Gen 5 Historia: Pokemon Origin Stories (Part 1)

Written by Dr Lava, June 15 2019

The following interview was published in Nintendo Dream volume 201, the January 2011 edition. This was the first of three interviews in which over a hundred Gen 5 Pokemon had their design origins explained to the magazine’s subscribers. This is the first time this interview has been translated into English and made publicly available, and the same goes for the other two entries in this series — volume 204’s interview and volume 205’s interview. In the following interview, lead Pokemon designer Ken Sugimori is joined by two more designers: Takao Unno (who later served as director for Black and White 2) and Yusuke Ohmura (who took over Sugimori’s position as lead designer for Sun and Moon).

Interview Preface

The following interview contains quite a few revelations about Black and White’s development — a detailed history of the starter Pokemon, information about a scrapped family of snails, and even the debunking of a long-running fan theory about Munna. Throughout this article, I’ll be adding some of my own commentary, labeled in italics.

If you’re interested in this kind of content, you might want to subscribe to my YouTube channel about lost Pokemon history, where information from official interviews, concept art, and internal data is documented and analyzed — for instance, many of these three translations’ highlights are analyzed in episode 21 of my channel, and episode 20 showcased the world’s first-ever recording of Gen 5’s lost Lock Capsule event.

Note to YouTubers & webmasters: These translations were commissioned for the purpose of documentation on my channel, and were tracked down and translated at considerable effort and cost. But if you’re a content creator yourself and would like to share this information with your followers, that’s A-OK with me — I only ask that you take a few seconds to recommend and link to my YouTube channel for the translation, as this website is an extension of my channel. When large websites and YouTubers repost my work without citation — thereby claiming all the credit and traffic for themselves — it makes these projects more difficult to continue into the future, as they’re funded primarily by readers’ donations. So please extend that courtesy. Okay, now that I’ve got all that out of the way, here are the origins of 41 Unova Pokemon according to Ken Sugimori, Takao Unno, and Yusuke Ohmura:

The Rules for Starter Pokémon

Sugimori: “The way we create the three starter Pokémon is usually very similar. They’re always Grass, Fire, and Water types. What’s most important is that the designs don’t resemble any pre-existing Pokémon, and that the motifs fit the elemental types — which is what always takes the longest amount of time.”

Unno: “For the motif, we always make sure to use animals that are familiar to everybody.”

Sugimori: “These Pokémon are the first ones that young children — who have just become trainers and in a way are total amateurs — take with them to begin their adventures. That’s why these Pokémon shouldn’t look too strong from the very beginning — once they evolve, that’s when they start to look powerful. We always stick to this concept when designing starter Pokémon.”

Unno: “In the beginning we decided on Tepig’s design, right after that we created Snivy, then Oshawott was the last design.”

Sugimori: “We always struggle a lot with the Water type.”

Unno: “We come up with all kinds of ideas, but if the motif isn’t well suited to a Water type, it’s easy for the the creature to end up looking strange. It can also happen with the Grass starter — for example, it’s weird if we end up with a Pokémon that’s just a dog with leaves growing out of it.”

Sugimori: “When we first heard the idea that Tepig would combine the concepts of pig and fire, and breathe flames out of its nose, we thought that it was cute and we could make it work. So we agreed on it instantly. Then, when developing the Grass starter, we were told that Grass goes well with reptiles. But several lizard-based Pokémon already exist, so we thought maybe we should try a snake this time. However, we were afraid that a starter Pokémon that’s a snake from the very beginning might turn some people off, so Snivy got a set of cute hands and legs. And then Snivy becomes more like a snake gradually as it evolves, so it won’t seem so frightening (laughs). Although Serperior actually has a pair of small hands as well, you know. It just keeps them folded behind his back, looking regal (laughs). And so the only one left was the Water type…”

Dr Lava’s notes: Yes, those two little green things on Serperior’s back are his hands. I’m sure plenty of fans already knew this, but many — myself included — never knew what those two little vestiges were meant to be.

