I’m Luke Summerhayes and I love Inkay.
I’ve long been fascinated by squids other cephalopods. They are so far removed from mammals like us, they almost seem alien. Multiple tentacles, squishy boneless bodies, in some cases bioluminescence or color-changing skin and of course jets of ink all show how distant they are from us on Earth’s great big family tree, yet the octopus and some cuttlefish have exhibited primate-like intelligence.
The idea that octopus might be from another world is as old as words. Hawaiian myths say that the otopus is the lone survivor of the world before ours in a cycle of destruction and rebirth. Two of the fathers of our concepts of alien life, HG Wells and HP Lovecraft, both envisioned cosmic terrors as being octopus-like in their writhing masses of tentacles. In some circles, the more humanoid alien figures which TV budgets demanded and were replicated in UFO encounters have replaced the squid alien, but they still have a place in Sci-fi, from highbrow films like Arrival to wacky tokusatsu like a Gamera movie.
Inkay is a cute little round squid Pokemon, white and pink on top with blue face and limbs, it looks far too adorable for its dark and psychic typing. Yellow spots on its body are actually bioluminescent, as seen in real-life squid like the firefly squid.
X
Opponents who stare at the flashing of the light-emitting spots on its body become dazed and lose their will to fight.
Y
It flashes the light-emitting spots on its body, which drains its opponent's will to fight. It takes the opportunity to scuttle away and hide.
As well as using the lights for sneaky combat moves that help it live up to its dark typing, Inkay also uses its lights for non-verbal communication which helps it live up to its psychic type.
Ultra Moon
When exchanging information with others of its kind, it flashes the light-emitting spots on its body in a complex rhythm.
Sword
It spins while making its luminescent spots flash. These spots allow it to communicate with others by using different patterns of light.

The name Inkay obviously comes from the word Ink, but how about the “kay” part? Well the Japanese name is Maaiika, with ika being the Japanese name for squids, and maika being the name specifically for the Japanese flying squid. It also happens to be a pun on the phrase “maa, iika” which means something like “oh, whatever” or “well, okay”. Perhaps Inkay’s name is reference to this, incorporating the “kay” from “okay”.
Violet
Being upside-down improves its blood flow and clears its mind, causing the power of its psychic moves to increase dramatically.

And indeed, if Inkay levels up at level 30 beyond while the player is holding their console upside down, it well evolve into Malamar.
Malamar is a larger, more menacing squid monster. The giant suid was a creature long treated like a cryptid or a mere myth, but which has been proven. Despite the fact no human has ever been harmed by one, and we’ve killed and tortured plenty, people still fear the Giant Squid. The creature was first accurately described by a ship captain, and first recorded by Japanese scientists, so perhaps it is a logical inclusion in Kalos.
Malamar is also flipped upside down, its face now at the top, the pointed front of a squid serving as a kind of humanoid torso, and the tentacles arcing down like a pair of arms. As pointed out by its creator, Hitoshi Ariga, this upside-down orientation is the way squid are generally drawn or photographed in textbooks and scientific material.
Walking like a humanoid, it has a passing resemblance to Viras from the Gamera series, or other quid-like suitmation creatures from Japanese Tokusatsu. Like those evil aliens, Malamar, now flipped to a psychic and dark type, has powerful hypnotic mind control abilities.
X
It wields the most compelling hypnotic powers of any Pokémon, and it forces others to do whatever it wants.
Y
It lures its prey close with hypnotic motions, then wraps its tentacles around it before finishing it off with digestive fluids.

Ultra Sun
When it comes to strong hypnosis, there's an endless number of people who utilize Malamar for their nefarious deeds.

Shield
It's said that Malamar's hypnotic powers played a role in certain history-changing events.

The name Malamar combines malevolent or malicious with calamari, as this pokemon is a squid with strong villainous vibes. The Japanese name is Calamanero, a combination of calamari and nero, the Italian for black. The black squid sounds like a fitting title for a terrifying mind control monster, but also nero di sepia is the Italian name for cuttlefish ink, a delicacy in Italy and Japan.
Malamar is a little slow and has mediocre attack, so it’s never quite lit the competitive scene on fire – perhaps why it canonically relies on brainwashing others to fight for it. It did gain the Contrary ability in the ninth generation, boosting stats when an attack should lower them, allowing it a little bit of creative play.
Friend of the show Mikey got in touch about Malamar in the Trading Card Game.
The big upside down squid has had some cards throughout the years that got plenty of play. No idea why Malamar got so many great cards but they all have found ways to make things go topsy turvy.

The first Malamar to get some play was Malmar-EX, which had the Hyper Hypnosis ability that will put your opponent’s Pokemon to sleep whenever an energy is attached to Malamar-EX. This ability was pretty useful if you want to slow down your opponent and cause some real trouble for them if they can’t get their Pokemon awake in time. This card and ability was useful in variants of the Aromatisse-Seismitoad-EX that did well at US Nationals 2015 and a few Dark Box decks in the Expanded format.

Fast forward to 2018, we see another Malamar that did well from Sun & Moon’s Forbidden Light set. What made this Malamar so good was it’s Psychic Recharge ability. An ability seen a few times in the TCG history where you can attack Psychic energy from your Discard to one of your Benched Pokemon. This Malamar has been paired up with several attackers during it’s time in the TCG. The most famous partners has been Ultra Necrozma GX and Necrozma GX. Both Pokemon both want severy Psychic energy attacked to do big damage.

And the most recent Malamar to see some play has been Malamar from Chilling Reign. This Malamar was a Psychic Rapid Strike Pokemon with 120 HP. It had single attack that needs only one Psychic energy to attack. This attack is called Rapid Strike Tentacles that does 40 damage for each Rapid Strike card that you reveal to be in your hand. You then will shuffle those Rapid Strike cards into your deck. This Malamar was used in a popular single Prize Pokemon deck that worked well on it’s own. All you need to do is use Rapid Strike Pokemon to help fill your hand up with other Rapid Strike Pokemon. This Malamar worked so well that it saw play in several Regionals upon the return to live events in 2022. It even got 30th place in the 2022 North American International Championships.

As you can see, this upside down Pokemon got it’s tentacles into the Pokemon TCG more then a few times.

Squids and Octopi are alien to us whether they come from outer space or not, and many people fear what they don’t understand. Jay, whose voice you may have heard on this very podcast, has an intense fear and dislike of Octopus. But much as I enjoy War of the Worlds, Cthulu and Independence Day, I’ve always been more inclined to believe in Star Trek’s future, and the hope that we’ll befriend alien life, either in the stars above or the seas below. Malamar may be the Black Squid in the wrong hands, but Pokemon loves to tell us there’s no such thing as an evil Pokemon – just an evil trainer. I don’t believe there are evil races on Earth’s lands, in earth’s seas or in the stars above.
Music for Luke Loves Pokemon is by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. If you enjoy the podcast, find out about my other shows at podcastiopodcastius.org, get in touch on bluesky @podcastpodcast, or support the show at patreon.com/podcastiopodcastius.
I love hearing from Listeners! Up next are binnacle and Skrelp, so hit me up about those or any other Pokemon. Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much for listening.
I love Inkay. And remember, I love you too