[Rant] Raichu: The Unloved Middle-Child Pokemon

[Mr. PBJ]

This is Pikachu.

#25 on the Kanto and National Pokedexes. Mascot of the Pokemon franchise. Most popular Pokemon ever, always handed out at special events. Slightly above average stats and power, not too special. Meet his cousins:

Surfing Pikachu

and

Flying Pikachu.

Always so special, the center of attention, every Poke-N00b on the Planet racing over to Gamestop to get Flying, Surfing, Splashing, Transforming, and Roar of Timing Pikachus, not realizing that stat-wise, it isn't that great of a Pokemon.

Meet Pichu.

#21 on the Johto Dex andd #172 on the National dex. Baby form to the all-mighty lord Pikachu. Prince of the Pokemon franchise. When he was first unveiled in Generation II, he was like the newborn baby to the Pokemon franchise. It was cute, well-designed, and caught the hearts of Pokemon fans worldwide, and unlike its evolved form, I was captivated by it too. Now, like his evolved form, he has cousins of his own!

Meet Pikachu-Colored Pichu

and

Spiky-Eared Pichu.

I'm sorry but lolwut? Pikachu-Colored Pichu? STFU N00B! It's no SPECIAL MYSTICAL PICHU COLORED LIKE A PIKACHU YOU CAN GET NOWHERE ELSE! It's just a Shiny Pichu with a fancy name! A Shiny-Pichu that has, in fact, existed since Generation II, but Nintendo needed more money, so they went and advertised him as the NEW AWESOME PICHU FORME!!!11

But of course Nintendo expected long-time fans to realize they're being scammed! So they found a solution! If you take your Shiny new Pichu over to HG/SS, you get Spiky-Eared Pichu!!!

*facepalm*

Seriously!? Have they gone this low!? A Pichu with a.... Spiky-Ear!? What have they been smoking!? Anyway, moving on...

Meet Raichu.


#26 in both the Kanto and National Pokedexes. Pretty good stats. A great Electric-Type. Also has a much higher base stat than its pre-evolved form. Meet his cousins:

Um... wait... he, um... has no cousins.

Raichu, a really powerful Pokemon, remains unloved and unrecognized by the Pokemon fans and franchise worldwide and never given out with special moves/formes at special events? Hell, if you wanna go with the obvious and say the anime has been controlling what is seen in the games for the last eight years, I won't argue and just say Ash never owned a Pichu. Red had a level 81 (Later 88) Pikachu instead of Raichu, which would of been a lot harder to beat in G/S/C/HG/SS. Raichu needs love, and it needs it now. I'm done ranting now! Good day!

 

[Sith Droideka]

Wrong place, but I agree.

 

[Ino-Chan]

Love how it's called the middle child, when it's technically the oldest, but the point stands.

Raichu does hold a special point in the anime however. It gives Pikachu a reason to beaten senseless in an episode and then kick Raichu's ass the last 5 minutes of the ep. That's Raichu's claim to fame.

 

[Pokestar]

it doesn't learn many level-up moves because it evolves by stone the only pokemon that evolve by stone and still learn a lot of level up moves are the eveelutions and the shiny stone evolvers.

 

[TeamGalacticMercury]

It is a true, but sad story.

 

[Tsurugi]

Agreed. Minor nitpick, Raichu isn't slower than Pikachu. Raichu has base 100 speed while Pikachu has base 90.

 

[Lysandre]

I love Raichu. I imagine that, in some alternate dimension, Raichu is the happy mascot of the Pokemon series and Pikachu is the weird uncle that nobody likes.

 

[batmon]

I agree, when I see Pikachu I get annoyed. Which is why I never play yellow anymore. It always makes me mad when I face Red on GSC and he still has Pikachu, Pikachu is a bum and easy to kill.

 

[Falconwing]

Well, when you stop and consider that it's only big roles in the anime were to prove how awesome and better Pikachu is, and that not many people in game use them, and that he wasn't in Smash Bros...

It's not hard to understand why he gets past over.

Personally, I've never owned one.

 

[Mr. PBJ]

Takes an idiot to realize Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and Lucario are all in SSB because of the anime.

