Pokémon Go’s massive success proves that we all wish Pokémon were real. I don’t have the science to back up this claim, so instead I’ll let Christopher Stoll–the artist behind Disney Princesses as Avengers and A Natural History Of The Fantastic–bring the realism to these pocket monsters with his PokeNatomy art. These pieces bridge the gap between fantasy creatures and scientific reality, with a bit of humor thrown in for good measure.
It reminds me of the children’s books I had growing up like Incredible Cross Sections or even the Bodies exhibition I visited for extra credit during AP Bio in high school. You can get a good look at Pikachu’s innards, a peek at Charmander’s entrails, and even gawk at the viscera inside Bulbasaur when looking at Stoll’s detailed schematics. He also completes the text book analogy with a lot of fun facts created to compliment his pieces. Did you know that Pikachu’s electric organs take up one third of its body weight? Or that a Bulbasaur and the plant node on its back form a symbiotic relationship? Stoll plays fast and loose with established mythology (Koffings are naturally buoyant in all temperatures and atmospheres leading top Poké scientists to believe the source of the mechanism could be quantum), but all in service of a colorful verisimilitude.
My favorite PokeNatomy is definitely Stoll’s take on Voltorb. He reimagines the origins of these pokéball-looking Pokémon as a result of a malfunction, fusing the pokéball with whatever poor Pokémon is trapped inside like some kind of horrifying Cronenburg-like mess. Pretty freaky, but with Stoll’s artwork, he’s giving us a in-depth look at how Pokémon might actually work if they existed in the real world. One can dream. Pokémon geeks new and old will find his work fascinating, and you’ll want to pore over them immediately in all their clinical glory. Check out a handful in the gallery below and even more on his deviant art page.
What Pokémon do you want to see get the PokéNatomy treatment next? Which one is your favorite so far? Let us know in the comments below!
Image credits: Christopher Stoll