17 PIKACHU’S MORTALITYĪsh and Pikachu are so close that they would - as we’ve often seen - lay down their lives for one another. Meanwhile, Ash would have a crisis of conscience and abandon his ambition to become a Pokemon Master. His endgame involved a Pokemon rebellion against their human slavers with none other than the franchise’s own mascot leading the charge. Pokemon has always been criticized for glorifying animal cruelty, and Shudo wanted the battling creatures to realize this too. As well as planning to hide Celebi inside the GS Ball and introducing Ash’s absent dad, he also had an ending for the show in mind - and it’s super dark, much like the manga adaptations.
Takeshi Shudo, the Pokemon anime’s first head writer, had some wild plans for the series that never came to fruition. Disappointingly for Meowth, Pikachu’s moral fiber remained, and he never fully turned to the dark side. Though they were sworn enemies at the time, in the episode “A Scare To Remember,” Team Rocket finally got their wish when a bump on the head caused an amnesiac Pikachu to join his trainer’s rivals. Other than Pikachu, the only constant in his life are the bumbling Team Rocket grunts, Jessie, James and their talking Meowth, who were obsessed with capturing Ash’s BFF for years. 19 PIKACHU JOINED TEAM ROCKETĪsh has been through many travelling buddies and encountered many nefarious characters during his journey around the Pokemon world.
The only plus side to this unsettling moment are the funny videos of movie-goers’ WTF reactions that surfaced online when the film debuted in U.S cinemas. In what was explained by Pikachu’s English voice actor, Kate Bristol as a “dream sequence,” Pikachu sorrowfully talks to a badly injured Ash in human-speak. At least, he wasn’t, until Pokemon The Movie: I Choose You! was released in 2017. Famously, with a few special exceptions, pocket monsters’ only form of communication is through repeating their own names in different tones of voice, and Ash’s Pikachu is no exception. Pokemon and humans have always been able to understand each other without speaking the same language. (This latter point finally put to bed confusion over the gender of Ash’s Pikachu.) Throughout all of this, Ash and Pikachu’s bond has remained tight. A new form of Raichu and a female Pikachu have also been discovered to have more rounded tails than their male counterparts. It’s also had a baby pre-evolution added to its line.
Though Pikachu’s core design has remained largely unchanged since then, fans have noticed the Pokemon is much trimmer these days. Clefairy was the one that GameFreak and Nintendo had originally lined up as franchise’s talisman, but was swapped out for the more gender-neutral looking Pikachu to appeal to both girls and boys. Pikachu wasn’t always destined to become the icon he so quickly turned into, though. Ash, or Satoshi as he’s known in Japan, has been the show’s protagonist since 1997, and Pikachu has been perched on his shoulder ever since the 10-year old trainer departed from Pallet Town to become the very best, like no one ever was. Even if you’ve never played a Pokemon game or watched a single episode of the long-running anime series in your life, you know who Pikachu is.
In fact, he’s commonly referred to as Japan’s Mickey Mouse. Over two decades since its creation, the Pokemon franchise’s little, yellow electric mouse mascot is still one of the most recognizable characters in all of pop culture. You Are Reading : Pikaeeew 20 Skeletons In Pikachus Closet Who’s that Pokemon? It’s Pikachu! And he’s got a lot to hide.