The picture is my favorite starters of each generation, but after gen 4 it's more like "the one I tolerate the most/hate the least."

Before gen 5 the starters all feel like a natural progression, and not too humanoid or anything. Infernape is humanoid, but he's a fucking primate, what do you expect?

Blaziken is the only weird exception, but for that context it actually works well, because otherwise Blaziken would literally just be a giant, tougher looking Combusken, and that would be fucking stupid. Plus, Blaziken still looks more clearly animal or monster, though also humanoid.

But gen 5 onwards...no, just no.

I just hate how they seem to be sticking Pokemon into such niche specific roles. Samurai. Ninja. Football player. Archer. Singing mermaid. Wrestling cat. Witch fox. Spy lizard. Drummer gorilla. Sumo wrestling pig. Royalty snake.

You can imagine something like Charizard, Torterra, or Feraligatr doing pretty much doing...but something like Cinderace is forever a football player. Something like Samurott will only ever be a samurai. Something like Decidueye will only ever be an archer.

And beyond that, this is obvious, but ehem...TOO HUMANOID.

It's really ironic how in Galar the gorilla is the LEAST humanoid looking one, and even then it's still weird, because of its weird pose and the drum.

Then Incineroar...why? Why not a quadruped fire tiger? Why does Litten go from a cute quadruped kitten to whatever the fuck Incineroar is?

Delphox is also another terrible example...furry cosplay at its finest.

And Emboar...since when do pigs stand on two legs and fist fight? They couldn't have made a chonky but badass Fire/Ground or Fire/Dark pig or something?

Gens 1 to 4 look great. Meganium gets shit for sucking competitively, but design-wise it's fine.

But gens 5 to 8...God...I'd rather Pokemon get cancelled if this is the shit we're gonna get.