"Start by picking up the palm-sized Nintendo Game Boy, insert the proper cartridge and switch it on. Soon, a creature with a lightning-bolt tail bounces through an animated sequence and pops a cute grin. You have just met Pikachu, the most popular of the Pokémon, a creature--part cherub and part thunder god--that is the most celebrated cartoon icon since Hello Kitty." - "Beware of the Pokemania" by Howard Chua-Eoan and Tim Larimer, Time magazine (22nd November 1999)
And on the subject of the cuteness
of Pokémon, lets take the opportunity
to discuss an answer to this question. Of all of the 150 original species
of Pokémon that existed then, how come the one that was
chosen by the community to be the mascot of the entire franchise was... an odd-looking yellow rodent players occasionally found in the
forests? Why a mammal (which is as big as a big rabbit) that could produce
shocking amounts of electricity ... that also happened to be very cute-looking.
How did a cute, cuddly less-threatening example from the inventory became an
icon of its age, immortalised as a balloon on Macy's
Thanksgiving Parade? Of course, I'm talking about.....
Pikachu. Why
Pikachu?
One answer is how players
first encountered the little fella - in the grass and tree areas of Kanto. An
environment you are exposed to as soon as you leave Pallet Town. But Pikachu
aren't that common (compared to other things like Ratatta and Pidgey)
so encountering a Pikachu will have more sticking power in the memory of
players than the common Pidgey. So when kids first played Red and Green some of them must have said "Have
you seen this electric rodent I found in Viridian Forest?"
So very soon after the games' release Pikachu became quite famous as "that
electric rodent I found in Viridian" (I was lucky to catch one on one
of my few stabs at Pokémon Red, so have an idea why fans would nominate
it as their icon by this factor alone.) But was this deliberate? Was this
social engineering in action or just an accident? I think it was an
accident.
Why? Because of Clefairy.
This pink possible alien featured predominately in the earliest media outside
the games, even becoming a lead character in the first ever Pokémon manga adaptation (the long-running Pokémon
Pocket Monsters by Kosaku Anakubo). It even nearly became Satoshi's first Pokémon in
the pilot episode of
the anime. But this was changed in
the last minute when it came clear (through focus groups) that more fans
related to Pikachu than Clefairy.
So why the change? Here's
my theory. Pikachu easily became the mascot of the franchise due to the great
(and somewhat contradictory) combination of power and cuteness. Pikachu's
bright yellow fur with patches of brown and red cheeks made the rabbit-sized
rodent easy to recognise at a distance, like a New York taxi cab, and (been a
primary colour) made him (Most pikachus we see in the media (especially Ash's)
are male (until a few years ago). Female pikachus have an indent in the tip of
their tails that make it look like a heart-shape.) appealing to young children.
The same logic can be applied to Clefairy. Been pink, Clefairy
could have easily have gained a young female following just by her looks alone
(Its hard to imagine a male Clefairy (admit it)). But Pikachu won out... how?
If you put them side-by-side they look kind-of similar....
A Clefairy and
a Pikachu together -
For a direct
comparison purposes only.
(I didn't make
this gif)
The only reason I could think of why Pikachu became the mascot of the franchise is down to
power! While Clefairy (been a fairy-type) had menacing psychic powers, Pikachu had power that was more relatable in the real world - high-voltage electricity. Although psychic abilities are great and appeal to fantasy-junkies,
nothing beats raw electricity when it comes to the macho-imagination of boys.
To my understanding, girls would like Clefairy and Pikachu just by looks alone,
but the psychic powers (and their modern
transfixion of the colour pink) would skew their
love to Clefairy's favour. However, boys (despite saying otherwise) will
also find the two cute, but they would like Pikachu more because of
his awesome power that can be easily translated into the real world. There is
no need to imagine the damage Pikachu can cause, because it can be demonstrated
in the real world. Something that was easily demonstrated to a child when his
"idiot" friend gains a Darwin Award.
Electricity: Kites public
information film (1989)
You don't see any PIFs about Scanners, further proving my
point.
That was how Pikachu became the No 1 Pokémon among fans. He is a massive destructive
force packaged in a small fur-ball of uber-cuteness any kid
would want to hug....
The aftermath
of an ill-prepared hug of a Pikachu
(here as a
warning for anyone who thinks of doing so).
A cuteness that,
according to Nick from At The Buzzer, could (in the
unlikely event of Pokémon
suddenly becoming real in our world) cause the
end of humanity. Oh, the things people with idle time think about....
All that was needed was
the vocal talent of Ikue
Ōtani in the anime and the creation of a kawaii icon was
complete.
Although, I feel
that Meowth could have easily been a rival
contender in that contest.
I mean, everyone
likes cats, just look how many they are on the internet.
Meowth takes over Robot Chicken's Twitter account (February 2015)
And
Meowth is not alone in this debate. Since Gen 1 a number of Pokémon have come into been that could
challenge Pikachu's role as mascot for the franchise. In September 2015 Warrior13 on
the gaming website supercheats.com compiled this
top 10 of possible candidates.
But
be warned, with fame comes ridicule, as we will revisit Robot Chicken later.
[In June 2016 a Japanese poll asking fans to rank
their favourite species of all the 720 Pokemon that existed at
that point of time revealed that Pikachu's time in the No 1 spot may
be over - the fan favourite was now Greninja.
Pikachu came fourth, after Arceus and Mew. But I
suspect the reason why was due to ninja fans looking for a new icon to
worship after Naruto ended.]
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