Meowth holds the distinction of being the only Pokemon to have received regional forms in two separate generations, so as such there’s quite a lot of ground to cover here for something so plain.

Meowth is kind of hard to talk about as a Pokemon, in my view. This is largely because its presence in the anime is so unlike how it’s portrayed as a regular Pokemon that it’s kind of a disservice to not talk about that first. Team Rocket’s Meowth is not really a “Pokemon” to me in the way that a character like Ash’s Pikachu is. Hell even Ash’s Greninja in its retconned Ash-Greninja form is still identifiable as a Greninja in a way that allows kids training their own Greninja to relate, but Team Rocket Meowth is basically just a guy who looks like Meowth but exists more as a horrible little conniving menace who is only viewed as a Pokemon for occasional laughs and lore gags. Now to be clear, Team Rocket Meowth is a great character and works really well for the anime, a good foil to Ash’s Pikachu and generally a lot of fun with his over-the-top mobster drawl and ridiculous schemes. Also, Meowth was voiced by a trans woman for many years, specifically the late Maddie Blaustein, so yay for trans representation in Pokemon! I’m not going to factor Team Rocket Meowth into the final scoring, but all of this is positive and worth mentioning at least. Unfortunately, Meowth as an actual Pokemon has none of this charisma and instead just exists as a profoundly dull cat design. Its exaggerated features are there, but really, it’s nothing special at all.

Meowth ended up getting another one of the “novelty” Gigantamax forms as previously seen with Pikachu, this time taking heavy inspiration from Longcat memes in absence of some kind of classic design to restore. My opinions on Pikachu might’ve given it away, but Gigantamax Meowth is a design I flat out despise. It’s so utterly worthless and tacky, an excessive part of a deluge of Meowth overexposure when its reason for being popular is so divorced from its actual status as being a Pokemon. It just looms in a zombielike trance spewing gold everywhere, looking ridiculous and offering nothing. To top it all of this is just added glut on a Pokemon that already received multiple regional forms and we really didn’t need this complete wastebag as our fourth Meowth. It’s definitely my least favourite design covered so far.

Persian, your other option for a Kantonian Meowth to reach its potential, is not much better than Gigantamax Meowth. Hell, depending on my mood I’m inclined to consider it even worse sometimes. While Meowth at least has interesting body proportions that lend towards an interesting monster design if developed more, Persian just throws it all away and makes one of the series’ most boring, uninspired animals. It is a cat with pale fur and a single red gem in its forehead. There are no bells and whistles, no dynamic markings, no interesting posture, lore, or design inspirations. It’s just an ugly drawing of a cat and nothing more. As if that wasn’t enough, Persian has the problem of generally looking pretty horrible in 3D as well, but it wasn’t a looker before that either. Really I wish this thing wasn’t so heavily tied to an iconic design that means it will rarely ever sit out a generation in times of Dexit, and is likely here to stay in any future main series games.

Alolan Meowth offers a new spin on Meowth after 20 years of it being a tired design that was beginning to feel very redundant outside of its anime appearances. Fortunately, this Dark type regional form adds some more charisma back into the design and is inspired by cats pampered for nobility to own. It still isn’t good or exciting in any meaningful sense, really just exploring the same tired concepts of Meowth but more explicitly, without much flair, but it does feel like a fairly necessary revision.

Alolan Persian, to the shock of many who expected a more regal take on evolving Meowth, pokes fun at selective breeding in pets with an absurdly bloated face that looks ridiculous. Otherwise it doesn’t do too much beyond changing the gem to a nicer blue and keeping Alolan Meowth’s darker fur, which does admittedly look far better than the original in 3D. This one is frequently dismissed as one of the worst regional forms and a flat downgrade from Persian, and I can get on board with half of that statement. I at least agree that it is a very ugly design without enough going on to really justify that, but at least its ridiculously stupid face offers any reason to care at all. It’s a bad design and I would’ve vastly preferred something that offered a little more than just “Persian, but even more of a spoiled horrible bastard”, but it’s at least an upgrade by way of being a little funny.

For reasons I can’t be bothered trying to justify, Meowth got a regional form for a second time with the introduction of Galarian Meowth, this time being a Steel type cat with a shaggy beard that rode the waves with sailors as some kind of Viking mascot, with a much greater penchant for violence. Now this is much more like it. This is a very significant and welcome change to Meowth’s lacking personality and physical traits, and it’s interesting that both of Meowth’s forms have types that weren’t available in Generation 1 as if to try and separate them more. I can’t tell whether these forms were made more out of devotion to Meowth or a desire to fix it and Persian, but this one pushes new ground a lot more readily and I respect that. However, I kind of wish it was entirely a big ball of fluff rather than only a beard and its Meowth body wasn’t so exposed looking from behind. That really diminishes the excitement a lot and makes for something way less novel than it could have been.

Game Freak most likely recognised that Persian was far too milquetoast to give a third design to, so instead Galarian Meowth evolves into the entirely new, far more appealing Perrserker. Perrserker is the result of recognising that Meowth’s main interesting feature is its bizarre body shape, and rather than throw that away Perrserker gives us a bulkier, shaggier version of that which really builds it up to be a horrible little goblin viking creature more than a simple cartoon cat. This being the only Meowth evolution to keep the coin design rather than add a gem seems like a commitment to that need, making it a black piece that effectively blends in as a crest to Perrserker’s helmet. This is so much more fun and exactly what Meowth needed to justify being touched ever again. Its claws turning into knife hands and being able to headbutt things with its metallic head adds some Wolverine vibes as well which is more than appreciated. I don’t really want a fourth Meowth form at all (discounting Gigantamax Meowth here for my sanity) so I’m glad that Hisui and Paldea didn’t try to force it, but this was a huge improvement and I’ll be happy to see more of Perrserker in years to come. I just wish it was a little stronger and not tied to Persian’s horrendous stats, but it works with what it has and I like it a lot more. Overall while this is a family I struggle to say nice things about on a good day, I respect Perrserker a lot for giving me a good note to end on.

Gigantamax Meowth Final Verdict: 1/10 – Dire. Awful. Terrible.
Kantonian Persian Final Verdict: 1/10 – A horrid nothing design that has never been made to look good
Alolan Persian Final Verdict: 2/10 – it’s not really good in any worthwhile sense but ridiculous is an improvement on mind-numbing boredom
Perrserker Final Verdict: 7/10 – a much needed redo of how to evolve a Meowth, with great personality and design elements to finally give me a reason to care.