How do Litten's eyes work?

Question

bad title phrasing, if you can think of a better one please edit

So Litten has yellow eyes, with a black and red pupil. The anime shows this, with Litten's eye completely disappearing when closed.

Magikarp Jump's Litten seems to agree.

This was completely normal and went without question, after all, the yellow definitely looked like part of the eye even in photos where the eyes are open.
But then, I noticed its ingame cutscene when you choose it is a little strange...

The pupils seem to "close" as if they were the eyes, with the yellow staying even though the eyes appear to be meant to be closed.
Litten shows this while being pet, too.

just wondering what's going on, are the yellow parts part of the eye? It definitely seems like they are and most seem to agree, but the pupils seem to "close" as if they were the eye.

Comments

Litten actually has very small eyes, like a Beanie Baby. The yellow lenses are its dope shades, and the "eyelids" are built-in shade swipers.

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oh   ‍      ‍

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I showed took a picture of the same cutscene and showed it to you and you said something along the lines of "It's so it looks cuter" or something.

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not sure why I would have said that considering I can't even see it as having the pupil be the entire eye

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Gamefreak Logic. Actually no, Cartoonishly Cute Eyes Logic

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Anime emoticons? The pupils change shape/colour/form/reality/plane of existence in accordance to mood.

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http://i.imgur.com/mCwKKGN.jpg
it seems pretty inconsistent with what it considers to be the closing part of the eye

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Weird, I never noticed this...

Answer 1

While I would honestly love to see a revolutionary theory debunking the mystique of Litten's eye functions, I feel the best answer that can be given here is that the anime, the main series games and the phone app developer people are developed by different people.

It's common knowledge that the anime and the games have their differences and this is just another addition to the long list of contradictions between the anime and the games, although the publisher of the app and the games is 'The Pokemon Company'. Despite this, it's safe to assume that the phone games and the console games have their graphics developed by different people due to the distinctive art styles of the two. Of course, the eye functions of Pokemon are probably not mentioned when discussing how to draw each of the Pokemon. This assumption is further validated by the different developers of the games. (SELECT BUTTON inc. vs. Game Freak)

Hope I helped. :)
Notable sources: Staff of Magikarp Jump, Staff of Pokemon Sun and Moon.

Comments

there is some inconsistency even in one game itself, but seeing as there likely isn't another kind of answer I'll select this one

Answer 2

To me, when showing expression the Yellow stays on show but when asleep the eyes completely close.

Answer 3

Cats, and other animals, have particular types or retinas that gather more light from the environment, but that is inside the eye. For me litten has this kind of lens but EXTERNAL, in other words the yellow part of the eye is similar to the actual retinas but external to protect, maybe, the eyes from the flames, or better, from the light of the flame. Obviously this kind of lens can gather light even at night so in order to sleep litten has evolved a particular eyelid to cover the yellow part to prevent light to be reflected on the closed eyes, that's why, according to me, we can see the eyelids closed only while it's sleeping.