The Origins of 4 Kangaroo Pokemon & the Real Animals Behind Them

Kangaroos in Pokemon come in parts. Only Kangaskhan is a kangaroo through and through, and it is the Parent Pokemon. The rest borrow a kangaroo's legs, stance or boxing, and one of them is a mushroom.

See all 4 kangaroo Pokemon in one list.

Here's every kangaroo Pokemon:

All 4 Kangaroo Pokemon

#026

Raichu

Raichu, the Mouse Pokemon, gets its place here from its back half: its legs and long tail resemble those of a jerboa or a kangaroo rat, two small desert rodents that hop on long back legs. The rest is Pikachu grown up.

Its Alolan form has a better story. Ken Sugimori asked Atsuko Nishida to design it, since she had drawn the original Raichu, and Nishida insisted that Raichu "has always been cuter than people might think". She built Alolan Raichu around bread, and the in-game story of people believing pancakes make Pikachu evolve came afterward to play that up, and we would also evolve for pancakes.

It can discharge bursts of electricity over 100,000 volts.

#115

Kangaskhan

Kangaskhan, the Parent Pokemon, is based on a kangaroo with elements of Mongolian laminar armor, which shows in its helmet-like plate with ear flaps and its epaulets. It may also come from kaiju, the giant monsters of Japanese film. It may also be based on a tree-kangaroo, given its stocky build, wide face and big claws, or on Procoptodon goliah, the largest kangaroo known to have lived.

Dizzy Punch was once its signature move, which may come from the cartoon image of kangaroos as boxers. There are records of a lost human child being raised by a childless Kangaskhan. (We would watch the film about a lost child adopted by a kangaroo.)

It stands 2.2 m tall. Its Scrappy ability lets its Normal and Fighting moves hit Ghost Pokemon, which those two types normally cannot touch.

#181

Ampharos

Ampharos, the Light Pokemon, is the end of a sheep line that loses its wool with each evolution, and the line may take its idea from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Ampharos also shares traits with a kangaroo: it stands on two legs and has a kangaroo's head shape, long tail, arm size and long feet with a large claw in the middle. It shares a name and traits with a lighthouse too, down to its height, its stripes and the beacon on top.

Its tail shines bright and strong, and it has been prized since long ago as a beacon for sailors, which is a bigger career change than anything we have managed in a decade.

Mega Ampharos adds the Dragon type and a woolly mane that suggest a Chinese dragon.

#286

Breloom

Breloom, the Mushroom Pokemon, is based on an agaric mushroom, the kind with a cap and gills. The red bumps on its head resemble the berry-like fruit of a yew tree, and its head is shaped like a kasa, a wide Japanese hat once worn by monks, samurai and soldiers, which may explain its Fighting type. Its body is built like a kangaroo's, so its boxing may come from the boxing kangaroo. Its dome head and club tail also recall the dinosaurs Pachycephalosaurus and Ankylosaurus.

The seeds ringing its tail are made of hardened toxic spores, and one bite of them will make your stomach rumble, a warning we are writing down for later.

Its hidden ability, Technician, powers up moves with a base power of 60 or less to 1.5×.

Two of the Four Kangaroo Pokemon Get Their Fighting From the Boxing Kangaroo

Two of the four take their fighting style from the cartoon boxing kangaroo. Breloom is part Fighting type, and its kangaroo frame and boxing may come from that boxer. Kangaskhan's Dizzy Punch was once its signature move.