News Game Pikachu would never be the same even if this idea never left Nintendo …
If Pokémon still is a hit while the license is approaching 30 years, it is largely thanks to its ability to find its place on all terrains. But we must not neglect the design of creatures, which is at the base of absolutely everything. And as much to say that in the case of the mascot, we escaped the worst.
Pokémon: the roller-compressor
Pokémon is a collection story. The official story tells that Satoshi Tajiri loved looking and capturing insects around his homeand that it was this memory that led to the creation of Monsters capsule, then Pocket Monsters: Pokémon. From 1996, Pokémon gradually extended its influence worldwide. If it is (already) late on the technical standards of the time, the title fascinates.
The games are accompanied by the cards, the animated series and a first film, which is grafted a bewildering number of derivatives. As you know, it is this set of things that make Pokémon an ultra-powerful franchise generating a colossal amount of money. The reverse of the medal is a frantic pace which obviously harms the quality of the realization of the games. Anyway, Pokémon’s heart remains, well, the Pokémon. It may seem silly said like that, but we must measure the crucial role that these fictitious creatures play. Each design is the subject of a very long work and goes through a large number of validation stages.
Thousands of ideas have been rejected or put aside for later because, beyond the themes chosen or their style, the Pokémon must be able to be declined : cards, stuffed animals, posters, figurines, clothes, etc. Pokémon is above all a mascot matter. If many Pokémon are considered mascots, the absolute icon is the little yellow mouse, Pikachu. As soon as the franchise is launched, it is there and was even chosen to be Sacha’s companion in the series and the films. Its design has been reworked several times to always be in tune with the times. Major figure in pop culture and now global culture with a large C, Pikachu was the subject of … surprising reflections.
Bombalurina (Taylor Swift) dans Cats. Universal, 2019.
Pikachu ultra-sexualized, it is something that has been proposed
In an interview with the beginnings of Pokémon and whose translation made the objects of debate before being set by Game*Spark, Tsunekazu Ishihara, the former CEO of Creatures Inc, explains that Nintendo of America had considered Completely reworking Pikachu for the arrival of the franchise in the West.
When I showed them Pokémon for the first time, they told me it was too cute. The employees of Nintendo of America then proposed their own drawings for the characters. I will not show these illustrations to anyone as long as I live, but they looked a little like the characters of the musical Cats. For example, Pikachu was transformed into a character in the shape of a kind of striped cat with a huge chest.
He was invited to give details on the word that could be translated by chest or breast, which also corresponds to the pectorals, and well -confirmed that we were talking about breasts:
They presented this type of design for us for real. I found it interesting, in the sense that we appreciate cultural differences. However, I did not want to compete on the market (Western, editor’s note) with this kind of thing.
The Pokémon, in order to seduce the public worldwide, were largely discussed within the various branches. More muscular, sexualized creatures, with other colors or shapeswere proposed. Finally, Pikachu kept its original design well and everything went very well.
