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A weekly Pokédex Podcast from Bald Man in Japan Luke Summerhayes. A different Pokémon family every week.
I’m Luke Summerhayes, and I love Klink.
Cogs and gears have been made by humans for somewhere between two and three thousand years, with ancient examples unearthed by archaeologists and even earlier mentions in writings. From large wood or stone constructs for mills, to complex mechanisms for calculating and predicting the movement of stars, all the way to modern engines and electrical devices, they remain the most efficient way to transfer movement between objects.
As two separate moving parts, gears have never developed as part of living creatures, though small planthopper insects do have cogs between their two legs which keep their movements in synch for powerful jumps. And in the earliest origin of the Transformers, from the 1980s comicbooks, machine life on Cybertron was said to have evolved from “naturally occurring cogs and gears”.
Klink is a steel type Pokémon which resembles two cogwheels forming a gear, each with a comical face of two eyes, a mouth and a round nose on its face.
Shield
It's suspected that Klink were the inspiration behind ancient people's invention of the first gears.
Unlike Pokémon such as Magneton, which are made of multiple previously individual monsters, Klink’s initial two cogwheels have always been a bonded pair.
Black
The two minigears that mesh together are predetermined. Each will rebound from other minigears without meshing.
Sword
The two minigears that compose this Pokémon are closer than twins. They mesh well only with each other.
The two wheels are spinning in unison, and it is unclear which is turning the other.
White
Interlocking two bodies and spinning around generates the energy they need to live.
Of course, one wheel turning another which is itself turning another is a bootstrap paradox, and would not really function as a perpetual motion machine. In real life, gears are used to convert the pumping motion of, say, a steam engine into the spinning motion needed to make a train’s wheels turn or to generate electricity. Something else has to make them move.
The name Klink is an onomatopoeia for striking metal. The Japanese name is Giaru, just a Japanese pronunciation of the word :”gear”.
A simple cogwheel can pass movement to another, and another, and another again, until these gears become incredibly complex devices. This process continues along the path when, at level 38, Klink evolves into Klang.
Klang has expanded and though one of the cogwheels looks the same, now the other one turns a much larger wheel.
Black 2
A minigear and big gear comprise its body. If the minigear it launches at a foe doesn't return, it will die.
White 2
Of course, it is true that often removing just one cog from a gear will cause the whole mechanism to cease to function.
Black
By changing the direction in which it rotates, it communicates its feelings to others. When angry, it rotates faster.
Klang’s name, of course, is a slightly heavier onomatopoeia that Klink. The Japanese name, Gigieru, makes this a giga gear.
Sword
When Klang goes all out, the minigear links up perfectly with the outer part of the big gear, and this Pokémon's rotation speed increases sharply.
Shield
Many companies in the Galar region choose Klang as their logo. This Pokémon is considered the symbol of industrial technology.
Much of Galar reflects the impacts of the real-life industrial revolution in England, in which many leaps in the production and use of cogs and gears were made. The thing about this kind of progress, though, is that once it starts it doesn’t stop. Subsequently, at level 49 Klang evolves into Klinklang.
Klinklang has expanded further, with the vertical gears now spinning a horizontal ring of spikes. On the underside, just barely visible, is a red section.
Black
Its red core functions as an energy tank. It fires the charged energy through its spikes into an area.
White
The gear with the red core is rotated at high speed for a rapid energy charge.
The name Klinklang combines the two previous noises, klink and klang, to make a cocophony of metallic noise. The Japanese name is Gigigieru, with the first syllable repeating again and again as new cogs are added to the gear.
Sword
From its spikes, it launches powerful blasts of electricity. Its red core contains an enormous amount of energy.
Despite this, the Pokémon remains a pure steel type. Steel is traditionally a sturdy type defensively, but it tends to lack in especially damaging moves. Those moves that do deal damage tend to have setbacks, like low accuracy. Klinklang and family have a unique move, gear grind, which makes up for middling damage by hitting twice. Combined with a boosting move like Gear Up, Klinklang is an unusually strong attacker for the underserved steel type.
Shield
The three gears that compose this Pokémon spin at high speed. Its new spiked gear isn't a living creature.
This is an odd comment. Is it stolen from elsewhere and wielded as a weapon? Does this imply the other new gears added as this Pokémon evolves are living creatures, like other Klink and Klang pressed into service? Would it be so unusual, in a world with naturally occurring cogs and gears, to also have naturally occurring wheels of spikes?
Original music for Luke Loves Pokémon is by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork is by Katie Groves. Klink and family were designed by Keiko Moritsugu. Funding is provided by listeners at Patreon.com/PodcastioPodcastius. For just a dollar a month, supporters can listen to episodes a week early and also help cover hosting and fees, making it possible for me to keep making episodes every week.
I love hearing from listeners! Get in touch about upcoming Pokémon on twitter or facebook at LukeLovesPKMN. Drop a comment if you’re watching the video, or a review on apple podcasts or spotify. Coming up are Tynamo and Elgyem, so please get in touch about those or any other monsters.
Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much just for listening.
I love Klink. And remember, I love you too.