Charizard

Charisard was one of many characters created by a special division of Game Freak . The design of the Pokemon was finally completed by Ken Sugimori ^[1] . Initially, in Japanese, the character was called “Ridzadon,” but then at Nintendo, when creating the American localization of games, they decided to give some types of Pokémon “smart and clear names” that would be more suitable for their appearance and distinctive features or abilities. All this was done so that the characters were more understandable and easily remembered by American children and the Western audience as a whole ^[2] . As a result, the company decided that the most appropriate name for the character is “Charizard” ( English Charizard ), which was formed from two words - charcoal (from English charcoal) or char (from English char, burn) and lizard (from English lizard) ^[3] . During one of the interviews, The Pokémon Company President Tsunekadzu Ishihara stated that Charizard would be very popular among the North American television audience, as they prefer characters with a strong and strong-willed character ^[4] .

While its pre-evolutionary forms of Charmander and Charmeleon are associated with lizards running on the ground, Charizard is more like a giant dragon ^[5] . Despite this similarity, the Pokemon belongs to the fiery and flying type, and not to the dragon ^[6] . Charizard has two wings, painted blue. The back and most of the rest of the body are orange. The belly and soles of the legs are cream-colored, the eyes are light blue. In computer games, it is said that his wings are able to help him reach a height of about 1400 meters , and that he is constantly looking for a worthy rival in order to fight him ^[7] . It is capable of spewing a strong flame that can melt almost any material. When Charisard enrages, the flames at the tip of his tail may flare up in white and blue. Because of its hot-tempered nature, Pokemon often becomes the unintentional culprit of forest fires .

In games

Charizard first appeared in computer games in 1996 in the Japanese version of Pokémon Red and Blue . You can get it there only by evolution from the starting Pokemon Charmander ^[8] . In the computer games Pokémon Gold and Silver , Crystal and their remakes of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Charizard is used by Red , who acts as the final boss. In addition, Charizard has appeared in many other Pokémon games. So, he appears in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team in company with Alakazam and Tyranitar , and plays a significant role in the plot. And in Pokémon Ranger, Charisard is the boss who accompanies the main character and helps him throughout the game.

Charizard appears many times in the Super Smash Bros. series of games . He first appears in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee as a non-player character that can appear when the main character throws a pokeball. In the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl Charizard becomes a playable character under the guidance of a Pokemon trainer ^[9] . In addition to Charisard, the trainer has Squirtle and Ibizaurus , between which you can switch. Unlike other fighters, the trainer's Pokémon get tired faster and therefore become weaker. Therefore, they have to be changed more often than the rest, so that they can recover ^[9] .

In anime

The most noteworthy Charizard in the anime is Asha Charizard. In one of the episodes, Ash found a weakened Charmander left by his former coach. The boy took the Pokemon and took it to the Pokemon Center, where Charmander was helped to recover. Pokemon was grateful to Ash and complied with his demands implicitly. Later Charmander evolved into Charmeleon during the battle with the crowd of Exeggutors. The character of Charmeleon completely changes, he ceases to obey his coach and fights only when he wants it. Charmeleon transforms into Charisard in a series when Ash summons him to defend himself against the wild prehistoric Pokémon Aerodactyl . When an Aerodactyl attacks Ashe and is about to devour him, Charmeleon evolves to become stronger and defeat Aerodactyl. Ultimately, Charisard saves Ashe. However, he still does not obey his coach and fights only when the enemy himself attacks him. But despite his stubbornness, the pokemon still sometimes helps Ash achieve his goals, in particular, against the stadium leader in Kanto Blaine, but basically Charizard refuses to obey, and Ash loses in one of the Indigo League matches because of him.

In the second season of the Adventures on the Orange Islands anime, Charizard becomes more docile after being completely frozen in the battle with Polivrat . Due to Ashe's continuous attempts to save him from imminent death, Charizard realizes what his coach needs and defeats Polivrat in a rematch. He remains on Ashe's team and contributes to his victories in the Orange League and Joto . Ultimately, Ash left Charizard in the Charizard Valley, the place where the wild Charizards live and train. Most likely, Charisard Asha remained because of Carla, the female Charisard, to whom the Pokemon had tender feelings. Charizard, like other Ash pokémon, returns to the temporary storage of Pokémon, from where Ash can call him at any time, as a rule, Ash does this for a battle with a particularly strong Pokémon. Charizard repeatedly saves the life of his trainer, for example, this is shown in the movie Pokémon: The Curse of the Anoons , when Charizard confronts Entey ^[8] .

A separate DVD is dedicated to Charizard, containing three episodes: Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon, Charizard Freezes, and Charizard's Ambitions. This DVD is part of a box set dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the series ^[10] .

In the manga

In the manga Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu , which is based on the first two seasons of the anime, Ash catches Charmander, who eventually turns into Charizard and fights in the Pokémon League tournament. Despite the fact that Ash himself caught the Pokemon, he still has problems with control over Charizard ^[11] . Ash brought him to the Orange Islands and painstakingly trains the Pokemon. As a result, Ash uses Charisard in a decisive battle with Dragonight in a match against the leader of the Orange Brigade Drake ^[12] .

