Lugia, the legendary bird of Pokémon the Movie 2000: The Power of One was created to be female and the fact that it was a male drove the creator to drink, heavily.
Pokemon the Movie 2000 follows Ash as he stumbles through yet another adventure where the fate of the world is on the line. He is sent on a island hopping mission to collect three orbs and draw out the guardian of the sea to keep the other three legendary birds, Arcticuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, from laying waste to the world — enter Lugia. Lugia, the water’s great guardian, is one half of the Gen II legendary bird duo.
As it turns out, a lot of time and care went in to creating this particular legendary Pokémon. Takeshi Shudo, Pokémon’s original head writer and creator of Lugia, was devastated when promotional material was released with Lugia sporting a distinctly masculine voice. Shudo wanted Lugia to have female attributes but also to encapsulate both genders, and was sent into a deep depression when it was decidedly male in the movie. The writer wanted Lugia to be seen as the reason for life on Earth, which would carry female characteristics. After ads for the Pokémon sequel began to air Shundo reports feel like he wanted die and turned to drugs and alcohol as crutches.
This remained a problem for Shudo until his dying days, regularly posting on his blog about the snafu. It’s possible that Shudo had trouble with substance abuse outside of this particular instance, but Lugia’s fixed gender seemed to have hit him particularly hard.
