The original Pokémon Art can finally be seen in its full glory

for more than 20 years, Pokemon Fans have distributed poor quality images of original watercolor artwork of 251 monsters from the first two generations by popular series artist Ken Sugimori. These scans were often washed out, and although they had a retro feel, they were not accurate to the original art. Now, thanks to the efforts of online archivists, fans are finally getting a better look at Sugimori’s original pieces, and the difference is telling.

Archivist and YouTuber Lyoto Post a topic on Twitter About scans provided by the software developer Christopher “ExcaliburZero” Wells. These pieces are from Japan only Pokémon Gold and Pokédex Silver Strategy guides, while those that have been circulating online are from the official Pokemon Red And blue And gold And silver Evidence sold in the West in the late 1990s.

In contrast to the original pieces and photos in the Japanese manual, Western scans came out with distorted, distorted, and missing details in those books. Despite its quality, it was shipped abroad and became popular at home Pokemon Community. Looking at examples Lewtwo has already published, such as Diglett and TaurusIt’s obvious how much of the depth of color was lost in the original scans that appeared in Western materials.

Why are new scans of The Art of Ken Sugimori important?

Talking to KotakuLewtwo says it took so long for the original pieces to show up because the proliferation of scans of the original has distorted fans’ frame of reference for what those pieces are “supposed” to look like. This changed when the original Gen I and II games were ported to the Virtual Console, which included digital HQ uploads of artwork for some of the older Pokémon. Lewtwo refers to eg Evie and its development As one of the most accurate checks.

“You can see literally all of Sugimori’s imperfections with the tools he used, down to the way the watercolor seeps in and around the heart line, that we’re convinced this is as close as we can get to erasing the original piece,” Lyoto says.

when Pokemon Blue came out, developer Freak game made New artwork for each monster, but Lewtwo says the art most Western fans know This game had “incredibly high contrast” compared to the original red And green Games, which is why the characters are so impressive As previously It appears almost colorless, despite the Pokémon itself being a deep shade of pink. The distortion extends to the line work and overall shape of some Pokémon, which Lyoto says “effectively destroys any intended subtlety” in the watercolor pieces. But it was all the community had to work with for so long.

Scans of this artwork were remarkably poor, and every source we found seemed to have it Significantly stretched or distorted artwhich originated from the sources themselves, not even from poor scan quality,” Lyoto says.

Even though it took this long, Lewtwo says Pokémon Gold and Pokédex Silver The book is not particularly rare or expensive. He’s even considered buying it himself for $20 online from a Japanese seller, which he says would be a “robbery” at that price to get access to the original art.

How low quality Pokemon X-rays spread for a long time?

What’s curious about the whole situation is how poor quality scans have become an integral part of the Pokemon Community. It’s likely because they have appeared in several official articles, Lewtwo says Pokemon Media and merchandise in the West, all from his how-to books.

“Aside from having the artwork literally distorted by stretching it (over color changes), there has clearly been little care taken in preserving the original look, so much so that the Super Game Boy screenshots in the manual also use inaccurate colors,’ says Lewtwo. As if it were changing flat across the board.”

Now, it’s Lewtwo Scan all 251 Pokemon Since it was originally intended to be viewed and uploaded to its own archive of assets, in addition to working with sites such as Pokemon Bulbapedia wiki to restore the original pieces. It is estimated that this process will take months. However, some fans have taken issue with this, claiming that the original scans would become “lost media” if sources such as Bulbapedia turned to these new scans.

Lewtwo responded to this in a Lengthy tweet, pointing out that resources like Bulbapedia actually let you look at past iterations of the assets in the file, so they’re not just erased from the history. Some have also been quick to dispute that these were more accurate scans, but Lewtwo says he has compared these scans to official art such as Game Freak’s own assets and artwork seen in the trading card game to ensure their quality.

“We understand the backlash—that people have an affinity for the way artwork has always looked at them, but our priority has always been to preserve how that art is supposed to look as possible,” says Liotto. We never grew up with these guides so I can’t really relate to them, but inaccurate versions will always be found in the Bulbapedia file archives for those who want them there. Still, while we understand why this seems odd and why there are certainly explanations up for debate, It’s incredibly frustrating to read “go f*** yourself” tweet threads complete with some rude and heated responses. We’ve already devoted months to saving without expecting anything in return, but some of the responses have gone too far, and are usually really misleading. We’re all trying to do our best, and appreciate all the kind, patient comments so far. It means for us to see people excitedly asking what their favorite classic Pokémon were supposed to look like with that level of care and attention.”

Despite the opposition, Lyotto says much of the community has been supportive, and it has given him the drive to ensure the best versions of these pieces are preserved for use by Pokemon Community.

“This could take a few months – especially if I’m the only one working on it – but we’ve already got some excitement about this particular project coming out on Discord, where we’re getting together to discover a lot of cool stuff and help each other keep the content as best as possible” .