Every Gender-Exclusive Pokemon

Like animals in the real world, Pokemon typically have genders. Most Pokemon can be assigned either gender, but there are certain species of Pokemon that can only be assigned one.

While that doesn’t create any problems with reproduction (since inter-species breeding happens in the Pokemon universe), it does give fans an idea of either what they were inspired by or what their biology is like. Either way, here listed are all Pokemon species so far that are either exclusively male or exclusively female.

This list will not include genderless Pokemon or Pokemon with special forms that cannot breed (e.g. Partner Cap Pikachu).

Updated Otcober 13, 2024, by Ryan Hay: Did you know there’s a lot of Pokemon out there? Turns out there are more and more releases every year. This time around we’re adding the Impidimp evolutionary lines, a trip of legendaries from the Scarlet & Violet DLC The Real Mask, all the Hatenna evolutions, and the latest legendary Pokemon Ogerpon. We also made sure we added some new information to some of the entries, as well as updating various entries to make everything read nicely.

25 Nidoqueen And Nidoking

The Confusing Continuity

The Nidoran family is the first group of gender-exclusive Pokemon, and they’re so old they existed before genders were really a thing. Prior to Generation Two, Pokemon were not classified by gender, with the exception of Nidoran♀ and Nidoran♂.

Nidorina and Nidoqueen in particular have a weird quirk of not being able to breed, which means—yes—they cannot breed with their respective male counterparts. Whether it’s an intended quirk or an overlooked mistake is a bit of a mystery.

24 Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, And Hitmontop

The Fighting Three

Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Hitmontop, and its shared pre-evolution Tyrogue, are all exclusively male. While there are other pure Fighting-type Pokemon out there based on martial arts that could be either gender, the Hitmons are part of the select group to which this doesn’t apply.

While there isn’t exactly any biological reason for them to be purely male, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan are inspired by real-life male martial artists, so it at least makes sense on that front.

23 Happiny, Chansey, And Blissey

Keep Your Pokemon Healthy

With all the Nurse Joys in the Pokemon universe, male nurses don’t seem to exist. The same thing can be said for their assistants, Blissey and its pre-evolutions, Happiny and Chansey.

They’re not exactly mothers, but the extensive care they take for their eggs certainly carries some traditionally mother-like qualities, so the all-female gender ratio is sensible, if a bit conformist to gender roles.

22 Kangaskhan

Two Pokemon For One

Kangaskhan’s female-only biology is largely inspired by the animal it is based on: the kangaroo. In the real world, only the female kangaroos carry their young, as the males are not assigned to do childbearing and cannot produce milk.

Kangaskhan’s maternal role to its young is its whole conceptual schtick, so it would only make sense to make it a female-exclusive Pokemon. That said, there is no male figure that goes out hunting and protects its family, so Kangaskhan is innately equipped to play that role, too.

21 Jynx

The Ice Queen

Jynx is probably the most human-like Pokemon out there. Many of its design qualities resemble that of a human woman, with the hair and red dress and all. Naturally, it would only make sense for it and its pre-evolution, Smoochum, to be all-female.

Jynx is somewhat ambiguous in terms of what it was inspired by, with theories of its origins ranging from Viking women, to a Japanese snow woman called Yuki-onna, to the ‘fat lady at the opera’. Nevertheless, it is clearly inspired by something feminine, so making it all-female makes sense.

20 Tauros And Miltank

Two Bovine Alternates

Tauros and Miltank are counterparts of each other, and each takes one entire gender for themselves: all variants of Tauros (Kantonian and all Paldean breeds) are male, and Miltank is all-female. That makes sense considering the bull, which Tauros is based on, is male, and the cow, which Miltank is based on, is technically female.

If you’re wondering, Tauros’ cousin of sorts, Bouffalant, is not gender-exclusive, having a 50/50 gender ratio. It is based on a bison, which can be either male or female.

19 Volbeat And Illumise

The Bug Duo

If there is a love story between different Pokemon out there, it probably involves these two bugs from Hoenn. While male Volbeat and female Illumise are not evolutionary relatives of each other, they are almost always associated with each other.

The attraction between the two is no myth; they are biologically attracted to each other. Illumise produces aromas that attract Volbeat, and they can breed to create Eggs that contain either one or the other. Design-wise, Volbeat and Illumise were created with rebellious youth subcultures of the past in mind, getting inspiration from greasers in the 1950s and flappers in the 1920s, respectively.

18 Latias And Latios

Gen 3’s Legendary Counterparts

Generation Three’s Eon duo was the first-ever pair of gendered Legendaries, with Latias being female and Latios being male. They are both likely inspired by the concept of yin and yang, alluding to how the two are parallel to each other. They may also be inspired by aeons in Gnosticism, which often come in male-female pairings.

In the fifth Pokemon movie, they both have the ability of “Sight Sharing”, in that Latias can see what Latios sees and share it with people around it.

17 Burmy, Wormadam, And Mothim

Four Evolutions All Together

If evolutionary lines were trees, then the Burmy line would be a corkscrew willow tree that has a lot of branches. Burmy can essentially evolve into four different Pokemon, depending on the gender and, if it is female, where it is found.

If the Burmy is male, it evolves into Mothim. If it is female, it evolves into Wormadam, and the cloak depends on the cloak it had as a Burmy, which in turn depends on where it was found. Despite sharing a pre-evolution, there isn’t much information about Wormadam and Mothim’s lifestyles with respect to each other.

16 Vespiquen

Combee are mostly male, but the small percentage of female Combee can evolve into Vespiquen. It is, of course, a queen bee, playing a motherly role of sorts by taking care of beehives and giving birth to more Combee.

