We’re back for the Normal-type reviews, and today we’re going to focus on Minccino and Cinccino, chinchilla Pokémon who has an abundance of fur! If you are ready with this one, please proceed.
Selected Fan Art (Artist: はしゅ)
In Generation 5, after the main legendaries, starters, Zorua and Zoroark, one of the first Pokémon to be introduced is Minccino, alongside six other Pokémon. Initially it was thought that Minccino would be the early-game two-staged mammal Pokémon, but later on it was discovered that Patrat held that role. In fact, Minccino is only introduced early-mid game. It’s also a Pokémon that Professor Juniper used to introduce the player into Unova, making it a bit more special that several other Pokémon. By using a Shiny Stone, Minccino evolves into Cinccino, possibly as a sign that cleanliness is a theme for these Pokémon.
At a glance, these Pokémon are based on a chinchilla, rodents characterised by dense fur and bushy tails. True to this, the tail is an important aspect for Minccino, while Cinccino is known for its fur. Minccino prefers to sweep with its tail to keep things clean, likely to make use of their bushy tail that looks like a feather duster. It’s possible that this originates from how chinchillas clean themselves: by taking dust baths to absorb oil and dirt, since water couldn’t be easily dried with their dense fur.
Cinccino’s fur seems to be all over the place, yet it looks groomed. According to the anime, Cinccino could clean itself in a flash by spinning itself, which is very convenient. This might be possible because its fur is coated in special oils that, while it’s supposed to help deflect attacks and prevent static build-up, could also be used to ensure it could be cleaned easily. Fur Coat is unfortunately introduced too late for Cinccino to have, since it looks to be a suitable user of this ability.
Minccino and Cinccino are as much of a rodent as much as Pikachu is to a real mouse: they look like rodents but don’t behave like one. Normally rodents have two front teeth that need to be maintained, but these Pokémon don’t seem to learn any teeth-based moves, so it’s safe to say they are rodents in a superficial sense. One reason might be that gnawing on things clashes with the Pokémon’s natural tendency for cleanliness, since chewing like this might be viewed as unhygienic (the mouth is exposed to all sorts of things).
If you don’t take into account the extra fur that Cinccino has, Minccino and Cinccino don’t appear different. The most significant difference is the change of tail colour from gray to white. The size is another difference, though you won’t notice it if you judge by images that are not scaled to the recorded height. The other difference is the body. Minccino appears wider than Cinccino’s thinner and rounder body. Essentially, the differences between the two Pokémon are rather subtle.
One ability that Minccino and Cinccino have is Cute Charm, which could be related to the cuteness of a chinchilla, but the other two abilities (Techinician and Skill Link) could be related to their skill with their tails. Since Tail Slap is created for them to effectively use, this could be the case since that move benefits from both abilities. Cinccino also learns two moves that benefit from Skill Link, Bullet Seed and Rock Blast. It is not known how this ties to Cinccino, mainly because it seems that both moves are implemented to have something else to use with Skill Link. Still, it’s a great inclusion because more coverage means more versatility. Technician is technically stronger, but its power output is unreliable, though it does make Thief and Wake-Up Slap stronger.
A lot of Normal-types are derived from animals that would make good pets, and Minccino and Cinccino are no exception. Chinchillas have a nice fur to touch and they are quite inquisitive, giving them value as pets, so even in Pokémon, they can be quite nice to have if they could be touched. Perhaps the chinchillas are too nice to touch that their fur are used for coats. It’s a subject of debate mainly because chinchillas have lives, and excessive hunting affects the population of the species. I imagine in Pokémon it’s not a big issue because Pokémon are more personified, making it highly discouraged to engage in such an act. Besides, Pokémon are much more powerful than real animals, so they could handle it.
+ Clean Pokémon
+ Cute and furry
– Differences between Minccino and Cinccino are hardly noticeable
Minccino’s TCG Card
Though Minccino has a dull grey coat, having all those shiny candy around it gives it a much needed colour. Maybe all those sweets are too much that it might give someone metaphorical diabetes, but I feel that this one is just right: graphically, it is colourful enough to invoke sweetness in both the Pokémon and the candy without crossing the boundaries. However, eating all those sweets will definitely encourage diabetes.
Cinccino’s TCG Card
Cinccino’s always one to be concerned with its looks, so it’s no surprise that it wants to dress up well. Thankfully, the urban parts of Unova have the place(s) where clothes specifically for Pokémon are sold, which Cinccino took interest in. It seems that designers have that in mind, for those garbs do fit Cinccino nicely and go well with its natural white fur. Whether or not it could afford them is another matter, though, but that doesn’t stop it from being fascinated.
Tail Slap
Known as “Sweep Slap”, this move is exclusive to Minccino and Cinccino because of their duster-like tails. In fact, when Minccino was first introduced, Tail Slap was the move that was introduced alongside it, so it is strongly associated with these Pokémon. It doesn’t mean that they are the only ones to learn this move, since there are two other families that could learn it through breeding.
It would be odd that Tail Slap is exclusive to these Pokémon since a lot of Pokémon have tails, so they should by right be able to use this attack too. It might be because Tail Slap requires the tail to be able to sweep and be duster-like. It’s hard to say why this move is rather exclusive, but it does make this family unique.
If you have either Technician or Skill Link, this move has the potential to do a lot of damage; therefore even with Cinccino’s average Attack, it will do a lot of damage on anything that doesn’t resist it. In some respects, this move is comparable to Spike Cannon since they are Normal-type multi-hit attacks, in which Tail Slap is stronger and can miss, but Spike Cannon is weaker and won’t miss.
Overall, this is a signature move that the user even finds use, merely for the fact that it synergises well with their abilities.
That’s all for today’s article. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.
Next Article: Patrat & Watchog
