{"id":18141,"date":"2023-03-13T16:56:47","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T07:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=18141"},"modified":"2023-03-13T16:56:49","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T07:56:49","slug":"20230313-18141","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani may secretly be Pokemon\u2019s Garchomp according to fan comparisons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br><br>The similarities between the Pok\u00e9mon <strong>Garchomp<\/strong> and professional baseball player <strong>Shohei Ohtani<\/strong> have stirred up excitement among Twitter users in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shohei Ohtani is a baseball player hailing from Japan\u2019s Iwate Prefecture. After graduating from Hanamaki Higashi High School, he was drafted by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He is one of the sport\u2019s few true two-way players, skilled as both a pitcher and a batter. The Fighters posted Ohtani to the MLB beginning with the 2018 season, where he signed with the Los Angeles Angels, his current team. He has continued to star as a two-way player in the major leagues, earning a slew of accolades, including the MLB\u2019s American League MVP award in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Garchomp is a Pok\u00e9mon that first appeared in Pok\u00e9mon Diamond and Pearl. It boasts an impressive base stat total of 600 and is well balanced in Attack, Defense, and Speed. The Pok\u00e9mon has long been a mainstay of the competitive scene, serving as a heavy hitter on offense.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Garchomp Character Spotlight | Pok\u00e9mon UNITE\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i5P53HceJ-8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>At first glance, you would be forgiven for thinking that a fictional Pok\u00e9mon creature has nothing in common with a real-life baseball player. However, a number of users have pointed out some surprising similarities. First is a tweet by @GaBkIssAngel, who notes that Ohtani and Garchomp have almost the same height and weight.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u5927\u8c37\u7fd4\u5e73\u8eab\u9577\u4f53\u91cd\u30ac\u30d6\u30ea\u30a2\u30b9\u3067\u8349 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7DwhtAUwHc\">pic.twitter.com\/7DwhtAUwHc<\/a><\/p>&mdash; kAz (@An_HeartFull) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/An_HeartFull\/status\/1634533320611745798?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 11, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><font size=\"2\"><strong>Tweet Translation:<br><\/strong>Shohei Ohtani has the same height and weight as Garchomp. lol<\/font><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>The two certainly are similar with Garchomp coming in at 190 cm and 95 kg, while Ohtani is 6&#8242; 4&#8243; (193 cm) and weighs 210 lbs (around 95kg) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/player\/shohei-ohtani-660271\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MLB<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Garchomp\u2019s base Attack stat is a high 130, while its base Special Attack is a decent 80. In some Pok\u00e9mon media, there have been Garchomps that excelled in both styles, making it the equivalent of a two-way player in a sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two also share similarities in their place of origin. As mentioned previously, Garchomp first debuted in Pok\u00e9mon Diamond and Pearl. The games are set in the Sinnoh region, the geography of which is based on Hokkaido. Ohtani is from Iwate Prefecture, which is near Hokkaido, and also played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Users also had fun pointing out various other similarities, like how both are very fast despite their height. The discussion grew large enough that Garchomp started trending on Twitter in Japan.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u5927\u8c37\u7fd4\u5e73\u3068\u30ac\u30d6\u30ea\u30a2\u30b9\u306e\u8eab\u9577\u3068\u4f53\u91cd\u304c\u540c\u3058\u3068\u8a00\u3046\u8a71\u3092\u53d7\u3051\u3001\u304a\u4e92\u3044\u306e\u5171\u901a\u70b9\u3092\u6319\u3052\u3066\u307f\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<br>\u5927\u8c37\u306f\u304a\u305d\u3089\u304f\u30ac\u30d6\u30ea\u30a2\u30b9\u3067\u3059\u3002 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QjkMHL1YQZ\">pic.twitter.com\/QjkMHL1YQZ<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u304a\u3055\u304b\u306a (@poko_sv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/poko_sv\/status\/1634782550085468161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 12, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><font size=\"2\"><strong>Tweet Translation:<br><\/strong>I heard about how Shohei Ohtani and Garchomp have the same height and weight, so I tried putting together a list of their common points.<br>It\u2019s quite possible that Ohtani is a Garchomp.