{"id":56449,"date":"2026-02-04T18:36:57","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56449"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T09:37:00","slug":"pokemons-ultra-beasts-were-based-on-past-pokemon-designs-rejected-by-game-freak-art-director-ken-sugimori-artist-reveals-thats-why-they-look-so-creepy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemons-ultra-beasts-were-based-on-past-pokemon-designs-rejected-by-game-freak-art-director-ken-sugimori-artist-reveals-thats-why-they-look-so-creepy\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s Ultra Beasts were based on past Pok\u00e9mon designs rejected by Game Freak art director Ken Sugimori, artist reveals. That\u2019s why they look so creepy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The 7th generation of Pok\u00e9mon made its debut in 2016, with the release of Pok\u00e9mon Sun and Moon, introducing a total of 88 new Pok\u00e9mon. Among them were the Ultra Beasts, a group of creatures who aren\u2019t originally from the \u201cPok\u00e9mon world,\u201d but rather, come from another dimension commonly known as Ultra Space \u2013 which pretty much makes them <em>alien<\/em>. With all this in mind, their designs were rather \u201catypical\u201d for the franchise, sometimes even becoming a subject of debate among fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Illustrator Yusuke Omura, who was a character designer at Game Freak and the lead Pok\u00e9mon designer since Sun and Moon, recently took to X to discuss some of the design choices behind the 7th generation\u2019s dimension-crossing Ultra Beasts. Apparently, the reason why Ultra Beasts may seem so unusual to some fans is because their designs drew inspiration from many Omura\u2019s past design proposals that were rejected by Ken Sugimori, the Pok\u00e9mon  series\u2019 primary character designer and art director. It seems Omura basically extracted everything about these designs that made them unfit for regular Pok\u00e9mon to create Ultra Beasts.<\/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\">\u30a6\u30eb\u30c8\u30e9\u30d3\u30fc\u30b9\u30c8\u306f\u3001\u50d5\u304c\u305d\u308c\u307e\u3067\u6749\u68ee\u3055\u3093\u306bNG\u3092\u51fa\u3055\u308c\u3066\u304d\u305f\u30c7\u30b6\u30a4\u30f3\u3092\u601d\u3044\u51fa\u3057\u3066\u3001\u305d\u306e\u7406\u7531\u3092\u9006\u306b\u5229\u7528\u3057\u306a\u304c\u3089\u30c7\u30a3\u30ec\u30af\u30b7\u30e7\u30f3\u3092\u3057\u305f<br>\u306a\u306e\u3067\u50d5\u306e\u6028\u5ff5\u306e\u96c6\u5408\u4f53\u307f\u305f\u3044\u306a\u5074\u9762\u3082\u3042\u308a\u307e\u3057\u3066\u3053\u308f\u3044\u3067\u3059\u306d<br>\u6749\u68ee\u3055\u3093\u3092\u618e\u3093\u3067\u3044\u308b\u3068\u3044\u3046\u3053\u3068\u3067\u306f\u5168\u7136\u306a\u3044\u3067\u3059<\/p>&mdash; \u5927\u6751\u7950\u4ecb (@yusuke_omura) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yusuke_omura\/status\/2018851331562500430?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-palette-color-5-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p>Post translation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I designed the Ultra Beasts by recalling some of the designs I made which were rejected by Mr. Sugimori, and I decided to deliberately use the very reasons for why they were rejected and base the artistic direction of the designs on them. So in some way, they\u2019re like a manifestation of my own resentment\u2013 pretty scary.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Of course, this doesn\u2019t mean that I hate Mr. Sugimori or anything like that.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Omura\u2019s post was likely prompted by a fan theory which has recently been gaining a lot of traction on the Japanese side of X. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ruruvi\/status\/2018614241524408698\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">user\u2019s interpretation<\/a>, the concept for Ultra Beasts was based on \u201ca combination of unrealistic motifs,\u201d \u201ca complete removal from anything Pok\u00e9mon-like\u201d and \u201cgetting filled with a sense of dread at first glance.\u201d So, looking at the Ultra Beasts and thinking that \u201cthey aren\u2019t actually Pok\u00e9mon\u201d is what the creators had intended all along. Omura later confirmed this theory on his X account.<\/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\">\u305d\u3046\u306a\u3093\u3067\u3059\u3088<br>\u4f1d\u308f\u3063\u3066\u826f\u304b\u3063\u305f<br><br>\u3068\u3053\u308d\u3067\u50d5\u306f\u30b7\u30f3\u30dc\u30e9\u30fc\u597d\u304d\u3067\u3059 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/141uqROlDq\">https:\/\/t.co\/141uqROlDq<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u5927\u6751\u7950\u4ecb (@yusuke_omura) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yusuke_omura\/status\/2018838936848896168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240201-26544\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240201-26544\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s genius insect design: Scolipede trends as Japanese users analyze everything it gets right\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-sleep-dev-denies-copying-fanart-for-in-game-designs\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-sleep-dev-denies-copying-fanart-for-in-game-designs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Pok\u00e9mon Sleep dev denies copying fanart for in-game designs\u00a0<br><\/strong><\/a><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240201-26544\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20240201-26544\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><br><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pok\u00e9mon Sun and Moon designer Yusuke Omura talks about the creative decisions behind Gen 7&#8217;s infamous Ultra Beasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":56453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-56449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s Ultra Beasts were based on past Pok\u00e9mon designs rejected by Game Freak art director Ken Sugimori, artist reveals. That\u2019s why they look so creepy - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pok\u00e9mon Sun and Moon designer Yusuke Omura talks about the creative decisions behind Gen 7&#039;s infamous Ultra Beasts.\" \/>\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\/pokemons-ultra-beasts-were-based-on-past-pokemon-designs-rejected-by-game-freak-art-director-ken-sugimori-artist-reveals-thats-why-they-look-so-creepy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pok\u00e9mon\u2019s Ultra Beasts were based on past Pok\u00e9mon designs rejected by Game Freak art director Ken Sugimori, artist reveals. 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