>>35759274Wait, nevermind. Managed to get Google Translate to work.
...It's a forum, although it did back shit up for the 2003 date- linking to the Japanese wikipedia page. Although the Wikipedia page itself didn't back much up either, the last edit to the page was apparently made on July 22 of last year, so it definitely wasn't made up by the guy who claimed 2013, or at least, wasn't made up by the same guy.
It's not as solid of proof as I'd like, though- but I found proof of my own.
Pon de Lion's mane isn't just a bunch of spheres, it's a Pon de Ring, a specific type of donut made by the chain.
...Pon de Ring was introduced in 2003. Presumeably, with Pon de Lion following suit. Which means we can also put to bed the "Yuichi Itou knew about Beta Porygon2" theory since again, Pon de Lion's mane isn't just a ring of spheres, it's a Pon de Ring donut.
http://fiftyfootshadows.net/2012/01/26/pon-de-ring/ 
