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.”
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Orh, no wonder the original Pikachu looked like this.
Although the Pokédex lists Pikachu as a ‘mouse’ type, we know the truth now. No wonder Pikachu was always so ‘cheeky’ with Ash!
