20 Mind-Blowing Things You Didn’t Know About Pokémon
18. Pokémon Is Based On Insect Collecting
The initial concept for Pokémon was thought up by Satoshi Taijiri, founder and current CEO of Game Freak. It turns out that a significant amount of his inspiration for the series came from a hobby he loved as a child - finding and collecting insects.
Taijiri was obsessed with insects - he was constantly looking for new types of insect and inventing new ways to catch them. He was even given the nickname "Mr Bug" at school because of his hobbies.
The seeds of his idea for Pokémon sprouted further when he saw two children playing with a link cable - he imagined insects crawling along the cable, and forsaw a game which would bring the joy of insect collection to children across Japan (and eventually the world).
This explains why so many of the first Pokémon you encounter in the games are Bug-types (and why there are many Bug Catchers) - as a memorial to the creatures that inspired the series.