The Only Way To Understand Pokemon Is To Know All The Facts

Even though he created one of the most popular video game franchises of all time, Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri does not quite have the name recognition of other superstar designers like Shigeru Miyamoto or Sid Meier. Despite his creativity, Tajiri has been described in publications like the Independent as "reclusive" and "eccentric." Like many creative people, Tajiri drew upon his childhood passions to create his most beloved works.

Kotaku writes that Tajiri grew up in Machida, Japan. Although the city has since been absorbed into the Tokyo metropolitan area, it was a mostly rural place in the 1960s. Tajiri grew up collecting insects in the area around his home, earning the nickname "Mr. Bug" from classmates and dreaming of becoming an entomologist. As the Japanese arcade scene grew in the '70s and '80s, Tajiri's bug obsession became a video game one, and he eventually purchased a Famicom so he could take it apart and learn how it worked.

The story is that, in 1990, Tajiri saw two people playing Game Boys connected by a link cable, and both of his childhood passions came together in a "eureka" moment. He envisioned a game that could allow people to collect their own virtual insects and pit them against one another. Six years later, the first Pokemon games were released, and the franchise began to take the world by storm.

Pikachu, Ash's first pokemon, has become one of the most recognizable pop culture icons in the world. Outside of Japan, most people don't know that Pikachu was not even the original chosen mascot for the Pokemon series. That title belongs to "Pippi," who is known as Clefairy in English.

In his unfortunately titled book Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon, author Joseph Tobin writes that, in the original manga adaptation of Pokemon, Clefairy was Ash's first Pokemon. But the fairy-type had the ability to speak, and its crude sense of humor did not fly with the family-friendly dynamic Nintendo wanted from the Pokemon series. Rather than starting out with a Clefairy, Ash instead received Pikachu.

There were a few other reasons for the change from Clefairy to Pikachu. For one, Pikachu's more traditional design made it seem more like a pet a child might have than the strange design of Clefairy. Pikachu's bright yellow color also made it stand out more, as only Winnie the Pooh had a similar color scheme targeting the same demographic.

Like most things that gain massive popularity among kids — like Star Wars, Harry Potter, and of course, Dungeons & Dragons — Pokémon drew its fair share of criticism from concerned and usually ill-informed adults. A lot of this was the standard stuff about how The Kids These Days were spending too much time on video games, but a lot of it was more about how people thought Pikachu was a tool of Satan designed to teach children how to summon and command "oriental demons" in a direct attack on Jesus Christ.

The prime example of this comes from "Pokémon Power," a sermon that went viral when Everything Is Terrible released a highlight reel of a pastor explaining that Pokémon was actually teaching kids how to "take control of spirits in the Dark Realm," and forever bar their souls from Heaven. This viewpoint wasn't just limited to VHS tapes from the '90s, though, instead keeping pace with the continued popularity of the franchise. When Pokémon Go was released, a whole new wave of bizarre fundamentalist criticism was directed at the game, including a discussion from radio host Rick Wiles about how the "virtual cyber-demons" could lead "Islamic jihadists" to churches, rather than to, say, Bulbasaur. This is, of course, of primary concern, since before 2016, church locations were shrouded in the utmost secrecy.

Even if you don't recognize Satoru Iwata's name, you're absolutely familiar with his work. As a developer, he was partially responsible for classics like Smash Bros., Earthbound, and Kirby's Dream Land, and as the president and CEO of Nintendo for 13 years, he was the public face of the company. Oh, and he's also the reason that we have Pokémon in America.

The initial plan for the original Pokémon games was to release them only in Japan, but after their massive success, Nintendo made the decision to localize them for the Western market. The problem was that Game Freak was already directing their resources toward Pokémon Stadium and the first sequels, Pokémon Gold and Silver. According to developer Tsunekazu Ishihara, they were ready to give up on the localization when Iwata stepped in and found a way to bring the first games overseas. And he didn't stop there: not only did he port the battle system to the N64 in a single week, he also helped with reprogramming Gold and Silver. His data compression gave the developers enough space to fit the entire Kanto region, joining it with Johto and giving players a second quest.

Tragically, Iwata died in 2015 at the age of 55 due to cancer, but among the numerous tributes to his life and work, there's one hidden within Pokémon Sun and Moon. If you visit the Alola offices of Game Freak, a programmer will tell you about an "amazing guy" who helped to "solve all of our problems" before becoming a company president.

Pokémon designs have taken their inspiration from plenty of different sources over the years, from the simple (a horse, but on fire) to the downright bizarre (what if an ice cream cone could fight?), but none have ever sparked the controversy that the franchise saw with Jynx.

