Character · Pokemon
Pikachu
The mouse that refused to get in the ball, which is the only reason anyone remembers the first episode.
In Otakana the clue reads: Yellow electric mouse who refuses its ball
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Pokemon
- Letters
- 7 · Easy
Ash gets Pikachu because he overslept and the three proper starters were gone. It shocks him, refuses the Poke Ball, and sits on his shoulder instead. The bond arrives at the end of that episode, when a flock of Spearow comes for both of them and the boy runs into it holding the creature that has done nothing but electrocute him.
The refusal became the character. Pikachu stays outside its ball, has turned down evolution to Raichu on screen, and loses to gym leaders often enough that fans keep a list. Atsuko Nishida designed it, and the anime pushed it forward hard enough that Pokemon Yellow rebuilt the original game around it in 1998.
It is now among the most recognised drawn characters anywhere, which is a peculiar result for an electric rodent whose entire vocabulary is its own name. The design has been gently reshaped over thirty years, losing the heavy tail and the rounder body of the earliest art, and it has fronted a live-action film, a national airline's paint scheme and more merchandise than any single warehouse could hold.
Spelling PIKACHU
PIKACHU is seven letters made of two Japanese noises: pika, the flash of something sparkling, and chu, the squeak a mouse makes. The ending is where the row goes wrong, because English ears want CHOO or CHOU. It is CHU, three letters, no extra vowel. Say it in three beats, pi-ka-chu, and the tiles land in the order you hear them.