The Pokémon franchise is one of the most profitable in the world. This 90s video game spawned a thriving industry that is still thriving today between anime, manga, video game sagas, light novels, various types of merchandising, and much more. It is so famous that Everyone knows Pikachu by now, the brand’s mascot.
The Ash Ketchum’s first Pokémon in the anime became an icon not just from the anime, but from everything: we see his face on trains, buses, shop windows and even on Skymark’s planes. But do you know which animal Pikachu was born from? Let’s go to discover the origin of the famous Pokémon.
Many believe that Pikachu is inspired by a mouse, and it’s not infrequently called “the yellow mouse”. In an interview with Yomiuri, the character designer for the Pokémon brand Atsuko Nishida revealed what Pikachu’s design is based on seen in the video games Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green.
According to Nishida, Pikachu is actually based on a squirrel. So it remains a rodent, albeit of a completely different nature. “I was really interested in squirrels at the time, so I wanted a character with puffy cheeks. Squirrel tails are cute so I wanted to have a tail. However, I also wanted the character to have electrical elements so I made it in the form of lightning bolts. “
We still see Pikachu in action with the Pokémon anime: Expeditions on Netflix.
