List of disputed and unidentified Pokémon
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This article contains fan speculation. There is no solid evidence for or against some parts of this article. |
Over the course of the Pokémon series, a number of creatures with traits of Pokémon have appeared that are not the same as any known Pokémon. Their status as Pokémon is often disputed. There are also some Pokémon, such as the original Legendary beasts prior to their reincarnation by Ho-Oh, which have not been identified. For unknown Pokémon exclusive to pre-release material, see List of unused Pokémon and character designs; for creatures primarily considered to be animals, see Animals in the Pokémon world.
List of disputed and unidentified Pokémon
In the games
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
 Substitute doll |
 While the substitute doll (summoned by the move Substitute) originally looked similar to Rhydon, the design evolved over time to a more neutral design. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, its trophy description points out that, while it looks and gets attacked like a Pokémon, it is not actually one. The doll has gone on to receive several pieces of merchandise, including its own plush doll and clothes. |
 Original Legendary beasts |
 It is said that the Legendary beasts Raikou, Entei, and Suicune were reincarnated by Ho-Oh after they died in the fire that burned down the Brass Tower. They were said to represent the lightning that struck the tower (Raikou), the fire that burned the tower down (Entei), and the rain that put it out (Suicune). While it is unknown in the games if these three were already a Raikou, Entei, and Suicune before they were revived, the Pokémon Generations short The Reawakening shows them as three nameless Pokémon. |
  Bones worn by Vullaby and Mandibuzz |
  According to interviews with Ken Sugimori in Nintendo Dream, the bones that Vullaby and Mandibuzz wear are those of other Pokémon. However, it is not stated which Pokémon they are from, but they bear a notable resemblance to a human skull. Pokédex entries say that most of the bones Mandibuzz uses to decorate its nest come from Cubone. These bones could also take part in Vullaby and Mandibuzz's design. |
 The single dragon |
According to legend, Reshiram and Zekrom were once a single powerful dragon Pokémon used by twin heroes in order to create the Unova region. However, the brothers each sought something different in life—truth for the older brother and ideals for the younger—and they began to argue, then fight, over whose side was right. The single dragon, in response, split into two Pokémon: Reshiram, who sided with the older twin, and Zekrom, who sided with the younger twin. It is revealed in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 that when the single dragon split into Reshiram and Zekrom, a third dragon, Kyurem, was "created" from the leftovers. The Pokédex entry for Kyurem also states that it is waiting for a hero to fill in the missing parts of its body with "truth or ideals". Kyurem can be fused with Reshiram or Zekrom to form White Kyurem or Black Kyurem, respectively, using the DNA Splicers, but the appearance of the single Dragon Pokémon's complete form is unknown. In The Lesson Ends Here, the single Dragon is briefly seen as a winged silhouette alongside the two heroes. |
| Original Generation VIII Fossil Pokémon |
    In Pokémon Sword and Shield, there are four types of Fossils, all of which appear to be incomplete, as they consist only of either a top half or a bottom half. Cara Liss can combine two Fossils that are opposite halves into one Pokémon, allowing half of the original prehistoric Pokémon to be seen.
However, the Pokédex entries for all four of the Generation VIII Fossil Pokémon suggest that they lived in prehistoric times, as does Cara Liss upon reviving one of them, though this information is somewhat implied to be inaccurate.     |
 Scarlet Book imagined Pokémon |
      In the Scarlet Book in Pokémon Scarlet, a sketch of an imaginary Pokémon inspired by the Paradox Pokémon found in Area Zero is seen, drawn by a member of the Area Zero Expedition team. This Pokémon resembles the Legendary beasts: Raikou, Entei, and Suicune and their ancient counterparts: Walking Wake, Gouging Fire and Raging Bolt. It's implied that this sketch was drawn by a member of the Area Zero Expedition team that managed to catch a glimpse of each of the Paradox Pokémon, Walking Wake, Gouging Fire and Raging Bolt during their exploration in Area Zero. |
 Violet Book imagined Pokémon |
      In the Violet Book in Pokémon Violet, a sketch of an imaginary Pokémon inspired by the Paradox Pokémon found in Area Zero is seen, drawn by a member of the Area Zero Expedition team. This Pokémon resembles the Swords of Justice: Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion and their futuristic counterparts: Iron Leaves, Iron Boulder and Iron Crown. It's implied that this sketch was drawn by a member of the Area Zero Expedition team that managed to catch a glimpse of each of the Paradox Pokémon, Iron Leaves, Iron Boulder and Iron Crown during their exploration in Area Zero. |
