Clefairy ► Clefable
| Ball | Pokémon | Types | Region | Location | Games | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
Fairy | Kanto | Mt. Moon | Yellow, Leaf Green | 1999 |
| Fast Attacks | Type | Category | Power | Accuracy | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zen Headbutt | Psychic | Physical | 80 | 90% | 15 |
| Charge Beam | Electric | Special | 50 | 90% | 10 |
| Charm | Fairy | Status | — | 100% | 20 |
| Fairy Wind | Fairy | Special | 40 | 100% | 30 |
| Pound | Normal | Physical | 40 | 100% | 35 |
| Main Attacks | Type | Category | Power | Accuracy | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draining Kiss | Fairy | Special | 50 | 100% | 10 |
| Dazzling Gleam | Fairy | Special | 80 | 100% | 10 |
| Moonblast | Fairy | Special | 95 | 100% | 15 |
| Psychic | Psychic | Special | 90 | 100% | 10 |
| Swift | Normal | Special | 60 | — | 20 |
| Meteor Mash | Steel | Physical | 90 | 90% | 10 |
Clefable as a Pokémon is one I’ve always had a strong attachment to, seeing as it was the first Pokémon I remember catching and keeping on my team. It is incredibly versatile and you can just throw pretty much any set of moves on it and it’ll do pretty well. There’s also no downsides to evolving it straight away, seeing as the game front-loads you with Water Gun, Mega Punch, and Seismic Toss. Add Sing to your repertoire, and you’ve got pretty much everything you need for literally half the game, if not the entire game.
This is likely due in part to it’s original intent as the official mascot for the Pokémon franchise, which of course it immediately lost to Pikachu and Jigglypuff. Dead on arrival, unfortunately. And that mascot intent does come through in the design, which seems tailor-made to be turned into plushies. There’s even an item called the Poké Doll, which of course looks like a Clefairy.
It is rounded, cutesy, humanoid, and seems to be one of the few Generation 1 designs to have no real world animal analogs whatsoever, that is, except it looks like a doll. If Clefairy is anything then it is, sure, a Fairy, implied to be literally an alien Pokémon from the moon. I always thought that was an amazing concept, there was a lot of mystery to these first few games just because they were new, and in fact it is one of the first little mysteries you’re likely to encounter.
Everyone knows the theory that Gengar is Clefairy’s shadow, but I think it’s just more of a design coincidence. Regardless, I like to think they’d make very good friends, who are both night owls and just so happen to have perfectly opposing personalities. Or maybe not, seeing as they would often depict Clefairy as annoying and rambunctious in those early days for some reason.