Have you ever wondered what Pokémon might
look like as realistic creatures? By their very nature, Pokémon are highly
stylized, so reimagining them as more biologically feasible lifeforms presents an exciting challenge. This concept is the idea behind the Realistic
Pokémon project, a series by RJ Palmer, aka ‘Arvalis’ who is one of my favorite creature
designers, and is so talented he was hired to assist with the designs for movies like
Detective Pikachu. I have links to where you can follow and support
him in this video’s description. His art imagines what kind of biology a more
scientifically grounded version of a Pokémon might have — often with fascinating results. So, for this entry into the archive, you can
expect a Pokémon nature documentary of sorts, examining Palmer’s redesigned Pokémon as
if they were real animals. Before we get started, a quick disclaimer:
These realistic lifeforms are an awesome speculative exercise, but not an attempt to somehow ‘improve’
the stylized designs of the original games. They’re just meant to be interesting alternate
takes. Also, when Palmer calls these designs ‘realistic,’
he means they ground the appearance of Pokémon in real-world anatomy — but many are of
course still more fantastical than what you’d find in nature, and in some cases still possess
their elemental abilities… because it’s more exciting that way. He incorporates real science and biology when
he can, but the main goal of this project is just to have fun. With that said, let’s get started, and dive
into the incredible world of realistic Pokémon… We’ll begin our journey through the natural
world of Pokémon in the Kanto region, and examine realistic versions of the starter
lines. Opening with Venusaur and its pre-evolutions
— you can see how different Pokémon look when rendered with more realistic detail. Here, Palmer has molded the fantastical anatomy
of the Venusaur line off real animals like horned lizards and the extinct parareptile
genus Scutosaurus — an organism that wasn’t actually that far off in size from a Venusaur. Palmer also imagines the organisms have an
endosymbiotic relationship with a large type of flower — similar in size to real life
Rafflesia plants which can reach four feet, or 1.2 meters in length. Actual Rafflesia are also parasitic, meaning
they derive some of their nutritional requirements from other plants. We can imagine our Venusaurs have a similar
(albeit more mutually beneficial) arrangement with the plant that grows from their backs,
giving the flowers energy in exchange for added defense, and perhaps vice versa. Plant-animal symbiosis isn’t completely
unheard of in nature — like hummingbirds pollinating flowers, or moss growing on the
fur of sloths (although sloths don’t have much say in that one). This Venusaur line is definitely taking this
to a new level, but it’s more fun to imagine a lifeform with a giant symbiotic plant than
without one. Charizard and its pre-evolutions are up next,
and have been reimagined in fearsome detail. Palmer has added new complexities of scale
patterns, ridges, and layers of muscle to help ground these more fantastical creatures
in the natural world. For inspiration, Palmer has drawn from the
appearance of many different types of real-world reptiles — some of which look like they
could be from another world if you stare at them long enough. The claws on the forelimbs in particular remind
me of the anatomy of monitor lizards like the Komodo dragon, which in real life can
grow up to 10 ft, or 3 meters. And like most monitor lizards, this more biologically
feasible version of Charizard usually stays lower to the ground due to its weight, and
is rearing up in this image as an intimidation display. And the last starter we’ll be covering here
is Blastoise and its pre-evolutions. These turtle-like creatures now seem much
better adapted for life in an aquatic environment, with sea turtle biology forming the basis
for all three designs. Palmer imagines Squirtle might have long,
rudder like tails to steer through the water — and much like a baby sea turtle, are quite
a bit slower on land. In contrast, Wartortle — seen here having
a minor standoff with a quite realistic Krabby — spend much of their time resting on the
seafloor. Palmer has depicted Wartortle’s head-fins
as a unique kind of fan coral that grow from the creature’s head due to their sedentary
lifestyle. And the aquatic behemoth Blastoise is perhaps
the trickiest to get right. Cleverly, Palmer has reimagined its cannons
as biological water jets much like the ones some real-world squid species use for propulsion,
although Blastoise’s jets have evolved to be much more powerful. If you look closely, you can also see Staryu
and Shellder in this image —which creates an immersive sense of a rich underwater ecosystem. Moving past starters, interestingly, Palmer
reimagines Dragonite as a giant amphibian, taking inspiration from the Japanese Giant
Salamander — and basing Dragonite’s earlier forms Dratini and Dragonair off salamander
tadpoles. In nature, some salamander tadpoles do feature
frill-like structures on the sides of their head, which do look somewhat like Dratini’s
little side-crests. Strange though it might sound, in the real
world, these body parts are actually the salamander’s external gills. Since salamanders are one of the few real-world
animals where a serpentine-looking creature transforms into a reptilian-looking critter,
it’s a pretty clever fit for a more biologically feasible dragonite. And while real world Japanese Giant Salamanders
of course aren’t dragons, they might be the next closest thing. I could really see this sort of creature living
in swampy environments. Up next, we have various evolutions of the
unique Pokémon Eevee. In this more realistic world, Palmer imagines
these organisms are the result of a single species diversifying to adapt to different
environments. There are all sorts of small creative details
