{"id":50563,"date":"2025-07-31T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=50563"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:45:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T09:45:02","slug":"nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo of America really did suggest giving Pikachu large feminine breasts at one point, Japanese media confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A recent viral reddit post<\/a> claimed that when Pok\u00e9mon was being localized for the overseas market, the staff at Nintendo of America proposed a design of a Pikachu with \u201chuge breasts.\u201d However, many users pointed out that the story was likely based on a mistranslation, and the post has since been removed by the moderators of the subreddit due to the information being \u201cnot verifiable.\u201d However, Japanese media outlet Game*Spark <\/a>went on to investigate whether the claim was actually true \u2013 and they suggest that the \u201chuge breasts\u201d bit may not be a mistranslation after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As many Reddit users claimed that there was a possibility of the Japanese word mune<\/em> (\u80f8), which can mean both \u201cchest\u201d and \u201cbreasts,\u201d being mistranslated given the context, Game*Spark searched for the original source of the statement. They found an old interview<\/a> from around the Gold and Silver era, in which The Pok\u00e9mon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara shared an interesting episode about the time they were trying to localize Pok\u00e9mon for the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I first showed Pok\u00e9mon to them, they told me it was too cute. The staff at Nintendo of America then suggested their own designs for the characters \u2013 I won\u2019t show those illustrations to anyone as long as I live, but they kind of looked like the characters from the Cats musical. So, for example, Pikachu was changed into a character shaped like a kind of a tabby cat with huge breasts.\u201d At this point, it\u2019s still not clear whether the Japanese \u201cmune\u201d simply refers to pronounced pecs or feminine breasts, but the continuation gives important context. The interviewer proceeds to ask whether the proposed design was \u201clike those girls who do Pikachu cosplays at anime conventions.\u201d Ishihara replied, \u201cYes, exactly, 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\u2019t want to compete in the [overseas] market with that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Based on the exchange, Game*Spark suggests that the \u201cPikachu could have had boobs\u201d story wasn\u2019t a misunderstanding, and that Ishihara was actually shown a Pikachu design reminiscent of a \u201csexualized cosplay.\u201d On the flip side, during Nintendo\u2019s financial results briefing<\/a> in 2008, late president Satoru Iwata stated that during the initial discussions regarding bringing Pok\u00e9mon to overseas audiences, they were shown an image of an extremely muscular Pikachu, with an explanation that \u201cMonsters should look stronger and scarier.\u201d Game*Spark notes that this statement contradicts what Ishihara said in his interview, suggesting that there were possibly two different designs presented by Nintendo or America, or perhaps that the design had both of the features mentioned \u2013 muscles and large feminine breasts. It seems, though, like those illustrations were quite traumatic for the staff at GameFreak and Nintendo, so it is very unlikely that we\u2019ll ever be getting to see them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japanese media outlet confirmed that the claim about “Pikachu with large breasts” was not just a mistranslation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":50569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,33,70],"class_list":["post-50563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-nintendo","tag-pokemon-series"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nNintendo of America really did suggest giving Pikachu large feminine breasts at one point, Japanese media confirms - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Japanese media outlet confirmed that the claim about "Pikachu with large breasts" was not just a mistranslation.\" \/>\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\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nintendo of America really did suggest giving Pikachu large feminine breasts at one point, Japanese media confirms - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Japanese media outlet confirmed that the claim about "Pikachu with large breasts" was not just a mistranslation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-30T15:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250730-50563-header1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1126\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"610\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\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=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nintendo of America really did suggest giving Pikachu large feminine breasts at one point, Japanese media confirms - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Japanese media outlet confirmed that the claim about \"Pikachu with large breasts\" was not just a mistranslation.","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\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nintendo of America really did suggest giving Pikachu large feminine breasts at one point, Japanese media confirms - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Japanese media outlet confirmed that the claim about \"Pikachu with large breasts\" was not just a mistranslation.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-07-30T15:01:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1126,"height":610,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250730-50563-header1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\u0110or\u0111e P","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u0110or\u0111e P","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/"},"author":{"name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696"},"headline":"Nintendo of America really did suggest giving Pikachu large feminine breasts at one point, Japanese media confirms","datePublished":"2025-07-30T15:01:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/"},"wordCount":505,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250730-50563-header1.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)","Nintendo","Pokemon Series"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/","name":"Nintendo of America really did suggest giving Pikachu large feminine breasts at one point, Japanese media confirms - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250730-50563-header1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-07-30T15:01:00+00:00","description":"Japanese media outlet confirmed that the claim about \"Pikachu with large breasts\" was not just a mistranslation.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250730-50563-header1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250730-50563-header1.jpg","width":1126,"height":610},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-of-america-really-did-suggest-giving-pikachu-large-feminine-breasts-at-one-point-japanese-media-confirms\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nintendo of America really did suggest giving Pikachu large feminine breasts at one point, Japanese media confirms"}]},{"@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\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696","name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","caption":"\u0110or\u0111e P"},"description":"Automaton West Editor","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/djordje-p\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50563","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\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50563"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50573,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50563\/revisions\/50573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}