CitronLegacy/pokemon-official-art

Pokémon Official Artwork

Dataset Description

This dataset contains official Pokémon artwork collected from publicly available sources such as Bulbapedia and PokémonDB.

The goal of this dataset is to provide a standardized collection of official Pokémon illustrations that can be used for:

• Image classification
• Computer vision research
• Character recognition
• Dataset generation
• AI and machine learning experiments
• Reference images for Pokémon-related research

Each image corresponds to a Pokémon species and is intended to represent the official game artwork whenever possible.

Dataset Structure

The dataset contains 2,842 images (104 MB) across 1,001 species folders, covering Pokémon species from Generation 1 through Generation 9. Coverage is not fully exhaustive for the newest generation — some Gen 9 DLC species (e.g. from the Teal Mask / Indigo Disk expansions) are not included.

Images are organized in a two-level directory structure: pokemon_official_game_art/<generation>/<species>/, where <generation> is the generation the species was introduced in (gen1–gen9) and <species> is the lowercase species name (spaces and special characters replaced with hyphens, e.g. ho-oh, porygon-z, chien-pao).

pokemon_official_game_art/
├── gen1/
│   ├── bulbasaur/
│   │   ├── bulbasaur.png          # primary artwork (largest/cleanest version)
│   │   ├── bulbasaur.jpg          # JPEG copy of the primary artwork
│   │   ├── bulbasaur-gen1.jpg     # original Red/Green/Blue-era artwork
│   │   └── bulbasaur-gen1-jp.jpg  # original Japanese release artwork
│   ├── charizard/
│   │   ├── charizard.png
│   │   ├── charizard.jpg
│   │   ├── charizard-mega.png     # Mega Evolution artwork
│   │   └── charizard-mega.jpg
│   └── ...
├── gen2/
│   └── ...
...
└── gen9/
    └── ...

Images per generation

Generation	Species folders	Image files
gen1	147	721
gen2	100	350
gen3	155	401
gen4	106	281
gen5	156	378
gen6	71	240
gen7	83	237
gen8	94	140
gen9	89	94

Note: these counts are slightly below each generation's full species roster — species with multi-word names (e.g. Mr. Mime, Nidoran♀/♂, the Tapu guardians, Gen 9 Paradox Pokémon) are missing dataset-wide. See Limitations for details.

Species-folder counts are per generation of origin (e.g. a Gen 1 Pokémon with a Gen 6 Mega Evolution still lives under gen1/, and its Mega artwork is a file inside that same folder — it does not get a separate gen6 folder).

File naming and variants

Every species folder contains at minimum one base image (<species>.png and/or <species>.jpg), which is the current official artwork for that Pokémon. Many folders also contain additional files for alternate forms, regional variants, and special art, using the pattern <species>-<variant>.<ext>. Common variant suffixes include:

Suffix	Meaning
-gen1, -gen2, ...	Artwork from that specific generation's games (older/original-style art)
-gen1-jp	Original Japanese release artwork
-mega, -mega-x, -mega-y	Mega Evolution forms
-gigantamax	Gigantamax form
-alolan	Alolan regional variant
-galarian	Galarian regional variant
-hisuian	Hisuian regional variant
-paldean	Paldean regional variant
-female, -male	Sex-based visual variants
-shiny	Shiny coloration
-therian, -incarnate	Forme Pokémon (e.g. Tornadus, Thundurus, Landorus)
-origin, -altered	Origin/Altered Forme (e.g. Giratina, Dialga/Palkia box art)
Color/season/pattern names (-red, -blue, -summer, -winter, -sandy, -trash, ...)	Pokémon with many cosmetic forms, e.g. Vivillon's 20 wing patterns, Burmy/Wormadam cloaks, Rotom forms, Deerling/Sawsbuck seasons, Unown letters (-a through -z)
-usum, -oras, -platinum, -bw2, -emerald	Artwork specific to a particular game version

Each unique image is generally available as both .png (1,072 files) and .jpg (1,770 files); some variants exist in only one format. PNGs and JPGs are both flattened to RGB (no alpha transparency). Image dimensions vary by source and are not uniform — most fall roughly in the 150–400 px range on each side (typical official box-art / Pokédex artwork sizes), so images should be resized/padded as needed for model training.

Data Collection

Images were manually collected from publicly accessible fan resources including:

• Bulbapedia
• PokémonDB

The images are official artwork originally published by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., and The Pokémon Company.

Source

Artwork originates from official Pokémon games and promotional materials.

Collection sources include:

• https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/
• https://pokemondb.net/

Intended Uses

This dataset is intended for:

• Machine learning research
• Image classification
• Character recognition
• Educational purposes
• Non-commercial AI research

Limitations

• Only official artwork is included.

• Artwork style changes across Pokémon generations.

• Some alternate forms, regional variants, Mega Evolutions, Gigantamax forms, or special event artwork may be absent depending on source availability.

• Image resolution varies.

• Species with multi-word names are systematically missing. The collection process appears to have failed on any Pokémon whose canonical name contains a space, apostrophe, period, or gender symbol (♀/♂), rather than a single hyphenatable word. Confirmed missing species include:

  • Nidoran♀, Nidoran♂, Farfetch'd, Mr. Mime, Mime Jr., Sirfetch'd, Mr. Rime, Type: Null
  • All four Tapu guardians: Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, Tapu Fini
  • All Generation 9 Paradox Pokémon (e.g. Great Tusk, Iron Hands, Flutter Mane, Roaring Moon, Walking Wake, Iron Valiant, Gouging Fire, Raging Bolt, and the rest of that family)

  Species with hyphens already built into their in-game name (e.g. Ho-Oh, Porygon-Z, Jangmo-o, Wo-Chien, Chien-Pao) are present and unaffected. This gap likely accounts for most of the shortfall from the expected ~1,010+ species total down to the 1,001 species folders actually present, though the two counts aren't an exact match since some folders also cover pre-evolutions/forms counted separately from the main Dex. Users needing full Pokédex coverage should treat this dataset as near-complete but not exhaustive.

Licensing

Important

The images contained in this dataset are NOT owned by the dataset creator.

Pokémon and all associated artwork are the intellectual property of:

• Nintendo
• Game Freak
• Creatures Inc.
• The Pokémon Company

This repository is intended as a research dataset that organizes publicly available official artwork.

Users are responsible for ensuring their use complies with applicable copyright laws and the rights of the original copyright holders.

Citation

If you use this dataset, I'd appreciate if you cite this Hugging Face repository.