<\/font><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>We spoke to @GaBkIssAngel, who pointed out the size similarities, and learned that the Twitter user is a huge Garchomp fan. They use Garchomp in a variety of Pok\u00e9mon games and buy all kinds of Garchomp merchandise. It may have been this love of Garchomp that led to the discovery of its similarities to Ohtani. @GaBkIssAngel also said that this has led them to become a fan of Ohtani, too. It should be noted that @GaBkIssAngel was not actually the first person to make a comparison between the beloved Pok\u00e9mon and baseball star. A different user <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GaBkIssAngel\/status\/1634867779072581638\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">posted<\/a> about their size similarities almost five years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The excitement surrounding the comparison has likely seen a boost thanks to the currently ongoing World Baseball Classic (WBC) and the increasing level of attention that Ohtani is receiving in Japan. Ohtani is putting his two-way skills on display as he represents his home country in the tournament, and this has led to situation where any kind of story about him quickly blows up. Incidentally, another player similar to Garchomp in terms of height and weight is St. Louis Cardinals outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/player\/lars-nootbaar-663457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lars Nootbaar<\/a>, who is also representing Japan in the WBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an aside, in previous interviews, Ohtani has stated that gaming is one of his hobbies, but he hasn\u2019t made any mention of the Pok\u00e9mon series. At this point, there are surely many who really want to know what Ohtani\u2019s favorite Pok\u00e9mon is.<br><br><br><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:12px\"><em>Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/newsjp\/20230313-240456\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original Japanese article<\/a> (original article&#8217;s publication date: 2023-03-13 12:30 JST)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The similarities between the Pok\u00e9mon Garchomp and baseball player Shohei Ohtani have stirred up excitement among Twitter users in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[70],"class_list":["post-18141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-pokemon-series"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shohei Ohtani may secretly be Pokemon\u2019s Garchomp according to fan comparisons - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The similarities between the Pok\u00e9mon Garchomp and baseball player Shohei Ohtani have stirred up excitement among Twitter users in Japan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shohei Ohtani may secretly be Pokemon\u2019s Garchomp according to fan comparisons - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The similarities between the Pok\u00e9mon Garchomp and baseball player Shohei Ohtani have stirred up excitement among Twitter users in Japan.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-13T07:56:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-13T07:56:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230313-240456-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1299\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ayuo Kawase\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ayuo Kawase\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shohei Ohtani may secretly be Pokemon\u2019s Garchomp according to fan comparisons - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"The similarities between the Pok\u00e9mon Garchomp and baseball player Shohei Ohtani have stirred up excitement among Twitter users in Japan.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shohei Ohtani may secretly be Pokemon\u2019s Garchomp according to fan comparisons - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"The similarities between the Pok\u00e9mon Garchomp and baseball player Shohei Ohtani have stirred up excitement among Twitter users in Japan.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2023-03-13T07:56:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-13T07:56:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1299,"height":675,"url":"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230313-240456-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ayuo Kawase","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ayuo Kawase","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/"},"author":{"name":"Ayuo Kawase","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/c4956fe8b9817b63cdaf4708ad59bc8e"},"headline":"Shohei Ohtani may secretly be Pokemon\u2019s Garchomp according to fan comparisons","datePublished":"2023-03-13T07:56:47+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-13T07:56:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/"},"wordCount":715,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230313-240456-header.jpg","keywords":["Pokemon Series"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/","name":"Shohei Ohtani may secretly be Pokemon\u2019s Garchomp according to fan comparisons - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230313-240456-header.jpg","datePublished":"2023-03-13T07:56:47+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-13T07:56:49+00:00","description":"The similarities between the Pok\u00e9mon Garchomp and baseball player Shohei Ohtani have stirred up excitement among Twitter users in Japan.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230313-240456-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/20230313-240456-header.jpg","width":1299,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230313-18141\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Shohei Ohtani may secretly be Pokemon\u2019s Garchomp according to fan comparisons"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/c4956fe8b9817b63cdaf4708ad59bc8e","name":"Ayuo Kawase","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/minoru-umise-250-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/minoru-umise-250-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/minoru-umise-250-100x100.jpg","caption":"Ayuo Kawase"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief of AUTOMATON Japan","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/ayuo-kawase\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18141"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18146,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18141\/revisions\/18146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}