Complications With the Water Family

Ohmura: “I started working on the Oshawott design after we’d already decided it was going to be based on an otter. Everybody drew lots of sketches, but we couldn’t come up with any good ideas for an otter’s evolutions. It wouldn’t be very interesting if the evolutions were just bigger otters that stand on two legs.”

“Well, I’m the type of person who can’t draw without looking at the real thing, so I went to see a live otter exhibit. When I was visiting the otters, there just happened to be a sea lion show nearby, and when I saw how powerful the sea lions look when they move around, I thought ‘they look so strong!’ And that’s how I came up with the concept for Samurott, which I then linked to Oshawott. It was Samurott’s design that came to me first, even before Oshawott.”

Dr Lava’s notes: So the design team had already decided that Oshawott was going to be an otter, but they hadn’t settled on a design yet. So looking to gain some kind of inspiration, Ohmura went to a water park (or maybe a zoo or aquarium) to check out an otter exhibit. By sheer coincidence, he stumbled across a sea lion show, and that experience is what led him to make an otter evolve into a sea lion. Ohmura’s inspiration for the Eelektrik family, which was recounted in volume 205’s interview, grew out of a similar experience — catching a humongous, disgusting eel in a nearby river. With both evolutionary lines, he came up with designs for later evolutions first, then worked backwards to design the families’ earlier stages.

The Division of Roles

Sugimori: “We always divide the roles for the three starter Pokémon, by which I mean we assign each of them a distinct personality. For example, we make a cool one, a serious one, and a funny one. When we agreed on the concepts for Tepig and Snivy, we decided Tepig would be the funny one, and Snivy would be the cool one. So we knew Oshawott would have to be the serious one, which is how he ended up with the facial expression you see in his final design.”

Sugimori: “Then we do another division of roles for the evolved forms. This time around — because the Unova region has a racially diverse human population — we decided to make the starter Pokémon’s evolutions symbolize the cultures of Japan, the West, and China. Snivy’s final evolution, Serperior, was designed with the concept of a European knight in mind, kind of like Lady Oscar from The Rose of Versailles. Tepig’s final evolution, Emboar, stands up on two legs and becomes humanoid, so we imagined him as Zhang Fei from the Chinese Romance of the Three Kingdoms. After we decided on the Fire and Grass types, we still had to decide on Oshawott’s evolutions — so we made them into Japanese Samurai. When we came up with the idea that Dewott can remove the shell from his stomach and use it as a weapon, we felt we’d succeeded in making him a Samurai.”

Ohmura: “Although when I was first told to make Oshawott’s evolution a Samurai, I was really surprised — I had no idea how I was going to make that happen (laughs).”

Dr Lava’s notes: The Rose of Versailles is a Japanese manga published in the early 1970’s that was later adapted into an anime and even a series of musicals. The story focuses on Oscar François de Jarjayes, a girl raised as a man to become her father’s successor as leader of the Palace Guards. A French knight with a strong sense of justice, Oscar is proud of the life she leads, but is torn between class loyalty and her desire to help the impoverished masses as revolution brews among the oppressed lower class. Also important to the story are her conflicting desires to live as both a militant, and as a woman pursuing several romantic relationships. When the French revolution begins, Lady Oscar renounces her title and joins with the lower classes in marching on the Bastille. Shot by soldiers inside the Bastille, she dies just before the prison falls.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a 14th-century Chinese novel — part historical, part mythical — that tells the story of the Three Kingdoms period, as well the chaotic era of regional warlords that came just before (c. 184 – 280 AD). The period is most simply described as a time when China was divided into three kingdoms — the Wu, the Wei, and the Shu kingdoms — with all three waging war against each other in an attempt to control the entirety of China. The period was one of the bloodiest in Chinese history, with contemporary censuses estimating the Chinese population at 56 million at the start of the period, but only 11 million by the end. Along with Journey to the West — which the Dragonball series is based on — Romance of the Three Kindgdoms is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

