Lugia
Encyclopedia
is a Pokémon species in Nintendo
and Game Freak
's Pokémon
franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori
, Lugia first appeared as a central character in the film Pokémon: The Movie 2000
, and later serves as the version mascot of the video game Pokémon Silver
and its remake, Pokémon SoulSilver
, appearing on the box art of both, and appearing in-game. It later appears in the Pokémon anime
, various merchandise, spin-off titles and printed adaptations of the franchise, such as Pokémon Adventures
. In animated appearances, Lugia is voiced in Japanese by Koichi Yamadera
and in English localizations by Eric Rath.
Within the world of the Pokémon franchise, Lugia are strongly associated with the sea and the element of water in general, in contrast to Ho-Oh, the version mascot of Pokémon Gold
and Pokémon HeartGold
, which is associated with the element of fire. As a Psychic-type and Flying-type Pokémon, Lugia possesses multiple psychic
abilities, such as telepathy
, and can fly, but also possesses abilities related to water. Lugia has received mixed reception from critics.
, bird
, wyvern
or sea monster
, 1UP.com
calling it a "sleek, draconic creature". The Hartford Courant
described Lugia as resembling a "flying white lizard", adding that its wings more closely resembled "huge cartoon paws". They are primarily pale silver-white, but have blue undersides with slightly varying tones. They have a somewhat beak-like, ridged mouth, although they have teeth on their lower jaw. Their head has a point to the back, and their eyes have pointed blue spikes on them. Lugia have long slender necks and their bodies are smooth and covered with streamlined feathers, with the exception of dark blue or black spike-like protrusions which run down the length of their back, and two smaller ones on the ends of their tails. They have large wings that resemble hands, similar to a personified bird wing. Lugia possess the ability to calm storms and are said to appear when storms start. They are also said to be able to spawn a storm lasting as long as 40 days by flapping their wings. A light flutter of a Lugia's wings is capable of causing winds powerful enough to blow apart regular houses. Lugia are highly intelligent, and isolates itself at the bottom of the sea, where it tends to slumber in solitude at the bottom of a deep oceanic trench
, in order to avoid accidentally causing damage with the devastating power it packs.
and Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, a Lugia plays the role of a powerful legendary Pokémon that lives at a far-off location and has to be caught or defeated by the player. It can be found in the depths of a sea cave located at the Whirl Islands, a group of isolated islands surrounded by whirlpool
s. In these games, the player must obtain an item called "Silver Wing", in order to catch that Lugia.
A Lugia is one of the main characters of Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
. The storyline of the game depicts an evil Lugia, known as "Shadow Lugia", terrorizing the locals and wreaking havoc. The player has to catch and purify it for it to return to its original, normal state. A Lugia is also featured in Super Smash Bros. Melee
and Brawl
, where, when released from a Poké Ball, will fly up and unleash a powerful attack called "Aeroblast".
, a Lugia, voiced by Eric Rath, arises from the sea when the three legendary birds Articuno
, Zapdos
, and Moltres
are roused by a Pokémon collector who tries to catch the trio. Lugia then battles the raging birds and, with the help of Ash Ketchum
and Team Rocket, manages to calm them and restore peace to nature. In the anime
, a young Lugia named Silver makes an appearance when the protagonist, Ash, travels to the Whirl Islands where he meets a friend of his, called Richie, to help stop a Team Rocket scientist from separating Silver from her parent, another Lugia.
In Pokémon Adventures
, the Elite Four tried to exterminate humans using a Lugia in the Yellow chapter. The Masked Man apparently caught a Lugia twice to get an item called "Silver Wing", but both times Lugia went back to the wild, along with Ho-Oh.
s touring the United States and visiting IGN
offices to promote the games Pokémon Gold and Silver, Hey You, Pikachu!
, and Pokémon Puzzle League
.
