When you're dealing with a franchise as massive and as loved as "Pokemon," it's only natural that there are constant rumors and leaks. Just this week on the Pokemon fandom forum, PokeJungle, the rumor mill stirred and caused a tiny bit of viral hype in relation to the upcoming and currently un-announced eight edition of the "Pokemon" game.

Each generation of "Pokemon" games introduces a new set of characters or pocket monsters to start their game with. Rumor number one of this week's leak has since been proven a Fake. In the interest of preserving this internet mishap for prosperity, we're going to tell you more about it anyway.

Fake leaked 'Pokemon' artwork by Italian artist, Leopoldo Spain

The leaked artwork, originally posted to PokeJungle, duped fans with its authentic styling and Japanese working notes. There's no doubting the artist is talented! The fake leaked characters included: a fire themed fox-like character, a woodland monkey character, and a blue duckbill platypus type character. We're kind of sad to hear that they're fake, as they all look the part. With no official news on the next "Pokemon" game, we'll just have to continue dreaming about catching them all.

Anonymous poster teases 'Pokemon Gen 8' with a cryptic riddle

In addition to the fake artwork, there is still an unresolved riddle originally posted on a Japanese forum that claims to have inside knowledge.

The amateur appearance of this riddle makes us question its authenticity, however, take from it what you will.

Here's what's included in this little titbit if you don't recognize the elements already:

  • The hero from "Dragon Quest VIII" and his small rodent friend
  • A labyrinth, a type of maze made famous by ancient Greek mythology
  • Chinese adventure character, Sha Wujing, made famous by the movie 'Journey to the West'

Many rumors are tying into the theme of past, present, and future which makes sense with this riddle.

However, you could also read them as symbols for fire, earth and water themes that are present in all "Pokemon" games as a way to categorize the types of Pokemon.

Naturally, as with all rumors you've got to take them with a pinch of salt. It's all fun and games hypothesizing about what will come next in our favorite fandoms, but you might want to wait for an official statement from Pokemon and Nintendo before you start counting the days to release day. In the meantime, there's new content on "Pokemon GO" to get your fix of these cute little creatures.
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