Giratina
Encyclopedia
, is a Pokémon species in Nintendo
and Game Freak
's Pokémon
franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori
, Giratina first appeared in the video games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
, but gained prominence in the remake, Pokémon Platinum
, which it was made the mascot of. It later appeared in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise. Giratina is featured prominently in the film Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior, and later appears in the film Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life.
Known as the Renegade Pokémon, Giratina is one of a trio of legendary Pokémon, alongside Dialga and Palkia, that represents Pokémon Platinum and appears on its cover art
. While Dialga and Palkia represent time and space, Girantina represents antimatter
. In Platinum, it was given a unique design called the Origin Forme, which depicts it as a floating creature that writers have described as being similar to a snake or larva. Since it appeared in the Pokémon series, Giratina has received generally positive reception. It has been featured in several forms of merchandise, including figurines, plush toys, and the Pokémon Trading Card Game
.
-colored, segmented body with six legs, and has ghostly wings with red spikes. Six rib-like yellow rings encircle its neck, and the yellow ornament on its head resembles a human collarbone. While in its own realm, the Distortion World, it takes on its , which differs from the "Altered Forme" it takes in the real world (in the video games it also takes on origin form when holding the Griseous Orb). It has a slightly different head with a beak
like mouth, long "streamers" with spikes instead of wings, and spikes in place of legs, becoming more serpentine.
It was created along with Dialga and Palkia by Arceus
, though as it was banished for its violence (possibly by Arceus) to the dimension
called the Distortion World., it has been forgotten from the legends as "one whose name was never to be spoken." While Dialga and Palkia represent time and space, Girantina represents antimatter
. It lives in the Distortion World, but can also visit a cemetery-like ruin known as Turnback Cave, a place where the dimensional boundaries are said to be distorted, and dead Pokémon are able to enter the physical world. Giratina is capable of inter-dimensional travel, which causes it to change forms unless holding a "Griseous Orb." It is able to see into the normal world through mirrors and reflective objects, because they can bring to mind other dimensions.
The designers of Pokémon Platinum designed Giratina's Origin Forme to be "opposite" of Dialga and Palkia as well as to make its existence "more fun, more interesting, cooler". They paid "meticulous attention" to the Origin Forme's details; the designer "redrew Giratina's image again and again" in order to make it "significantly different" and change its shape. The designers eventually decided to feature the Origin Forme on the cover of Platinum. Designer Junichi Masuda envisioned concepts of "reversed world", "matter and anti-matter", and "E = mc2" in designing it. Its location, the Distortion World, was designed by Takeshi Kawachimaru around Giratina, with the concept as "how Giratina fits in the world". When designing its theme, Masuda "thought of the front/back, life/death" to make it cover "bipolar, opposite ideas".
, Giratina can be found after the player defeats the Elite Four. In the remake of Diamond and Pearl titled Pokémon Platinum
, Giratina serves as the mascot and appears on its cover. It features a design unique to it called the Origin Forme. It also appears in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
as part of a special event. Outside of the main titles, Giratina appears in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness
and Pokémon Rumble
.
manga, the Rocket Executives use Arceus
' power to create replications of Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, but they are destroyed before they can materialize.
, Giratina has received generally positive reception. It has been featured in a Pokémon Platinum
-themed deck of playing cards as the Joker
. As a bonus for pre-ordering Platinum, select pre-orderers would receive a 2.75" sculpted figurine of Giratina's Origin Forme. This was a part of a promotion called "Search for Giratina", which also encompassed a number of other promotional items. In Europe, Nintendo made available a limited edition DS Lite featuring Giratina's Origin Forme through their "Stars Catalogue" which could be purchased with coins that are earned by buying Nintendo games and registering them.
GamesRadar
's Darryl Vassar described Giratina as a "giant pharaoh
caterpillar
" that was a "force to be reckoned with" due to its type combination. Fellow GamesRadar editor Carolyn Gudmundson agreed that it was powerful, describing it as "fearsome". PALGN
's "Toastfarmer" similarly described it as "scary". GameSpot
's Shiva Stella described Giratina as "famed". IGN
described it as a "fan favorite". In discussing the growth in strength of legendary Pokémon since Pokémon Red and Blue
, G4TV described Giratina as "ridiculously powerful". Official Nintendo Magazines Tom East bemoaned the lack of villains in the Super Smash Bros. series, suggesting that Giratina would be a good choice for a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
. He described it as the "biggest badboy of them all" and cited its impressive statistics and wide variety of abilities as reason for it to appear. Freelance writer Nancy Davis Kho felt that the scene in Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior wherein Giratina becomes the protagonists' ally would be good discussion material for families about similar real world issues that their children may have experienced.
