this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
536 points (100.0% liked)
aww
29368 readers
34 users here now
A place with minimal rules for stuff that makes you go awww! Feel free to post pics, gifs, or videos of cats, dogs, babies, or anything cute and remember to be kind to others.
AI posts must be labeled [AI] in the title and are limited to one per week.
While posting and commenting in this community, you must abide by instance-wide rules: https://mastodon.world/about
- No racism or bigotry.
- Be civil: disagreements happen, but thatdoes not provide the right to personally insult others.
- No SPAM posting.
- No trolling of others.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I didn’t know that Pikachu was a pika… I thought it was the only starter whose name was really random! My life has been a lie
Yeah, why did I always hear him referred to as an “electric mouse”?
Pika is also the Japanese onomatopoeia for spark
Man video games seem way more creative when I don't understand the language
Yeach superheroes were much cooler before i knew spiderman literally meant spider-man. Sounded way more cool and american before i knew english properly.
LMAO oh no. I forgot it worked in reverse.
I think it is supposed to be a mouse (Meowth of Team Rocket being a cat chasing a mouse btw), but I'm pretty sure its name is still a reference to pikas.
Pikas don't have tails so that doesn't really fit for an origin of Pikachu's design. I think the name is a coincidence.
Then let me blow your mind by telling you that "chu" is an old-timey Chinese word for "tail", which is a fact I completely made up just now but wouldn't that be cool!
The tail just shows what element it is. That probably just added it cuz it's cute