>>51454307They really aren't tadpoles. The one characteristic that unequivocally distinguishes tadpoles from adult frogs are the fin-like tails and Poliwhirl does not have a tail. I believe it's tajiri who assigns them the flavor text and the "_____ pokemon" description so he must have misinterpreted the art designer's intention or something, maybe because they decided to carry over the swirly intestine pattern which irl is exclusive to tadpoles . Poliwrath in particular in it's red and green og depiction looks blatantly like a frog with those eyes much more detached from the body and a much more clear suggestion of a mouth between the light and dark parts. Furthermore there is a traditional japanese painting(I don't have it on hand but I'll post it when I get home) of a frog that looks exactly like Poliwhirl minus the gloves and swirl and I'm fairly certain they based it directly on it.
Oh and you can also see from the beta they gave poliwrath a crown that's because of the strong association between frogs and princes so it seems their original idea was tadpole > frog > prince frog but because they only really changed Wrath we got stuck with tadpole > frog > bigger angrier frog