Zhang Fei is a key figure in the early years of the novel, serving as a military general in the southwestern kingdom of Shu. Although he was a real historical figure, many of his adventures recounted in Romance of the Three Kingdoms are based in legend, not history. Zhang had a reputation as rude, brutish, drunken, and hot-headed — but most of all, brave and loyal. He fought valiantly in many battles against the kingdoms of Wu and Wei, but Zhang ultimately met a grisly end when he was beheaded in his sleep by traitors within his own army. The traitors brought his head to the emperor of the Wu kingdom — a gift to their new master, intended to guarantee a warm welcome as they defected to the kingdom of Wu.

So the next time you throw your Serperior or Emboar into battle, you’ll know who they’re based on — a French female knight and a brutish Chinese general, both of whom died violent deaths. Sugimori revealed the Three Musketeers as the inspiration for the Swords of Justice trio in volume 204’s interview, which means that four Pokemon in Gen 5 are based on fictional French Palace Guards. And since Keldeo is presumably meant to represesent d’Artagnan, that actually brings the count up to five.

Zorua • Zoroark

Sugimori: “Zorua and Zoroark are the main characters in the new Pokémon movie that was in cinemas last summer. They wanted to have a Dark-type Pokémon as the main character, which is something they’d never done before. It just so happened that among the Pokémon whose designs we were already working on in the very early stages of development were the basic concepts for Zorua and Zoroark. They were perfectly suited to the movie’s concept, so they got incorporated into the story. The key aspect of Zoroark’s design is the way its mane stands in for its tail.”

Dr Lava’s notes: The movie Sugimori is referring to is Zoroark: Master of Illusions. It was the 13th Pokemon film, and it made its debut in Japan during the summer of 2010. Throughout the movie’s 96 minute run-time, Zoroark and Zorua repeatedly make use of their illusory powers to disguise themselves as Entei, Suicune, Raikou, and Celebi. In order to promote the film in Japan, shiny Fateful Encounter variants of the three legendary beasts were distributed to fans who pre-ordered cinema tickets, and Fateful Encounter Celebi could be downloaded inside the cinema while the movie was playing.

Transferring these four Fateful Encounter Legendaries from HeartGold and SoulSilver to Black and White via the Relocator allowed fans to trigger in-game events that made it possible to catch Zorua and Zoruark. It should be noted that although these in-game events were identical in every region’s version of Black and White, the Fateful Encounter Legendaries were all distributed in different ways country by country.

Patrat • Watchog • Pidove • Tranquill • Unfezant

Sugimori: “Pidove and Patrat, when compared to Gen 1, are like Pidgey and Rattata. Don’t you think Pidgey almost looks like an ordinary real-life bird? Pidgey is just one example of a Pokemon that shows the value of a standard design without much of a twist. The difference all comes down to just one trait. In the case of Patrat, it’s the eyes – if Patrat also had an unusually shaped tail, it would be too much, so we had to hold back a little. The same goes for Pidove — first and foremost, it had to resemble a pigeon, but then we also added a heart shape to its design. What I mean is, there’s a heart on Pidove’s chest, and also, when you look at the male form of his evolution Unfezant from the front, you can see a heart on his face. We felt that making a pigeon bigger wouldn’t make it any more powerful, so his first evolution is based on an oriental turtle dove, and the final evolution is a pheasant.”

Dr Lava’s notes: Sugimori is making reference to Japanese wordplay here. Let me explain — the Japanese word for pigeon is ‘hato,’ and the Japanese also use an English loanword for heart, which adjusted for Japanese pronunciation is ‘haato.’ So the reason Pidove has a heart on its chest is because the words ‘hato’ and ‘haato’ sound alike when spoken — it’s a pun.