Lugia has had mixed reception. The Daily Texan criticized Lugia as lacking the "human personality that make the other Pokémon so endearing", further adding that while it had an animalistic grace, the effect was ruined in the animated film by its voice. In contrast, 1UP.com
's Jeremy Parish praised the design heavily, calling it a "sleek, draconic creature" similar to Final Fantasy VIII
rendition of the Aztec
god Quetzalcoatl
, and attributing the preference consumers had for Pokémon Silver over Pokémon Gold reflected in sales to its role as the game's mascot. Authors Tracey West and Katherine Noll called Lugia the sixth best Legendary Pokémon and the fourth best Pokémon overall. They also called it a "gentle giant". IGN also ranked Lugia as the 4th best Pokémon, where the staff commented that" it's gone on to become one of the franchise's most iconic legendary creatures .
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
and Game Freak
Game Freak
is a Japanese video game developer that currently creates games exclusively for Nintendo. It has developed the Pokémon series of role-playing games and several other games.-History:...
's Pokémon
Pokémon
is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...
franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori
Ken Sugimori
is a Japanese video game designer, illustrator, manga artist, and director. He is most famous as the character designer and art director for the Pokémon franchise. Sugimori is also credited with the art direction for other titles, including Pulseman. Sugimori drew all of the original 151 Pokémon...
, Lugia first appeared as a central character in the film Pokémon: The Movie 2000
Pokémon: The Movie 2000
Pokémon: The Movie 2000, originally released in Japan as , is a 1999 Japanese animated film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama as the second Pokémon feature-length film, complementing the Orange Islands saga of the series and featuring several new Pokémon, including Lugia and Slowking...
, and later serves as the version mascot of the video game Pokémon Silver
Pokémon Gold and Silver
are the second installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color. The games have dual-mode capabilities allowing them to also be played on earlier Game Boy models. They were first released in Japan in 1999 and to...
and its remake, Pokémon SoulSilver
Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
are enhanced remakes of the 1999 video games Pokémon Gold and Silver. The games are part of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games, and were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS...
, appearing on the box art of both, and appearing in-game. It later appears in the Pokémon anime
Pokémon (anime)
, abbreviated from , is a children's TV anime series, which has since been adapted for the North and South American, Australian and European television markets...
, various merchandise, spin-off titles and printed adaptations of the franchise, such as Pokémon Adventures
Pokémon Adventures
Pokémon Adventures, released in Japan as , is a Pokémon-related manga based on the video games. Satoshi Tajiri once stated that the Pocket Monsters Special series is closest to what he imagined the Pokémon world to be:...
. In animated appearances, Lugia is voiced in Japanese by Koichi Yamadera
Koichi Yamadera
is a Japanese voice actor, actor, tarento, narrator, master of ceremonies and impressionist from Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture. He graduated from Tohoku Gakuin University's economics school, and is currently affiliated with Across Entertainment. Before that, he was affiliated with the Tokyo Actor's...
and in English localizations by Eric Rath.
Within the world of the Pokémon franchise, Lugia are strongly associated with the sea and the element of water in general, in contrast to Ho-Oh, the version mascot of Pokémon Gold
Pokémon Gold and Silver
are the second installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color. The games have dual-mode capabilities allowing them to also be played on earlier Game Boy models. They were first released in Japan in 1999 and to...
and Pokémon HeartGold
Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
are enhanced remakes of the 1999 video games Pokémon Gold and Silver. The games are part of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games, and were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS...
, which is associated with the element of fire. As a Psychic-type and Flying-type Pokémon, Lugia possesses multiple psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
abilities, such as telepathy
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
, and can fly, but also possesses abilities related to water. Lugia has received mixed reception from critics.
