Back in 2016, Pokémon Sun and Moon gave us our first look at the Ultra Beasts. They are a weird-looking group of creatures, to say the least, heralding from the 'Ultra Space' dimension, and thus appeared rather different when compared to the general squishiness of most other Pokémon designs. Well, according to former Game Freak illustrator Yusuke Omura — who served as Sun and Moon's lead Pokémon designer — that was kinda the point (thanks, Automaton).
Riffing on a recent X theory about the Beasts' design origins, Omura explained that the Ultra Beasts' unusual look stems from many of his previous Pokémon proposals, which were rejected at the time by then-lead artist Ken Sugimori. Apparently, the traits that led to these past rejections served as the backbone for the Ultra Beast look, with the creatures' disturbing appearances acting like "a manifestation of [Omura's] own resentment".
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Of course, there's no hard feelings between Omura and Sugimori, the post later clarifies, but it's interesting to hear how the director's vetoes eventually served to create something that felt intentionally un-Pokémon.
Here's Omura's full post, translated by Automaton:
I designed the Ultra Beasts by recalling some of the designs I made which were rejected by Mr. Sugimori, and I decided to deliberately use the very reasons for why they were rejected and base the artistic direction of the designs on them. So in some way, they’re like a manifestation of my own resentment– pretty scary.Of course, this doesn’t mean that I hate Mr. Sugimori or anything like that.
After the design work was completed on Sun and Moon, Sugimori apparently joked with Omura that there were some Pokémon designs in there that he wouldn't have used — oops!
So, there you have it. If you have ever been confused by Buzzwole's bee buffness, Xurkitree's long fingers, or Guzzlord's... well, all of Guzzlord, then it likely stems from a previously-rejected design coming back with a vengeance.