Pidove’s final evolution is a pheasant. The Japanese word for pheasant is ‘kiji.’ And so Japanese wordplay also explains the family’s middle stage. Tranquill is an oriental turtle dove, or ‘kijibato’ in Japanese. ‘Kiji’ means pheasant, and as we just established, ‘hato’ means pigeon. When you combine the words for pheasant and pigeon, you get ‘kijihato.’ But certain rules of Japanese word formation rules that the H should be pronounced as a B, so you get ‘kijibato,’ which again, means oriental turtle dove. Confused yet? Well, if you haven’t lost interest by now, read this paragraph again — it DOES make sense.

It’s interesting that Pidove’s evolutions were determined by Japanese wordplay — had their designer’s native language been anything other than Japanese, we would have ended up with a very different kind of bird family. By the way, that designer was Reiko Tanoue, one of ten new monster designers hired by Game Freak for Generation 5. She identified herself as the creator of Pidove in an interview with Pokemon Peer. She most likely designed Tranquill and Unfezant as well, but we don’t know that for certain. Reiko Tanoue has only ever been credited with the designs for two other monsters, Snivy and Swadloon (although she was probably responsible for more). She left Game Freak’s design team after Gen 6.

Victini

Sugimori: “We came up with Victini because Mr Masuda said he’d like us to create a lucky Pokémon. One that makes you feel like you can pass an exam when it’s by your side (laughs). From the very beginning, Mr Masuda had this idea of putting a V shape on Victini’s head to make for a Pokémon that brings good luck. Well, it’s a pretty self-explanatory design.”

Dr Lava’s notes: While Victini may have originally been Masuda’s idea, Game Freak newcomer Mana Ibe was revealed as Victini’s designer in Nintendo Dream volume 204’s interview, which was originally published three months after the interview you’re reading now.

Minccino • Cinccino

Sugimori: “Minccino is the equivalent of Gen 1’s Clefairy. Mr Masuda told us to create a Pokémon that everyone will think is cute, so I enlisted the help of Atsuko Nishida — she’s the designer who created Pikachu. Her skills are second-to-none when it comes to drawing cute characters, so I got exactly what I was looking for when she brought me Minccino and Cinccino. We ended up using Ms Nishida’s designs without making hardly any alterations. Cinccino doesn’t grow much larger after it’s evolved — we only wanted to make it appear a little more elegant.”

Dr Lava’s notes: If Ken Sugimori is the king of Pokemon design, the queen could only be Atsuko Nishida. She’s responsible for so many iconic designs it would be ridiculous to name them all, but here are just a few: Bulbasaur, Squirtle, the Charmander family, Oddish family, Weedle family, Bellsprout family, and the Ponyta family. As with all the members of the Pokemon design team, many of her creations we just simply don’t know about, because Game Freak isn’t in the habit of identifying each individual Pokemon’s creator. Unfortunately, she’s famously camera-shy, and very few photos of her exist.

Audino

Sugimori: “Audino was another design created after receiving a request for a cute Pokémon. It’s a bit like Chansey from Gen 1. I was thinking that the Pokémon anime would probably switch to all new Pokémon, so I started to worry who would stand behind Nurse Joy (laughs) — so I tried to think of a Pokémon that could fill this position. Chansey is quite important in the games as well, which affirmed in my mind the importance of designing a new Pokemon for this role.”

Dr. Lava’s notes: We’ve heard some strange origin stories for the creation of various monsters over the years, but this is the first I’ve heard of a Pokemon being created primarily for the purpose of filling a role in the Pokemon TV show. Audino made its first television appearance in episode 663 of the anime, “Dreams by the Yard Full!”

In May 2019, Pokemon designer Saya Tsuruna identified herself as not only the creator of Audino — but also Galvantula, Aromatisse, and Goomy.