As one of the original 151 monsters, Jynx made its debut in Pokémon Red and Blue, where its vaguely human shape and a Pokédex entry about how it "seductively wiggles its hips as it walks" meant that it was starting as one of the weird ones. The real problem, though, came from its design. While Jynx may have been based on the yama-uba, a mountainous monster occasionally depicted with long white hair, the end result bore an unfortunate but undeniable resemblance to racist caricatures of black people. With that in place, Pokédex entries about Jynx's talent for rhythmic dancing and "incomprehensible" but human-like speech were easy to see as being rooted in offensive stereotypes.

When the franchise moved to the Game Boy Color, however, Nintendo made the decision to change Jynx's design to something a little less offensive. Rather than the black skin-tone that was mandated by the original Game Boy, the new version of Jynx was purple, and its depictions in the anime and official art were changed to match as well. The connotations of her original design are still there, but not quite as obvious as they were.

ROM hacks have been floating around since the rise of emulation in the '90s, but most of them are pretty straightforward. If you want to play a punishingly difficult Mario level, or a version of Punch-Out where everyone's naked for some ungodly reason, they're out there. With some series, though, fans have taken ROM hacking to the next level and produced full, completely new games. Pokémon fans are no exception.

The most well-known fan-made Pokémon game is definitely Pokémon Uranium, which was developed over the course of nine years and — according to its creators, at least — was downloaded over 1.5 million times. It introduced 150 brand-new fan-created Pokémon, including a new set of starters, and a new Nuclear type to go along with its radioactive themes. It was popular enough that its launch was considered news by tech sites, and needless to say, Nintendo's legal department took notice.

In 2016, Nintendo issued cease-and-desists to the creators of Uranium, as well as other completed fan-made games like Pokémon Prism. Unlike older Mario games, for example, Pokémon is still very much a going concern, and even virtual console releases of older titles are big news for fans. New creatures, new twists, and even revisiting older regions is a major selling point of the new games in the franchise, and Nintendo definitely doesn't want fans getting those things elsewhere.

People who are out of touch with the Pokemon series might just assume it is a few games that have been added to over the years. Those a little more familiar might know that, every few years, a new "generation" starts, and new games come with it. Pokemon has done everything it can to saturate the game market, however, and there are probably a lot more Pokemon games out there than you realize.

According to Bulbapedia, there are 122 different Pokemon games for you to sink your teeth into!

The core games and spin-offs are fairly well known, but there is an eclectic selection of titles starring Pikachu and his friends. Pokemon puzzle games, Pokemon pinball, the Mystery Dungeon series, a "Learn how to type" game — the creatures are so iconic that they have been licensed and added to a huge number of titles across dozens of platforms. Chances are, if you want to play a game, there is a Pokemon version of it somewhere out there.

Pokémon is one of the most popular media franchises in the world, so it shouldn't be surprising that the core idea has been presented to fans in a variety of different ways. There are the games and the anime, of course, which have been presenting slightly different takes on the Pokémon world for decades, but there are also plenty of offshoots.

If you're wondering which one bears the most compelling seal of approval, though, it's the Pokémon Adventures manga. As Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri told Viz, "This is the comic that most resembles the world I was trying to convey."

While Adventures follows the events of the games rather than the anime, it also deals with some much darker elements than you'll find in Ash Ketchum's eternal childhood. Pokémon are shown to be more than capable of injuring and even killing humans, and the villains are much more violent, attempting to murder the characters rather than just steal their Pokémon. Giovanni even kills a Magmar by freezing it in ice and shattering its body, and there's a higher price to being a trainer, too: Steven, a gym leader from Ruby and Sapphire, dies of exhaustion after trying to control three legendary Pokémon. You know, for the kids.

Besides the infamous "seizure" episode, there have been plenty of other reasons for parents to be wary of Pokemon media. There were also disproportionate female characters on the show, like Jesse of Team Rocket and Misty, who were transformed to be less overtly sexualized in the Americanized version of the anime. It was especially problematic for Misty, considering she is a preteen girl on Pokemon. Another infamous episode that has since been banned saw James (also of Team Rocket) crossdressing to win a beauty pageant, complete with inflatable breasts.

There are far too many weird controversies to name here, but how about one more? Uri Geller, a self-proclaimed psychic who gained fame for supposedly being able to bend spoons with his mind, tried to sue Nintendo over the pokemon Kadabra, claiming they stole his image for the psychic-type pokemon. As such, Kadabra has not appeared on any Pokemon cards since.

What is the best way to make a game attract foreign audiences? Sometimes, all you need for a good translation is a language change, but other times, you need to localize a game to account for different societal standards, tastes, and wordplay. The "Pokemon" franchise is the face of this practice, and not just because American editors changed a healthy rice snack to sugary jelly-filled doughnuts.

When the "Pokemon" games proved popular in Japan, Nintendo made the decision to export them overseas, and the company started with North America (via DidYouKnowGaming). Ever wonder why Japan received "Red" and "Green" versions while everywhere else got "Red" and "Blue"? Not only were these updated copies, but red and blue are two of the three colors of the US flag. That's marketing for you.

