Rejected ‘Pokemon’ Plush Goes Viral Over its Sweet Cheeks

Pokemon is one of the largest video game and anime franchises running today, and with its massive popularity has come an equally massive amount of merchandise. But some releases have fared much better than the others.

One such failed Pikachu plush has gone viral due to its misplaced red cheek spots, and its experiencing new life thanks to an adorable makeover from a talented artist.

Artist dawntoad shared their rendition of the “rejected” Pikachu plush to Reddit, and it’s a much better look than the original. The poor pikachu plush has the right color, (almost) right dimensions, and right amount of fluffiness for a plush, but the distinct flaw has placed its eyes where its red cheek spots would be and vice versa. dawntoad imagined the Pikachu with red eyebrows, but it’s hard not to see something else in the rejected plush.

Many fans have pointed out that they don’t exactly see red eyebrows placed over adorably positioned eyes, but instead see a Pikachu with glowing red eyes. Once the idea that it has red eyes was introduced, it’s hard to shake such a disturbing image. Thankfully, there’s a much more adorable Pikachu to focus on instead. It sure would have been funny if this were the main Pikachu design, however. Would the series’ mascot be as popular if it looked like this?

If you haven’t kept up with the current run of the anime, Pokemon the Series: Sun and Moon is described as such, “What starts as a summer vacation in the tropical Alola region turns into the next exciting chapter in Ash Ketchum’s quest to become a Pokémon Master! There’s plenty for Ash and Pikachu to explore in this sunny new region, with exciting new Pokémon to discover and interesting people to learn from along the way—including the cool Professor Kukui and the fun-loving Samson Oak.

More new faces will help guide Ash’s Alolan adventure, in the form of a group of skilled Trainers—Kiawe, Lana, Mallow, and Sophocles—and a mysterious research assistant called Lillie. Frequent foes Team Rocket have also made the trip to Alola, looking to swipe some high-powered new Pokémon. But they have some heavy competition on the villainy front: the ruffians of Team Skull, who delight in causing chaos and may have more sinister intentions…”