Munna • Musharna

Sugimori: “Munna and Musharna were also designed by Ms Nishida. For this design there weren’t any requirements — I just asked Ms Nishida to draw anything, and she ended up bringing me a design for a tapir with a dream coming out of its head. Actually, at that point we hadn’t come up with the concept for the game’s Dream World yet — so later when we realized there was already a Pokémon perfectly suited to the Dream World, we were very happy that we had Musharna. We needed this to be a two-stage family, so then we created Munna. You might expect that it would be rare for a Pokémon to be designed even before the game’s mechanics and story, but it’s actually pretty common.”

Dr Lava’s notes: Tapirs are large herbivorous mammals with traits similar to both pigs and elephants. These creatures inhabit forest and jungle regions of Central and South America, as well as Southeast Asia. Most species of Tapir are classified as either endangered or vulnerable.

For years, there’s been a long-running fan theory that Munna’s design was originally intended for Gen 1. This theory is based solely on two sentences of dialogue delivered by Picnicker Carol on Kanto’s Route 10: “The Pokemon here are so chunky! There should be a pink one with a floral pattern!” This description, while vague, does indeed resemble Munna. But unfortunately for the theory’s proponents, the story of Munna’s design origins recounted here by Ken Sugimori seems to debunk the theory.

Sawk • Throh

Sugimori: “I designed these two monsters from scratch. When considering what kind of Fighting Pokémon didn’t exist yet, I had an idea for a judo Pokémon, or rather, a Pokémon that uses throwing techniques. Around the time of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, I’d submitted a design based on that concept, but that design ultimately went unused. So for Black and White, I decided I would polish that old design, and that’s how we ended up with Throh. Later we decided we needed a Pokémon that could be his rival, and isn’t karate the rival of judo? That’s how Sawk was born.”

Dr Lava’s notes: In volume 205’s interview — which was originally published four months after the interview you’re reading now — Sugimori states that early designs for Sawk and Throh had horns but not eyebrows, but were altered in order to differentiate them from Thundurus and Tornadus (who like Sawk, was originally red). By the sound of it, those designs were drafted in the run-up to Gen 5, but around the time of Gen 4, there was an even earlier design for Throh. Based on Sugimori’s description, we have some idea what the early Gen 5 designs might have looked like. But as of this translation’s publication — June 15, 2019 — details regarding Throh’s Gen 4 era design have still never been made public.

Emolga

Sugimori: “In every generation, we have a cute electric type Pokémon that fills the Pikachu role. In the spirit of this tradition, we’ve created Pichu, Plusle, Minun, and Pachirisu. They’re all following in the footsteps of a true star (laughs). This Pokémon’s only purpose is its cuteness. We create other Pokémon with the mindset that simply being cute isn’t enough, but this one really just has to be cute and that’s all.”

“This time we wanted to combine the Electric-type with one more type, and we decided that it would be based on a flying squirrel. We thought that a Pikachu-like creature soaring in the sky would look interesting and very picturesque, so we made it look like Emolga is wearing a cape, and the resulting design was extremely cute. In this generation, we had the advantage of using animated sprites, so we were able to show him gliding. I think the result is great.”

Dr Lava’s notes: In addition to the Pikachu clones Sugimori just mentioned, a few more have been created in the years since this interview took place — most notably Dedenne and Mimikyu.

Pansage • Simisage • Pansear • Simisear • Panpour • Simipour

Unno: “I came up with the designs for Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour. I was told that the Stration City gym was going to have three gym leaders — one would specialize in Grass, another with Fire, and the last one with Water. So I was the team member tasked with designing these gym leaders’ Pokémon. I was also told that the gym was going to be a restaurant, and that the gym leaders were going to be waiters. So I thought it might be interesting if their signature Pokémon can cook.”

“First, I decided on a Pokémon responsible for carrying vegetables and herbs, then another one will be responsible for the delicious water used in cooking, and the last one will be responsible for monitoring the strength of the cooking flame. Since they were going to have to carry around hot stuff, I made their hands resemble mittens — then I realized that if they’re going to be carrying things, dexterous monkeys would make for a good motif. This line of thinking is how I came up with Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour. Their designs were shaped by what their environment was going to be.”