Design and characteristics
Considered a "legendary bird" within the setting of the games, Lugia is characterized as the "Diving Pokémon" in the Pokédex and the latter states that Lugia is known as "The Guardian of the Sea". It has been more often compared to a dragonDragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
, bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
, wyvern
Wyvern
A wyvern or wivern is a legendary winged reptilian creature with a dragon's head, two legs , and a barbed tail. The wyvern is found in heraldry. There exists a purely sea-dwelling variant, termed the Sea-Wyvern which has a fish tail in place of a barbed dragon's tail...
or sea monster
Sea monster
Sea monsters are sea-dwelling mythical or legendary creatures, often believed to be of immense size.Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or multi-armed beasts. They can be slimy or scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water...
, 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
calling it a "sleek, draconic creature". The Hartford Courant
The Hartford Courant
The Hartford Courant is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is a morning newspaper for most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury...
described Lugia as resembling a "flying white lizard", adding that its wings more closely resembled "huge cartoon paws". They are primarily pale silver-white, but have blue undersides with slightly varying tones. They have a somewhat beak-like, ridged mouth, although they have teeth on their lower jaw. Their head has a point to the back, and their eyes have pointed blue spikes on them. Lugia have long slender necks and their bodies are smooth and covered with streamlined feathers, with the exception of dark blue or black spike-like protrusions which run down the length of their back, and two smaller ones on the ends of their tails. They have large wings that resemble hands, similar to a personified bird wing. Lugia possess the ability to calm storms and are said to appear when storms start. They are also said to be able to spawn a storm lasting as long as 40 days by flapping their wings. A light flutter of a Lugia's wings is capable of causing winds powerful enough to blow apart regular houses. Lugia are highly intelligent, and isolates itself at the bottom of the sea, where it tends to slumber in solitude at the bottom of a deep oceanic trench
Oceanic trench
The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. They are also the deepest parts of the ocean floor....
, in order to avoid accidentally causing damage with the devastating power it packs.
In video games
In Pokémon Gold and SilverPokémon Gold and Silver
are the second installments of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color. The games have dual-mode capabilities allowing them to also be played on earlier Game Boy models. They were first released in Japan in 1999 and to...
and Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, a Lugia plays the role of a powerful legendary Pokémon that lives at a far-off location and has to be caught or defeated by the player. It can be found in the depths of a sea cave located at the Whirl Islands, a group of isolated islands surrounded by whirlpool
Whirlpool
A whirlpool is a swirling body of water usually produced by ocean tides. The vast majority of whirlpools are not very powerful. More powerful ones are more properly termed maelstroms. Vortex is the proper term for any whirlpool that has a downdraft...
s. In these games, the player must obtain an item called "Silver Wing", in order to catch that Lugia.
A Lugia is one of the main characters of Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, released in Japan as , is the second console role-playing game from Nintendo's Pokémon franchise for the Nintendo GameCube. It is the successor of the GameCube game Pokémon Colosseum. The game takes place in Orre, the setting of Pokémon Colosseums adventure mode...
. The storyline of the game depicts an evil Lugia, known as "Shadow Lugia", terrorizing the locals and wreaking havoc. The player has to catch and purify it for it to return to its original, normal state. A Lugia is also featured in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBM or simply as Melee, is a crossover fighting game released for the Nintendo GameCube shortly after its launch in . It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 game Super Smash Bros., and the predecessor to the Wii game Super Smash...
and Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBB or simply as Brawl, is the third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games, developed by an ad hoc development team consisting of Sora, Game Arts and staff from other developers, and published by...
, where, when released from a Poké Ball, will fly up and unleash a powerful attack called "Aeroblast".
In other media
In Pokémon: The Movie 2000Pokémon: The Movie 2000
Pokémon: The Movie 2000, originally released in Japan as , is a 1999 Japanese animated film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama as the second Pokémon feature-length film, complementing the Orange Islands saga of the series and featuring several new Pokémon, including Lugia and Slowking...
, a Lugia, voiced by Eric Rath, arises from the sea when the three legendary birds Articuno
Articuno
Articuno, known as in Japan, is a fictional character in the Pokémon franchise. Articuno is one of the three winged mirages, along with Zapdos and Moltres. It is a large bird, noted for its ability to control cold. Articuno was one of many designs conceived by Game Freak and finalized by Ken...