 Original Loyal Three |
 In Kitakami myths, it is said that the Pokémon that formed the Loyal Three were once below-average Pokémon: Okidogi was small and weak, Munkidori was clumsy and dim-witted, and Fezandipiti had short, dull feathers. The Toxic Chains wrapped around their bodies granted them the strength, cleverness, and beauty that they respectively wished for. It's later revealed that Pecharunt was the one that transformed the trio with its Toxic Chains, while also using its Binding Mochi to tame them, so they could help it complete its journey to steal a brilliant set of masks desired by its caretakers. The trio's original appearance is unknown and their types are implied to be completely different from the ones they now possess. What appear to be their original forms are depicted alongside a human child on Kitakami's signboards. |
 Unnamed TCG creature |
A silhouette possibly of a Pokémon was discovered in the coding of the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online. This silhouette was discovered in the navigation bar on the game's tutorial page, combined with images of the Unova first partner Pokémon. No additional information on the silhouette was contained in the source code of the tutorial's Flash file. According to Serena Robar, a community manager for The Pokémon Company International, it is not an actual Pokémon and is a placeholder image that wasn't removed after the code was decompiled. |
In animation
Pokémon the Series
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
 Venustoise |
  In The Ghost of Maiden's Peak, a Gastly with the ability to create illusions solid enough to attack people created a crossbreed of a Blastoise and a Venusaur, calling it a "Venustoise" (Japanese: フシギックス Fushigix). |
 Unnamed bear |
The only known information about this creature is from its brief appearance in The Ancient Puzzle of Pokémopolis. It seems to be a bear with decorative markings covering its body. Since markings like this are also present on the other Pokémopolis Pokémon featured in the episode like Gengar and Alakazam, it is unlikely to have been a normal feature. |
 Unnamed arachnid |
This creature made its sole appearance in The Superhero Secret. It seems to be a giant yellow spider, with four red compound eyes, two antennae on its head, and a mouth with four large fangs. Its thorax has eight long, brown legs. Its abdomen is much larger relative to the rest of it body, with two thin, black stripes. Its cry is a screech, not unlike Victreebel's. The nature of its appearance (in a Gligarman movie) would appear to indicate it may be a fictional monster or Pokémon, and whether it is supposed to be portrayed by a real Pokémon, a mecha, or simply special effects is unclear, though its movements and cry give it an extremely organic appearance. |
 Unnamed fish |
 Depicted in Fossil Fools, is the only representation in Pokémon the Series, albeit in statue form, of the aquatic life that Kabutops is said to have feasted on in most Pokédex entries since Pokémon Red and Blue. Kabutops and the fish first appeared in art from the Pocket Monsters Encyclopedia, and bears some similarities to the silhouette on the Neo Genesis card Super Rod. |
 Recurring fossil/artifact |
  This clay artifact that looks like a Pokémon appeared in Fossil Fools and then again over nine-and-a-half years later in Bucking the Treasure Trend!. Professor Oak descibes it as an "ancient Pokémon fossil [or] artifact". It is similar to the Clay Doll Pokémon Baltoy and Claydol and thus may have been based on shakōki-dogū, clay figurines from the Jōmon period of Japanese history. |
 Legendary water Pokémon |
 In a sequence in Enlighten Up! where the main characters see their dreams for the future, Misty sees herself chasing an unknown "legendary water Pokémon". The only part of the Pokémon the viewer sees is a giant fin, which is reminiscent to that of the then-unreleased Mega Gyarados. |
 Unidentified Unown |
    Unidentified Unown seen on Professor Oak's computer in Spell of the Unown: Entei. Due to the introduction of two additional Unown forms in Generation III, some fans have speculated that these may have been very early prototypes for new forms of Unown. Some of the Unown resemble various Greek and Cyrillic letters, namely Я, Ω, Σ, б, Д, ω, Π, and σ. |
 Unnamed fairy |
 An unnamed fairy was seen in Molly Hale's book of Legendary Pokémon in Spell of the Unown: Entei. It has some similarities to Beautifly. |
 Unnamed sun |
 An unnamed sun was seen in Molly Hale's book of Legendary Pokémon in Spell of the Unown: Entei. The only known Legendary Pokémon related to the sun is Solgaleo. |
 Unnamed monster |
