I adore this little cutie-pie. Cherries obviously come in pairs – especially in every video game since Pac-Man – so why miss out on the chance to have a little Girafarig action with some conjoined heads?
There’s not even so much of a competition between these two; seemingly the second one is just there to veg out (fruit out?) and have a nice nap. Which, while very relatable, is also a consequence of biology – the whole second head (body?) here is entirely vestigial, existing to store surplus energy to feed the “main” head. It’s a deceptively-pleasant reverse-parasite situation, but it seems to be working out for them, so hey, I’m not going to judge.
…until he evolves and just drops the second sweet, defenseless, nutrient-rich head like dead weight, quite literally ripe for other Pokémon to prey on. It’s such an explicit sacrifice of the half of his own body. The whole situation is made more implicitly depressing by the English-language Pokédex, which consistently refuses to refer to that second head as what it clearly is, insisting against all evidence that it’s just a “ball”.
Behind that rosy little smile and those shiny, beady eyes lurk the soul of Cain, and Game Freak is covering for his wetwork.
This critter feels delightfully distinct – we’ve had a family lines as early as Number #001 play with the idea of a “blooming flower” developing throughout an evolutionary line. But having one monster switch back and forth between the two really solidifies the idea, since the player has to keep both in mind rather than being able to put the “immature” form behind them the second that it evolves.
And I really like how it’s done here; the closed Overcast Form doesn’t so much as give a color cue as to what it contains, staying Cherubi-red at its base and looking more like a plum flower with a dopey curley-Q “hairdo” stem. Sunshine Form’s bright yellow and vibrant pinks and reds blow you away by comparison; it’s such a dramatic turnaround that it constitutes an actual biological change. The colorful body isn’t just hiding under there – it’s legitimately different than the contents of an Overcast Cherrim. Of the various Pokémon that transform in-battle with an Ability (more or less), this certainly makes one of the bigger visual impacts.
The big knock here is that I don’t especially love how bald he looks in Sunshine form – it feels like there could be a second row of petals behind the first to fill things out a bit and really give the impression of a full new Pokémon hiding beneath those purple Overcast petals. I understand why they’ve done it – many cherry blossom flowers typically have five petals, and that visual language is significant, but it feels like we should be able to stretch the rules a bit in the interest of visual appeal.
Unfortunately, the biggest stinker is that Cherrim’s whole form change isn’t well-attuned to his strengths. It boosts his naturally-lower Attack and only one of his defensive stats, which turns him from a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none to a marginally more rounded version of the same archetype. It’s a shame, because if that blooming ability were focused on Special Attack instead, the inherent single-turn Solar Beam that comes with it would be a fantastic hammer with which to crush NPC opponents and even build semi-competitive teams around. As-is, though, the extra turn taken just isn’t worth it, especially without him natrually taking his Sunshine form outdoors in the core series.
I’m the wrong person to unpack all the inherent symbolism behind cherry blossoms, especially how they pertain to a work produced in Japan, but needless to say Cherrim’s sunshine form has some extremely iconic imagery baked into it. That makes it even more astounding that this line seems to focus on it comparatively little; it seems rare that we see a cherry blossom tree depicted and actually focus on the cherry aspect, or even the flowers as they’re closed up. Every bit as much as the falling petals that are so prevalent in visual media and poetry, it hammers home the aspect of the fully-bloomed flower being precious because of its relatively brief appearance, since you have to cultivate that form over a whole evolution and deliberately trigger that blossom every battle.
It was also made elusive by a glitch in Legends Arceus that made its Sunshine Form mathematically uncatchable, but that’s been patched out since, so suffice it to say that it wasn’t intended for thematic resonance.
One last note: it’s delightfully ironic that the games insist Cherrim’s second head ball to be so delectable and sweet. There’s a reason you only ever hear about the cherry blossom flowers, and it’s because the actual cherries of the tree seem to be described anecdotally as anywhere between “edible” and “unpalatable”. It’s nice that we see a bit more of that aspect here, but it is a little cheeky that Cherrim largely drops the “cherry” aesthetic past the tender level of 25, even if they do stick around as mock hair decorations. It’s not much, but hey – it’s more than most stories will give us.
I love these two design-wise, but that’s all they really have going for them – and Cherrim doesn’t even have that benefit unless you’re setting him up in a very specific team. These two really need some more oomph behind them if they’re going to stand out as pure Grass-types, but as-is, they don’t even stand out enough to make a cameo in the show’s credits sequence named for cherry blossoms. As cute as they are, these two need some real tender love and care if the series doesn’t see fit to Retire them – though they did make the cut to be pulled from Reserve into Galar, so maybe their aesthetics really can carry them a bit further.
Any and all appreciation for Cherubi and Cherrim is welcome in the comments!
Dextraneous 
