Pokémon turns 30! Explore the archives of original artworks that defined our childhoods

Back in early 1996, the dual-released video games called Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green were unleashed in Japan. It would take no time before it became one of the most gigantic games the world has ever seen. Released on the Game Boy, a console that had enjoyed seven years of wonderful games, Pocket Monsters Red and Green immediately became the staple of the handheld system – and in the process, it captured the hearts of just about every child who ever held the game in their hands. The game expanded to the West two years later and became the household name of Pokémon. Let’s put it this way, even your grandmother knows who Pikachu is. Although the graphics were primitive even at the time, it didn’t seem to matter much when stacked up against the unlimited imagination of its world, which, much like our own, is filled with humans and their animal pets – except in Pokémon, the pets can breathe fire and create earthquakes with their fists.

We’re approaching not just the 30th anniversary of the original Pokémon – but what Pokémon used to look like. In the early days of the epic franchise, the creature designs were far from being standardised or finalised. Between 1996 and 1997, when Pokémon The Series aired, there was a pocket of time where legendary designers Ken Sugimori, Mitsuhiro Arita, Atsuko Nishida, Motofumi Fujiwara and Shigeki Morimoto could take artistic liberties with the franchise’s aesthetic. It’s Nice That spoke to the people who are keeping retro Pokémon alive: amateur historians Makio, one of the co-founders of Pokéos, a huge archival effort that aims to “rescue official Pokémon art” from obscurity across X, Tumblr and Patreon, and Maarten, whose Instagram account Nostalgia Provider has amassed over 60000 followers by becoming one of the largest original Pokémon art databases on the site.

Key creatives at GameFreak (which began as a gaming fanzine) were drawing Pokémon way before Pocket Monsters was even in development – in 1990, the concept was called Capsule Monsters. This title didn’t last long, however funnily enough, it appears in Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters – a series that undoubtedly took inspiration from Pokémon’s world of collectable duelling monsters. Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri took his childhood hobby of collecting insects (he was even nicknamed ‘Dr. Bug’) and merged it with an interest in gashapon machines (vending machines that dispense toys in capsules).

“Early Capsule Monsters sketches from around 1990 already showed primitive versions of creatures that would later become Lapras, Cubone, Gastly, Rhyhorn, Staryu, Gengar, Voltorb and others. Some designs were dramatically different. Some were scrapped entirely. Imagining the reasoning behind those changes is part of what makes archiving so interesting,” says Makio.

In the early 2000s, everything changed: The Pokémon Company had become established and brand control became progressively centralised. “Today, the approval process is extremely strict,” says Makio. “There are TCG (Trading Card Game) illustrators explaining how detailed revisions can be: tail positioning, lighting direction, facial structure, shadow placement, even subtle anatomical angles are carefully reviewed.”

Since the Pokémon franchise is so enormous, the amount of art that existed in these early days almost feels infinite. Of course, the sad truth is one day we will have seen everything that was ever drawn – that is the inevitability (and drive) of being a passionate collector. However, Maarten and Makio have been collecting for more than fifteen years and still sees rare art pop up that they haven’t seen before. A personal favourite of Maarten’s is by Keiko Kukuyama – a drawing of Cubone, a famously cute Pokémon who traditionally wears the skull of its mother – except in this drawing, Cubone isn’t wearing it. “It’s not canon, since Pokémon never officially released a design of this variant,” Maarten tells me, but it gives fans a new and exciting look at such familiar characters. When Pokémon artists could still create their own picture books using the licensed characters, fan favourite moments were created in unexpected places.

What drives Pokémon fans to this day is the unlimited imagination of the giant franchise. It’s practically baked into every corner of life, from Snorlax bean bags and Magikarp taiyaki presses to even a Pokémon perfume. The yin to Pokémon’s yang is the fans – fans who have played it, grown up and even passed it down to their siblings or children – not to mention young fans who are jumping in for the first time right now. At such a milestone, with an IP that has spanned at least ten different consoles and over 1300 episodes of primetime anime, it only makes sense to look back with fondness at the humble, sometimes bizarre, and other times gorgeous, beginnings of one of the most treasured video game series’ of all time. For what it’s worth, I’m always going to love these weird little monsters.