These Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters and Pokemon look a lot like each other.
In 1996, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! both came out in Japan. However, it wasn’t until the 60th chapter that Yu-Gi-Oh! mainly focused on the Duel Monsters card game. When Yu-Gi-Oh! was about both real and made-up games, one of the made-up games that was shown was Capsule Monsters Chess. This was a board game with collectible figures where players fought with monsters that could change if certain things happened.
But the similarities between Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon don’t end there. There are a lot of monsters that look like Pokemon, and some of them could be seen as a tribute to the Pocket Monsters.
Number 41: Bagooska The Terribly Tired Tapir
The Xyz Monster Bagooska, The Terribly Tired Tapir, and the first generation Pokemon Drowzee all look the same because they are all based on the Baku, a tapir-like creature from Japanese mythology. Baku are known to eat bad dreams, but Drowzee would rather eat fun dreams and can get sick if he eats bad dreams.
The edited TCG artwork of Bagooska and the artwork on the Drowzee card from the EX Team Rocket Returns expansion both show the monsters sitting down and holding large pillows, though Bagooska is sleeping and Drowzee is looking up at the sky.
Fluffal Bear
The Fluffal archetype creatures look like they could be Fairy-type Pokemon, but when they combine with the Edge Imp archetype, they turn into scary monsters. Fluffal Bear and the seventh-generation Pokemon Stufful are both based in part on teddy bears, so they look similar but are scarier than you might think.
Even though Stufful looks cute, several in-game Pokedex entries say that when it gets angry, it is strong enough to knock down pro wrestlers and even trees. On the other hand, Fluffal Bear can fuse with Edge Imp Sabres to become the much scarier Frightfur Bear. No matter what, you shouldn’t touch these monsters when you see them.
Batty
Even though the promotional cards for the Japan-only Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters Breed & Battle PlayStation game aren’t part of the OCG or TCG, they are still Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Batty is a pink and fuzzy bat-like capsule monster. It looks a lot like the fifth-generation Pokemon Swoobat, but it came out more than a decade before it.
Like the other promotional cards, Batty doesn’t have any extra text to explain what it is. It is a Gutsy-type monster from the Animal group, and its special ability is Mystery Sound. The abilities of Swoobat, however, have nothing to do with sound. Instead, Unaware and Klutz affect damage and how items are used.
Poki Draco
The cute Dragon-type monster Poki Draco looks a lot like the Dragonite from the first generation of Pokemon. It also looks a little bit like Charizard, but it is much smaller. When a player Normal Summons a Poki Draco, they can add another Poki Draco from their deck to their hand. This is a fairly weak effect monster.
Poki Draco’s name in Japanese is Poke Dora. Poke is a shortened form of the word Pocket, which refers to Poki Draco’s size. This was also used to shorten Pocket Monsters to Pokemon, so even though Poki Draco was never used, it could be thought of as a form of Pocket Dragon.
Kidmodo Dragon
Kidmodo Dragon is another weak Dragon-type monster that is related to Poki Draco because its stats are the opposite and it has a similar but less specific Dragon-type support effect. It looks a bit like the shiny version of the popular first-generation starter Pokemon Charmander, which has small wings and walks on all fours and has a similar support effect. Even though they look a lot alike, their English names come from two different kinds of lizards: Komodo dragons and salamanders.
The Japanese names for Kidmodo Dragon and Charmander, Kodomo Doragon and Hitokage, still refer to what they are based on. However, tokage means “lizard” instead of “salamander,” and its full name can mean “fire lizard” or “mythical lizard.” We recently found another Wordle-like game called Foodle. In this game, you have to guess the food-related word of the day.
Rare Metal Dragon
First seen in the Yu-Gi-Oh! A four-star Dragon-type Effect Monster with 2400 attack points, Rare Metal Dragon can only be Special Summoned, not Normal Summoned, and looks a lot like the first-generation Ground and Rock-type Pokemon Rhyhorn from the movie Pyramid of Light.
Even though it’s easy to Special Summon this monster now, this kind of effect was rare when it first came out. Rare Metal Dragon, like most monsters introduced in the movie that aren’t related to Dark Magician or Blue-Eyes White Dragon, has never had an alternate form. This means that it doesn’t have any related cards that look like Rhydon or Rhyperior.
Purery
The Purery archetype doesn’t just look like Eevee and its evolved forms; it also has the same ideas as Espeon, Umbreon, and Sylveon, which are Eevee’s affection-based evolutions. Purery changes into different forms based on how it is treated, and some Purery Memory Quick-play Spell cards let it change into those forms.
Purery has five “evolved” forms: Epurery Beauty, Epurery Happiness, Epurery Plump, Expurery Noir, and Expurery Happiness. All of these “evolved” forms are Xyz Monsters that help each other and use the Spells listed above as materials. Even though all Purery monsters are like Sylveon in that they are Fairy-type, only a few of them have the same attribute.
Baby Dragon/Wingtortoise
There are two older monsters that look suspiciously like the first-generation Pokemon Charizard, which is always popular. The first is the Normal Monster Baby Dragon. This monster was in Joey Wheeler’s deck in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime.
Wingtortoise, the second monster that looks like Charizard and was released in 2011, is an Effect Monster that has never been in any Yu-Gi-Oh! manga or anime. Even though Wingtortoise looks like Charizard, it is an Aqua-type monster with the Wind attribute, not a fire-breathing dragon. In this way, Wingtortoise is the exact opposite of Charizard.
Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle
Beast of Crystal Ruby Carbuncle is often brought up when Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon are compared because it looks a lot like Espeon, a second-generation Pokemon. Even though Espeon was made a few years before Ruby Carbuncle, they are both based on a mythical creature called a Carbuncle. This creature comes from South American mythology and is often used as a summon in the Final Fantasy series.
People say that carbuncles bring good luck and fortune to those who see them. This may be because their heads have gems in them. Carbink, a sixth-generation Pokemon, may also be based on carbuncles, but it doesn’t look like the other ones.
Wattfox
The Watt archetype is full of creatures that look like they would be Electric-types in the Pokemon world, but only the Wattfox, which is based on a different animal, looks like Pikachu. Wattfox is an Effect Monster, like most other Watt monsters, so it doesn’t have the story and description it could have as a Normal Monster.
When the opponent destroys Wattfox, they can’t Special Summon monsters or use effects for the rest of that turn. This is similar to how Pikachu’s Static ability and many of its Electric-type attacks can stop the opponent from doing anything.
