Games - Pikachu

	Games - Pikachu

Pikachu (ピカチュウ Pikachuu in Japanese, also called Pikachu in German and French) is a fictional character from the Pokémon franchise.

Pikachu is the most popular and notable Pokémon, and is generally regarded as the mascot of the Pokémon franchise, in the same way Link is the mascot of the Legend of Zelda series, or Mario is the mascot for the Super Mario franchise. Pikachu is yellow,with brown stripes on his back and tail. It is obtainable in all of the Pokémon
RPGs on Game Boy systems to date, with a prominent role in Pokémon Yellow. The protagonists of the Pokémon anime, the Pokémon manga series Pokémon Adventures
, Electric Tale of Pikachu and the Ash & Pikachu
manga all own a Pikachu.

Pikachu is voiced by Ikue Otani in all versions of the anime, except in the first episode, entitled "Pokémon, I Choose You!", in which Rachael Lillis provided the voice in cases where another character's voice overlaps Pikachu's.

"Pikachu" is probably a portmanteau, derived from "pika", meaning "spark" or "sparkle" of lightning in the Japanese language, and "chū", an onomatopoeia in the Japanese language for the squeak made by a mouse. Coincidentally, there also is a mouse-like lagomorph that makes its habitat in North America, known as a pika (IPA: , as opposed to in "Pikachu").

The phrase "Pika-pika" is often considered funny, particularly to Japanese speakers' ears. The Japanese expression "pika-pika hikaru" means stroke of lightning; it is also used to denote a small bald spot on the very top of the head still surrounded by hair. "Pika-pika" can also mean "shining" or "shimmering" and denotes the electric element of Pikachu.

Biology

Pikachu are ground-dwelling rodents with an affinity for electricity and lightning. They live in forests and plains, and forage for berries. The glandular pouches residing in its cheeks allow it to charge up and store electricity in chemical form, which it can discharge in bolts of lightning or ball lightning to defend itself from attackers (or attack its foe in a Pokémon battle), but it occasionally discharges electricity to roast a berry to make it tender enough to eat, or simply to keep from overloading. (An inability to discharge electricity in this last way, which is caused by a strong magnetic field, leads to a flu-like illness.) A swarm of Pikachu working together can generate intense electric shocks, and the electro-magnetic forces exerted by the electric field can even conjure a thunderstorm. Pikachu (also Raichu and Pichu) are smart and have good senses of eye sight, smell and hearing.

Pikachu is yellow with brown stripes on its back, black-tipped ears, red cheeks, and has a lightning bolt-shaped tail. It lacks a typical 'natural' evolution but can be evolved via Thunderstone into Raichu. However, Pikachu is so cute that in the anime and various manga, most trainers choose to keep it from evolving. In Pokémon: Yellow Version, Pikachu refuses to evolve: attempting to use a Thunderstone on it makes it cry and refuse. It is numbered as #25 in the National Pokédex. Also, in the second and third generations of the Pokémon games, Pikachu has an evolutionary predecessor, Pichu. Pichu, a baby Pikachu, evolves into Pikachu after establishing a friendship with its trainer.

A Pikachu's tail, which it often raises into the air to distract predators or attract other Pikachu, is an excellent conductor, to the point where a Pikachu can suffer lightning strikes to its tail without any difficulty. A Pikachu can ground out electrical attacks to its body with its tail.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Pikachu ]

Games - Pikachu

Biology

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