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Sneasel is a bipedal Pokémon which vaguely resembles a mix of cat and weasel. Its body is predominantly black, but it possesses bright red feather-like growths on its left ear and lower back. Its most striking features are the two retractable claws on its front and back paws. It also has distinctive yellow markings on its face and chest. Its unusual facial markings, which resemble eyelashes, are found on both males and females; these markings strongly resemble the false eyelashes worn by the primary character in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.
Gender differences
A female has a shorter red feather on its head than a male.
Special abilities
Sneasel normally attack by using claw-based moves, such as Slash or Metal Claw. Sneasel are also capable of learning punching moves like Ice Punch or Focus Punch. Since Sneasel is a Dark-type Pokémon, it can learn certain attacks that come with very disruptive effects: stealing an opponent's hold item (Thief), or preventing foes from using the same attack twice in a row (Torment). Sneasel is a very agile Pokémon, making it a tough target to hit.
Sneasel are notoriously vicious Pokémon, which are perfectly capable of using their impressive claws to do substantial amounts of damage. Sneasel enjoy attacking and injuring the weak; their nasty temperament can be seen in Hail to the Chef when one sabotaged Meowth's food, nearly leading to a clash of claws. Sneasel are very agile and will move with ninja-like movements in battle, as they are cunning and have developed many strategies to capture their prey. In addition to being formidable weapons, their claws are also useful tools and enable them to climb trees.
Sneasel also made an appearance in Hail to the Chef under the ownership of Rhoda, a girl that lives outside of Saffron City who was competing with her sister, who owned a Mr. Mime, for the ownership of her father's restaurant.
Sneasel's most predominant role is as one of Silver's Pokémon, probably his first Pokémon as it was the Pokémon he used during his training under the Masked Man, and the only one seen with him in flashbacks of his childhood prior to being kidnapped. It is a dexterous and crafty fighter that fully utilizes its speed and attacks of both the Dark-type and Ice-type. After many years, it evolved into a Weavile with his Murkrow in Lance's hidden Whirl Islands chamber.
Sneasel can be seen as a parallel to Gligar. Both of them are dual-typed and have the same base stats total, as well as their respective fully-evolvedform that introduced in the same generation. They can be evolved by leveling up at night while holding the respective evolutionary held items with the sharedname "Razor".
Origin
Sneasel shares similar traits with cats and weasels. It may be based on cat demons or black cats, known for being sneaky and associated with witchcraft and "evil". It may also based on the kamaitachi, weasel demons with sickles on their front legs. Its eye markings are similar to that of ones in Egyptian style, possibly Horus's.
Name origin
Sneasel's name is a combination of sneaky and weasel. The name is pronounced as "sneezele", which may refer to "sniffle," "the sniffles," "sneeze," or "sneezing" resulting from a bad cold (a possible reference to this Pokémon's Dark/Ice type). It may include snow, also a reference to its Ice type. Its Japanese name may come from 潜入 sennyū, sneaking in, and 鼬 yū, an alternate reading of itachi, or weasel. The feline part of its name can be further proved within the Japanese, Nyula, which uses a mix of "Nya" and "Yu" which stand for "Meow" and "weasel" respectfully. There is also the possibility it could be 新しい)+ 野良猫 (New Cat).
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.