Nintendo of America really did suggest giving Pikachu large feminine breasts at one point, Japanese media confirms

They gave James big tiddies in one episode, so why not?

The old interview in question (japanese) - https://web.archive.org/web/20180731153121/https:/www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0007/taidan1/page03.html

“When I first showed Pokémon to them, they told me it was too cute. The staff at Nintendo of America then suggested their own designs for the characters – I won’t show those illustrations to anyone as long as I live, but they kind of looked like the characters from the Cats musical. So, for example, Pikachu was changed into a character shaped like a kind of a tabby cat with huge breasts.” At this point, it’s still not clear whether the Japanese “mune” simply refers to pronounced pecs or feminine breasts, but the continuation gives important context. The interviewer proceeds to ask whether the proposed design was “like those girls who do Pikachu cosplays at anime conventions.” Ishihara replied, “Yes, exactly, they presented that kind of design to us for real. I thought it was interesting, in a sense of appreciating such cultural differences. However, I didn’t want to compete in the [overseas] market with that kind of thing.”

Sounds like Pikachu would've ended up looking like Cheetara from Thundercats

On the flip side, during Nintendo’s financial results briefing in 2008, late president Satoru Iwata stated that during the initial discussions regarding bringing Pokémon to overseas audiences, they were shown an image of an extremely muscular Pikachu, with an explanation that “Monsters should look stronger and scarier.”

Ah, 'murica, land of the "MAKE IT HARDCORE"

Gen 2 : "We've heard your request for huge mammaries, and we're giving you Miltank."

Nintendo went Rule34, who knew?

Pretty sure there's gotta be art of this somewhere

He knew (bsky link)

They should just do it for vday or April 1.