Satoshi Tajiri Turned Catching Bugs Into POKEMON

NARRATION: He was the quiet boy who would not look up from the dirt, hunting beetles alone.

Near Tokyo, Satoshi Tajiri chased insects so relentlessly classmates called him Dr. Bug.

Then the bulldozers came. Roads and apartments paved over the ponds he loved.

He drifted, skipping school for arcades, until games became his only world.

With Ken Sugimori he built a fanzine called Game Freak. He has been described as on the autism spectrum.

One day he watched a cable link two Game Boys and pictured creatures crossing between them. The bug catcher would let the world catch them.

The studio nearly broke him: six years, money gone, staff quitting.

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto mentored him, refusing to let the game die.

In 1996, Pokemon Red and Green reached the Game Boy.

A childhood paved over had become a universe, built by the boy who never stopped.

Follow The Legends Vault — because every legend started somewhere. Every legend has an origin.

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