Charmander - Design and Characteristics

Design and Characteristics

Charmander was one of several different designs conceived by Game Freak's character development team and finalized by Ken Sugimori for the first generation of Pocket Monsters games Red and Green, which were localized outside of Japan as Pokémon Red and Blue. Originally called "Hitokage" in Japanese, Nintendo decided to give the various Pokémon species "clever and descriptive names" related to their appearance or features when translating the game for western audiences as a means to make the characters more relatable to American children. As a result, the species was renamed "Charmander", a combination of "char", meaning burnt, and "salamander".

Charmander is known as the Lizard Pokémon. Charmander are small, bipedal lizard-like Pokémon native to Kanto. Most have blue eyes, orange skin, three-clawed toes, yellow bellies, and yellow soles under its feet. The end of a Charmander's tail is alight with a flame, and the flame's size reflects both the physical health and the emotions of the individual. When it rains, steam is said to spout from the tip of its tail. If the flame were to ever go out, the Charmander would die. When Charmander receives enough experience from battles, it evolves into Charmeleon, and later Charizard.