The Pokémon Presents livestream on Tuesday morning was pretty mid. We knew that the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet DLC (downloadable content) was coming, and I still refuse to learn what Pokémon Café ReMix is, why they’re turning Tatsugiri into sushi, and how to reconcile the ethics of eating Pokémon in-universe. N64’s Pokémon Stadium 2 coming to Switch is nice, but the biggest surprise among today’s load of announcements? Cramorant is back, baby.
In an anticipated announcement, the Pokémon Company revealed that the first installment of the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet DLC, The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, will be released on September 13. As usual, the trailer for the expansion reveals some key plot points — in this upcoming installment, The Teal Mask, we’ll journey to Kitakami, a mountain town that’s hosting its annual festival. But more importantly, in a split-second clip from the trailer, we learn that Cramorant lives in Kitakami.
Cramorant was introduced in the previous main series Pokémon games, Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, and became a quick fan favorite because it’s weird as hell. Based off a cormorant, Cramorant has a special ability called Gulp Missile, and to put it succinctly, this means that sometimes it tries to eat Pikachu. If you use surf or dive in battle with less than half of your Cramorant’s HP, you will become the silliest Pokémon in the game, and yes, that’s including Dudunsparce.
The great literature of the Pokédex entry reads as follows: “This Cramorant has accidentally gotten a Pikachu lodged in its gullet. Cramorant is choking a little, but it isn’t really bothered.” Cramorant’s shiny variant is orange, which fans theorize is a reference to a not-super-anomalous occurrence in which seagulls fall into vats of curry.
So, naturally, some of us Pokéfans were gutted when Cramorant didn’t seem to make the cut to appear in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. To add insult to injury, the Paldea region is based off the Iberian peninsula, a region that, according to a very quick Wikipedia search, does indeed have cormorants.
Thankfully, the Pokémon Company has rectified its mistake. When The Teal Mask hits the Nintendo eShop on September 13, we will reunite with this absolutely bonkers bird. And maybe, just maybe, the game will finally allow us to change our clothes.