, Zapdos
Zapdos
is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Zapdos is one of the three winged mirages along with Articuno and Moltres. It was originally conceived by Game Freak's character development team and finalized by Ken Sugimori...
, and Moltres
Moltres
is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Moltres first appeared in the video games Pokémon Red and Blue and later in subsequent sequels. Moltres is one of the three winged mirages, along with Articuno and Zapdos...
are roused by a Pokémon collector who tries to catch the trio. Lugia then battles the raging birds and, with the help of Ash Ketchum
Ash Ketchum
Ash Ketchum, known as for all appearances in Japan, is a fictional character in the Pokémon franchise owned by Nintendo. He was created by, and named after, Satoshi Tajiri as the protagonist of the anime and manga series, as well as on various merchandise related to the franchise...
and Team Rocket, manages to calm them and restore peace to nature. In the anime
Pokémon (anime)
, abbreviated from , is a children's TV anime series, which has since been adapted for the North and South American, Australian and European television markets...
, a young Lugia named Silver makes an appearance when the protagonist, Ash, travels to the Whirl Islands where he meets a friend of his, called Richie, to help stop a Team Rocket scientist from separating Silver from her parent, another Lugia.
In Pokémon Adventures
Pokémon Adventures
Pokémon Adventures, released in Japan as , is a Pokémon-related manga based on the video games. Satoshi Tajiri once stated that the Pocket Monsters Special series is closest to what he imagined the Pokémon world to be:...
, the Elite Four tried to exterminate humans using a Lugia in the Yellow chapter. The Masked Man apparently caught a Lugia twice to get an item called "Silver Wing", but both times Lugia went back to the wild, along with Ho-Oh.
Promotion and reception
The Telegram & Gazette stated that attempts to merchandise the character were poorly received, namely due to lack of familiarity on the part of consumers with the character. September 2000 saw Lugia-themed Chrysler PT CruiserChrysler PT Cruiser
The Chrysler PT Cruiser is a retro styled compact automobile launched by Chrysler as a 5-door hatchback in early 2000 and as a 2-door convertible in early 2005 ....
s touring the United States and visiting IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
offices to promote the games Pokémon Gold and Silver, Hey You, Pikachu!
Hey You, Pikachu!
Hey You, Pikachu!, known in Japan as , is a Nintendo 64 video game developed by Ambrella and published by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 1998, and in North America on November 6, 2000....
, and Pokémon Puzzle League
Pokémon Puzzle League
Pokémon Puzzle League is a puzzle game for the Nintendo 64 console. It is based on Nintendo's Panel de Pon puzzle games, but with Pokémon likenesses. It was only available in North America starting in 2000, and in Europe in 2001, making it the first Pokémon game produced for North America first...
.
Lugia has had mixed reception. The Daily Texan criticized Lugia as lacking the "human personality that make the other Pokémon so endearing", further adding that while it had an animalistic grace, the effect was ruined in the animated film by its voice. In contrast, 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
's Jeremy Parish praised the design heavily, calling it a "sleek, draconic creature" similar to Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII
is a role-playing video game released for the PlayStation in 1999 and for Windows-based personal computers in 2000. It was developed and published by Square as the Final Fantasy series' eighth title, removing magic point-based spell-casting and the first title to consistently use realistically...
rendition of the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
god Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl is a Mesoamerican deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and has the meaning of "feathered serpent". The worship of a feathered serpent deity is first documented in Teotihuacan in the first century BCE or first century CE...
, and attributing the preference consumers had for Pokémon Silver over Pokémon Gold reflected in sales to its role as the game's mascot. Authors Tracey West and Katherine Noll called Lugia the sixth best Legendary Pokémon and the fourth best Pokémon overall. They also called it a "gentle giant". IGN also ranked Lugia as the 4th best Pokémon, where the staff commented that" it's gone on to become one of the franchise's most iconic legendary creatures .