“By the way, I gave them all distinct personalities — just like the three starter Pokémon. It was another designer that created their evolved forms, and that designer worked to further emphasize their personality differences. Pansage is kind of a punk, Pansear is carefree, and Panpour is gentle, or some might say smug. Their personalities aren’t as overtly noticeable as the three starter Pokémon, but I did my best to design them so that even before they evolved, you could distinguish their personalities — for example, by the difference in their eyes.”

Dr Lava’s notes: Takao Unno first joined Game Freak’s monster design team in the days of Ruby and Sapphire, and the Pokemon he’s been credited with designing include Chimchar, Garchomp, the Whismur family, Rufflet family, and the Swords of Justice trio (not including Keldeo). He was promoted to art director for HeartGold and SoulSilver, then later promoted again, serving as both director and art director on Black and White 2. It should be noted that Unno has long been credited in the West with designing Simisage, Simisear, and Simipour — for example, in his Bulbapedia entry and on the Nintendo Fandom wiki — but in this interview Unno makes it clear that another (unidentified) designer was actually responsible for those designs.

Shelmet • Accelgor • Karrablast • Escavalier

Sugimori: “The idea for Karrablast came from Ms Nishida. Originally, the concept was for a Pokémon based on a species of beetle called carabus smaragdinus, which eats snails. Its evolution was meant to be wearing something resembling an armor. But we were also planning on a snail-based Pokémon to serve as Karrablast’s rival. Originally, we were only planning for Karrablast to eat the snail Pokemon — at that point, we hadn’t come up with the concept of Escavalier wearing another Pokemon’s shell. However, after some discussion, we came to the conclusion that it would be more interesting if we combine the two.”

Sugimori: “By the way, we ended up throwing out our idea for the original snail-based Pokémon. Initially, Shelmet was being developed independently from this snail/beetle project. But Shelmet’s shell seemed like it would make for a good armor. That’s when we had a revelation — Karrablast should wear Shelmet’s shell (laughs)! So with the two connected in this way, we considered what would become of Shelmet once Karrablast stole his shell. We decided Shelmet would probably sulk due to the loss of his shell, and with that thought in mind, we designed his evolved form. They began as totally different Pokémon, but ultimately, evolution bound them together. This kind of thing happens sometimes in nature — the relationship between Karrablast and Shelmet is a representation of that concept.”

Dr Lava’s notes: So originally, Karrablast and Escavelier were meant to be rivals (or counterparts) with some sort of snail Pokemon — most likely a two-stage family of snails. This would have been a similar relationship to the one between Heatmor and Durant that Sugimori described in volume 205’s interview — a predator/prey dynamic. Shelmet IS a snail — a bivalve snail — but it seems the designers originally had a completely different kind of snail family in mind that was being developed simultaneously. But Karrablast’s original rival snail family was thrown out, and Shelmet was brought in to fill the role.

Some readers might have been confused by Sugimori’s reference to Escavelier “wearing another Pokemon’s shell.” What he means is that when Karrablast and Shelmet are traded for one another — which is the only way they can be evolved — Karrablast steals Shelmet’s shell and it becomes Escavelier’s armor. Accelgor isn’t too pleased about losing its shell, which is why his arms are crossed and the expression he wears on his face is a sulk.

It also sounds like Escavalier’s original design was once meant to be quite different. After the designers brought in Shelmet and Accelgor to replace the scrapped snail family, Escavalier ended up wearing Shelmet’s shell and looking the way we all remember him appearing in Black and White’s release versions.

