Fans think Akira Toriyama’s latest game is hiding a Pokemon Easter egg

A new game based on the works of the late creator Akira Toriyama might have a connection to a recent Pokemon game, thanks to their shared developer ILCA.

Many Pokemon fans are familiar with the developer ILCA, as the team is behind the recent remakes Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. While the reception for the remakes has been mixed, many fans adore them for their commitment to respecting the original games and their style.

Now a few years later, the ILCA team is behind a brand new game, and some fans are spotting a connection to the recent Pokemon titles hidden away. The new game Sand Land is based on a manga by late creator Akira Toriyama, also known for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.

Pokemon content creator Lewchube spotted the connection in a post on X, posting a comment saying, “very funny Pokemon BDSP discovery is ILCA reusing Lucas and Dawn’s idle animation for the new sand land game”.

It’s not unusual for developers to reuse animation, or even 3D models between projects, but warping them to fit a new project. This practice saves money by avoiding building things from scratch, and even dates all the way back to animation companies like Disney reusing animation between movies.

In this video showcasing Sand Land and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, fans seem to think the idle stretching animation could be one and the same, though clearly stretched to fit the new character’s model in Sand Land.

Not everyone buys into this idea though, with one comment saying, “It’s just a normal stretch I don’t think it’s reusing animation”. However, the person behind the original post replies, adding, “timing is nearly identical but it has been tweaked slightly to accommodate for Beelzes’ model”.

It’s not clear whether this animation is the same one from Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but there are clearly enough similarities to convince some fans. The developer ILCA is also behind both games, though it’s unlikely that exactly the same team is working on Sand Land.

Still, fans seem happy with this small inclusion, and considering how much of Pokemon’s early designs borrowed from the works of Akira Toriyama and Dragon Quest games, it’s nice to see the favor repaid so many years later.