“Hey! Learn our syntax here.”
- zoom
- jpg (131 KB)
- cred: P.P.
1K
- ↓ 0.95
- ꩜ 2.07
- ↑ 22.00
{C} → Charge
Take 1 {L} Energy card from your discard pile and attach it to Lt. Surge’s Pikachu.
{L}{L} → Lightning Tail : 20
Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed.
illus. Ken Sugimori
External: Bulba ↗ · Shop: TCGplayer ↗, cardmarket ↗, eBay ↗
feyblade
Could it be? Could Lt. Surge be the TRUE master of Spiky Eared Pichu? how on earth did he get her to evolve?
Blob Takeshi
But the wrong ear is spiked. :(
Blob Takeshi
And Spiky Eared Pichu is Female.
DaneeBound
By the year 2000, we still pretended that Pokémon did not have gender differences.
See Chuchu, Yellow’s female Pikachu from the Pokémon Adventures manga, which in every panel up to the HGSS chapters was shown with a regular tail.
To help differentiate Chuchu from Pika, Red’s male Pikachu, the illustrator instead gave her a flower to wear around her ear.
Ambassador
Jagged Eared Pichu is much less about being a gender variation of Pichu and more about being Shoko Nakagawa’s personal mascot in the franchise. She actually just recently (May 2023) retired from being a presenter on Pokemon Sunday, after over 15 years in that role, but her contributions to the franchise are expected to continue on in different ways (In addition to being a host, she’s been a voice actress, singer, et al.)
The Pichu we got was one of several design proposals for the Pichu we ended up getting. I know why it seems like Jagged Ear Pichu might’ve been a gender variation to folks in the west who probably aren’t aware of Nagakawa whatsoever, but had we gotten one of the more drastic variations proposed, such as a white Pichu with black markings, the ambiguity might’ve been avoided. Incidentally, I think I’m realizing for myself now why the Pichu has never been able to be transferred up to later games – while Nakagawa continues to popular as the Pokémon otaku’s otaku and Jagged Ear Pichu came out around the peak of her fame in that context, but making it a transiently available and compatible Pokémon has had the benefit of helping avoid setting any precedent insofar as any fan or employee getting to have a permanent presence in the series.