Inside Pokémon's Mezo Region: The Ambitious Fan Project With More Than 150 Unique Designs
Fanart and Pokémon practically go hand-in-hand. Just a quick Google search will reveal dozens — if not hundreds — of passionate fan projects inspired by Game Freak's world of Pokémon. But one fan's creation is taking off within the Pokémon community thanks to its strong resemblance to the Pokémon series' original monster design philosophy. It's called the Mezo region, and it's a passion project that the creator, a DeviantArt user named Lugi-Oh, says has been in the works for over a decade.
The Mezo region is a Pokémon fan art project made up of designs for 170 unique Pokémon. Its origins can be traced all the way back to 2006, when Pokémon Diamond and Pearl came out. Lugi-Oh has always had a passion for character design, and wanted to create a Pokémon region himself. While it may seem like these characters belong in a Pokémon fan game, that's not the case; Lugi-Oh says he started drawing these Pokémon just to get the designs and ideas out of his brain and onto paper. The project was never intended to be anything more than a fun art project for Pokémon fans to enjoy.
"Character design in general is what I have the most fun doing," Lugi-Oh told IGN. "Pokémon just happens to be an endless playground for that. I loved the games and ever since they first made sequels with new Pokédexes, I wanted to make one of my own. I technically began this project back around the release of Diamond and Pearl. I would casually catalog ideas and scrap them every time a new Pokémon title came out with similar concepts. After the release of Sun and Moon I decided to revisit the idea as a personal design challenge, only this time without caring!"