Nintendo of America Proposed Pikachu With Enormous Breasts, 1999 Tokyo Interview Reveals

Nintendo of America once pitched a Pikachu with enormous feminine breasts, as revealed by a 1999 Tokyo interview with Pokémon CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara. Trending queries like “Did Nintendo suggest Pikachu with breasts?” and “Why was Pikachu’s US design changed?” get surreal answers: Ishihara described rejected designs resembling characters from the Cats musical, including a tabby-like Pikachu with huge breasts. “I won’t show those illustrations to anyone as long as I live,” Ishihara admitted, cementing the mythos.
Referencing Ishihara’s candid confession, the myth gains traction with a second twist: Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata later described a rival design—an extremely muscular Pikachu, intended to be scarier for US kids. Top search queries like “Was Pikachu almost muscular?” and “Pokémon localization design changes” now conjure images of a Pikachu hybrid: bodybuilder physique, cosplay-sized breasts, and the haunted eyes of a musical cat. “They kind of looked like the characters from the Cats musical,” Ishihara said, an image that lingers like a fever dream.
Somewhere in the Nintendo archives, a traumatized GameFreak staff still remembers the day Pikachu stood before them—half tabby, half muscleman, all breasts, never to be seen by mortal eyes again.