Summary
Venusaur is one of the most widely known creatures in thePokemonfranchise, and now an artistically talented fan has offered an idea of what it might look like in the real world. This massive plant/dinosaur hybrid is the final evolutionary stage of Bulbasaur, the originalGrass-type starter inPokemon Red and Blueand the very first officially listed Pokemon overall. Venusaur has naturally appeared in mostPokemongames released since the original, is a playable character in the battle royale spin-offPokemon Unite, and even gained powerful Mega and Gigantamax evolutions in later generations.
Venusaur has also inspired plenty of creativePokemonfan art over the years, with talented players crafting colorful paintings of the colossal Grass/Poison creature and building detailed models of it using LEGO bricks. OtherPokemonfan artists have devised interestingfusions between Venusaur and other Pokemon, invented special variants that depict it as a Rock or Ghost type, and even envisioned what it would look like when merged with the title character in the famed Japanese animeMy Neighbor Totoro.
Now one Reddit user and artist namedEric Franer(aka Experiment18) is sharing their own, more photorealistic take onPokemon’s Venusaur on r/pokemon, showing what the starter evolution might have looked like as a real-life creature. All of Venusaur’s signature traits are retained in this rendering, including its teal skin and the large flower growing on its back. However, said skin has a more realistic reptilian texture, and its anime-like eyes and face have been replaced with more lizard-like retina and a beak-shaped mouth with rows of tiny teeth inside.
Experiment18 has also designed realistic versions ofVenusaur’s previous evolutionary stages Bulbasaur and Ivysaurand is currently working on the Charmander and Squirtle lines fromPokemon Red and Blue. OtherPokemonfans have shared similar depictions of creatures likePokemon Silver’s cover Legendary Lugia and the starter trio fromPokemon Sword and Shield, all of which offer a more grounded take that still retains a fantasy-like feel.
Sure enough, manyPokemoncreatures are inspired by real-world creatures, and 2019’sDetective Pikachumovie rendered several of them in a more realistic style to great effect. Experiment18’s Venusaur artwork is another example of this, showing off what the normally fantastical Grass/Poison hybrid would look like as an actual lizard-plant creature in the real world. It’s an interesting aesthetic to be sure, and Eric Franer has plenty of Pokemon to reimagine in this style in the future - including the ones introduced inPokemon Scarlet and Violet.
