Aipom appear to be similar to purple monkeys, with beige color on their faces, ear insides, belly, feet and tails. Their faces have round eyes and a constantly cheeky smile. Along their heads are large, oval-shaped ears and a cowlick. An Aipom's arms are completely purple with no actual paws nor fingers present, while they do have visible feet instead.
The most famous feature of this arboreal Pokémon is the three-fingered hand on the end of its tail. It uses its tail for many purposes, such as grappling onto tree branches, picking fruit and manipulating objects. It even uses its tail in most of its attacks. It uses its tail so much that its real arms aren't as dexterous as a result.
Aipom are practical jokers by nature, stealing food and objects from passers-by simply to annoy them. Aipom enjoy the misfortune and annoyance of others; they can be badly-behaved and it is difficult to get them to keep still. Aipom also wrap their tails around branches as a precaution to not fall off in their sleep.
In the anime, it was shown that, like real monkeys, Aipom are partial to bananas and other fruit. They also have a sweet tooth and are easily attracted to the scent of Honey.
Aipom, the Long Tail Pokémon. Aipom is able to climb and hang from branches using its powerful tail. Aipom live atop tall trees.
In the manga
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 its 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 span 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, and subsequent flashbacks finally depicted its evolution.
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 which evolve after learning a move, besides Lickitung, share that specific method of evolution with at least one other Pokémon.
It is also the only Pokémon that learns a move required for evolution that gets a STAB from it.
Aipom is the first Generation II Pokémon alphabetically.
Aipom and Zigzagoon are the only Pokémon that can have Pickup whose evolutions retain the ability.
The Japanese and international Pokémon Gold have different sprites for Aipom, with the international versions adding the beige belly missing from the Japanese sprites. It is unknown why this was changed.
Origin
Aipom appears to have been based on a monkey, with an exaggerated concept of a prehensile tail. It may be specifically based on the squirrel monkey, which is similar in appearance, and also shares its large smile with cymbal monkeys. 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's name may be a combination of ape and palm, referring to the hand on its tail. It may also be in reference to a pom-pon.
In other languages
German: Griffel - From Griff (grip) and Affe (monkey).
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.