Animals in Pokémon Cards

General
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Animals in Pokémon Cards
Did you know that various Pokémon cards have animals featured in the artwork? Maybe you realized this on an old card and thought, hmm that’s cool, maybe you have never known this and this thread presents new information, or maybe you’ve known about this for awhile, regardless, I present to you all known* animals in Pokémon cards:


Bulbasaur / Base Set - bug

Magikarp / Base Set - worm

Spearow / Jungle - worm

Venonat / Jungle - wasp

Eevee / Jungle - butterfly

Weepinbell / Jungle - bird

Exeggutor / Jungle - crab

Psyduck / Fossil - fish

Oddish / Rocket - frog

Slowpoke / Rocket - fish and butterfly

Magikarp / Rocket - fish/porpoises

Squirtle / Vending - butterfly

Super Rod / Neo Genesis - shark?

Wooper / Neo Discovery - sea anemones

Horsea / Aquapolis - coral

Quagsire / EX Team Rocket Returns - coral and sea anemones

Luvdisc / EX Emerald - coral

Lotad / Crystal Guardians - fish

Animals in the Pokémon franchise are not something that are exclusive to the cards. Animals are referenced in the games, manga, and even the anime! Here is the bulbapedia link for the full synopsis.

Many of the references come from the earlier days of Pokémon. I think this is why I am nostalgic for seeing or hearing references to animals in Pokémon. It represents a time when there was still so much that was unknown about the Pokémon universe. I remember as a kid googling things such as “Do animals exist in Pokémon?”, “How to catch Mewthree”, “Do people eat Pokémon” etc… This collection interests me because it takes me back to a time where I was a dumb kid who just had a genuine love and curiosity of all things Pokémon.

Thanks for reading!

*Let me know if you find any other Animals in Pokémon and I will add them to this thread! (Shoutout to our very own Quuador for adding the Lotad to the bulbapedia TCG list)

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I love finding random animals in Pokémon art! (Still waiting for that electrocuted Elephant in a Raichu artwork.)

Neo Discovery Wobbuffet also had that random worm keeping him company:

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Cool thread! I remember a lot of the earlier cards and even the show broke the no animals rule! I’d be interested to see any modern cards with animals.

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Some coral here too

Couple fish on Squirtle’s right side

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I never thought about this and i think you are a genius!
How cool is that! Time to go through cards :grin:

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The anime in the early years did it a lot.

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@trainerjack, what if these are not animals, they are Pokemon but they never bothered to study them?

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:open_mouth: Big if true

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Amazing work! Really cool idea. A few coral cards that you’ve missed:

Not sure this counts, but there’s a spider web in this one (although I guess it could be a Spinarak web?):

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Do we accept this as canon?

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LOL. I love this! Definitely confirmed.

It’s actually funny because during the Friday Himeno Panel, she mentioned the fact that some of her older cards featured real animals in them.

As an enjoyer of that kind of stuff, i really loved that she mentioned it!

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Tatsugiri is one of her favorite Pokemon and she said she really wanted to illustrate one some day (or she already did!?).

She also found it funny looking through her old cards and talking about how much more artistic freedom there was in the art back then

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I wish I had been at a panel, I would have loved to hear from her. I don’t know the behind the scenes issues / red tape but it would be great if a portion of the panel presentation could be made public after the event.