3, 2, 1, post time! For today's blog post, I will be talking about the strange case of yokai in Pokemon. For those of you who don't know, yokai are a type of Japanese spirits. The term can cover many different things that are not exclusive to just ghosts and the like. Stories of various yokai have been passed down through the ages, and they're still very commonly seen within Japanese media. Because of this, it's not a surprise that there are quite a few Pokemon based on the stories of these yokai. The only problem is, Pokemon are associated with animals. There are many humanoid yokai, and some of the Pokemon reflect this. This can be seen with Pokemon like Froslass and Mawile. However, yokai and Pokemon are on two entirely different levels. If you hear about a love story between a yokai and a human, it seems fine. Many yokai are human-like or shapeshifters who can look human, so of course some intermingling will happen. But if you hear about a Pokemon based on a yokai intermingling with humans, suddenly it's disgusting. It doesn't matter if they shapeshift or look very human-like; they're still a Pokemon and that's the end of it. Even when it was revealed that humans within the Pokemon universe were once Pokemon themselves, people within the fandom largely ignored it. This means any yokai-like story told within the Pokemon universe is looked down upon like it's something bad. If the creators want to add something that's derived from an old yokai legend, they'll have to substitute the yokai with the corresponding Pokemon. In the Pokemon universe, this Pokemon is the yokai. But for some reason people just don't realize this. I personally think there's nothing wrong with the stories and lore of people and Pokemon we've gotten; even the hidden lore like human-Pokemon marriage. Pokemon are not animals, and some of them weren't even born as Pokemon. Some of them were just outright humans, while others are an in-between for the two. Pokemon are very intelligent, and the only thing keeping them separated from humans is their appearance. But, these are mostly just my thoughts on this topic. I just wanted to talk about this because I find it odd how many people are freaked out about the fact there are humans and Pokemon who canonically had relationships. Pokemon aren't all animals, and some of them are just former humans, shapeshifters, ghosts, and very human-like in biology. There's even been theories about how humans themselves are also Pokemon because of it. Regardless, I hope you all still enjoyed this blog post!