What would Pikachu look like under the flesh? It’s a question that’s, weirdly, been asked a number of times over the years, with several hypotheses appearing online in the form of cute yet macabre drawings, usually sketched by talented artists and anime fans.

But what if we asked for a professional opinion? As far as we know, Pikachu’s official X-ray slides are yet to be discovered, but if they ever were, they would probably look just like the image above. Because this latest rendering of the electric Pokémon’s skeletal structure comes from the mind of a professor who studies bones and vertebrae for a living.

Professor Takashi Oda of Seian University of Art and Design has an impressive background in bone studies, having published several books of dinosaur skeleton illustrations. As a long-standing member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Professor Oda is the perfect candidate for X-raying Pikachu without the use of radiology equipment.

▼ This sketch, requested by his students, took Professor Oda 10 minutes to create and has scored him more than 13,000 retweets

The following day, Professor Oda continued to enthrall his students and followers with another sketch, this time one that includes the clavicle, or collarbone.

Proving that what you put out there comes back to you twofold, fellow Twitter user ShinkaiOgino revealed his own computer-generated 3-D designs, which support the accuracy of the professor’s skeletal depiction.

We wonder who will be the next artist to reveal the insides of our beloved Pikachu online. With bones this cute, we can’t wait to find out!

Source: はちま起稿

Images: studiocorvo ShinkaiOgino