Timburr • Gurdurr • Conkeldurr

Sugimori: “Timburr was conceived of as a Pokémon that works on a construction site, which is why he holds a piece of timber. We had our doubts as whether or not it was a good idea — from a design perspective — to make Pokémon carry things, but then we remembered that in Gen 1, there were Pokémon that held a leek or a spoon. Ultimately, what was important was that when animated, it looked really interesting. By the way, the legs were designed to represent the knickers that are worn by construction workers — it’s not that his legs are short (laughs).”

Related Interview: Sugimori says hundreds of Pokemon created for Gen 2, most were cut

Sugimori: “Gurdurr is your best choice when you need pure physical strength, while Conkeldurr is meant to represent a veteran that fights not only with his strength, but also with his intellect. He usually puts the stone pillars on the ground and only uses his strength in the most critical situations. He has the aura of an honorable master. Looking at Conkeldurr from this perspective, Timburr is an apprentice, and Gurdurr is a full-fledged adult (laughs).”

Dr Lava’s notes: In Japan, it’s common for construction workers to wear knickers, or more specifically, tobi trousers. Tobi trousers are baggy to a point below the knees, then narrow abruptly at the calves so they can be tucked into the workers’ shoes. So what Sugimori is saying here, is that the Timburr family’s legs are actually much longer than they appear — more than half their legs are hidden inside their “knickers.”

Trubbish • Garbodor

Sugimori: “This game’s primary locale is a city, so we wanted to include a Pokémon linked to pollution.”

Unno: “When we thought about the aspect of pollution that we all personally experience in the city, the answer was trash. So we came up with an idea for a Pokémon who disguises himself as a trash bag. This kind of motif was exactly what we needed, so we agreed on Trubbish right away. It also helped that we all got a big kick out of his face (laughs).”

Sugimori: “This design looks great. Also, when you go out at night and stumble upon a stray plastic bag from a convenience store, it’s easy to get startled, so this design made a lot of sense.”

Cubchoo • Beartic

Unno: “The staff member who designed Cubchoo had been wanting to use an idea for freezing snot for some time. Finally, he got a chance to bring his idea to life. It looks especially vivid in the animation — for example, when Cubchoo snorts the snot in and it disappears (laughs).”

Sugimori: “There’s a Pokémon dribbling something in pretty much every generation, for example Gloom and his saliva. This one is a new approach to the dribbling concept (laughs).”

Dr. Lava’s notes: Slugma, Magcargo, and Whiscash are a few examples of previous generations’ Pokemon that dribble. Torkoal and Hippowdon might belong on this list as well, but their sprites a bit more debatable.

Sigilyph

Sugimori: “Sigilyph’s final design still makes a pretty strong impression, but the initial design was really intense — it made me feel like ‘wow… what should I do with it?!’ (laughs). We met with the designer many times, and by adding some characteristics necessary for a Pokémon, it eventually ended up looking like this. Pokémon like Sigilyph, who really make an impression, are just much more interesting.”

Dr Lava’s notes: Sugimori really peaks our interest here by describing the process of changing Sigilyph’s original, more intense design into the less shocking, more Pokemon-like design we know today. Unfortunately, he leaves the details entirely to our imaginations — not even the designer is identified.

More Translations in Progress

And that wraps up Nintendo Dream volume 201’s feature on the origins and development of forty Gen 5 Pokemon. I’m still looking for more issues of Nintendo Dream, so if you’ve got a lead on any of these magazines — or want to contact me for any reason at all — you can find me on Twitter where I’m @DrLavaYT.

Translations of volume 204’s interview and volume 205’s interview have now been published as well. But there are lots more Japanese interviews that need to be located and purchased from Japan, then translated by a professional interpreter. So if you’d be willing to contribute to help make more Pokemon translations possible on my Patreon page, it would really make a huge difference.

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Related Articles:

• Gen 5 Historia: Pokemon Origin Stories (Part 2)

• Gorochu: Developer Translations and the 2019 Leak

• How Three Monsters in a 1997 JP Magazine Became Pokemon