Meltan

Meltan ( ; Japanese: メルタン, Hepburn: Merutan) is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon media franchise. First introduced in Pokémon Go, it was conceived by series director Junichi Masuda as a way to "build a bridge" between players of mobile game Go and those of the mainline Pokémon titles. Since its debut it has since appeared in other titles such as the Nintendo Switch games Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, as well as various merchandise. In media related to the franchise, Meltan has been voiced by Samantha Cooper in English, and Kenta Miyake in Japanese. Classified as a Steel-type Pokémon, Meltan appears as a small creature with a grey liquid metal body and short arms, a wire shaped tail, and a hardware nut for a head with a small black eye that floats in the center. It was initially revealed via a surprise promotion within Go in 2018, with the game's development team announcing details regarding the species days later. Meltan was designed to reflect the simpler designs of the series' first games in the series, Pokémon Red and Blue. Despite being classified as a Mythical Pokémon, which normally cannot evolve, it can evolve into Melmetal within Pokémon Go. Meltan's surprise debut received widespread reaction, with fans trying to reason what exactly was occurring and whether or not it was an intentional aspect of the game or a bug. Many fans and some media outlets also offered their own theories regarding the character, as well as giving it fan names such as "Nutto" until the official name was revealed. It has since been cited as significantly helping Go's revenue growth for 2018, and one of the most important Pokémon in the franchise as a whole for how it ties Go to the main franchise games.

Conception and development Meltan is a species of fictional creatures called Pokémon created for the Pokémon media franchise. Developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo, the Japanese franchise began in 1996 with the video games Pokémon Red and Green for the Game Boy, which were later released in North America as Pokémon Red and Blue in 1998. In these games and their sequels, the player assumes the role of a Trainer whose goal is to capture and use the creatures' special abilities to combat other Pokémon. Some Pokémon can transform into stronger species through a process called evolution via various means, such as exposure to specific items. Each Pokémon has one or two elemental types, which define its advantages and disadvantages when battling other Pokémon. A major goal in each game is to complete the Pokédex, a comprehensive Pokémon encyclopedia, by capturing, evolving, and trading with other Trainers to obtain individuals from all Pokémon species. Meltan was created for Pokémon Go, an augmented reality game mobile phone component of the Pokémon franchise where players traverse the world around them and capture Pokémon at designated locations. During the game's planning, series director Junichi Masuda had wanted to debut a new species of Pokémon with the title, and worked with Go's developers Niantic to that end. The character was revealed in-game in September 2018, via an event that was originally intended to highlight the Pokémon Chikorita. Masuda had planned instead to introduce Meltan at this time, something kept secret from not only players, but people within the company itself. The decision on how to approach it was handed jointly between Masuda, The Pokémon Company's public relations team, and Niantic. Masuda in particular was cautious on how to approach its debut, as he wanted players to see "a cute Pokémon right from the start", and felt if handled wrong they may instead be repulsed by its sudden appearance. Calling Meltan the first Pokémon to be discovered by players of the game in the real world, he ultimately found the reaction had been "generally really positive" and appreciated how quickly fan art appeared online after its debut.

Design

Standing 8 inches (20 cm) tall, Meltan has a grey liquid metal body with short arms, a tail in the shape of a red wire with two exposed copper points, a large head shaped like a golden hardware nut, and a grey singular eye that hovers in the middle of its head. Its eye is made of gallium, and takes on various shapes as its means to convey facial expressions along with the movement of its tail. Meltan's nut-shaped head can temporarily detach from its body. Its primary means of attack is an eye laser, using energy it collects with its body. Classified as a Steel-type Pokémon, it is also considered a Mythical Pokémon, a particularly special and rare type of Pokémon usually only given to players at special distribution events. Unlike other Mythical Pokémon, Meltan can evolve into the Pokémon Melmetal after being given 400 Meltan Candies, an item in Go. This aspect was the result of Game Freak wanting the character to be emblematic of Pokémon Go's capture mechanics, where players collect candy via repeatedly catching many of the same species of Pokémon. Though Niantic oversaw Go's development, Meltan was created by the staff at Game Freak. In an interview, Masuda stated he gave specific setting directions revolving around a hardware nut to one of their designers, who according to him "was also a fan of the original games and played them as a kid, so he had a really good idea of what I was looking for". Masuda felt the species' finalized appearance reflected many elements of Pokémon created for Red and Blue, and that the designer tried to keep it as "simple as possible", reflecting a basic ideal contrasting with the series' more modern designs. Satisfied with the results, they presented it to Niantic's development team, who incorporated the character into the game. Masuda stated that Meltan was created out of a "desire to build a bridge between the players of the core Pokémon series and players of Pokémon Go", with the development team wanting to satisfy both groups.

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