Unown

Unown (アンノーン) is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Unown first appeared in the video games Pokémon Gold and Silver and most of its subsequent sequels. It has also appeared in various merchandise, spin-off titles, and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise. Unown are hieroglyph-like, thin, black ancient Pokémon usually found on walls. There are twenty-eight forms of Unown: one for each of the twenty-six letters in the Latin alphabet, a question mark, and an exclamation mark. Unown is a Psychic-type Pokémon, and is not able to evolve.

Unown was conceived as an alien-like creature, but while designing it, the designers noticed its resemblance to letters in the Latin alphabet, and shifted course. It has received generally negative reception, criticized for being weak, useless, and lacking appeal, though it has been considered an underutilized element in the series. It was used as part of a research paper, where they used Unown in order to teach classification and phylogeny to students.

Concept and creation
Unown is a fictional species of Pokémon created for the Pokémon franchise. Developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo, the series began in Japan in 1996 with the release of the video games Pokémon Red and Blue for the Game Boy. In these games, the player assumes the role of a Pokémon Trainer whose goal is to capture and train creatures called Pokémon. Players use the creatures' special abilities to combat other Pokémon, and some can transform into stronger species through a process called evolution. A major goal in each game is to complete the Pokédex, a comprehensive Pokémon encyclopedia, by capturing, evolving, and trading to obtain individuals from all Pokémon species.

Unown were designed by series artist Ken Sugimori; where some designs in Pokémon Gold and Silver were cut content from Red and Blue, Unown were new designs. Unown came to Sugimori in a "sudden burst of inspiration," with Sugimori wanting to make something whose design inspiration was not as obvious as others. Sugimori suggested that Unown had a more "surreal design" that could have come from outer space. While they were designed to resemble aliens at first, the designers noticed that they began to look like letters of the alphabet, leading them to lean into this and make twenty-six different forms corresponding to the Latin alphabet. They are hieroglyph-like Psychic-type Pokémon that first appear in Pokémon Gold and Silver. They can be found on walls. Unown gained two more forms in later games, with the latter two Unown meant to look like a question mark and an exclamation mark. They are among the Pokémon with the most forms. There are also other Unown, which are modeled after Cyrillic script, though these only appeared briefly in Pokémon: Spell of the Unown. Very little information about the species has ever been explained.

Appearances
Unown made their debut appearance in the Pokémon series in Pokémon Gold and Silver, which is set in Johto. In this game, they can be found in the Ruins of Alph and are triggered once the player completes puzzles in the caves found in the Ruins, with a character prompting players to collect all twenty-six variations of Unown. They also appeared in Pokémon Crystal, where a new story connected to Unown was added. There are four puzzles to complete in all before the player can access all forms. They have appeared in most subsequent games, with two new forms being introduced in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. Unown reappear in Pokémon Legends Arceus, with all twenty-eight variants found at different points in the game, with locations indicated to the player by hints written using Unown-based text. They are generally not used in battle due to their low stats and limited move pool.

The original twenty-six forms of Unown based on the letters of the alphabet were added to Pokémon Go alongside numerous other Pokémon from Gold and Silver, however, they are incredibly rare in the wild. They have also appeared in other Pokémon games, such as the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. Unown has also appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series. They first appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee as something that can be summoned with a Poké Ball item to attack enemy player characters, and they also appear as a collectible trophy in Melee and a stat-enchancing Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

In the Pokémon anime, they first appeared as the main antagonists of Pokémon 3: The Movie, existing in their own dimension until brought out by a girl named Molly, who had recently lost her parents. Reading her mind, they make her wishes come true, including creating the Pokémon Entei to be a surrogate father. Molly soon learns that her wishes come with threatening consequences and attempts to stop them, but the Unown are out of control, and Entei sacrifices itself to send them back to their dimension. In print media, Unown also appear in the Pokémon Adventures manga, and the different variants have also appeared on cards for the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

Promotion and reception
To promote Pokémon 3: The Movie, a lenticular Unown decoder was included with the VHS and DVD copies of the movie. Meanwhile to promote Pokémon Crystal a spelling contest called "Bee a Pokémon Master Speller" was held at the Los Angeles Public Library. Hosted by Ben Stein, participants spelled different Pokémon names using the Unown alphabet, with a prize of a trophy and two thousand US dollars towards their college tuition. All twenty-eight variants of Unown were also released as plushies in Pokemon's Sitting Cuties product line. Other merchandise such as action figures, embroidery, and stamps have been released. Line stickers depicting the twenty-eight forms of Unown were added to the social messaging platform. A Pokémon themed exhibition at the National Crafts Museum featured an exhibit based on the Unown, which was considered a particular highlight.

Unown have received generally negative reception since their appearance in Pokémon Gold and Silver, with IGN writer Kat Bailey identifying it as the worst Pokémon. In another article, Bailey criticized their gimmick as well as their uselessness in combat. Both IGN and Variety felt that it lacked the appeal of other Pokémon species, with IGN calling Unown one of the "most useless Pokémon in existence" due to their weakness and lack of an evolution. The Unown have been cited as a missed opportunity in the series' lore, with the collection element of the species being considered tedious and tiresome. Screen Rant writer Devin Ellis Friend stated this further, feeling like the gimmick behind Unown was one of the series' most pointless. He noted how, aside from their gimmick, they are too weak, saying that their only move, Hidden Power, is "essentially random." In an analysis of the article on 1UP FM, Philip Kollar felt they had appeal with children, and added "another layer" for those trying to complete the Pokédex. The Unown's mysterious nature was highlighted by Mic writer Alex Borkowski, who stated that the Unown were "one of the stranger parts of the Pokémon universe that hasn't been retconned yet and doesn't really offer any sort of explanation [...] It's not much, but it also doesn't have to be." In 2006, research was done on using Unown to teach the biological concepts of classification and phylogeny to students, with the researchers finding the results to be "very encouraging".

The Unown also received minor praise for their appearance in Pokémon 3: The Movie, with the Escapist Magazine describing the Unown as "eerie" stating that "They almost come across as a force of nature, something more powerful than our heroes could imagine." TheGamer writer Stacey Henley stated that the Unown were a narratively interesting idea in the Pokémon franchise that were heavily underutilized. She further stated that while the movie only scratched the surface of the Unown, citing that "Without it, the Unown potential would have been squandered completely, instead of only being mostly squandered as it is right now." The Unown's transformation of reality has been analyzed as a metaphor for the power of words and language.