Pikachu tem um papel muito menor em Pokémon Red e Blue (Vermelho e Verde no Japão), mas se tornou o mascote de Pokémon. Por que esse Pokémon se tornou o mascote e não mais ninguém, como o Pokémon inicial ou a Clefairy (o principal Pokémon dos quadrinhos)?
Em um entrevista com a TIME Tokyo entrevista, Satoshi Tajiri, criador de Pokémon, falou sobre como Pikachu apelou para meninos e meninas.
TIME: Pikachu is sort of marginal in the game. But it's now the best-known character. How'd that happen?
Tajiri: When they did the anime, they wanted a specific character to focus on. Pikachu was relatively popular compared with the others and potentially both boys and girls would like it. They heard a lot of opinions about this. It wasn't my idea.
O desenvolvedor Junichi Masuda apontou em uma entrevista na MTV News que o fato de o Pikachu ser um Pokémon legal e raro fazia com que parecesse especial.
One of the planners saw Pikachu and was like, 'This is a really cute Pokemon. Maybe it's not a good idea to have it be a really common Pokemon in the game.' It was a Pokemon he just wanted to catch, just for himself. [The fact that Pikachu] is a rare Pokemon that doesn't show up very often in the wild was another reason [he was popular]. When people actually encountered it, it was a really big impact. It was like, 'Wow, this is a cool Pokemon.' At the same time, in the animation, Ash had Pikachu as his Pokemon, so those two things combined helped the popularity of Pikachu rise."
Do livro 2004 A Aventura Global de Pikachu: A Ascensão e Queda de Pokémon de Joseph Tobin:
Pippi (in English, Clefairy) was selected as the main Pokémon character to make the comic series more "engaging." However, in order to attract younger and female viewers as well as their mothers, Pikachu replaced Pippi as the central character when the Pokémon TV series was introduced in 1997. The pink Pippi was replaced by the yellow, cuddlier Pikachu, whom the producers believed would seem like a more familiar and intimate pet to child viewers.
Novamente de A Aventura Global de Pikachu: A Ascensão e Queda de Pokémon.
There were other reasons as well for the producers' choice of yellow. Because yellow is one of the three basic colors, it is easy for children to recognize Pikachu even from a distance. Furthermore, the only competing yellow character is Winnie the Pooh.
E, é claro, uma vez que o anime ganhou popularidade, Pikachu foi destacado como companheiro de Ash, o que lhe deu a força necessária para continuar como mascote do Pokémon.
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