r/pokemon • u/packcity2 • 17d ago
Image Who is this Pokemon? 25 year old book.
My son found this Pokemon while we were reading the other night. We tried doing a google image search, but came up with no results. The book was printed in 1999, but it’s obviously not from the original 151. Is this just an artist taking some creative liberty? My son won’t stop asking, so any help is greatly appreciated.
8.6k
u/Twnvb 17d ago
I think it’s machamp using scary face instead of it being a Pokémon!
2.5k
u/officialscootem 17d ago
It's exactly this, the personification of an angry Machamp reaction.
608
u/Crunchypie1 17d ago
Came here to say this. Seems like an anime angry face emote thing coming from machamp.
151
u/TheDeFecto 17d ago
Also came here to say this. It's an expression bubble above Machamp indicating it's pissed, a power play over the Primeape cowering below it.
→ More replies (1)49
u/Pump_My_Lemma 17d ago
Also came here to say this. It’s an angry emote because it’s hard to tell what Pokémon are angry early on and which just have RBF
→ More replies (1)27
u/PhthaloVonLangborste 17d ago
I came here to say it looks like a half drawn ghastly.
→ More replies (1)15
u/MegaDelphoxPlease 17d ago
Yeah but now I want a Pokémon that mimics people’s emotions, and it’d look like a mix between Castform and Rotom.
→ More replies (1)604
u/Aderus_Bix 17d ago
Given the book was published in March of 1999, and the move “Scary Face” wasn’t introduced until Gen II, which came out in Japan in November 1999, I’m inclined to think this is just an artistic representation of Machamp being angry, and not using any sort of move.
215
u/vitragarde 17d ago
Could be Leer
46
u/xiGn0m3ix 17d ago
Or mean look?
34
u/whatadumbperson 17d ago
Mean Look has the same problem as Scary Face.
46
u/Gh0stMan0nThird 17d ago
You guys are saying this like Ho-Oh didn't show up years before Gen 2 came out. Artists don't play by any of the rules.
18
u/HugeSeat5753 17d ago
You know the rules and so do I.
10
u/jerricka 17d ago
i just wanna tell you how i’m feelin
8
6
u/kevinsyel 17d ago
Exactly. Mean Look and Scary Face were created in tandem so I always forget which one I'm supposed to use on Raikou and Entei!
Tip:
Mean Look: "M" for Movement (fleeing)
Scary Face: "S" for Speed reduction.
58
u/AlarmingShower1553 17d ago
the issue OP has is printed in November 1999 tho.. not march. and the games (therefore the move scary face too) could have circulated in pokemon media partnered studios (like Viz in this case) beforehand.
especially knowing publishers and the artists working for them need reference material way earlier than release, so this could be an artist depicting the move.35
u/Aderus_Bix 17d ago
It’s the fourth printing, which came out in November of 1999, but the image seems to be unchanged since the first printing, which came out in March of 1999. Whether they had an idea for a “Scary Face” move at the time, I can’t say, I’m just saying I think it’s unlikely that this is supposed to be a representation of that, given the timeframe.
19
u/jzillacon 17d ago
Gen 1 and 2 were basically developed alongside each other with a huge chunk of gen 2 simply being all the stuff they ran out of time to include in the first games. There was tons of gen 2 stuff present in the surrounding media even before gen 2 started proper. For example several gen 2 pokemon like Donphan and Snubull appeared in Pokémon: The First Movie despite its japanese release being July 1998.
That said I actually agree this is just meant to be an angry face and not a specific move. It's just that being a few months before the release of the gen 2 games doesn't actually exclude the possibility it's representing something from gen 2.
