10 Fascinating Real-World Inspirations Behind Pokemon Characters

So how did the craze of Pokemon all started?. If you dont know Pokemon has been a multi-billion-dollar global phenomenon for almost 20 years now, the recently released Pokemon Go has taken the world by storm, and a brand-new set of Nintendo 3-DS games are slated for this fall. With hundreds of virtual monsters to collect and trade, Pokemon draws its inspirations from every imaginable place, and while some are obvious, like the various dog, lizard, and butterfly Pokemon, others are stranger, more obscure, and sometimes quite surprising.

No.10 ==> Manaphy
The Carnivorous Sea Angel

The legendary water Pokemon, Manaphy, has been the subject of its own movie and enjoyed popularity for its cute, angelic appearance, but the innocent looking creature draws its inspiration from a not-so-innocent animal, a type of swimming sea slug known as the clione or “sea angel.” Adapted to polar waters, winter ice floes bring swarms of these tiny creatures to Japanese shores once a year, and they’re popular enough to have had Hello Kitty merchandise, candy, mascots, and countless cartoon appearances.

For all their marketable cuteness however, clione hide a dark side. Strictly predatory on other swimming mollusks, their saclike heads house six retractable tentacles covered in tiny barbs which they use to pull snail prey from their shells.