Pokémon Creator Satoshi Tajiri Manga Reveals Four Unused Designs

A manga about Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri recently debuted in Japan, and it reveals there were more Gen 1 Pokémon designed for Red Version and Green Version.

James Turner, who designed Buzzwole, the Poipole and Vanilite lines (among others) and the first westerner to design Pokémon for Game Freak, posted an image of the manga that showed sprites from Pokémon Red and Green Versions released in 1996. There are four sprites in the image that never made it into the games.

Check out Turner's tweet with the Pokémon image below.

PokeBeach translated the image to come up with the names of the four unused Pokémon designs and they are:

• #56 Diaa ("Deer")
• #62 Kurokki ("Crocky," as in crocodile)
• #67 Kakutasu ("Cactus")
• #68 Jaggu (As in "jag," like the jagged spear protruding from its shark head)

The designs of the four unused sprites look similar to Pokémon that would be included in the franchise down the line. The deer Pokémon looks a lot like Stantler, the Normal-type from the Johto Region. Kurokki has some similarities to Krookodile from the Unova Region, and even Jaggu resembles to Sharpedo from the Hoenn Region.

Game Freak would eventually bring Cactus Pokémon to the games in the form of the Cacnea line in Gen 3 and Maractus in Gen 5, so some of Kakutasu's design could have been used for them. The new manga also mentions a Pokémon named Boo in the text on the side of the image, but it's unclear whether this is an unused design or the early name for Haunter or Gengar.

What do you think of the four unused Pokémon from Red and Green? Let us know which one you wish was an actual Pokémon in the comments section below.