A question about Pikachu and Umbreon's ears

[Rubbereon]

This would probably be more appropriate on a pokemon fan forum, but I don't have an account on any of them and I genuiley have no reason to make one because I don't really play Pokemon these days, but maybe somebody here knows.


You see, Pikachu and Umbreon have sticks for ears, it kind of makes sense for Pikachu who is electric type, they probably act as radio antennas, but I've always wondered why Umbreon also had those kinds of ears, is there a logical reason behind the design choice?


While I'm at it, I wanna ask do any other Pokemons have similar ears or are they the only two?



Artwork found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/qqqny4/you_guys_ever_noticed_pikachu_and_umbreon_have/

[fablefound]

if i had to guess, based on pokedex entries and supplemental materials such as the new pokecology book, if there IS a logical choice (besides it just being a kinda edgy twist on the Big Ol Ears consistent across eevelutions) i'd say it's because umbreon picks up on moonlight (and/or "the moon's aura" according to pokecology) for energy and/or bioluminescence, based on entries that say the full moon causes its rings to glow and for it to become more energized.



the more you know!

[ZoranaDragon]

From a design point of view, I think the ears are stylized to make it easier to put rings on them. Umbreon is a generation two pokemon, so pokemon designs had to deal with the limitations of the game boy/game boy color, which only had so many colors (black, white, and two additional colors) and only so much room in a sprite you could use for a pokemon (they are rather small). While not impossible to make the ears like other eeveelutions in sprite form, it'd would be rather difficult and would likely make the ears rather visually cluttered.

Of course this is all a big assumption on my part and is likely not the only reason if my assumption is correct.


Edit: Fixed a typo