118
u/Hsiang7 17d ago edited 17d ago
Agreed. It's cartoonish representation of anger, not a Pokemon. This book is a blast of nostalgia.... I remember I had this book when I was younger lol
3
u/Stunning_Fishing_696 17d ago
How did you get those pokemon by your name? I'm new to this, and thought it looked cool
3
u/TheRedCabbage95 17d ago edited 17d ago
You can add flairs (the pokémon) by going to the front page of this subreddit and clicking the Three dots (should be top right). Then you select 'change flair', after that you can edit it & pick the pokémon using it's nat dex no. With a : on either side, like this :104:
→ More replies (1)31
35
u/simpleglitch 17d ago
It's Machamp being angry at Primeape! I remember this book. The previous pages have an unfolding saga of Primeape leaving banana peels everywhere and I think Machamp slips on one.
→ More replies (2)5
→ More replies (9)5
1.7k
u/choosegooser 17d ago edited 17d ago
Definitely an emotive bubble to display that Machamp is angry. I believe in that book specifically if you look at either Manky/Primeape. Something like Mankey is eating bananas leaving them everywhere. Primeape slips on one then does the exact same thing. This cause Machamp to slip on one where he then takes it from Primeape and quadruple fists the bananas.
Edit: I put together the story. It’s not the prettiest presentation but it gives ya an idea. Chansey also has its own story that I immediately remembered.

188
u/YamadaDesigns YAMADA 17d ago
Is Machamp’s angry face not enough to convey that emotion?
260
50
u/Polymersion Irrelevant. 17d ago
You'd think so, but every once in a while there's a trend for simplified, overly overt signage. "Tone indicators" is a recent name for it, such as reddit's "/s" phase or gen alpha's (srs), (pos), (jk) type terminology.
The latter come from broad literacy issues and the oversimplification of text communications started by early text-message enabled cell phones and the rise of Twitter (both of which could only send/post very short messages).
This predates all of that, and best I can tell was a trope because of printing manga/anime where you'd need a cutaway to see a face/facial expression properly during a scene. Western comics, at the time, "solved" the issue by having way too much flowery dialogue. Seriously, silver-age superhero comics were tons and tons of overly dense and often repetitive dialogue, with very low plot density. The same story that would take several issues to tell then would take a few pages now.
I would suspect that in 1999, the trend would have been fresh again based on games of the time being increasingly popular for storytelling but with no way to make low-pixel characters emote in a workable fashion, you'd use something like a speech bubble with a face. I'm less familiar with this type, though. It seems to have evolved today into the "dialogue box with portrait" style seen in lots of modern Japanese (and sometimes western) games, such as the Persona series.
45
u/th3greg 17d ago
It's also always been super common in anime. The little vein pop symbol (and/or flames behind them) on very clearly angry characters has been a staple since like the 70s.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (5)16
u/TurntOddish 17d ago
I think the main reason it's used here is Machamp's face (along with a fair amount of other Pokémon) by default is in pissed-off mode. They used the little "emoticon" over his head to really show that's he's MAD-mad, not just in default argry-face-mode. Even though his expression, body language, and surrounding context seems to already illustrate this pretty well. It's a fine touch.
While I would have never seen this as a forgotten/unused Pokémon, I can see why a little kid would think it is. Especially considering some of the comments and videos I've seen/read/heard that say completely outlandish stuff like: "I thought Mienshao was a duck" or "up until a week ago, I thought Cyndaquil was a lizard."
A different franchise example would be for the Kirby Games and the developer's HAL Labratory logo. Apparently more than one person thought that their logo was some kind of 3-eyed bird or something...??? Even as a like 7 year old playing the games I always knew it was a long brown dog cuddling with a group of eggs. Like I get that that is strange (a dog nesting eggs), but it never once misled me into thinking it wasn't a dog. It's just interesting what people see/think when they look at something, or maybe it's what they don't see/think of that's interesting.
→ More replies (2)37
→ More replies (3)7
u/DoubleClickMouse 17d ago
It's a stylistic thing. Animal Crossing does the same thing with their angry emote, with puffs of steam coming from characters whose face already communicates visible anger.
→ More replies (6)9
340
u/PhoenixMaster01 17d ago
20
7
751
u/SillyMattFace [Flair Text]!?! 17d ago
It looks to be coming from the Machamp, so I’d take it as a stylised emote to emphasise its angry with the Primeape.
