Game Freak and Nintendo's
Pokémon series has been around for a very long time as the first game in the series came out over 20 years ago. Ever since, the
Pokémon series has gone from featuring 150 pokémon in the first game to a staggering 800 in latest entries, which makes us wonder how they even keep coming up with ideas for these
pocket monsters.
The interesting thing is that one of these pokémon was actually based on a real person, according to
Pokémon art director Ken Sugimori—who told Japanese newspaper
Yomiuri that Snorlax was based on a Game Freak employee.
As reported by
IGN, Sugimori mentioned that Generation I pokémon Snorlax was inspired by veteran Pokémon game designer Kōji Nishino and said that "
...he[Nishino], with this [huge] appearance, was the model for the Snorlax Pokémon. Though, he’s abnormally fussy about cute things”.
What's funny is that the Pokémon Company have not been shy about this, even hinting at Nishino's resemblance with Snorlax in
Pokémon Black and
White, and
Pokémon Black and
White 2, as pointed out by
Comicbook.com who referred to a tweet by
Twitter user WAFFLOES where Nishino's in-game sprit is seen acknowledging that he's Snorlax only to immediately take it back and sy he's the Planner.
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