It’s been revealed that Nintendo Of America was worried Pokémon was “too cute” for a US audience, so they tried to give Pikachu breasts.
The global Pokémon phenomenon started off with the Japanese launch of the Red & Green games in 1996. They proved to be so popular, an official trading card game and an anime followed before a global launch in 1998.
New episodes of the Pokémon anime are still broadcast around the world today, alongside new expansions of the TCG. Eight mainline sequels to the video game series have been released, including 2022’s Scarlet & Violet, while a number of spin-offs have also been shared.
However an old interview with The Pokémon Company’s CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara has recently been unearthed. Speaking about taking the gaming franchise to America in 2000, Ishihara said: “When I first showed Pokémon to them, they told me it was too cute. The staff at Nintendo Of America then suggested their own designs for the characters – I won’t show those illustrations to anyone as long as I live, but they kind of looked like the characters from the Cats musical.”
He went on to say that Pikachu was “changed into a character shaped like a kind of a tabby cat with huge breasts,” by staff at Nintendo Of America.
Nintendo of America nearly redesigned Pikachu with huge breasts to appeal to US fans, according to The Pokémon Company CEO, who called the early pitch “a tabby cat with huge breasts” pic.twitter.com/BtpuFucNnW
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) August 6, 2025
Over the years, there has been some debate about the translation of this quote, with “mune” meaning both breasts and pectoral muscles. Game*Spark (via Automaton) has now clarified the quote. According to them, Ishihara was then asked if the new design was “like those girls who do Pikachu cosplays at anime conventions?”
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“Yes, exactly,” he replied. “They presented that kind of design to us for real. I thought it was interesting, in a sense of appreciating such cultural differences. However, I didn’t want to compete in the [overseas] market with that kind of thing.”
A 2008 financial briefing revealed that The Pokémon Company were also shown an extremely muscular version of Pikachu during discussions about taking the franchise overseas, with Nintendo Of America claiming that “monsters should look stronger and scarier.”
Next year, Pokémon will celebrate its 30th anniversary. So far, a long-awaited collaboration with LEGO has been teased but fans are still waiting for news about how The Pokémon Company will celebrate the milestone. Earlier this year, Ishihara claimed the franchise can stay popular for the next 70 years, but only if they stay innovative. If we become complacent and go with the flow, that’s when it will go downhill.”
Last month, One Direction fans rediscovered the band’s 2011 advertising campaign to promote the launch of Pokémon Black & White.
In other news, the team behind the iconic Guitar Hero games are reuniting to make a new rhythm game.
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