Everyone who watched Pokémon anime knows that Ash Pikachu packs a lot of personality along with those Thunderbolts. What they may not know is that Pikachu has a secret talent: he’s a master of impressions.
When Pikachu needs to communicate complex ideas, it can get a little difficult. Pikachu has certain phrases that have a clear meaning (e.g. “Pika Pi” usually refers to Ash) but sometimes that is not enough to get the idea clear. In those situations, Pikachu shows off his impressive skills, being able to mimic the look of almost any Pokémon (and even some people) just by grimacing or crouching. The impressions are enough for Pikachu to be able to realize the general idea by doing this and acting out what happened. This skill of his has never been better shown in the episode “All Dressed Up With Somewhere to Go!”
Pikachu revealed hidden talent
In that episode, Ash signs up for the “Pokémon Dress Up Contest” with Dawn and Brock, but he struggles to decide who to enter. That’s when Pikachu steps up and does his tricks, making himself look like some of Ash’s other Pokémon to show off his skills. Ash chooses Pikachu for the contest, giving Pikachu an opportunity to show off his talents to the world. Pikachu then put on an even more impressive performance for the audience, winning all the judges. While Brock won the competition overall, Pikachu and Ash took second place.
Of course, that’s not the only episode where Pikachu’s talent plays a big part. In “The Stun Spore Detour”, Ash tripped and crashed his head on Vileplume’s flower, which was blown in the face by the Stun Spore and paralyzed him. Pikachu runs to Misty for help, and is able to create an impression of Ash and re-enact what happened, successfully helping him. Similarly, when Ash’s Turtwig wanders around in “Mass Hip-Po-Sis”, Pikachu’s imitation of Turtwig helps the group realize what happened and causes them to start looking for it before leaving.
Why can Pikachu impress?
Pikachu’s ability to impersonate and impress is certainly one of its more exotic traits, but from a writing perspective, it would make the episode’s story a lot more fluid if Pikachu could convey it. quickly and accurately complex ideas with human characters. This is also a pretty consistent trait, as Pikachu first appeared in the first season of the anime, and it was recently featured in the miniseries The Arceus Chronicles, just a few dozen episodes from the series’ finale. Pikachu usually does it just for fun and it seems like it’s a talent he had long before he met Ash.
While PikachuMay’s secret talent may not have won it Pokémon During the competition, it saved him on many occasions, making it perhaps his most useful ability besides Electric attacks.