the pokemon that was literally created after a real person for fun.
back in 1996, while game freak was preparing the original pokemon red and green, a developer named koji nishino was in charge of overseeing map design and spawn rates. he was so obsessed with his work that he was living in his office.
he was a nice and polite guy with a big appetite, famous around the team for eating pretty much anything. but his coworkers started when noticing his daily routine: nishino would raid the office fridge and straight up eat food that had gone completely bad, without ever getting sick.
they started calling him “kabigon”, japanese slang basically meaning “mold” or “mold monster” because he had an iron stomach that could handle leftovers from days without affecting him.
then art director ken sugimori took the joke to the next level and turned nishino into a pokemon. he modeled the design after nishino large build and sleepy eyes, and even kept the nickname “kabigon” as the official japanese name. the english name? snorlax.
one of the most wholesome and funniest developer easter eggs in franchise. thank you koji nishino and ken sugimori.