What are your thoughts on Pikachu?

Pikachu's great and all, but I honestly just prefer Raichu. Can you imagine if Ash's Pikachu decided it wanted to evolve? A Pikachu that determined, who has felled legends? That Raichu would be incredible. Of course, Pikachu being the mascot, it kinda naturally has a special place in my heart.

Mind, I actually like Pichu more than Pikachu a little too, but that's pretty much exclusively because of the Pichu Brothers, those street-wise little tykes and their friends are always amusing to watch.

Pikachu is very well designed, but I much prefered its fatter original design where its head and body weren't that separate. I also think he's just a bit too overpromoted. I really like both raichus but I'm not a big fan of pichu. I understand gen 2 added the baby pokemon concept but I don't think he was a necessary addition. I would have preferred gorochu

I been thinking lately as much as I love the Pikachu family, if ever there was a change of mascot I reckon Sneasel/Weavile would fit the mould nicely

Raicheot said:

I been thinking lately as much as I love the Pikachu family, if ever there was a change of mascot I reckon Sneasel/Weavile would fit the mould nicely

Click to expand...

I still feel sorry for clefairy for losing its title. Plusclefable looks cool and I like Cleffa more than pichu

Yeah clefairy was unlucky not to get the lead and I like clefable, I think it could of worked, in the rpg, manga and anime

I'm neutral on Pikachu, I don't hate it but I'm not a huge fan of it either. Despite this, I feel it does work as a mascot because it's both cool and cute as well as it being relatively easy to draw because of its simplicity.

I do prefer Raichu much more though.

Most overrated Pokémon of all time. Pikachu is trash.

Neutral. Pichu is also way cuter.

Pikachu is alright in its own series. I'm not bothered by it getting as much love from Game Freak as it has been, since it's the series mascot and all.

But in Smash? Yeesh. Terrifying.

I like the entirety of the Pikachu line. I especially love Raichu, but I've always felt it was the most under represented of the line. That being said I was pleasantly surprised to see it get some love when they came out with Alolan Raichu. The only thing that annoys me about Pikachu are the copies of it they make every new generation.

Pikachu as a Pokémon is OK. Not one of my favorite but I don't particularly dislike it either. It's cute and fun, and Pikachu as a character is cool too. I liked the story it got on season one of the anime and how it seems like he uses "Pika Pi" when referring to Ash.

I kind of used to despise Pikachu? But I don't know, these days I'm pretty fine with it. I've started collecting a lot of Pikachu merch, so I guess I like him quite a lot more these days than I used to. I might try using one if I restart any Pokemon games from the previous generations, maybe, it has been quite a long time since I've used a Pikachu in battle...

I think Pikachu is absolutely adorable! I love Pikachu's contribution specifically in the anime, its bond with Ash is heartwarming to see! Also, I don't think there could be a better mascot for the brand. However, I do feel that Pichu and Raichu are somewhat underrepresented in comparison to Pikachu.

Unlike some, I actually am fond of the Pikachu "copies" that are introduced in each region. This is because I don't really see them as rip-offs of Pikachu and I think that the majority of them have interesting design concepts. Pachirisu is my favourite by far, it's just a bundle of cuteness.

I already posted here awhile ago, but I'm posting again because mad props to Sun/Moon and Pokemon 2019 animated Pikachu.

The expressions and the way it's animated these days makes it even cuter.

It's funny because I, like many others, feel that the over-milking of Charizard is frustrating, yet I don't feel that way about Pikachu and yet Pikachu also gets a Gigantimax form, 2 Z-Moves, like 20 different forms (hats, X and Y costumes, Let's Go Partner, etc.), an exclusive Item, an exclusive move, and several staring roles in different games.

I think it's in part because Pikachu is the mascot and so a lot of this favoritism is something to expect, whereas with Charizard he's clearly been favored over the other Pokemon he's supposed to share a spotlight with equally: Venusaur and Blastoise. I would also say it's influenced by the fact that, despite GameFreak having complete control over the game's design, none of their Pikachu favoritism has done anything but make him anything more than an extremely gimmicky pick barely worth a slot even in the lowest of tiers.

None of the alternate Pikachu forms do anything to fix Pikachu's problems
Both Z-Moves require you drop the Light Ball which is a blatantly worse choice offensively
Volt Tackle's absurd recoil was entirely unnecessary. Even Raichu is nothing spectacular, so if Volt Tackle was just a move that had no secondary effect it would be far more passable and still wouldn't actually make Pikachu or Raichu too much better competitively. They certainly wouldn't be OP.
I suppose you can have Lightball on Gigantimax Pikachu, but I feel like you'd still go farther with basically any other Pokemon (I also don't acknowledge Gigamax's and Gigantimax's existence personally so I'm not the best judge).

I don't really see a problem in having a mascot Pokemon. I find it a bigger problem that the mascot's so completely awful in the games themselves. Ironically, that story about Clefairy being considered for the mascot over Pikachu would actually have given us a much better mascot in gameplay. Both Clefairy and Clefable are really useful: Clefairy in doubles and Clefable in singles.