Pokémon Gold and Silver introduced 100 new Pokémon upon their release in 1999. However, this was dangerously close to being only 99 new Pokémon. Lugia, the legendary guardian of the sea and a fan favorite, nearly never existed. Here’s the wild story behind Lugia’s inception:

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Link to @DrLavaYT post/translation of Takeshi Shudo’s blog!.

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And there you have it! The *true* story of Lugia!. Huge S/O to @Lewchube for writing a random post about the limited in game lore of Lugia over a year ago. It inspired me to go on this super deep dive and write about it here after all this time ☺️.

Seriously though, there’s like NOTHING about Lugia. Lugia’s name is never even mentioned in Gold/Silver. Lugia’s addition felt rushed. There are some vague references to the Whirl Islands. But other than that, any/all lore for Lugia comes from the movie!.

Lugia was born due to the perfect ‘storm’ of events. Lugia is a “motherly protector” meant to symbolize coexistence between all things. Lugia was meant to tell a story. This is why Lugia is one of the most unique Pokémon (with or without tons of in-game lore)!.

It wasn’t until June, 1999 (after film development and production was complete) that internal files show sprite data for Lugia. The demo sprite (left) has only 6 dorsal fins instead of 10!. So, what does this mean for Lugia?

For further proof that Lugia nearly didn’t exist:. Leaks from early game data of the 1997 demo version of Pokémon Gold/Silver have no mention or depiction of Lugia at all. Below you can see the 1997 demo screens from both Pokémon Gold/Silver. Both of them feature Ho-Oh.

Shudo also reflected on how he had more freedom to express heavier, more ‘grown-up’ topics in his films. He credited his ability to do so largely because of the “Pokémon Shock”. If you’re unaware, an early episode of Pokémon that featured Porygon unfortunately caused hundreds of

Shudo was a writer, and Lugia was a character that was developed as part of the narrative for the film. In his blog post he wrote, “Since Lugia was a Pokémon I created solely for the new movie, I was surprised it ended up getting used later in the games and TV show.”

In a blog post Shudo wrote in Dec. 2009, he reflected on his time as the lead writer for the Pokémon anime. (S/O to @DrLavaYT for his work translating this. I’ll link the full article below). Shudo reveals A LOT in this blog post. I’ll focus on the pieces relevant to Lugia.

Think back to Lugia’s counterpart – Ho-Oh. Ho-Oh is literally one of the first Pokémon encountered in the anime (gen 2 was already in development after Red/Green and Ho-Oh had already been designated to be the face of gen 2.). Additionally, if we think back to the 1997 Nintendo

The second film is the first, and most unique, instance where a Pokémon was developed for the anime, and later added to the games. Lugia was never designed to be part of the games, let alone be the face of generation 2. Lugia was designed solely for the movie!. Let me explain.

The Pokémon anime first aired in April 1997 and was written by Takeshi Shudo. Shudo wrote the first 5 seasons and the first 3 movies for Pokémon; including the second movie: “Pokémon: Lugia’s Explosive Birth.”. In English it’s known as “Pokémon 2000” or “The Power of One”.

Okay, so what does any of this have to do with Lugia? Well, during those 3.5 years, the Pokémon anime began. While the anime has often been supplemental to the vision of the games, in the case of Lugia, it’s not. Lugia was specifically designed for the anime, not the games!

In an interview series known as “Iwata Asks”, former president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, asked both Tsunekazu Ishihara (president/CEO of Pokémon) and Shigeki Morimoto (game designer for Game Freak) about the delay. The two of them had this to say: “At that time we had very few

Pokémon was originally released in Japan in 1996 with Red and Green. At Nintendo’s Space World event in 1997, Pokemon Silver/Gold were announced for the very first time. The games were touted as 80% complete. However, it still took 2+ years for the games to release. Here’s why.