An evil monster that attacked the city of Alto Mare was seen in the Japanese version of Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias. The storybook-style segment of the movie, which told the story of the origin of the Soul Dew and Alto Mare's ancient history, was completely cut from the dub. |
 Mismagius—Rayquaza fusion |
  In Malice In Wonderland!, a wild Mismagius created an illusory Rayquaza belonging to the fake Cynthia. When Ash and his friends discovered that it was all just an illusion, it combined itself with its Rayquaza illusion. |
Pokémon Origins
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
 Unknown cat-like creature |
In the first episode of Pokémon Origins, File 1:Red, an unknown cat-like creature with draconic wings appears briefly in Brock's Gym during the first episode. |
In the manga
Pokémon Adventures
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
 Thu-Fi-Zer |
   Thu-Fi-Zer (サ・ファイ・ザー Thu-Fi-Zer) was the result of a Team Rocket experiment created by fusing the three legendary birds—Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres—in the Pokémon Adventures manga. |
  Dialga/Palkia statue |
  In the Pokémon Adventures manga, first appearing in Ring Around the Roserade 1, the statue in Eterna City is neither Dialga or Palkia but a combination of the two statues. This is a reflection of the statue's appearance in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Pokémon Platinum being ambiguously shaped, in order to represent a different member of the duo in each game with a different tile palette. In Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the statue was redesigned to be an explicit fusion between the two, similarly to how it appears in the manga. After seeing the two Pokémon for the first time in Spear Pillar, Pearl theorized that the statue could represent how ancient people saw the two Pokémon fighting inside a distortion of space and time which led them to believe it was one Pokémon. |
Pokémon Pocket Monsters
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
 Unnamed butterflies |
 On the cover of the first chapter Introducing the Pokémon Clefairy!!, Red is shown surrounded by three stylized and mostly identical butterfly-like creatures with different patterns on their wings. Their overall shape and coloration gimmick quite noticeably resemble that of Vivillon. |
 Oak's Pokémon collection |
Ten unidentified Pokémon are shown on page 21 of Introducing the Pokémon Clefairy!! where Clefairy accidentally destroys Professor Oak's lab. One of them resembles Slowbro with Gligar's head, while the others either have too few similarities with any known Pokémon or seems to have features of many different Pokémon. |
 Red's unnamed Pokémon |
 This unknown Pokémon was captured by Red in The Big Battle In The Viridian Forest!!. It was his second Pokémon, after Clefairy. It is never named and the only other thing known about this Pokémon is that it is supposedly very weak. It escaped from its Poké Ball in the same chapter. Although it is commonly seen as a Bug-type by the fandom, it is most likely a really off-model Diglett as later representations of Diglett by Anakubo seem to confirm. |
 Brock's Pokémon collection |
Brock is shown with a large Pokémon collection at the Pewter Gym. Many of them are not identifiable as currently known Pokémon. One of them on the top left shelf resembles the Red's unnamed Pokémon. |
The Electric Tale of Pikachu
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
 Unknown Water-type Pokémon |
 In Play Misty for Me, there are a number of unidentified Water-type Pokémon at the Cerulean Gym. One of the most notable is a baleen whale-like Pokémon seen in the aquarium. It has three sets of flippers, coincidentally making it appear very similar to the much-later introduced Wailord. Others include a jellyfish, a fish located just underneath the jellyfish, and others swimming around the glass. |
Magical Pokémon Journey
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
 Marin |
Marin (Japanese: マリン Marin) is a Pokémon appearing in the Magical Pokémon Journey manga. It appears only on the title page of The Best Gift Ever. According to commentary by Yumi Tsukirino, Marin was designed by a fan in a "draw Pikachu's friend" contest in Japan held by Ciao magazine (Japanese: ちゃお) and first published in the December 1998 issue of the same magazine in which the cover page is presented in color, and Marin's body is shown to be entirely blue. |
In other media
| Image | Description |
|---|---|
 Baby Nidoran |
  The Pocket Monsters Encyclopedia makes reference to Baby Nidoran, which were later seen on a 1997 ad for Pokémon Battoen. |
 MechaMew2 |
 MechaMew2 is a Robotic Pokémon seen only in Pokémon Live!. It is considered by its creator Giovanni to be the most powerful Pokémon in existence. Giovanni promised Trainers the very rare Diamond Badge to anyone who could defeat it. MechaMew2 is based on Mewtwo, another Pokémon whose creation was ordered by Giovanni. It destroys itself at the end of the show after learning an attack of love, caring, and friendship. |
