Eh, let me tell you a secret. Pikachu is a squirrel! Yah, you thought Pikachu is a mouse right? Turns out that’s not fully true.
During an interview with Yomiuri, Pikachu’s designer, Atsuko Nishida revealed that she had based Pikachu’s design off a squirrel. Not a mouse.
“At that time, I was really into squirrels so I wanted the character to have puffy cheeks” said Nishida. “For example, when hamsters stuff themselves with food, their entire bodies become round, right? But for squirrel’s, it’s just their cheeks.”
Orh, no wonder the original Pikachu looked like this.
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Although the Pokédex lists Pikachu as a ‘mouse’ type, we know the truth now. No wonder Pikachu was always so ‘cheeky’ with Ash!
