Nintendo Considered Giving Pikachu Big Boobs During Pokémon Localization
During the process of localizing Pokémon for Western audiences, it has been revealed that Nintendo considered giving Pikachu big boobs, according to reports resurfaced by Japanese media.
The bizarre idea came to light after a Reddit post went viral, claiming that Nintendo of America once pitched a redesign of Pikachu featuring exaggerated feminine features. While the original Reddit post was later removed due to unverifiable sources, Japanese outlet GameSpark conducted its own investigation — and the claims might not be entirely false.
Nintendo Considered Giving Pikachu Big Boobs, According to CEO Interview
Game*Spark tracked down an old interview from the Gold and Silver era, where Tsunekazu Ishihara, CEO of The Pokémon Company, shared a strange memory from the franchise’s early localization days.
“When I first introduced Pokémon to them, they said it was too cute. The staff at Nintendo of America presented their own character designs. I’ll never show those drawings to anyone, but they looked like characters from the Cats musical. For example, Pikachu was turned into something like a tabby cat with big breasts,” Ishihara reportedly said.
The controversy partly stems from the Japanese word mune, which can mean either “chest” or “breasts,” leading some to suspect a mistranslation. However, the interview continues with the host asking if the design resembled those “girls who cosplay as Pikachu at anime conventions.” Ishihara confirms, “Yes, exactly, that was the kind of design they showed us.”
While he acknowledged the cultural difference as “interesting,” Ishihara explained that he wasn’t interested in launching Pokémon abroad with that kind of interpretation.
Interestingly, during a 2008 Nintendo financial briefing, former president Satoru Iwata recalled that when Pokémon was first considered for Western release, a design of an extremely muscular Pikachu was also proposed. The rationale was that “monsters should look stronger and scarier” for the Western market.
This version of the story contradicts Ishihara’s account, suggesting that Nintendo of America may have presented two separate redesigns — one hyper-muscular, and the other more sexually exaggerated. Either way, both seem to have left a lasting impression — albeit for all the wrong reasons.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), these early concept illustrations are unlikely to ever see the light of day, given how negatively they were received by the Japanese team.
via Automaton