1UP.com
's Justin Haywald described Giratina's new form as one of Platinums "biggest draws". Official Nintendo Magazines Chris Scullion described its Origin Forme as a "snake". Joystiq
's JC Fletcher felt that the Origin Forme was "some kind of larval stage" for Giratina. Gamer Tell's Jenni Lada wrote that the Origin Forme resembled a "giant larval ghost" more so than a "dragon/ghost" Pokémon. IGN also described its Origin Forme as a "winged hovering monster". In a poll conducted by IGN, it was voted as the thirty-ninth top Pokémon, where the staff commented that it is "kind of terrible to look at".
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
and Game Freak
Game Freak
is a Japanese video game developer that currently creates games exclusively for Nintendo. It has developed the Pokémon series of role-playing games and several other games.-History:...
's Pokémon
Pokémon
is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...
franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori
Ken Sugimori
is a Japanese video game designer, illustrator, manga artist, and director. He is most famous as the character designer and art director for the Pokémon franchise. Sugimori is also credited with the art direction for other titles, including Pulseman. Sugimori drew all of the original 151 Pokémon...
, Giratina first appeared in the video games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
are role-playing games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. With the enhanced remake Pokémon Platinum, the games comprise the fifth installment and fourth generation of the Pokémon series of RPGs...
, but gained prominence in the remake, Pokémon Platinum
Pokémon Platinum
is a title in the Pokémon series of video games. It was developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is an enhanced remake of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in the same vein as Pokémon Yellow, Crystal, and Emerald were for their respective games...
, which it was made the mascot of. It later appeared in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise. Giratina is featured prominently in the film Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior, and later appears in the film Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life.
Known as the Renegade Pokémon, Giratina is one of a trio of legendary Pokémon, alongside Dialga and Palkia, that represents Pokémon Platinum and appears on its cover art
Cover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
. While Dialga and Palkia represent time and space, Girantina represents antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
. In Platinum, it was given a unique design called the Origin Forme, which depicts it as a floating creature that writers have described as being similar to a snake or larva. Since it appeared in the Pokémon series, Giratina has received generally positive reception. It has been featured in several forms of merchandise, including figurines, plush toys, and the Pokémon Trading Card Game
Pokémon Trading Card Game
The Pokémon Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on the Pokémon video game series, first introduced in Japan in October 1996, then North America in December 1998...
.
Concept and creation
Giratina, known as the Renegade Pokémon, is one of a trio of legendary Pokémon, alongside Dialga and Palkia. Giratina has a long, platinumPlatinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
-colored, segmented body with six legs, and has ghostly wings with red spikes. Six rib-like yellow rings encircle its neck, and the yellow ornament on its head resembles a human collarbone. While in its own realm, the Distortion World, it takes on its , which differs from the "Altered Forme" it takes in the real world (in the video games it also takes on origin form when holding the Griseous Orb). It has a slightly different head with a beak
Mandible (insect)
Insect mandibles are a pair of appendages near the insect’s mouth, and the most anterior of the three pairs of oral appendages . Their function is typically to grasp, crush, or cut the insect’s food, or to defend against predators or rivals...
like mouth, long "streamers" with spikes instead of wings, and spikes in place of legs, becoming more serpentine.
It was created along with Dialga and Palkia by Arceus
Arceus
is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Arceus first appeared in the video games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise.-Concept and...
, though as it was banished for its violence (possibly by Arceus) to the dimension
Dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
called the Distortion World., it has been forgotten from the legends as "one whose name was never to be spoken." While Dialga and Palkia represent time and space, Girantina represents antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
. It lives in the Distortion World, but can also visit a cemetery-like ruin known as Turnback Cave, a place where the dimensional boundaries are said to be distorted, and dead Pokémon are able to enter the physical world. Giratina is capable of inter-dimensional travel, which causes it to change forms unless holding a "Griseous Orb." It is able to see into the normal world through mirrors and reflective objects, because they can bring to mind other dimensions.
The designers of Pokémon Platinum designed Giratina's Origin Forme to be "opposite" of Dialga and Palkia as well as to make its existence "more fun, more interesting, cooler". They paid "meticulous attention" to the Origin Forme's details; the designer "redrew Giratina's image again and again" in order to make it "significantly different" and change its shape. The designers eventually decided to feature the Origin Forme on the cover of Platinum. Designer Junichi Masuda envisioned concepts of "reversed world", "matter and anti-matter", and "E = mc2" in designing it. Its location, the Distortion World, was designed by Takeshi Kawachimaru around Giratina, with the concept as "how Giratina fits in the world". When designing its theme, Masuda "thought of the front/back, life/death" to make it cover "bipolar, opposite ideas".
Appearances
In the video games
In the video games Pokémon Diamond and PearlPokémon Diamond and Pearl
are role-playing games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. With the enhanced remake Pokémon Platinum, the games comprise the fifth installment and fourth generation of the Pokémon series of RPGs...