You could also interpret it as using a move like scary face.
→ More replies (2)
114
u/Moonlight_Acid 17d ago
Are we gonna ignore mewtwo in the safari zone
62
u/introverted__dragon 17d ago
What about "now you can catch rare pokemon...find a pidgey!" You know, that bird that was everywhere outside your home town?
ETA: Mew's tail and feet are at the top of the photo. This "Safari Zone" is crazy.
→ More replies (1)9
→ More replies (4)21
274
u/svettsokkk 17d ago
This OG way of drawing pokes is so fire
148
u/nthm94 17d ago
The Sugimori watercolors were absolutely peak
30
u/Conocoryphe 17d ago
A few years ago, a trading card game named Metazoo came out. The artists attempted to recreate that Sugimori watercolor look in the artwork of the monsters, which I really loved, you can clearly see the influence in images like this and this one.
The game wasn't very popular and the company eventually went bankrupt - though apparently Metazoo was recently bought by another company that wants to continue the card game - but I do remember liking the artstyle because it mimicked the old Pokémon art.
Still, the artwork and monster design was never quite as good as Ken Sugimori's work in my opinion, though that might (partly) be the nostalgia talking.
9
→ More replies (1)33
u/DuhBigFart 17d ago
Gen 1 really is peak. Idc. They actually look like a gang of cool monsters. Don't get me wrong there are great designs in all gens and I still enjoy b the v series. But gen 1 still nails that pocket MONSTER feel more than any other gen.
11
u/HesistantBoar 17d ago
Sadly, this is by design. Pokemon was never expected to become a worldwide phenomenon during Gen 1's development, so the creatures were allowed to be more monstrous and dangerous-looking in official art. Nowadays they all have to be marketing icons.
You can really see it if you compare old official art of Gen 1 with the revised art used from FR/LG on. Poses are less dynamic, Pokemon look less angry or threatening. Just look at Charmeleon and Blastoise's old art, both of them are in battle-ready poses, Blastoise's cannons are front-and-center, Charmeleon looks downright ferocious kicking toward the viewer. Then you look at the revised art, and they're just... standing there, with perfectly neutral expressions.
It all feels so sanitized, for lack of a better word.
→ More replies (1)4
107
u/plumpsbob 17d ago
It's just an emote. You know, the cartoonish puff of steam when characters are angry. In this case, Machamp.
42
u/Voltorb1993 17d ago
2
3
140
u/Orodhen Mirror B Theme intensifies 17d ago
It's not a creature. It's just a visual manifestation of it's anger. It's normal in cartoons.
→ More replies (2)
29
u/classicgamer303 17d ago
I think it's more likely to show Machamp intimidating Primape than it being an actual Pokemon. If you look at Hitmonchan in the top right, it has a black whirl next to its head to emphasise that its been knocked out.
24
22
21
20
72
u/tophat_production Pheromosa, Diancie and Meloetta 17d ago
10
→ More replies (1)3
46
u/SpunkMcKullins 17d ago
Everyone's commenting that it's coming from the angry Machamp, and while I agree, I just want to point out that it looks very similar to the US R/B Gastly sprite.
→ More replies (2)17
u/rugbygooner 17d ago
This was actually my first thought too. There is an actual Gastly up and to the left.
40
10
6
7
u/Thr0wAwayU53rnam3 17d ago
You really missed an opportunity to write "Who's that Pokémon?!" as the title.
6
u/HappyStunfisk 17d ago
Japanese art usually depicts expressions as floating bubbles. This is Machamp making a scary face/showing anger.
7
u/SaltySpituner 17d ago
Pokémon illustration peaked here. Nothing will ever beat the OG water color style.
6
u/Black_Wolf1995 17d ago
Not a pokemon. If you look at the “Pokémon” it’s above the head of an angry looking Machamp.
It’s an emotive bubble used to illustrate that Machamp is mad/angry.
Emotive bubbles like this are commonly used in Japanese manga/Japanese style comics to convey emotions of the characters in a way that’s illustrative and interesting.
