>>27834697I respect your opinion. Personally, I think these designs actually do fit GameFreak's style.
In addition to their appearances and art style, their personalities and abilities are very well thought out. They're very different from what many artists were predicting on the Internet. It's common to find dapper gentleman Rowlet, quadrupedal big cat Litten, and circus clown/strongman Popplio. Given GameFreak's penchant for surprise and creativity, I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled the rug out from under us again, like they did with gen 6.
Rowlet's Robin Hood-inspired design is ingenious! Robin Hood is associated with the forest, and is almost always depicted as wearing a green tunic, so a grass type Pokemon specializing in archery is a good fit. A bow and arrow attacking style seems like a natural progression from Rowlet's long-distance feather attacks.
For Litten, I can definitely see the homage to Tiger Mask in this design. Tiger Mask is a famous heel wrestler persona in Japan. Sugimori actually tweeted a picture of Tiger Mask. Apparently, despite being a heel, Tiger Mask is a beloved character. Anyway, we can see Litten performing several wrestling moves. In traditional heel fashion, Litten even smashes a table over Pikachu (I can hear JR right now "BAH GAWD!!"). I like to think Pikachu was the commentator and criticized Litten for foul play, which ended up making Litten angry. Always makes me laugh when I see that.
As for Popplio, I think the feminine design is actually quite refreshing. I love the mermaid theme. It's lovely and majestic. I think the idea of a goofy and awkward circus performer becoming a beautiful mermaid is a great ugly duckling kind of story. Nobody's going to laugh at Popplio now! If GameFreak was going to make a proper mermaid Pokemon, I think a sea lion is a logical choice. The natural body shape of sea lions allow the designers enough creative freedom to create a mermaid design that still retains sea lion features.