In the Pokémon Adventures manga, the protagonist Blue receives Charmander from his grandfather, Professor Oak. Charmander evolved into Charmeleon when Blue caught Gastley in the tower of the city of Lavender. Charmeleon’s transformation took place in the battle between Blue and Koga. In the battle against Arbock, Charmeleon, with the help of the zombie Psidaka, reflects her acid attack, and Arbock with his own attack split his tail into two halves. Later, Blue calls Charisard to help him break down the barrier created by Mr. Maim , and thereby gave him the opportunity to get to the city of Saffron ^[13] . Later, Blue and Red collide with Artikuno Kogi and find themselves frozen by his Ice Ray. But ultimately they defeat Team R's leader with the Charismard Flamethrower ^[14] . Thus, Team R loses control of Saffron, and the main characters of the manga Blue, Red and Green share among themselves three legendary bird Pokémon: Artikuno , Moltres and Zapdos ^[15] .

Blue uses Charisard to appear in the ninth Pokémon League final fight against his longtime rival Red, who uses the Venusaur . Despite the advantage of types (fiery versus grassy), a stubborn battle is tied between the Pokémon, and Charizard is several times close to defeat. The battle was still ongoing, the Venusaur wrapped its lashes around Charisard and did not let him attack, and at that time the coaches released one more Pokemon - Polyvirla (water type) and Pikachu (electric type). As a result of their attacks, thunderclouds formed. The Venusaur launches its grape lash into one of these clouds, and the electric discharge passing through this lash knocks out Charisard ^[16] . In the manga story arc called FireRed and LeafGreen, the main characters - Blue, Red and Green - returned to fight the revived R team, which this time owns the powerful Pokemon Deoxis . Three protagonists are trapped in the Coach Tower on the Sevian Islands, where they have to fight with the main computer of the building and Deoxis. After unsuccessful attempts to break through alone, three trainers combine their actions and, thanks to a joint attack of their main Pokémon, they manage to get out and free Mute ^[17] .

Charizard was produced in the form of soft toys and figures of the Pokémon series produced by Hasbro and Tomy ^[18] . In 2004, a toy called the Charizard Medium Plush was one of 13 types of soft toys that were removed from sale due to errors in the manufacturing process when fragments of needles were found in the filler. Tomy had to replace toys or pay compensation ^[18] . Charizard often appears in the Pokémon collectible card game , especially in its first version, which features first-generation Pokémon. Pokemon cards quickly became one of the most desirable among players and are highly sought after by collectors and retailers ^{[19] [20]} . There were cases when Charisard cards defeated the enemy in one turn ^[21] .

Charizard has been repeatedly called one of the most popular Pokémon in the entire series. He was described in the media as “a skinny, fierce, fire-breathing dragon ... smooth, powerful and completely destructive” ^[22] . High sales of goods with Charisard symbols were attributed to sellers by their resemblance to a dragon , an image that children like ^[19] . The children interviewed said approximately the same thing: they attributed his high popularity to his “cool looking” appearance and the fact that the character is associated with concepts of perseverance and power ^{[23] [24] [25]} . The book “ Rebuilding Attachments With Traumatized Children ” stated that Charizard’s aggressive image could cause psychological trauma to fans of the series ^[26] . And the authors of the book “The Great Pikachu Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon ” ( Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon ) noticed that this Pokemon is especially popular among older teens, as they begin to attract them at this age “ cruel ”and“ scary ”characters ^[27] and compared the evolution of Charmeleon into Charisard, as the disappearance of a“ cute girl ”who grows up and“ leaves childhood ” ^[28] .

In 2005, Yahoo! reported that Charizard is one of the most popular queries related to the topic of Pokemon in their search engine ^[29] . Charizard took first place in the list of one hundred of the best Pokemon according to IGN ^[30] . One of the editors of IGN called Charizard “definitely the most popular and probably the most balanced first generation Pokémon” ^[31] . The video games site GamesRadar described Charisard as “one of the coolest Pokémon,” praising the character’s design to a greater extent and calling it “the coolest image created” in the entire series ^{[32] [33]} . Another author of the same site stated that “Charizard was amazing and awesome on the day of his appearance, but he remained the same more than ten years later” ^[34] . UGO.com described Charisard as “a winged, dragon-like creature” that “is able to breathe fire and can turn its opponents into something sticky and viscous reddish color” ^[35] .

1UP.com editor Kat Bailey expressed interest that Charizard can follow the player in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver , arguing that in this way “passing the game with such popular favorites behind him becomes more interesting, and it affects very well” ^[36] . In a survey of the official Nintendo Official magazine, Nintendo Magazine Charizard was voted the best fire-type Pokémon. The magazine noted that “Charizard is not only your favorite fire pokemon, but he is also one of the most popular Pokemon of all time” ^[37] . Kylie Sparks of The Daily Cardinal called Charizard “the most powerful Pokémon in the entire Universe , a manifestation of sheer strength and power in all its glory” ^[38] .

• Профиль на Bulbapedia.net (англ.)
• Информация на Imdb .com (англ.)