here that make this image great, like Vaporeon having more defined flipper-like feet — almost
like a seal or sea lion — Espeon resembling a hairless sphynx cat, and Leafeon having
a high density of moss in their fur, giving them the appearance of being green – sort
of like a sloth. In the category of Legendary Pokémon, Palmer
imagines Arcanine as a powerful predator, taking anatomical inspiration from canines,
of course, but also borrowing features from lions and tigers, which makes sense considering
Arcanine in the games has something of a lion’s mane and some tiger-like markings. Plus, if any real animals deserve the title
of ‘Legendary,’ lions and tigers are definitely among them, so it makes sense that a more
lifelike Arcanine would resemble them. Palmer also drew the pre-evolved form Growlithe,
which I think looks a bit like a lion cub. A small detail I like is it seems to be playing
with a turtwig, although the turtwig doesn’t seem too happy about it. For the Pokémon Nidoking, Palmer took inspiration
from various sources, adding the leathery armor and central horn of a rhino, and also
borrowing the claws and spines of a porcupine for the rest of the anatomy. The result is a truly unique looking creature. And near this Pokémon’s tail, Palmer snuck
in a realistic interpretation of a Pikachu, which not surprisingly looks quite rodent-like. In the realm of flying-types, Palmer has converted
Honchkrow into much more biologically-feasible looking creatures— an impressive feat, considering
how stylized Honchkrow are in the games. Their ‘beards’ have been reimagined as
parts of their body they can puff up to attract mates, similar to the displays of some birds
of paradise. Their hats have also been reimagined as unique-looking
bony plates — which are actually quite similar to the bony plates on the heads of real-life
cassowaries, plates that cassowaries can use as a deceptively powerful weapon. Another challenging Pokémon to make realistic
is Garchomp, who happens to be one of my personal favorites. This version is an imposing carnivore, imagined
as a fusion of a large theropod dinosaur and some kind of shark… just on land. In fact, I could imagine this strange predator
stalking the sands of an arid environment. Definitely one Pokémon which might be dangerous
to encounter in nature. Another dinosaur-like Pokémon, but with some
intriguing insect influences, is Scyther — depicted here looking quite different from its original
design. The creature’s forearms in this version
resemble those of a Mantis, although this reinterpretation also has some pretty clear
theropod influences as well. Its wings are depicted as a kind of back sail
— like a thinner version of the sails on the backs of dinosaurs like Spinosaurus. A pretty inventive reimagining. And rendered in this much realistic detail,
it once again really hits home how dangerous some Pokémon might be if they were real-world
wildlife. Perhaps the trickiest Pokémon on this list
to imagine as a living organism is Gengar and its pre-evolutions. Instead of ghosts, this evolutionary line
has been reimagined as bat-like organisms: which fits their spooky theme. Starting with Gastly, Palmer depicts this
bizarre pre-evolution as a poisonous bat with a specialized helium bladder that allows it
to float, almost like a living balloon. Strange? Sure, but you’ve got to get creative when
imagining a ghost type as a wild animal. Haunters have been realized with translucent
wings to give them that floating hand look, which is a creative way to ground the design
biologically. And finally, Gengar is a heavier, terrestrial
creature, which Palmer imagines as an active carnivore. Zoroark has also been given the carnivore
treatment, with its anatomy now much closer to canine predator, and the stylized elements
of the original design toned down. In the skull and teeth region, Palmer’s
Zoroark somewhat resembles a hyena. And moving down to the ground, also ready
for their closeup, is Diglet, conceptualized as a more conventional burrowing lifeform
akin to a star-nosed mole. Which is good, because star-nosed moles are
the best. Returning at last to Legendary Pokémon, this
awe-inspiring reimagining of Reshiram focuses on the avian qualities of the Legendary to
create a more taxonomically consistent design. An ancient and powerful being in the games,
this portrayal likewise takes inspiration from the anatomy of proto-birds and early
avian dinosaurs — just scaled up to epic proportions. One extra worldbuilding detail is that Palmer
imagines the silver bangles on its neck were offerings from early humans who worshiped
it like a deity. And as the finale of our journey through realistic
Pokémon designs, we have Groudon — looking straight out of an epic myth when rendered
in realistic detail. Huge and pulsing with some unknown bioluminescent
display, this gargantuan creature stretches the limits of size for wildlife — taking
anatomical cues from the largest of theropod dinosaurs. It’s the sort of behemoth that would seem
right at home stomping through a volcanic landscape. Of course, a creature of this size would have
an effect on its environment. Running from this titan’s thundering steps
is a Magmar, which in this interpretation resembles a shoe-billed stork — an animal
that proves nature can frankly be just as weird as Pokémon. The world of realistic Pokémon is vast and
has yet to be fully explored, but we’ve reached the end for this particular video. There are extra designs on RJ Palmer’s site
and in his artbooks, so check the links below if you’re interested. And I’ll be back next week with Part II,
which will feature Palmer’s more recent designs—where things get even wilder. Also, thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this entry, please lend your
support and like, subscribe, and hit the notification icon to stay up to date on all things Curious. See you in the next video.
