Let's Talk About Pokemon - Pikachu and Raichu

025: Pikachu

Oh boy. There it is. The big cheese itself.

The overexposure that comes with Charizard is about three times as bad with Pikachu. Pikachu and/or Gamefreak just can't help itself. It's gotta be on every little teeny tiny piece of official Pokemon merch. Keychains? Pikachu keychains. Shirts? This grass starter one is nice but we're gonna stick Pikachu on there anyway. Mugs? Pikachu better be on that or I swear to god. Every line of plushies?

Pikachu E V E R Y W H E R E. Pikachu is a marketing machine, getting merchandise left and right. It apparently sells, since they keep over-saturating the Pokemon Center store with that face. I sure feel bad for anyone that likes the less popular Pokemon that almost never get any merch. When's the last time there's been official Dunsparce merchandise?

That tangent aside, Pikachu's kinda cute, and to be fair it's very befitting as a mascot of the whole Pokemon franchise. Its design is the more iconic of all the Cute and Marketable types of Pokemon. The little lightning bolt tail is a striking feature that people that even vaguely have an idea of what Pokemon is can recognize at a glance. And I'm sure making it simple and easy to draw is another, well, draw for the thing. Pikachu being a marketable monster isn't really its fault. Apparently before Pikachu, Clefairy of all things was almost the series mascot. While I do like Clefairy over Pikachu, I can agree with that decision at least. Pikachu's design just works really well for being an icon.

However, Pikachu's gotten thinner and thinner the more the series goes on. What happened to chubby Pikachu? Bring back the fat mouse. Where is he.

ALSO This is a nitpick more than anything but it bugs me how in X and Y, when they updated the cries of older Pokemon, instead of updating Pikachu's cry, they stuck in voice clips from the anime. It's hyper jarring whenever one pops up. And also I much prefer it if Pokemon just made animal noises than just spouting their names. Again, a nitpick but it's there. Good thing as of Scarlet and Violet, it's back to its old cry.

Personal Score: 7/10

026: Raichu

Now THIS is my jam. If anything, I'm grateful Pikachu wasn't made with being a mascot in mind because then it might've not gotten an evolution, and we'd be in a world without Raichu. Which is an objectively worse world. Yes I love Raichu a lot. It's got a rad whip-like tail and I like the coloration a bit better. It keeps all the bits that were good about Pikachu and adds onto that in a way that I love. And not to mention Raichu's thankfully retained most its chubbiness over the years. It's a little thinner, but it's not as bad as Pikachu. It's such a happy, fat mouse and it also looks cool at the same time, what's there not to love about it?

Well, the one major thing I have to criticize about the design is maybe its ears. While unique, it's a bit of an awkward shape. And I can't see I've seen any rodent with ears that look like that. I think it's mostly the little twirl on the lobes that gets to me. They don't fill as satisfying a silhouette as Pikachu's ears do. But that's about it. Otherwise, it's a perfect fattie that I love.

I feel bad for Raichu. Especially stat-wise, it's objectively a better version of Pikachu and yet the yellow rat gets all the franchise's attention anyways. It's like the Luigi of Pokemon. Not only that but in the original anime series, Raichu got portrayed antagonistically in its debut episode. Which of course brainwashed me to resent Raichu for a while. (I was a gullible kid hush) At least until I caved and finally evolved it when Pikachu was starting to feel like dead weight. I felt so filthy. Like I had committed sin and treachery against Pikachus everywhere. It was then that Raichu really grew on me. And this makes Yellow my least favorite of the original games, since you're not permitted to evolve your starting Pikachu ever.

The animal Raichu most resembles is a jerboa, which is a fairly unusual animal to go for in the early stages of Pokemon like this. I can't say I blame them though, jerboas are cute. Both are round, with long legs and very stringy tails with large tufts of fur on the end, which Raichu has in the form of a big cartoon lightning bolt on its tail. Maybe Raichu doesn't have ears as big but it's still the same general shape.

Personal Score: 8.5/10

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