We don't care what anyone says, Pokémon's anime will never again match the lofty heights of its first ever season. Is that the nostalgia talking? Maybe. But episodes like Pikachu's Goodbye and Bye Bye Butterfree still bring tears to our fully grown adult eyes to this day, so explain that...
Ahem. Anyway, the reason behind that unnecessary rant that you didn't ask for is to set up a quick chat about the first season's final episode, Friends to the End. Nintendo Life reader @PsimplePsych got in touch with us to share an interesting discovery from one of its scenes, where three characters only seen in silhouette appear on-screen.
The three characters are the top three finalists of the Indigo League (sorry for the spoilers if you haven't seen this 20-year-old episode yet, but Ash doesn't go on to win). As @PsimplePsych notes, the one on the left, who supposedly came in third place, looks suspiciously similar to Gon, the star of Japanese manga and TV series, Hunter x Hunter.
Here's how the character appears in the episode:
And here's a comparison to Gon (note the spiky hair, and almost identical jacket and shorts shape):
https://twitter.com/PsimplePsych/status/1420342156779270148?s=20
Now, plenty of Japanese anime characters have shorts and spiky hair, so we've no doubt that this is just a coincidence. However, Hunter x Hunter first started appearing in Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1998, meaning that both it and the Pokémon episode in question would have been in development at around the same time.
Is there a slight chance that someone on the team took inspiration from Gon's appearance? We'll let you decide.
Comments (17)
"Now, plenty of Japanese anime characters have shorts and spiky hair, so we've no doubt that this is just a coincidence."
And there is your answer.
Despite not watching the Pokemon cartoon back in the day, I still knew the theme tune. And I can still sing most of the words to this day. What a theme tune it was!
That's not Gon, that's one of Brock's siblings. On a side note, that girl kind of looks like Cassidy (Jessie's rival) with short hair.
Come on, this article is just filler and you know it.
Just because I've had to debunk this before - NONE of the Indigo League's top three trainers are the two unknown kids who started on the same day as Ash and Gary (the ones who took Bulbasaur and Charmander).
According to Professor Oak, only Ash and Gary qualified for the tournament; the other two kids did not get their final badge in time. Which is ironic because for most of the season they were ahead of Ash in badge count.
You should see the amount of ACTUAL cameos in some of Yu Yu Hakisho's scenes.
Maybe he's undercover? Hehe
hair looks a little short
It really does look like gon, but his hair is way shorter.
It does look like Gon from Hiatus x Hiatus.... Any hope of the manga returning has been quashed by the pending Dragon Quest anniversary though ha!
@Snatcher ash didn't even make it into the top ten for that championship. This is just some random unnamed character.
@Eel OOOOH, I forgot that, I messed up, I thought it was an early version of him or something, my bad.
Anime characters are plentiful and most look exactly the same.
However, I legit think Gon's design is iconic. I have yet to see another anime character who looks even somewhat similar to him. His outfit, his hair, I can't see that silhouette being anyone else. So that's honestly an amazing, (and damning) discovery. Who'd have thought Gon wanted to become a Pokemon Master once he split from Killua. Crazy.
@PessitheMystic it is tagged “random” so yeah, they know it
Article just for fun
@Tantani zero fun was had by me thanks.
I thought Gon was a small dinosaur
Meowth learned to talk from Apolo Justice saying tongue twisters.
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