Another concern going into the American market was the titular Pokemon. According to Tsunekazu Ishihara, when Nintendo first showed them to US audiences, people thought they were "too cute." So to give the creatures a fighting chance in the US, Nintendo of America staff pitched their own replacement designs, most of which baffled Ishihara. One concept that stuck out to him was "Pikachu," which he likened to "a tiger with huge breasts...like a character from the musical 'Cats'."

Thankfully, Game Freak stood its ground and only let Nintendo of America change Pokemon names, not designs. Although, we kind of want to see these rejected redesigns if only for the sake of morbid curiosity.

Most Pokemon look unique, but some fall into the same design tropes. For instance, it's hard to find a "Pokemon" game that doesn't start with a route littered with bird-like, Normal/Flying Pokemon. While it's easy to assume Game Freak is running out of ideas, turns out this pattern actually started with the company trying something new.

When Game Freak began working on the third generation of "Pokemon" games, they planned to make it a soft reboot of sorts. In a 2003 issue of Nintendo Dream Magazine (translated by Dr Lava), Ken Sugimori stated Game Freak wanted to populate "Pokemon Ruby" and "Sapphire" with only new Pokemon. But to make sure new gamers understood how Pokemon evolution worked, the company had to reuse old ideas. In other words, new Pokemon like Wurmple had to fill the same roles and functions as Caterpie, since caterpillar metamorphosis is an easy analogy for Pokemon evolution. The same applied to Pokemon like Taillow; despite only sporting two evolutionary forms, it had to fill the same niche as the Pidgey line.

Unfortunately, the best-laid plans of Minun and Mankey often go awry. In the same interview, Director Junihi Masuda stated that halfway through development, the team realized "Pokemon Ruby" and "Sapphire" suffered from balance issues. Specifically, the game lacked certain elemental types, so to fill in the gaps, the studio added Pokemon from older games. The remnants of the initial design are still visible in "Ruby" and "Sapphire," since players can't encounter legacy Pokemon until after the third city.

"Pokemon" is so popular and has been around so long it was only a matter of time until a scientist played one of the games and named a discovery after their favorite Pokemon.

In 2020, two entomologists, Yun Hsiao and Darren Pollock, discovered three new species of beetles in Australia. Instead of naming the animals after themselves, the researchers drew from the "Pokemon" franchise's rarer creatures and named them Binburrum articuno, Binburrum zapdos, and Binburrum moltres. However, most discoveries named after Pokemon are more on the nose. For instance, in 2014, paleontologists examined fossils discovered in 1850 that scientists thought belonged to a species of pterodactyl. On closer examination, researchers realized it belonged to a unique genus and named it Aerodactylus scolopaciceps since, like its namesake Aerodactyl, the fossil looked like a hodgepodge of different pterosaurs. Oh, and we can't forget about Pikachurin, a retinal protein discovered in 2008 that was named after Pikachu.

Unfortunately, not every discovery that seemingly honors "Pokemon" actually does. In 2017, Dr. Christian Kammerer discovered a new genus of dicynodont (tusked mammal-like reptiles that predated dinosaurs) and dubbed it Bulbasaurus phylloxyorn. Many assumed Dr. Kammerer named it after Bulbasaur, especially because phylloxyron means "leaf razor,"  and the Bulbusaur line is synonymous with the attack Razor Leaf. In an email to Inverse, Dr. Kammerer set the record straight. He named the fossil for its prominently bulbous nose and its sharpened beak, which likely cut through plants like a razor. Still, the name is a very happy coincidence.

The "Pokemon" anime is the punchline to countless jokes. The show's protagonist, Ash Ketchum, has been 10 years old for the past 25 years, and depending on how long the show lasts, he might remain that age for 25 more. But that was never the plan. The anime's driving force had every intention of ending Ash's adventure with a plot twist (or two) nobody would see coming.

The main writer of the "Pokemon" anime was Takeshi Shudo. He wrote a ton of episodes, single-handedly penned the first movies, and even created Lugia. Unfortunately, Shudo died in 2010, but a year prior, he wrote a blog. Dr Lava hired a translator and discovered that the blog detailed Shudo's problems with alcoholism, how he created Lugia, and how he planned to end the "Pokemon" anime.

According to the translation, Shudo had two ideas for the "Pokemon" finale, the first of which would have taken place at the end of the first movie, "Mewtwo Strikes Back." In this hypothetical ending, Ash would have been an old man who looked back fondly on the good old days, remembering the friendships of his youth, especially with Pikachu. The next morning, he would have woken up a young boy again, ready to relive the best years of his life. Shudo's second proposal, meanwhile, was far more cynical. As he put it, this ending would have culminated in a Spartacus-styled rebellion of Pokemon vs. humans with Ash's Pikachu leading the charge. Of course, Shudo realized such an episode would break the show's established rules, so it's probably a good thing he never made it.