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Was Mewtwo's design based on Freeza from Dragonball Z?

Cybersai

Banned
Jan 8, 2018
11,631
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So as we know Mewtwo was designed sometime around 1995-1996 when Pokemon Green was being developed. As we know Dragonball Z finished its original broadcast run in Japan in 1995. Pokemon like all videogame or anime series were likely heavily influenced by Dragonball Z.

At the time both Mewtwo and Freeza debuted, they were considered "the most powerful beings" in their universe. Mewtwo started off as a villain or final boss in the games, Freeza is the main villain of Dragonball, and both were heavily promoted in similar white and purple color schemes.

And of course later on both Mewtwo and Freeza are then surpassed by other powerful legendary pokemon or characters in their series, whereas now Mewtwo and Freeza need new transformations (Mewtwo has two Mega forms, Freeza has Golden Freeza) to keep up.


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I think it's pretty obvious myself, most of the GameFreak designers likely grew up with Dragonball when they were kids or teens.
 
ASaiyan

ASaiyan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,228
Curve ball: Giygas from Mother 1, which was released in 1989. [EDIT: Beaten like Giygas two games in a row.]
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Farrac

Farrac

Member
Nov 3, 2017
2,082
Alcalá de Henares, Spain
Well, Sugimori was very clearly inspired by Toriyama in his early Pokémon days, so it is possible.

Coincidently enough, Mewtwo's mega forms resemble Kid Buu (Y) and Cell (X) as well.
 
Thardin

Thardin

Member
Jan 7, 2018
926
Bipedal creatures with a tail that share vaguely similar color schemes? Bit of a reach to say one was inspired by the other when they share few other design similarities besides the most generic aspects.
 
Poutine Runner 2049

Poutine Runner 2049

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,275
Canada
Gamefreak just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about anime culture (I'm an expert), but creativity and originality are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being a plagiarizer. If you copy someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase either version of Pokemon, nor will they purchase any of Gamefreak's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Gamefreak has alienated an entire market with this move.

Gamefreak, publicly apologize and cancel Mewtwo for Pokemon or you can kiss your business goodbye.
 
Neptonic

Neptonic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,895
Tucson, AZ
Freeza Arc was 1990 in the manga so yes, it's likely pokemon designers took influence from one of the most popular manga series at the time
 
twothunder

twothunder

Member
Feb 10, 2018
502
if anything. i thought giygas from Mother 1 was the inspiration for Mewtwo

later they might have added some dragon ball inspired stuff like Mewtwo 's kamehameha like attack animation from Pokemon stadium



and like the death ball from Pokken
 
Miles

Miles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
639
San Diego, CA
Poutine Runner 2049 said:
Gamefreak just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about anime culture (I'm an expert), but creativity and originality are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being a plagiarizer. If you copy someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase either version of Pokemon, nor will they purchase any of Gamefreak's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Gamefreak has alienated an entire market with this move.

Gamefreak, publicly apologize and cancel Mewtwo for Pokemon or you can kiss your business goodbye.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'm so glad this is making a comeback lmao.
 
KtotheRoc

KtotheRoc

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
56,667
Ape, Inc. (who worked on Mother 1 and Mother 2, released as Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound) eventually became Creatures, Inc. (who worked on the Pokémon games).
 
sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,506
When I first saw freeza and cooler I though they were based on murakami's zoalord transformation in guyver lol
 
Jmille99

Jmille99

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,098
Kcannon said:
Who came first, Giygas or Freeza?

Legit question.
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Quick search seems to be in favor of Giygas. Both Mother and Friezas (manga) first appearance were in 1989, but Friezas final form may have been a little later.

So technically, Giygas would predate final form Frieza unless theres something Im missing.
 
Joqu

Joqu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,030
The Waffle Kingdom
Sugimori was heavily inspired by Toriyama, and Pokémon shared plenty of DNA with Mother 1. So inspired by both Freeza and Giygas is what I'd say.
 
Kyzer

Kyzer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,709
Sugimori was a big Toriyama fan, and I think it's part of the reason I love it so much
 
Kcannon

Kcannon

Member
Oct 30, 2017
5,663
Thanks for the all replies guys. I had a feeling both debuted in the late 80's, but I wasn't sure.

In any case, I believe Mewtwo could've been inspired by both of them. Giygas in terms of appearance, Freeza in terms of fighting style.
 
GuEiMiRrIRoW

GuEiMiRrIRoW

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,530
Brazil
Poutine Runner 2049 said:
Gamefreak just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about anime culture (I'm an expert), but creativity and originality are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being a plagiarizer. If you copy someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase either version of Pokemon, nor will they purchase any of Gamefreak's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Gamefreak has alienated an entire market with this move.

Gamefreak, publicly apologize and cancel Mewtwo for Pokemon or you can kiss your business goodbye.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I remember there was a version of this post in which a guy with a terrible whining voice proclaimed the text screamingly. It was awesome! Do you have that?!
 
carlosrox

carlosrox

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,270
Vancouver BC
Poutine Runner 2049 said:
Gamefreak just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about anime culture (I'm an expert), but creativity and originality are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being a plagiarizer. If you copy someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase either version of Pokemon, nor will they purchase any of Gamefreak's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Gamefreak has alienated an entire market with this move.

Gamefreak, publicly apologize and cancel Mewtwo for Pokemon or you can kiss your business goodbye.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Haha this is a good one.

On topic: I never even thought about this. Could be right.
 
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