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illus. Yusuke Ohmura
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This Pokémon can control water bubbles. It practice diligently so it can learn to make big bubbles.
Hibachi
This is the “stock artwork” people usually assume is always done by Ken Sugimori, and this was a very low key way of confirming it’s not always him anymore. I am not sure about Gen 5 and 6, but I think the only stock art he made in Gen 7 was the regional formes, and apparently he didn’t do any of the Gen 8 artwork.
Twylis
Dragon Majesty Jangmo-o is another example, also being by Yusuke Ohmura. Ohmura became the lead designer in Sun and Moon, taking over the role from Sugimori, and I’d say did an absolutely stellar job. It’s decently likely he did the majority of SuMo’s stock artwork.
Ohmura left Game Freak in 2016, but he’s still doing the occasional design and illustration here and there. Sword and Shield’s lead designer was Suguru Nakatsui (with James Turner as art director), who’s been involved in the series since Emerald but seems much less well-known. No idea who did SwSh’s stock artwork, since gen 8 came and went without using any in the cards.
As an aside, I wish Ohmura stuck around. His art’s phenomenally stylish and I don’t think it’s coincidence that SuMo has my most favorite designs of any gen :U
Twylis
With the SV artwork released, it seems we actually no longer have a dedicated “official artist” at all anymore — either nobody was willing or able to fill Sugimori’s and Ohmura’s shoes.
I suspected something was amiss based on how long it was taking the official art to release this gen, and now that it finally has, you can see that most of it is a perfect recreation of SV’s 3D models, either by tracing or just putting a “2D” filter over the 3D model outright. This is particularly egregious with Toedscruel, which doesn’t even resemble anything created by a human, and Baxcalibur and Lokix, which have diagonal highlight lines overlaid that remain parallel regardless of actual form.
A comparison between the Cruels can be seen here:
https://at.tumblr.com/bogleech/bogleech-ill-be-bringing-this-up-in-my-coming/tp5xnt6fqc3w
The art director of SV is Mana Ibe, known primarily as the designer of Victini, and as far as I know she’s a competent artist. I suspect the development may have either been *so* rushed that the pokemon designs themselves never reached their typical finalization process, or this was an order direct from TPC to just copy the 3D models to save costs or have “brand consistency” or something dumb like that. It’s incredibly jarring compared to gen 7, where there was a ton of art focusing on a range of expressions and movement that sought to communicate every species’ personality, mostly courtesy of Ohmura. While I wish he stuck around for that, I can’t imagine the working conditions at Game Freak are great right now and it makes sense he left.
Ironically, this actually brings the design process more in line with Gen 1 and 2, where the sprites were made *before* any official art was. Can’t say it’s working out too well here though :v
Twylis
First time I typed this my comment got eaten, so time to type it all again :v
SV’s official artwork has finally released. Much later than it ever has been with other gens, I suspected something was amiss based on that alone. Looking at the artwork, though, it’s actually much worse than could’ve been anticipated: it seems that for much of the artwork, they have actually just traced the 3D models of the pokemon or simply applied a “2D” filter over them outright. It looks especially obvious in more complex designs such as Toedscruel, and also stiff designs like Lokix and Baxcalibur. In the latter two cases, you can even see how they tried layering over a generic “Sugimori texture”, with the results having diagonal highlight lines that remain perfectly parallel regardless of forms and reveal that it was not the actual work of a human.
SV’s art director is Mana Ibe, and to the best of my knowledge, she’s a competent artist. I suspect this stock art situation is the result of two possibilities: either SV’s development was *so* profoundly, inhumanely rushed that the pokemon simply were never able to reach their usual final stage of the design process, or this was a direct order from TPC, under the pretense that simply copying the model will save development costs or something dumb like establish “brand consistency”.
It’s an incredibly jarring development after the lovely art situation of gen 7, where we had an abundance of official artwork all showing a range of poses and expressions, intended to effectively communicate the personality of the pokes. Presumably courtesy of Ohmura, the amount of love that went into gen 7’s stock artwork is readily apparent in retrospect. While Game Freak is undoubtedly horrible to work at at this point, it still pains me that Ohmura left. He understood pokemon design better than anyone.
Ironically, this 3D-model-first approach actually brings the design process more in line with gens 1 and 2, where the sprites were created before any official art existed. In that case though, it resulted in incredibly creative and dynamic artwork that sought to communicate what the sprites couldn’t. What we have here is utterly devoid of life and artistic touch.
Twylis
A comparison between the Cruels can be seen here, for reference:
https://bogleech.tumblr.com/post/706449457694294016/bogleech-ill-be-bringing-this-up-in-my-coming
Twylis
Also, because I’m seeing it a lot elsewhere, I want to emphasize that this situation is *not* a product of the artists being “lazy” or “incompetent”. No artist wants their creation to look like garbage. For that matter, no game developer wants their game to run like garbage. This situation — and the broader situation of SV — is a product of TPC not affording their artists and developers the time or creative freedom that is critical to create polished designs or a finished game.
