Pikachu-family Pokémon

The Pikachu-family Pokémon, also known as Electric Rodents or Pikaclones are an iconic set of Pokémon, each Generation featuring the debut of a Pikachu family, with the first two being Pikachu and its evolution, Raichu.

The term "Pikachu-family" is not an official term; it is a fan-made term, similar to the term "Eeveelution".

Traits

Every member is an Electric-type rodent or similar animal. All have cheek pouches and resemble one another in some way. With the exception of the Pikachu family, they do not evolve. Further, they are all in the Field and Fairy egg groups, with the exception of Plusle and Minun, which are just in the Fairy egg group, Emolga is only in the Field egg group, and Pichu, being a baby Pokémon, is in the Undiscovered egg group. All members keep their Japanese name as their English name.

Members

• Pikachu (Generation I)
  • Partner Pikachu (Generation VII)
  • Gigantamax Pikachu (Generation VIII)
• Raichu (Generation I)
  • Alolan Raichu (Generation VII)
• Pichu (Generation II)
• Plusle (Generation III)
• Minun (Generation III)
• Pachirisu (Generation IV)
• Emolga (Generation V)
• Dedenne (Generation VI)
• Togedemaru (Generation VII)
• Morpeko (Generation VIII)
• Pawmi (Generation IX)

Anime

• Ash's Pikachu, when he was a Pichu.
• Ash's Pikachu.
• Ash's Gigantamax Pikachu.
• Dawn's Pachirisu.
• Iris' Emolga.
• Clemont and Bonnie's Dedenne.
• Sopholces' Togedemaru.
• James' Morpeko in Full Belly mode.
• James' Morpeko in Hangry mode.
• Goh's Pikachu.
• Goh's Raichu.

1/11

Main

• Ash received a Pikachu as his very first Pokémon and can even Gigantamax. Before Ash owned him, Pikachu was once a Pichu, as seen in a flashback prior to the series' first season.
• Dawn caught a Pachirisu as she uses in a lot of her contests.
• Iris caught an Emolga when she decided to travel with her.
• Clemont caught a Dedenne on Bonnie's behalf so she can take care of him and she even decided to have him as her partner when she becomes a Trainer.
• Sophocles has a Togedemaru that he received prior to the series.
• Team Rocket had a Morpeko with them for a while until James decided to catch it.
• Goh caught his own Pikachu but he evolved her into a Raichu with a Thunder Stone.

Recurring

• Ursula has a Plusle and Minun.
• Tierno owns a Raichu.
• Hau has an Alolan Raichu.

Trivia

• Currently all generations have introduced at least one Pikachu-family Pokémon.
• Throughout each generation:
  • Generation II is the only generation to introduce a new member that was not an entirely new species: in this case, Pichu.
    • However, the Pokémon Marill introduced in this generation shares multiple features with the other members of this family, and has been seen as a Pokémon similar to the Pikachu-family Pokémon, though it lacks the Electric-type characteristic.
  • Generation III is the only generation to introduce two new similar members: in this case, Plusle and Minun.
  • Generation V is the only generation to repeat a species to its introduced member albeit in a different manner; in this case, Emolga is a flying squirrel while Pachirisu is a land squirrel.
    • In addition, Emolga was the first Pikaclone to be a dual type. In this case, it is an Electric/Flying-type Pokémon.
  • Generation VII is the only generation to introduce an alternate form of one Pokémon belonged to a prior generation, in this case Alolan Raichu.
  • Generation VI introduces the smallest rodents, namely Dedenne respectively.
  • Generation VIII is the only generation to introduce a Pikaclone that can change forms, in this case Morpeko.
• Pikachu is the only Pikachu-family Pokémon who is part of an evolutionary line.
• In Generation I, Raichu was originally going to have an evolution called Gorochu (Japanese: ゴロチュウ Gorochū), however, it was removed for multiple reasons. It had large fangs and a horn.
• All of the dual-type Pikaclones (with the exception of Alolan Raichu) have a type immunity:
  • Emolga, being part Flying type, is immune to Ground-type attacks.
  • Dedenne, being part Fairy type, is immune to Dragon-type attacks.
  • Togedemaru, being part Steel type, is immune to Poison-type attacks.
  • Morpeko, being part Dark type, is immune to Psychic-type attacks.
• Ever since Generation IV, in the anime, a companion/friend of Ash has a Pikachu-family Pokémon on their team or as a partner coinciding with the current generation of mainline Pokémon games. Dawn has a Pachirisu, Iris has an Emolga, Clemont has a Dedenne and Sophocles has a Togedemaru. The trend of the rodent Pokémon owned by one of the main protagonist was broken in Generation VIII:
  • Goh (Ash's primary traveling companion) does not own a Morpeko, or at least not yet. However, he did own a Pikachu which later evolved into an original Kantonian Raichu.
  • This role is somewhat fulfilled by Chloe's Yamper, who is also an Electric-type Pokémon, though he is not a Pikachu-family Pokémon.[
  • James' Morpeko from Team Rocket could be counted, although this marks the first time the anime has a Pikaclone who is owned by an antagonistic group.
• Due to its visual similarities and being deliberately based on Pikachu, Mimikyu could also be seen as a Pikachu-family Pokémon, though it does not meet most of the requirements or similarities to other Pikaclone Pokémon.
• From Professor Laventon's Pokédex entry about Pachirisu being related to Pikachu, it is heavily implied that the other Pikachu-family members are closely associated with the Pikachu evolutionary line itself despite them not having any evolutionary forms.

Gallery

Pikachu

Partner Pikachu

Gigantamax Pikachu

Raichu

Alolan Raichu

Pichu

Plusle

Minun

Pachirisu

Emolga

Dedenne

Togedemaru

Morpeko

Dream

Anime

Ursula's Plusle and Minun

Tierno's Raichu

Hau's Raichu