Why Pikachu?

[Josh123914]

pokémon yellow followed the anime so pikachu fitted right in there, wh he was made mascot was probably something to do with him being electric type and that sort of fit in with grass/fire/water. heck when it comes to legendary bird/dog trios electricity REPLACES grass.

P.S. If you own Pokémon Yellow HOW did you people beat the first gym leader with pickachu(and maybe a bug/normal pokemon too)

 

[Kragg]

ok so,flashback, in the original games you got one of the three regular starter pokemons, and in the show as i remember it, he was late or special or whatever and the prof gave him pikachu instead, lightning bolt "hilarity" ensued. and i guess they did it for the weakness/strength lesson they wanted their students to learn

 

[Kragg]

pokémon yellow followed the anime so pikachu fitted right in there, wh he was made mascot was probably something to do with him being electric type and that sort of fit in with grass/fire/water. heck when it comes to legendary bird/dog trios electricity REPLACES grass.

P.S. If you own Pokémon Yellow HOW did you people beat the first gym leader with pickachu(and maybe a bug/normal pokemon too)

yeah butterfree/mankey afaik

 

[undyingdh777]

It's because he was Ash's starter, and because of that was mass produced on EVERYTHING Pokemon.

 

[Grampy_bone]

The Japanese are obsessed with cute mascot characters and Pikachu fits the bill pretty well. Plus it was a rare pokemon, and it doesn't evolve automatically. So for the show it's ideal since Ash can keep him forever with no one wondering why he doesn't evolve. This also allows them to change up Ash's roster to keep up with the game releases, since he always acquires the various starters. It would be more difficult to avoid evolving a starter like charmander and then keep it all through every season.

For the anime he's a lovable sidekick and partner for Ash, and that's fine. In the games I hate pikachus, they're trash; there are so many better electric types.

 

[syndicated44]

I always thought that if I could, Growlith would be my side kick.

No as Iconic as Pikachu though.
Maybe it's the red cheeks?

That episode with that team rocket guy and his growlithe is incredibly depressing..

To answer your question I guess why not Pikachu? He seems designed for the part (and probably was) he appeals to boys and girls he isnt some humongous death dealing monstrosity from the depths of pokemon hell. Its tough its yellow and shoots lightning and can say Pika in a cute squeaky voice and cuddles up next to you. It is literally perfect for the job.

I honestly cannot think of a pokemon that meets that perfect medium to appeal to boys and girls. And even so his gang still represents the extremes Brock is masculine and Misty was the feminine.

 

[cefm]

Respect the 'Chu, bro. Respect the 'Chu.

 

[o_O]

I don't think Nintendo really intended for Pikachu to become Pokemon's mascot. I'm thinking he was elevated to that position due to the sheer popularity of it among fans, and so it stuck.

Hell, maybe the anime had something to do with it. I can't remember what came first; Pikachu becoming the mascot, or the anime. I'd love to know (with sources to back it up).

 

[gigastrike]

Probably because it's role in the anime is Ash's sidekick

And the question of the thread is why that is.

So... Well, not really a helpful answer.

OT: I guess they wanted a pokemon that wasn't super-rare, but still a bit rare, and that wouldn't evolve. Then of course, because the starter pokemons from the original Pokemon were Fire, Water and Grass, they needed another element for Yellow. Something quite different from those three. Rock was too boring, and there wasn't any cute cuddly pokemons that didn't evolve in that group anyway, so Electricity was really the best option.

Didn't evolve? What do you think Raichu is?

Pikachu doesn't evolve by itself. It needs a thunderstone. Therefore, the show could have Pikachu as an eternal mascot because there wasn't any need for massive plot holes to keep it in its original state.

They didn't have any problems keeping Squirtle and Bulbasaur in their original forms.

First off, the main character in an anime is traditionally characterized by either the fire or lightning element. It's also good that they didn't have Ash choose any of the starters from the game, because it would have caused players to gravitate towards one instead of picking the one that they actually liked. Ruling out Magmar, Electabuzz, Magnemite, and Voltorb for general unlikeability (and Vulpix and Growlithe for being fairly mono-gendered) and you have Pikachu remaining. A pokemon that appeals to both genders, is cute but capable of being tough without looking weird/funny, and is generally likeable.