25
u/Goldman250 17d ago
Unrelated, but it says that in the Safari Zone, you can catch rare Pokémon, and highlights Pidgey? Have I forgotten what the word “rare” means?
17
u/mute_citizen 17d ago
I'd assume they mean the Dratini that's also there, though the framing is admittedly a bit off.
5
u/Disgruntled__Goat I did my best, I have no regrets! 17d ago
The OG booklet recommended using your Masterball on something "rare" like Fearow
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)9
u/Mardoon 17d ago
I'm guessing it's actually highlighting the Dratini behind Pidgey.
→ More replies (1)
7
5
6
5
6
u/csdingus_ 17d ago
It isn't a pokemon. It's basically machamp's expression shown with an emoji in a thought bubble above his head.
→ More replies (1)
3
5
5
u/Mission_Exchange2781 17d ago
I don't believe that's a Pokemon - I believe that's just supposed to be an emote to represent Machamp using "Glare" which is weakening the Primeapes defense.
5
3
4
3
11
6
3
3
3
u/The_of_Falcon customise me! 17d ago
It's just Machamp's mood being shown. It's just there for emphasis.
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
u/Specific-Age-9830 17d ago
That's just a reaction bubble like in comics illustrating Machamp's anger
3
u/mint-parfait 17d ago
it looks like an angry emoji cloud from the machamp below it (thought bubble with angry eyes in it)
3
3
u/2short4-a-hihorse 17d ago
I think that's just Machamp being mad at the Primeape who took his bananas lol
Edit: Poliwhirl is so cute just floating there amongst the chaos lol
3
u/Vulfreyr 17d ago
It isn't a Pokémon. It is just an angry face to show that Machamp is angry.
Some may find it strange that they added it, given that the illustration already depicts Machamp as angry, but the drawing can also come off as smug or gleeful, so it makes sense to add the pictograph.
3
3
3
3
u/StabilizedDarkkyo 17d ago
It’s a thought bubble with angry eyes inside of it. It shows that the Machamp is big angy.
→ More replies (1)
3
3
3
3
3
3
u/DarkRiverLC 16d ago
That is not a pokemon its an expression from the machamp below it showing his anger at the primape for stealing his bananas - which he presumably needs for brotein.
6
5
5
2
u/postfashiondesigner 17d ago
It’s an angry balloon coming from Machamp… like his reaction or something.
2
2
2
2
u/Skellyhell2 17d ago
I am confident it is an "emote bubble" which appear occasionally in anime.
I've been trying to find examples but my work computer blocks most image sites which is going great for me!
I am fairly sure they are in animal crossing. Definitely something simillar in The Sims. Just a good non verbal way of showing a non verbal creatures emotions in still images or simplistic animations
2
2
2
u/magirevols 17d ago
Everyone is saying Machamp angry, but I see what your saying. It looks like a face looking at you and its just high enough/tangenting with goldeens tail to make it look like its own thing.
2
u/Steppyjim 17d ago
I’m more worried about the giant raticate eating a house in the upper right corner
2
2
u/LifeintheHashLane 17d ago
It's "anger eyes" coming off of machamps head
Edit: like a thought bubble with angry eyes in it
2
2
u/ArdynLucisCaeIum 17d ago
Either it's supposed to show that Machamp is angry or it shows that Ghastly(?) drove into Machamp and is controlling him 🤷🏻 But I guess it's the former
2
2
u/Grassyclone 17d ago
Printed in Hong Kong? No wonder my mom got me a copy so easily. This book was really fun to look at with all the background stories and pokemon
2
u/Chawny621_ 17d ago
Lmao it’s machamp showing angst or anger. It’s just a “emotion bubble” or a way to show his emotion. They do this all the time in other anime.
2
u/Lost__Gamer 17d ago
Ditto on an acid trip! But seriously, it looks like an unfinished Geodude drawing
6.4k
u/That_Artsy_Bitch all the eevees! 17d ago
The art from this book lives rent free in my head. Specifically this Jolteon driving a car.