Aipom is a monkey-like Pokémon with a three-fingered hand at the end of its tail. Its fur is purple, while the skin of its face, inner ears, belly, feet, and the tip of its tail is beige. On its face are a usually cheeky smile and round, blue eyes. Supplemented by its round ears, Aipom's head is disproportionately large compared to its body. Atop its head is a cowlick that is longer on females than males. Unlike its feet, Aipom's arms are simple, purple stubs.
Aipom uses its powerful tail freely and cleverly for many purposes. The tail is strong enough to anchor Aipom to a branch and suspend the rest of its body in the air, but also delicate enough to pick fruit and manipulate objects. Aipom has been known to wrap its tail around tree branches as it sleeps so it does not fall. Since Aipom uses its tail so much, its actual arms are not as dexterous. Aipom lives high in the treetops, using its tail for balance as it swings from branch to branch.
Multiple Aipom appeared in Slaking Kong, one of which stole Ash's hat. In Channeling the Battle Zone, Ash captured the aforementioned Aipom. Her behavior is similar to that of Ash's Chikorita: attention-seeking, very naughty at times, and occasionally jealous. However, she developed a close bond with Ash. In Throwing the Track Switch, Ash traded her to Dawn for Buizel because Aipom had a love of Contests and Buizel was more interested in Gym battles. Aipom evolved into Ambipom in Journey to the Unown! while battling the attacking Unown.
In Pokémon Adventures, Gold has an Aipom named Aibo, one of the Pokémon he grew up with at his house in New Bark Town. Because it was not very powerful, it was typically used in situations that needed its dexterity or for distracting opponents with Double Team. In the battle against the Masked Man, it showed its worth by having Sudobo inherit the speed boost of its Agility to restrain the villain. It was also very skilled with pulling fast ones or using Gold's equipment to send out multiple Pokémon at once, as displayed when it spun Gold's billiard cue around to power up Exbo's Blast Burn attack.
In the HeartGold & SoulSilver arc, it was revealed to have evolved into an Ambipom. Its evolution was later depicted by flashbacks.
Aipom's tail ends in a hand-like appendage that can be cleverly manipulated. However, because the Pokémon uses its tail so much, its real hands have become rather clumsy.
Aipom will not appear in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team until a rescue mission involving it has been completed, using the following Wonder Mail code:
4 ? R C W ♂ T ? ? 0 7 6
F M ? Y 2 4 ? 5 + N ? W
Objective: Deliver Radar Orb to Aipom on floor 5 of Silent Chasm.
Aipom is the only Pokémon that evolves by learning Double Hit; all other Pokémon that evolve after learning a move besides Lickitung share that specific method of evolution with at least one other Pokémon.
Origin
Aipom appears to be based on a monkey and the exaggerated concept of a prehensile tail. It may be specifically based on the squirrel monkey, which is similar in appearance. Aipom also shares its large smile with a cymbal-banging monkey toy. It is also similar to an ahuizotl, a creature of Aztec mythology with monkey hands and a fifth human hand on its tail.
Name origin
Aipom and Eipam may be a combination of ape and palm (referring to the hand on its tail). It may also refer to a pom-pom.