A recently viral reddit post claimed that during Pokémon’s localization for overseas markets, Nintendo of America proposed a Pikachu design featuring “huge breasts.” Many users, however, suggested the story stemmed from a mistranslation, leading moderators to remove the post for being “not verifiable.” Despite this, Japanese media outlet Game*Spark investigated the claim and found that the “huge breasts” detail might actually be accurate.
Reddit users had speculated that the Japanese word mune (胸), meaning both “chest” and “breasts,” could have been mistranslated in context. Game*Spark traced the original statement to an old interview from the Gold and Silver era, where The Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara discussed localizing Pokémon for the US.
“When I first showed Pokémon to them, they said it was too cute,” Ishihara recalled. “The staff at Nintendo of America then suggested their own character designs – I’ll never show those illustrations, but they resembled characters from the Cats musical. For example, Pikachu was redesigned as a tabby cat with huge breasts.” While it remains unclear whether “mune” referred to prominent pecs or feminine breasts, the interviewer asked if the design was similar to “Pikachu cosplayers at anime conventions.” Ishihara confirmed, “Yes, exactly. They presented that kind of design for real. I found it interesting, in a way, to see such cultural differences, but I didn’t want to use that for the overseas market.”
Based on this exchange, Game*Spark suggests the “Pikachu with boobs” story wasn’t a misunderstanding, and Ishihara was shown a design akin to a “sexualized cosplay.” Conversely, during Nintendo’s 2008 financial briefing, late president Satoru Iwata mentioned being shown an extremely muscular Pikachu, explained as “Monsters should look stronger and scarier.” Game*Spark notes this contradicts Ishihara’s account, implying Nintendo of America may have proposed two designs—one muscular and another with large breasts—or a hybrid. It seems those illustrations were so unsettling to GameFreak and Nintendo staff that they’ll likely never surface publicly.