, Giratina can be found after the player defeats the Elite Four. In the remake of Diamond and Pearl titled Pokémon Platinum
Pokémon Platinum
is a title in the Pokémon series of video games. It was developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is an enhanced remake of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in the same vein as Pokémon Yellow, Crystal, and Emerald were for their respective games...
, Giratina serves as the mascot and appears on its cover. It features a design unique to it called the Origin Forme. It also appears in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
are enhanced remakes of the 1999 video games Pokémon Gold and Silver. The games are part of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games, and were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS...
as part of a special event. Outside of the main titles, Giratina appears in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness
and are a matched pair of Pokémon games for the Nintendo DS. The two games were released in Japan on September 13, 2007, and were released in North America on April 20, 2008...
and Pokémon Rumble
Pokémon Rumble
Pokémon Rumble is a Pokémon video game for WiiWare. It was developed by Ambrella. Pokémon Rumble was rated "E10+" by the ESRB, making it the first Pokémon video game to be given an ESRB rating higher than "E" for Everyone...
.
In other media
Giratina is featured prominently in the film Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior. Giratina also appears in the film Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life. Giratina also appears in the manga based on the two films. In the Pokémon AdventuresPokémon Adventures
Pokémon Adventures, released in Japan as , is a Pokémon-related manga based on the video games. Satoshi Tajiri once stated that the Pocket Monsters Special series is closest to what he imagined the Pokémon world to be:...
manga, the Rocket Executives use Arceus
Arceus
is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Arceus first appeared in the video games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise.-Concept and...
' power to create replications of Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, but they are destroyed before they can materialize.
Reception
Since appearing in Pokémon Diamond and PearlPokémon Diamond and Pearl
are role-playing games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. With the enhanced remake Pokémon Platinum, the games comprise the fifth installment and fourth generation of the Pokémon series of RPGs...
, Giratina has received generally positive reception. It has been featured in a Pokémon Platinum
Pokémon Platinum
is a title in the Pokémon series of video games. It was developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is an enhanced remake of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in the same vein as Pokémon Yellow, Crystal, and Emerald were for their respective games...
-themed deck of playing cards as the Joker
Joker (playing card)
Joker is a special type of playing card found in most modern decks, or else a type of tile in some Mahjong game sets.-Name:It is believed that the term "Joker" comes from a mispronunciation of Jucker, the German/Alsatian name for the game Euchre. The card was originally introduced in about 1860 for...
. As a bonus for pre-ordering Platinum, select pre-orderers would receive a 2.75" sculpted figurine of Giratina's Origin Forme. This was a part of a promotion called "Search for Giratina", which also encompassed a number of other promotional items. In Europe, Nintendo made available a limited edition DS Lite featuring Giratina's Origin Forme through their "Stars Catalogue" which could be purchased with coins that are earned by buying Nintendo games and registering them.
GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
's Darryl Vassar described Giratina as a "giant pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
" that was a "force to be reckoned with" due to its type combination. Fellow GamesRadar editor Carolyn Gudmundson agreed that it was powerful, describing it as "fearsome". PALGN
PALGN
The PAL Gaming Network is an Australian based video game news and reviews website that focuses on the videogame industry and culture in PAL territories, particularly Australia and the UK. It was launched in 2003 by a group of PAL forum members on the IGN message boards who were disenfranchised by...
's "Toastfarmer" similarly described it as "scary". GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
's Shiva Stella described Giratina as "famed". IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
described it as a "fan favorite". In discussing the growth in strength of legendary Pokémon since Pokémon Red and Blue
Pokémon Red and Blue
Pokémon Red Version and Blue Version, originally released in Japan as , are role-playing games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. They are the first installments to the Pokémon series. They were first released in Japan in 1996 as Red and Green, with Blue being...
, G4TV described Giratina as "ridiculously powerful". Official Nintendo Magazines Tom East bemoaned the lack of villains in the Super Smash Bros. series, suggesting that Giratina would be a good choice for a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBB or simply as Brawl, is the third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games, developed by an ad hoc development team consisting of Sora, Game Arts and staff from other developers, and published by...
. He described it as the "biggest badboy of them all" and cited its impressive statistics and wide variety of abilities as reason for it to appear. Freelance writer Nancy Davis Kho felt that the scene in Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior wherein Giratina becomes the protagonists' ally would be good discussion material for families about similar real world issues that their children may have experienced.
1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
's Justin Haywald described Giratina's new form as one of Platinums "biggest draws". Official Nintendo Magazines Chris Scullion described its Origin Forme as a "snake". Joystiq
Joystiq
Joystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...
's JC Fletcher felt that the Origin Forme was "some kind of larval stage" for Giratina. Gamer Tell's Jenni Lada wrote that the Origin Forme resembled a "giant larval ghost" more so than a "dragon/ghost" Pokémon. IGN also described its Origin Forme as a "winged hovering monster". In a poll conducted by IGN, it was voted as the thirty-ninth top Pokémon, where the staff commented that it is "kind of terrible to look at".