Good news for people that hate sleeping: this Charizard is very real and it’s probably looking for you right now.
The cursed image is actually a fan submission to a recent design-your-own-Pokémon-card contest hosted by Creatures, the oft-forgotten company behind the Pokémon TCG.
The contest, which ran from December to March, is the 2nd Pokémon Card Game Illustration Grand Prix (or 2PCGIG for short…I guess) and the yet-unnamed winner will receive 300,000 yen ($2,800 USD) and their art will be turned into an official Pokémon card. We don’t know who the winner is, but we definitely know who the loser is.
The story comes from Sora News, who explains that the artist @gomi_kuzu_tarou on Twitter has already been informed that his entry did not win. Shocking, I know.
All joking aside, @gomi_kuzu_tarou’s Charizard is definitely unique and incredibly detailed, even if it does give us the heebie-jeebies. I was so transfixed by the all-consuming dark voids where Charizard’s eyes should be that I almost didn’t see the Charmander in the background looking like the creep of the week.
This being the 2nd Grand Prix, you may have guessed gomi entered the first one, and you’d be right. Here’s last year’s Pikachu submission, which is about 150% less terrifying.
Just kidding, it’s also pure nightmare fuel.
