Ken Sugimori: The Pokemon Anime Influenced Pikachu’s Sleeker Look Over The Years

Wonder why Pikachu has been ‘losing weight’ in more recent years? Well, fans have recently dug up an interesting nugget of information that reveals the main reason why!

According to a recently-translated excerpt from Yomiuri Newspaper in 2018, Pokemon art director Ken Sugimori actually commented on the matter of Pikachu’s thinning design. In particular, he pointed to the Pokemon anime as a main factor for this change – since Pikachu needed to perform many human-like gestures:

“We were also influenced by the introduction of the [anime]. Since the animation had them doing a variety of movements, including human-like gestures, we changed the shape of Pikachu’s body to make acting easier. While Pikachu was originally very short and stout, we gradually gave it a more defined neck and elongated its spine.”

“The Pikachu appearing in the Pokemon series after the broadcast of the animated series was influenced by how it appeared in the show…Also, I had no idea they were going to make it cry ‘Pikachu.’ It’s like a cat crying out the word ‘cat.'”

It’s definitely quite the revelation, and really puts the anime’s importance into perspective!

In any case: which version of Pikachu do you prefer? Feel free to share your thoughts below.