Alexx and I find ourselves very regularly talking about Pokémon and the vast majority of our discussions usually end up with us making Pokémon lists, such as one favourite from each type, or Pokémon we’ve never used in the games but want to. The last Pokémon question he asked me was: “What are your top five shiny Pokémon?” So I thought why not write them, and after much careful consideration I’ve got not five shiny Pokémon but six! (I couldn’t whittle it down any further) Yes six shiny Pokémon that I think stand above the rest. And here they are:
6) Mega / Gigantamax Gengar
I can’t stress enough that it has to be Gengar’s Mega or Gigantamax forms, as its standard shiny form can only be described as bland with it only being a slightly darker shade of purple, and a bad one at that. However its Mega and Gigantamax shiny forms give it the much needed redemption. The most iconic Ghost type Pokémon now looks like a ghost with the newly adopted white colouring. The fact it’s so different from its standard shiny form when no other Pokémon does a colour swap so drastically is interesting. You can’t help but think that whoever designed Mega Gengar is in the mind-set that Gengar’s shiny form should be this matching white, which I think would be a great change to him.
5) Noctowl
For many Noctowl is the OG shiny, as he certainly was for me. Noctowl introduced the concept of ‘Shiny Pokémon’ with the episode of ‘Pokémon Johto Journeys’ ‘Foul Play’ which sees Ash attempting and eventually succeeding in capturing this elusive Pokémon. Noctowl’s regular colour scheme is varying shades of brown, which summarised in a word has to be ‘boring’, especially when compared to its generation one counterpart of Pidgeot. Seeing a Noctowl that was a bright yellow and red for the first time was mind blowing for me, and Noctowl showed us that Pokémon can look different making even non-popular Pokémon highly coveted.
Fun fact: ‘Shiny Pokémon’ is in fact a term that was coined by fans, and has over the years become the official term for referring to these rare and special Pokémon.
4) Chesnaught
Shiny Chesnaught is the correct colour scheme this Pokémon should have and the two available colours for it should be swapped, with its regular palette being a begrudging shiny. Chesnaught’s regular shade of green is bad. End of.
3) Naganadel
My favourite Ultra Beast and while its standard shades of purple with smatterings of pink do look awesome it sticks rigidly to the generic colour scheme of poison type Pokémon. While by no means a bad thing I can’t help but think with Ultra Beasts supposedly being from another dimension they would break the mould of how they would look. Shiny Naganadel delivers just that; with its contrasting black and bright yellow it does look like a poisonous creature from another world.
2) Umbreon
Up until writing this I was giving this spot to Leafeon, as I was convinced that its shiny form had given its green leaves a reddish brown autumnal aesthetic. It wasn’t until looking up how shiny Leafeon actually looked that I realised I could do nothing to compliment it and I soon hit a wall of devastating disappointment as I found its leaves are still green with only a slight change in its main body colour. The fact it doesn’t have an autumn palate is a travesty.
That being the case, second place is now going to my newly crowned favourite shiny of all the Eeveelutions, Umbreon. Umbreon’s changes are simple but yet still maintain the coolness that this Pokémon just radiates. Changing its yellow light rings to a cool blue, Umbreon is still very much a dark type but somehow looks even more sneaky and formidable while maintaining a somewhat elegant aesthetic which itself and the other Eeveelutions carry so well. A fantastic looking Pokémon changed in a simple way to look even better in its shiny form. I also think blue being my favourite colour helps!
1) Palossand
Who doesn’t love haunted sand castles? The shiny version of this great Pokémon with its black colour scheme looks like a genuine castle ready to do battle against all who would oppose it! This black sand, contrasting with its far more colourful seashell detailing and yellow spade sticking out of its head looks brilliant, and Palossand is a very under rated shiny which should be celebrated more. It is the very definition of what a shiny Pokémon should be and it completely stands out from a regular Palossand but is still believable that this Pokémon could in fact pull off this colour.
I could easily list a top ten for this, hell, maybe even a top fifteen. I would like to give an honourable mention to Staryu as I just don’t have a terrible lot to say about its shiny form other than I like Staryu and I like its shiny colour scheme. Job done.
Writing this has made me start thinking about the worst shiny Pokémon out there which I may write about another time. Tell me in the comments what your favourite shiny Pokémon are, and if you would like to follow me on Twitter where I talk a lot more about Pokémon on a regular basis feel free to follow me on @LeeLee108. Thanks for reading!