in color, it may also stand for genetic chimerism, a body built from two sets of cells. Its name reads the same backward.

The head on its rear contains a tiny brain that is too small for thinking, but that this head does not need to sleep, so it can keep watch over its surroundings 24 hours a day. We have that arrangement too, minus the second head. Its Early Bird ability makes sleep pass twice as quickly, and an ability is a passive effect that works on its own in battle.

#981

Farigiraf

Farigiraf appears to be based on a giraffe, and it also shares traits with the Sivatherium or the Decennatherium, four-horned prehistoric relatives of the giraffe. Fossils of Decennatherium have only ever been found in Spain. The way its old tail wraps around its head resembles the hood of a kigurumi, a Japanese mascot costume.

The hardened head from its tail protects the head of the main body as Farigiraf whips its long neck around to headbutt enemies. We use our own head for headbutting, with worse results. It stands 3.2 m tall and weighs 160 kg, and its HP is 120. Its Armor Tail ability stops opponents from using priority moves such as Quick Attack, which are moves that go first no matter how fast the user is.

#1021

Raging Bolt

Raging Bolt is based on Raikou, a legendary beast of the second generation, but it also resembles sauropods such as the Brontosaurus, whose name means "thunder lizard", along with giraffes and storm clouds. It may draw on the qilin, which shares its Japanese-to-English translation with the giraffe, and on the serpopard, a mythical leopard with a long, serpent-like neck. It may also take inspiration from camelopard, an old word for giraffe built from "camel" and "leopard". In particular it resembles the Mokele-mbembe, a cryptid usually shown as an aggressive living sauropod.

Raging Bolt resembles a Pokemon that became a hot topic for a short while after a paranormal magazine touted it as Raikou's ancestor. (We are still waiting for our call from a paranormal magazine.) It stands 5.2 m tall and weighs 480 kg.

Japan Calls the Giraffe a Kirin, and These Designs Remember It

The word kirin first meant the qilin, a mixed holy beast from Chinese mythology, and it was later applied to the giraffe. Girafarig's chimera tail is a nod to that double meaning, and Raging Bolt's long neck may come from the same overlap. Raging Bolt adds the old English word camelopard and a sauropod cryptid on top.

Farigiraf is the one that went the other way, toward real fossils. Its four-horned look points to the prehistoric relatives of the giraffe, and one of them, Decennatherium, has only been found in Spain.