Throughout human history, people have looked at animals and wondered, “What would happen if I crossed this animal with something similar, but different?” This is how we got the liger (a tiger and a lion, also sometimes referred to as a “tigon”), the zonkey (a zebra and a donkey), and the ever-popular beefalo (a cross between a buffalo and a domestic cow).
But perhaps the most interesting hybrids ever created were not real, breathing creatures, but fictional, digital ones.
Of course, we’re referring to Pokémon Fusions.
The History Of Pokémon Fusion
Although it might seem like Pokémon Fusions are a new trend, they’re actually very old. The first time two existing Pokémon were conjoined into a new creature was back in 2008 when the Kongregate message board (think 4chan, but not nearly as awful) hosted an art contest to see who could come up with the best “Pokéfusion.”
The winning entry was a combination of Infernape, Giratina, Metang, Articuno, and Alakazam. If that sounds mildly insane, the final product actually looks a lot more awesome than it sounds.
After that, the concept of Pokéfusion began to slowly spread. It eventually found a budding art community on deviantART, where several groups were specifically started to explore the many combinations possible with the original 151 Pokémon.
But the real explosion in popularity didn't happen until August of 2010. That's when web developer Alex Onsager unveiled the Pokémon Fusion Generator, an automated website that spliced two Pokémon together with such ease and precision that it seemed as though created by the Pokémon version of Doctor Moreau.
Onsager’s design was simple: take the body and overall shape of the first Pokémon and then splice the face and color scheme of the second onto it. The name was simply a mashup of the two Pokémons’--Onix and Rapidash would become Ondash, for example.
The Pokémon Fusion Generator’s existence was first advertised on the Psypoke Forums, a popular Pokémon-related public message board. From there it hit the forums of various video game websites, gaining in popularity until its peak in 2013.
Unfortunately, the site had its limitations. Initially, Onsager didn’t even add all 151 original Pokémon--it wasn’t until May of 2013 that all of them were uploaded, including Mew. By then there were many other generations of Pokémon that could have been added, but Game Freak had moved on to non-Sprite-based games starting with the Nintendo 3DS console.
By 2017, the Pokémon Fusion craze had passed. Enthusiasts would occasionally post their designs to social media such as Instagram or Tumblr, but sporadically. It wasn’t until June of 2019 that Pokéfusions would have a renaissance, and it was all thanks to a meme.
Your Government Assigned Starter
https://ijustreallylikeeevee.tumblr.com/post/185400523588/i-got-venuew
On June 6th, 2019, Tumblr user ijustreallylikeeevee posted an update which read: "Whatever pokemon appears when you load Pokéfusion is now your government assigned starter." Since the Pokémon Fusion Generator loads with a random fusion, most people would have a unique combination of Pokémon to start their fictional journeys with (but not everyone--there are only 11,325 possible combinations of the original 151 Pokémon, after all).
That post quickly blew up on Tumblr and was shared over 39,000 times, but the meme didn’t really take off until it migrated to Twitter on June 23rd; that’s when the #PokeFusion hashtag began to trend. Many of the more hilarious combinations were retweeted thousands or sometimes tens of thousands of times, with the most successful often having found a hilarious combination of the two Pokémon’s names.
Of particular note would be various Mr. Mime fusions, as the first portion of any fusion’s name would always start with “Mr.”
Fan Art Brings New Life, And Awesome New PokéFusions
This resurgence in Pokéfusion popularity--especially on such a popular social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit--resulted in many artists riding on the meme’s popularity to showcase their talent. While some stuck with the original 151 Pokémon on the Fusion Generator site, others allowed themselves to use Pokémon from later generations in order to make a truly unique design.
Today, the original Fusion Generator may finally be replaced by a second generation. Called the Japeal Pokémon Fusion Generator, it uses a few more complex algorithms to combine structural and color elements from both Pokémon. Although it still always uses the general shape of the first Pokémon combined with the colors and face of the second, the fused ‘Mon might also have the tail or wings of the second Pokémon as well.
Who knows how long this Pokéfusion renaissance will last, but so long as Pokémon remains popular, so too will Pokémon Fusion.