>>32654602Yeah, this is what kills it for me. Although it's not exactly a mermaid, although it is one of the implications as well. It's a sea lion with selkie (thus the shedding appearance) and mermaid inspiration that meshes singing and dancing together.
The more I look at Primarina, the more I realize I'm not mad about the concept, theme or anything, it's more HOW it's executed design wise. I always pictured a sea lion as a starter just before the games or anything had been announced. Had it been a magician, a clown, a dancer or a singer or both or this and that, I wouldn't actually mind it. But then I look at Primarina and.. details in it just make it look more tacky than it should. In the end, it all falls apart and makes it really borish for me. Extra detail/accessories shouldn't really make a pokemon's design, you've got to coin the balance between simplicity and complexity. Primarina is what happens when you get too pretentious, thinking that adding hair and other trinkets to it will suddenly just make it shine. But adding too much might conflict with certain aspects.
I might know why they decided to make it more feminine and that might be because of certain European pronouns for animal species. In my language, the fox, snake and seal (not so much sea lion) pronouns are female, which coincides with how Game Freak handled those.