While I adore Ohmura, my own praise of him is somewhat misleading here. He likely left *because* of TPC’s increasing restrictions and unreasonable expectations; if he had stayed, this situation likely still wouldn’t be any different, because at the end of the day, TPC is the boss. No artist, whether Ohmura or Sugimori or James Turner or whoever else, can flourish in the crunch conditions that TPC is continually making Game Freak suffer through.
Ambassador
TPC *is* Game Freak. Or at least, one third of it, since it’s a joint enterprise by Game Freak, Nintendo, and Creatures. But there’s a strong misconception that TPC is some dubious separate entity that is entirely controlling the ship at this point – TPC does indeed have its own staff and does conduct its own business, but it cannot *tell* Game Freak when a game is due. It can *advise* Game Freak that a certain frequency release schedule would be the most productive, and if Game Freak agrees it then goes about coordinating certain things across separate branches of the franchise (e.g. advising OLM the new games will release at X date and to please plan accordingly in terms of new characters, new Pokémon, etc.), but TPC doesn’t really have the pull to ~order~ Game Freak to have certain things done. There may be ~some~ coercion by Nintendo and/or Creatures (I have no doubts about the former – Nintendo is a really lousy company when you look beyond the bubbly PR – but I really, really doubt the latter*) Game Freak is *agreeing* to this – the executive staff is, anyways, and then having the employees underneath them work as such.
SV’s official art has a few hints of seeming rushed in other corners, too. Some of the concept art that got released early on (that, I presume, don’t line up as traces?) doesn’t seem to align all that well with the in-game models and that sounds like a disconnect resulting from poor coordination.. honestly, I have no interest in playing SV (and I skipped SWSH). I played and enjoyed PLA and it’s a much better game than I’d think the new regime was capable of putting out, but it remains to be seen if they’ll actually build on that formula again in the future or not.
Twylis
Game Freak’s upper management is definitely is responsible as well (which has some overlap with TPC anyway, of course), but I think TPC as an entity maintains incredibly strong leverage in terms of release dates, because their job is managing the brand, and that means ensuring the various arms of the franchise are synchronized. It’s also worth noting that merchandise produces most of Pokemon’s profits rather than games, and that’s TPC’s domain. But yes, framing TPC as an entity distinct *from* Game Freak is misleading. I suppose a better distinction would be “Game Freak developers and artists”.
As an aside, I think part of why the TCG is in such a good state right now is because unlike the games and anime, the TCG hasn’t really had to contend with ballooning development costs or an increasingly competitive media sphere. Printing pretty pictures on cardstock and balancing a meta is relatively straightforward compared to the magnitude of work it is keeping up with ever-progressing technology and continually shrinking time scales, so it can pretty easily adapt to what the rest of the franchise is doing without much issue, and simply focus on quality.
Ambassador
One last thought regarding all of the above – if TPC really was able to impose schedules against GF’s will for the purposes of synchronized releases across all branches of the franchise, why did SV release so soon? Despite its November 2022 release;
· internationally, we’re getting Crown Zenith in January 2023 and not expecting to see the first Gen 9 TCG set until March
· domestic to Japan, yes, their first SV TCG just released, but the anime also isn’t moving on to Gen 9 until March-ish.
· a quick look at pokemoncenters .com, .co., and .jp suggests that aside from the aforementioned TCG, there isn’t really any Gen 9 merchandise being pushed right now.
If the theory TPC was forcing GF to release things ahead of time against their will was true, this would’ve been a perfect situation for GF to push back and ask for a few more months to put some finishing touches on the games, and this isn’t exactly unprecedented. Release schedules across all wings of the franchise have never been quite as synchronous as conversations on the topic have implied.
Twylis
Very good points. I would add that while SV hasn’t had any dedicated Pokemon Center promotions yet, its plush release schedule is pretty much in line with previous generations in Japan, with the starters having gotten plushes before the games released and the legendaries having since gotten plushes as well. The latest plushes were Smoliv, Lechonk, and Pawmi, which also tracks *very* directly with what pokemon were revealed first in the marketing cycle. Which implies a significant amount of coordination between the marketing team, Game Freak, and TPC at least. I don’t believe previous generations were this methodological about the plush release order, which implies their releases were chosen less based on the game’s release date and more based on the trailer schedule. I’m not sure what that implies, but it feels notable.
Also worth noting is how on the international side, the Pokemon Center is actually struggling to keep up with those same plush releases. Generally, mainline plush of the current gen *always* get an international release too, even if a bit late — the only exception I can recall being Mareanie in Gen 7, who seemingly got forgotten. The US Pokemon Center hasn’t seen any new mainline plushes since Origin Palkia/Dialga/Giratina a couple months ago though, and there’s a *lot* of Legends Arceus plushes still awaiting release as well (interestingly, at least a couple already released in the UK several weeks ago, such as Hisuian Goodra). Yet another area that would’ve benefitted from a later SV release date.
Historically Japan also tends to get some cool costume-y plush lines during the dry period between gens, and that didn’t really happen this time because the transition was so fast. Those tend to be skipped over for localizing, which seemingly helps getting the new gen plushes out sooner for the new game release.
So yes. While TPC was likely involved in some decision-making, you’re likely correct that Game Freak itself is the primary influence here. Just the classic case of a game studio torturing its employees to get that juicy holiday release window :v