The apocryphal story of America’s ‘Pikachu with big breasts’

Three decades aft its debut successful Japan, the Pokémon franchise is firmly entrenched arsenic a taste juggernaut. Across trading cards, video games, anime, movies, toys, and different merchandise, Pokémon is present a multibillion-dollar business.

But successful the aboriginal ’90s, Pokémon was an chartless quantity. Its creators were unsure that the franchise astir catching cute, pocket-sized monsters would resonate with an assemblage extracurricular of Japan. Tsunekazu Ishihara, CEO of The Pokémon Company, said successful a 2000 interview that helium gave the franchise a one-in-10 accidental of appealing to overseas customers.

In that aforesaid interview, Ishihara tells a chaotic story: When helium tried to transportation Pokémon to colleagues astatine Nintendo of America, helium was told the existing creatures were “too cute.” Ishihara was presented with an embarrassing alternate by his Western colleagues: a mentation of Pikachu that looked similar a “tiger with immense breasts.”

“We conscionable couldn’t judge the benignant of worldly they were proposing,” Ishihara said.

This anecdote astir Pikachu, a child-friendly mascot, being reimagined arsenic a “tiger with immense breasts” has been covered widely, including successful Time mag and fashionable YouTube transmission Did You Know Gaming. Pokémon fans person understandably balked astatine the thought of a Pikachu with a hefty bosom, and immoderate person argued that Ishihara’s comments person been misinterpreted.

Fans constituent to comments from different executives astatine Nintendo and The Pokémon Company to theorize what was really being suggested by the Americans successful the 1990s: a much monstrous Pikachu with big, muscular pecs.

In the years aft that Ishihara interview, erstwhile Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recounted a akin communicative astir the aboriginal days of bringing Pokémon extracurricular of Japan. In 2008, he said during an capitalist Q&A that erstwhile Pokémon characters were shown to Nintendo employees successful the West, those radical responded, “Something this cute can’t beryllium called a monster. Monsters should beryllium muscular and much terrifying.” Iwata recalled seeing a representation of “a muscular Pikachu,” which helium said helium would person been ashamed to amusement the radical who created Pokémon.

“This cute yellowish happening is not a monster, everyone told us,” Iwata aboriginal recalled of Pikachu’s reception to reporters successful 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal. He said that helium and then-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi were shown “mock-ups of a muscular Pikachu, and advised that lone a implicit redrawing would marque the Pokémon crippled sell.”

Gail Tilden, a erstwhile enforcement astatine Nintendo of America, told maine that she was alert that “NOA’s selling bureau was disquieted astir the ‘too cute, excessively Japanese’ look” of Pokémon. During the ’90s, that bureau projected “a look that had graffiti elements,” she said, that would person fixed Pokémon an edgier benignant that aligned with the much aggressive, Play It Loud! selling of Nintendo products astatine the time. She was unaware of rejected attempts to springiness Pikachu large boobs.

The archetypal speech betwixt Ishihara and his interviewer, however, includes further details astir what helium was shown successful the aboriginal ’90s — details that often get near retired successful retellings of this chaotic yarn. Ishihara compared the “tiger feline with large breasts” he’d seen to a quality from the philharmonic Cats, specifically from Japan’s Shiki Theatre Company, which has been producing that amusement for much than 30 years now. Furthermore, the idiosyncratic conducting the interrogation with Ishihara asked for clarification astir what helium meant by “tiger feline with large breasts.”

“Was it similar thing a pistillate would cosplay astatine [Japanese comic convention] Comiket?” the interviewer asked.

”That’s right,” Ishihara said, “and this was thing that was truly proposed. For me, it mightiness beryllium amusive to bask the differences betwixt cultures, but we didn’t deliberation this was thing we could spell with. [...] So, we decided that we wouldn’t change immoderate of the graphics. If we had agreed to changing Pikachu, we wouldn’t beryllium wherever we are now.”

As ridiculous arsenic it whitethorn seem, it appears that the radical who created Pokémon and helped bring it to audiences worldwide whitethorn person been presented with two plan proposals meant to entreaty to American audiences: a fearsome and muscular Pikachu, and a somewhat sexualized one. Thankfully, neither passed The Pokémon Company’s odor test.

Polygon reached retired to The Pokémon Company for authoritative clarification connected Ishihara’s archetypal comments astir a large-chested Pikachu — and to inquire if we tin yet spot the illustrations that the American selling teams projected — but person not yet heard back.

While Pikachu’s plan has evolved somewhat implicit the years to beryllium a spot slimmer, the iconic Pokémon has ne'er officially veered into muscular oregon terrifying redesigns. And lone successful the acheronian corners of the net does Pikachu person boobs.