Pokémon artist says Ultra Beasts were based on previously scrapped Pokémon designs, fuelled by resentment

Pokémon illustrator Yusuke Ohmura has explained why the designs for the series’ Ultra Beasts were so unusual.

Ultra Beasts were introduced in Pokémon Sun and Moon, and come from a different dimension called the Ultra Space, which is why they look so strange.

Recently a fan theorised that the Ultra Beast designs were created with the aim of making them look as little like traditional Pokémon as possible, making use of “combinations of motifs that could never realistically exist”.

“So when people look at the Ultra Beasts and think ‘this isn’t a Pokémon at all!’ that reaction is actually the correct one. It’s exactly what they were going for,” they suggested (via machine translation).

Ohmura – who started as an illustrator for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, then became lead Pokémon designer for Sun and Moon before leaving Game Freak in 2016 to become a freelance illustrator – confirmed that this was the case, saying: “Yeah, that’s right, I’m glad you got it.”

Ohmura went on (as spotted by Automaton) to explain that the Ultra Beast designs were actually based on previous Pokémon designs that Ohmura had submitted but had been rejected by primary Pokémon character designer Ken Sugimori.

By taking these rejected designs and redesigning them into odder, more monstrous characters, Ohmura says their disturbing appearance is meant to symbolise the resentment of them being rejected in the first place.

“The Ultra Beasts were created by recalling all the designs I’d previously had rejected by Mr Sugimori, then deliberately using the reasons they were rejected as the direction for their new designs.

“In a way, then, they’re sort of the manifestation of my grudge / resentment, which is pretty scary, isn’t it? That said, this definitely doesn’t mean I hate Mr Sugimori at all.”

In another post, he added: “I don’t think Sugimori-san remembers, but at some point after all the Sun and Moon design work was finished, he suddenly smiled and said ‘there were some designs in there that I wouldn’t have chosen myself’. That’s when I realised it made sense to have someone else do it.”