 

[Agent Gryphon]

Raichu is actually my favorite Pokemon so it gets love from me, I don't mind Pikachu and Pichu though. But who knows maybe Raichu will get something

Now I am looking at the Pikachu Shiny Sprite and Normal Pichu shiny... I am sorry but what is the different between the "Pikachu" shiny Pichu and the normal Pichu shiny. Both Pichus look the same, Shiny Pikachus look darker then Shiny Pichu. If they made Pichu Raichu shiny that it would actually look different.

 

[Falconwing]

Takes an idiot to realize Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and Lucario are all in SSB because of the anime.

Well, the anime is what made them popular.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

Always so special, the center of attention, every Poke-N00b on the Planet racing over to Gamestop to get Flying, Surfing, Splashing, Transforming, and Roar of Timing Pikachus, not realizing that stat-wise, it isn't that great of a Pokemon.

Hey, you haven't been taking any lessons from the anime . If you're good enough friends with your Pokemon, stats don't count for #@!$ :lol:.

I like the Surfing Pikachu, personally. Maybe 'cuz it's a carry-over from the old Pokemon Yellow and Pokemon Stadium days, which I really enjoyed.

I'm sorry but lolwut? Pikachu-Colored Pichu? STFU N00B! It's no SPECIAL MYSTICAL PICHU COLORED LIKE A PIKACHU YOU CAN GET NOWHERE ELSE! It's just a Shiny Pichu with a fancy name! A Shiny-Pichu that has, in fact, existed since Generation II, but Nintendo needed more money, so they went and advertised him as the NEW AWESOME PICHU FORME!!!11

I don't think they really advertised it as a "new form", all its own. "Pikachu-colored Pichu" was simply what they called the promotional giveaway, maybe because they thought it would attract more people than saying "Shiny fateful-encounter Pichu to unlock some other Pichu". And even though shiny Pichus have been around since Gen II, they weren't always colored like Pikachu. This is the shiny Pichu sprite of Crystal:

If anything, the Pichu and Pikachu sprites of Gen II were colored more or less the same as eachother, with their shiny sprites both being darker. Maybe it was due to the limited color palettes of the GBC, but Pichu only seemed to become significantly lighter than Pikachu from Gen III onwards.

 

[Aladar]

Yeah, that's all true.

But, personally, I love Raichu as much as I do Pikachu. In fact, I'm prone to capturing a Pikachu as soon as I can, level it up to 40-50 lv and then evolve it to face the E4.

But why don't they give us some kind of Raichu, too? A skating Raichu would be cool.

 

[The Outrage]

it doesn't learn many level-up moves because it evolves by stone the only pokemon that evolve by stone and still learn a lot of level up moves are the eveelutions and the shiny stone evolvers.

Togekiss was mostly Move-Relearner so I don't think that really counts.

 

[Moises]

I guess for now, you can just evolve your event Pikachu.

 

[PDL]

I find it utterly ridiculous that people assume that Raichu is unloved. Consider the amount of fanart and love in the fandom itself it receives.

Try to find any given fan-made trainer. Look at how many of them have a Rachiu on their teams, heck, look at all the anthromorphic characters based on it.

Raichu is indeed loved... Just not by the offical franchise.

Besides, count it as a blessing because if Raichu was treated like Pikachu and Pichu, the entire line would have been reviled by the fanbase, rather then just Pikachu and Pichu.

 

[pikmin]

flying/surfing pikachu + thunderstone= flying/surfing raichu.
nuff said.

edit: moises beat me.

 

[Mr. PBJ]

Now I am looking at the Pikachu Shiny Sprite and Normal Pichu shiny... I am sorry but what is the different between the "Pikachu" shiny Pichu and the normal Pichu shiny. Both Pichus look the same, Shiny Pikachus look darker then Shiny Pichu. If they made Pichu Raichu shiny that it would actually look different.

There is no difference. Literally. As I said in the OP, it's just a Shiny Pichu with a Fancy name. Why? Nintendo wants money, that's why.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

There is no difference. Literally. As I said in the OP, it's just a Shiny Pichu with a Fancy name. Why? Nintendo wants money, that's why.

Except the event giveaways are free. And the PCP giveaway wasn't even a Platinum exclusive, so people could receive it with the Diamond/Pearl game they bought back in 2007.

And I seriously doubt many people bought Hg/Ss just so they could catch a spiky-eared Pichu, especially when it can't even be traded to their existing game.