 

[dekkarax]

Oddly enough, the original mascot was supposed to be Clefairy.

 

[Ren3004]

Yeah, Pikachu even looks cute when he's angry. And of course it couldn't be a very powerful Pokemon, because the show wouldn't be interesting if Ash could just humiliate every foe in his path. So, yeah, I think it was a good choice.

 

[Mana Fiend]

[small]D'aww lookaddit[/small]

Fixed it for ya.

Small improvement?

There's something so very wrong about the entrance to that Pikachu...

I think it's the whole mouse thing. Mice are cute in cartoons, just look at the one in Spirited Away, or Jerry from 'Tom and Jerry'. That, and it'll fry things, which makes Jessie and James easy to defeat without killing them outright.

On the other hand, I'd have Cubone as my starter. It's just adorable!

 

[elvor0]

It's because he was Ash's starter, and because of that was mass produced on EVERYTHING Pokemon.

The point of the question was asking why they decided upon that.

Timeline below:

I-----Nintendo---------------------------Pikachu becomes popular-----------------I
Choose Pikachu

OT: I'm gonna go with the they didn't want to do favoritism to the proper starting pokemon, and pikachu is woefully underpowered so it works as an underdog.

 

[DuplicateValue]

Eevee would have been a good mascot. (S)he's more............unique.

Otherwise, I always liked the water types like Starmi(sp?) and Lapras.

 

[LOZFFVII]

P.S. If you own Pokémon Yellow HOW did you people beat the first gym leader with pickachu(and maybe a bug/normal pokemon too)

Head out west from Vermillion, search the grass until you find a Mankey, capture it, train it until it learns a fighting-type move.

OT:
It's most likely that they chose Pikachu so as to not be biased towards a particular starter. Naturally the three starters at that time would have already had their own fanbases, so Ninty didn't want to play favourites with the fans - hence they chose something neutral (although, I think the Pokemon manga had the main character, Red, chose Charmander).

My favourite of the Gen1 starters would be Charmander and it's subsequent evolutions.
Gen2 would be Cyndaquil/Quilava/Typhlosion.
From that point on the fire-type starters became unappealing (Torchic and Combusken are stupid-looking, but Blaziken is pretty awesome - nothing in the world would make me want to use that stupid monkey).

 

[Dendio]

Given the choice i'd always start out with Eevee instead of pikachu.
His different evolutions can lend to a different feel between games and represent a path to choose.

Plus Eevee can be just as cute as pikachu ;-)

 

[Aureli]

l (although, I think the Pokemon manga had the main character, Red, chose Charmander).

Actually, Red gets bulbasaur in the manga. Blue, Oak's grandson get Charmander and Squirtle is stolen by the third Pallet Trainer Green.

OT: Pikachu is a pokemon that appeals to both boys and girls. (I use my pikachu keychain to get little kids to stop crying at the daycare I work at.) I agree that eevee would have made a good mascot as well, since it now has 7 different evolutions.

 

[gigastrike]

l (although, I think the Pokemon manga had the main character, Red, chose Charmander).

Actually, Red gets bulbasaur in the manga. Blue, Oak's grandson get Charmander and Squirtle is stolen by the third Pallet Trainer Green.

That's pretty messed up. There must have been a decent reason in the story.

 

[Aureli]

Well, the reason is Red goes in to Oak's lab to talk to him about getting a pokedex, and accidentally releases all of Oak's pokemon while looking around. Oak catches him, and they have to go catch all of them, including Bulbasaur, who has wandered all the way to Viridian and is hanging out in the gym. They are attacked by some seemingly wild pokemon, and Red uses his Poliwhirl (His true first pokemon) to protect bulbasaur. Because of this, bulbasaur takes a liking to Red, and Oak gives bulbasaur and a pokedex to Red, along with the mission to completely fill the pokedex.

Also, notice that the trainer's names match their pokemon's weakness.

 

[oppp7]

I'm guessing because they wanted Ash to have a Pokemon that wasn't one of the 3 starters yet cute. I mean, what other Pokemon is cute that isn't one of the starter types or normal-type?