Contrary to Combee’s 87.5 percent male gender ratio, there are quite a lot of female bees in real life. Still, it coincides with the idea of a queen bee, and gameplay-wise, it makes it pretty rewarding to find a female Combee in the wild.

15 Gallade

Catch These Hands

Generation Four gave fans tons of new evolutions for older Pokemon, including two, gender-exclusive branched evolutions. One of them was Gallade, an evolution counterpart of Gardevoir.

While Gardevoir can be either male or female, only male Kirlia can evolve into Gallade, via the Dawn Stone. Both final forms are loyal to their Trainers and each other. Gallade has more of a resemblance to a knight and swordsman, and that shows in its battling prowess, where it has more physical attacking power than Gardevoir and is a Fighting-type rather than a Fairy-type. If you’re wondering, the gender of Gallade and Gardevoir’s Paradox counterpart, Iron Valiant, is unknown.

14 Froslass

She’ll Curse You

Froslass is the other branched evolution of an older Pokemon introduced in Generation Four. It is always female, and one of Snorunt’s final evolutions, the other being the potentially male or female Glalie.

Both final forms live in snowy areas and are usually at the top of the food chain there. But while Glalie is a more animalistic predator that causes blizzards and eats its prey whole, Froslass is more playful and cunning, relying on illusions. It’s also pickier with its prey, preferring the frozen souls of handsome, mountain-climbing men.

13 Cresselia

The Cresent Moon

Cresselia is an exclusively female Legendary. The inspiration for its gender likely comes from female and feminine heavenly creatures, such as diving beings in Japanese Buddhism known as Tennyo, and the Chinese goddess of the moon, Chang’e.

Strangely enough, its Lunar duo-mate Darkrai is ungendered. Cresselia’s relationship with the Dark-type Mythical changes from canon to canon, but its latest appearance in the main series anime put it in a stereotypical damsel-in-distress role.

12 Throh And Sawk

A Blackbelt In Pain

Coming from the same vein as the Hitmons of Generation One, Throh and Sawk are pure Fighting-type Pokemon based on martial arts. They also happen to be male.

There is an element to Sawk’s design that might be inspired by a real-life male figure. Sawk has one eyebrow, which might be inspired by karate expert Mas Oyama, who once shaved off an eyebrow to resist the temptation of showing himself to society, giving him more reason to focus on training.

11 Petilil And Lilligant

Tend Those Flowers

Petilil and Lilligant are all-female Pokemon with no male counterparts. That’s quite apparent with Lilligant’s design in particular, with leaves resembling hair and a flower resembling a crown or tiara overlapping with both regional variants.

Unovan Lilligant is popular in the present-day Pokemon world for its beauty, especially considering how rare it is in the wild. It is said to look for male partners, with the red flower wilting when it has done so. Hisuian Lilligant ditches the gown and shows beauty with physicality, using its more slender physique and strong legs to jump gracefully across Hisui. It seems to be more independent as well, with no Pokedex entries explicitly showing a desire for a male partner.

10 Braviary And Mandibuzz

Flying Counterparts

Another pair of counterparts, the evolutionary lines of Braviary and Mandibuzz are exclusively male and female, respectively. While they are not necessarily associated with each other from a biological perspective, there are some thematic contrasts between the two.

Unovan Braviary is a valiant and fierce fighter, while Hisuian Braviary is a ruthless predator. Mandibuzz, on the other hand, is a natural homemaker, relying on bones to make nests. Strangely enough, the bones Mandibuzz wears around its body are meant to attract mates, even though, as its presence on the list would suggest, there are no potential male suitors out there of the same species.

9 Tornadus, Thundurus, Landorus, Enamorus

A Quartet Of Weather

The original Forces of Nature are the first full trio of Legendaries to share one gender, with all of them being male. While they and Generation Eight’s female Enamorus more obviously resemble genies, a big part of where they come from is specific kami from Shintoism.

Tornadus and Thundurus, the two rivals within the quartet, draw inspiration from two kami who are often associated with each other: Fujin, the god of wind, and Raijin, the god of lightning, respectively. Landorus and Enamorus, meanwhile, are based on two kami of fertility: Inari Okami and Ugajin, respectively.

8 Flabebe, Floette, Florges

Pick Your Form

Evolved from the Pokemon Floette when you introduce it to a Shiny Stone, Florges is a elegant Pokemon that comes in five different forms. Each one changes the color of the plumage around Florges head, and is permanent depending on where you find it. If you encounter a Flabebe in a blue flower patch, it will keep the blue coloring all the way through its evolutionary line.

These pure Fairy-types’ designs are based largely on nymphs and goddesses of Greek mythology, particularly Anthousai and Antheia, who are strongly associated with flowers.

7 Salazzle

A Unique Typing

Male Salandit does not evolve, but female Salandit evolve into Salazzle at level 33. Salazzle’s relationship with other Salandit is quite interesting, to say the least.

Salazzle form reverse harems of male Salandit in their natural habitat, thanks to their attraction to pheromones in the poisonous gas Salazzle exudes. That’s also the reason why they don’t evolve; they end up malnourished because they give most of their food to the leaders of their harems. Having a lot of Salandit in a harem is a point of pride for Salazzle, to the point that it competes with other Salazzle to compare who has more.

6 Bounsweet, Steenee, And Tsareena

Your Majesty

The Tsareena line is exclusively female, and distinctly feminine at that. Tsareena in particular was designed with queen-like qualities in mind; one of its abilities is literally called Queenly Majesty.

Its design is not only feminine, but majestic, with the long, voluminous hair calyx, the boot-like legs, and all. While it certainly has a high-and-mighty personality as royalty would stereotypically do, it’s also a queen in the sense that it protects the weaker Bounsweet and Steenee in its community.