It's not 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.
by BringMeTheHeadOfPCM