The mascot of the Pokémon universe, Pikachu, has a lot to hide despite his great fame. We take a look at the stuff you probably don’t know about the fan-favorite little yellow Pokémon.
On February 27, we celebrated 25 years of Pokémon. A series that will never fail to touch its fans, whatever the platforms, virtual or not. For more than 25 years, Pokémon has crossed generations and touches more and more kids around the world, in addition to nostalgic and already conquered adults. But how could we pay homage to this legendary license without talking about its mascot, the eternal Pikachu? The famous yellow Pokémon is undoubtedly one of the most famous names in video game history, partly thanks to its very cute side, but also for having been the favorite sidekick of the hero of the extremely popular Pokémon anime. in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And despite his stolen fame, Pikachu still hides a few things from you …
—First, Pikachu shouldn’t even have been Pokémon’s mascot! Originally, Melofee was considered the most suitable Pokemon to become the face of the license, but soon, faced with Pikachu’s insane popularity, the latter finally won the role.. On the other hand, Did you know that to be effective, Pikachu needed a good sleep? So yes, it might sound silly like that, but it’s directly mentioned in its description: if he is tired from lack of sleep, Pikachu will not be as powerful against his enemies. In other words, a Pikachu who will have had his 12 hours of sleep will be even more formidable. What reminds us of cats in real life, who are able to sleep 16 hours a day! You have to sleep well to get out of these devastating electrical attacks. Moreover, when we translate Pikachu from Japanese, it literally means “Mouse crackling with electricity”.
—Pikachu’s tail should not be touched! Even if, cute as he is, we would really like to stroke him … If by misfortune you touch his tail, he will electrocute you as a defense mechanism. By staying in electricity, it’s pretty crazy to think that Pikachu also gave its name to a protein! Discovered by Japanese scientists, Pikachurin is found in the human body, and its job is to transmit electrical impulses from the eyes to the brain. As a tribute to Pikachu (and the obvious relationship with electricity), scientists decided to call it Pikachurin, and it’s the name kept ever since.
—To fully understand how popular Pokémon and Pikachu were in the late 90s, we can look back on several events that took place in Japan. In 1998, a Kansas town named Topeka was renamed ToPikachu for a day by its mayor. One year later, in 1999, Pikachu took second place in Times Magazine’s annual ranking of the most important people of the year. Suffice to say that Pikachu has always met with incredible success, moving from one phenomenon to another first with the first games, then with Pokémon Go in 2016 and the resurgence of the license among the general public.
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