Categories: PokemonRetro

Game Freak Reveals Behind-The-Scenes Details On The Origin Of Celebi

Game Freak has released a new video on their official Youtube Channel, this time discussing the origins and mysteries behind the mythical Pokemon Celebi.

This new video follows the feature on Mew Game Freak posted a few weeks ago, and covers how Celebi was designed as well as its mysterious relationship to the Ilex Forest Shrine in the original Pokemon Gold & Silver.

Check out the video below, with translated tidbits from Siliconera:

Celebi’s Origins

Celebi was designed by Hironobu Yoshida (the man sitting in the middle), although he’s starting to forget the details.

While Mew wasn’t originally planned for Pokemon Red and Green, and was added in by Morimoto because he thought it would be cool, Celebi was planned as a Mythical Pokemon from the planning stages of Pokemon Gold and Silver.

What is the common element between Celebi, Wobbuffet, and Dunsparce? (As shown in the header image?) They were all designed by Yoshida, because their designs still weren’t decided at the time. He asked why Celebi was at the bottom of the list, and the other staff answered that it was a Mythical Pokemon, just like Mew. So Yoshida thought of a design that was cute and fairy-like like Mew, and thus Celebi got its design.

The Ilex Forest Shrine

Rumors spread in Japan (and worldwide) that the Ilex Forest shrine was the key to gaining Celebi, which Game Freak had no hand in spreading. The leading rumor in Japan was that you needed to bring both the Rainbow Wing and Silver Wing to the shrine, which would make Celebi appear. This confused Morimoto and the Game Freak staff at the time, as they didn’t recall adding this in. They have no idea where it came from.

That said, Game Freak remembered the rumor for Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, and that’s why they decided to add in a Celebi event at the Ilex shrine.

So if Celebi wasn’t planned for the shrine, what was it there for? According to Unno, nobody remembers what the shrine is for among the original staff. That’s the true mystery behind Celebi.

Yoshida’s theory is that, as back then they would use additional sprite parts to give texture to rooftops, staircases, rocks, and more, they might have added in the shrine with these additional sprites just to spruce up the area. Basically, it was probably just part of the background.