Today, The Pokémon Company gave us our first look at an upcoming Pokémon spin-off, Great Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Duo. It stars Pikachu….but not the Pikachu you’re used to.
The trailer, in case you haven’t seen it:
What stands out about this footage is that Pikachu is speaking actual words. Not only that, but Pikachu also has a weirdly deep voice, too. Given the whole detective thing, the voice acting makes sense…and yet. It’s a weird juxtaposition, no? Pikachu is supposed to be high-pitched and cheerful! And so, I couldn’t help my reaction:
Pikachu sounds like he could kill a man. Pikachu sounds like he is gonna mess your shit up. Pikachu sounds like he has some dark secrets that he is trying to drown out with some spiked coffee. Pikachu sounds scary (and also, kind of hilarious).
I am not alone in this reaction. Here’s YouTuber TheJWittz, reacting to Pikachu’s voice:
Relevant bit: “Oh wow. I know they said in the original game announcement that he would have a grizzled detective voice, but I just don’t know if I was quite ready to hear this coming out of a Pikachu.” I like that he pointed out how hilarious it is to hear detective Pika talk to a normal Pikachu.
A couple of comments from that video:
Some comments on the IGN upload of the trailer:
From GameXplain‘s upload of the trailer:
From Twitter:
Wow the quotes from Pikachu in this new game are intense pic.twitter.com/zJLi7SsSIe
— Ryan Benno (@BryanRenno) January 26, 2016
Man, Detective Pikachu is DARK. https://t.co/Ad6mE26erf
— Chris Person (@Papapishu) January 26, 2016
Hard rain beats down “Pika pika” He takes a drag of his cigarette “Pika pika” A flash of light illuminates the corpse on the floor “Pikachu”
— Tom Hatfield (@WordMercenary) January 26, 2016
— Andy Kelly (@ultrabrilliant) January 26, 2016
Always knew if Pikachu could talk he’d sound like a mature Japanese man
— Nibel (@Nibellion) January 26, 2016
— Tim Turi (@timturi) January 26, 2016
And around the web:
[Source: Buzzfeed]
[Source: mrroyaute]
[Source: melon-con-carne]
[Source: teddybearyoshi]
There’s even a Tumblr dedicated to hard-boiled Pikachu stories now, too:
If nothing else, this new Pikachu is certainly an improvement over this monstrosity:
Comments
6 responses to “The New Pikachu Is Freaking People Out, Man”
Personally, I’m waiting for the Departed/Infernal Affairs take.
Pikachu goes undercover for the police force into the mob and Meowth goes undercover FOR the mob into the police force.
What’s Wahlberg doing. He’s not busy surely.
“Ya jawb is to get the Rattata, alright?”
“I’M NAHT A COP” – Pikachu, voiced by Leonardo DiCaprio
Remember when on the Simpsons, bill Cosby talks about Pokemon. I want THAT voice.
Hopefully they keep the deep voice in the English release. Really like the juxtaposition.
That and looking forward to the inevitable Detective Pikachu X Ace At tourney game.
That would be truly glorious.
I wonder if there’s some kind of story to it, a hard-boiled detective that for some reason switched bodies/reincarnated/whatever with a pikachu
Personally, i think this was a missed opportunity to reboot Mario is Missing, lol. Just imagine a noire style story set in the Mushroom Kingdom. 😀
I actually like the voice a lot more than I thought I would, my only problem is when he shows his teeth…terrifying.
Don’t be silly. Our pikachu meets detective ‘chu at the end of the trailer. We know there are other pikachu who evolve into raichu…what’s the problem?