Any franchise with a lore as deep and varied as Pokémon will draw from a range of sources when seeking inspiration; an ever-growing Pokédex along with a lot of games, films and anime episodes make that a necessity.
It can be interesting, then, to learn about the diversity of the references to be found in the games, and the Did You Know Gaming channel has taken on the challenge of highlighting some key examples of real-life mythology featured in the franchise. There are a number of sources of inspiration from Japan, as would be expected, but also from various other religions and cultures from around the world.
Check it out below; it's a relaxing way to kick off another week.
Comments 15
Interesting stuff.
And here I thought Infernape was a journey to the west reference. They do like to combine certain ideas whenever possible though.
Little known fact: Pikachu was originally a reference to the South African "inventor" of electricity: 'Pik A. Schoen'. Inventor is intentionally put in quotation marks, because Pik claimed he invented it in the late 80s, when he was just 23 years old. We'll never know if he indeed invented it, my guess is he didn't, but his name will forever live on through Pikachu.
@Boerewors Really? I'd always considered the reasoning that, "Pikachu is a combination of ピカピカ pikapika (onomatopoeia for sparkle) and チューチュー chūchū (the sound of squeaking)*" more easy to swallow, as well as more widely accepted, AND being the official line of executive producer Satoshi Tajiri**.
Similar nomenclature can be found in SEGA's puzzle game, 'ChuChu Rocket!', where the player must guide a series of space mice called ChuChus into rockets. The mouse/squeak-squeak/chu-chu/チューチュー link again.
If there really is a 'Pik A. Schoen', then I don't believe the similarities are anything more than coincidence.
Incidentally, where did you hear about the 'fact'? I'll grant you that it's "little known" as not even Google seems to recognise the name 'Pik A. Schoen'.
*http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pikachu_(Pokémon)
**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikachu
See also:
http://jisho.org/search/ピカッと
http://jisho.org/search/チューチュー
@Boerewors Yeah Maxz is right. I never heard of this guy but I always have heard of the name getting put together the way Maxz described it.
@Maxz
I'm actually glad I made up that fact, cause your story is quite interesting. Not only did I learn the possible origin of Pikachu's name, I also know that I need to use more emoticons from now on!
Pik A. Schoen tragically died in 2008 while he was working on his latest invention he called InterWeb, that would have made it possible for people with computers to communicate with eachother via 'interpost', make 'interwebareas' where you could display news for others to read for example and even have something he called 'Webflicks' where videos could be shown of cats and babies.
@dadajo
Am I the victim of 2 trolls or are you guys serious?
@Boerewors Sorry sorry sorry. My irony radar completely broke. I read the first sentence, and didn't really pay attention to the patently ridiculous 'facts' that followed.
I saw, 'Pikachu's etymology comes from 'NAME', which sounded like a legitimate enough theory to have gained traction around the internet, which set me off like a raving, pompous, fact-obsessed idiot. "I must right this wrong, and quell the tides of misinformation!", I thought in my addled, Pokemon-based-etymological frenzy.
So yeah, I was genuinely being serious. And now I'm genuinely embarrassed. Ooph... :s
Anyway, that IS the legitimate history of Pikachu's name... so, er... I guess that's that non-existant dispute settled.
@Maxz
Haha, don't be! I learned quite some interesting things in the process and you'll never forget Pik A. Schoen, a fictional and delusional South African inventor.
Me and my brothers always come up with stories like these about fictional birds names or Rugby players for instance that sound like they could be real. If we go hiking we can talk hours about animals that don't exist, but could based on our description, or when we're watching a game in our local pub we talk about fictional rugby, cricket or soccer players from the 70's who weren't such cry babies or wannabe models/ popstars as the modern day athletes.
@Boerewors Yeah, fictional Rugby players from the '70s were the best Rugby players.
And it's true I'll never forget Pik A. Schoen, the purported South African inventor of electricity.
@Boerewors lol, i thought you were serious as well.
@Boerewors
That is a grade A troll. Nicely done, you even had me fooled!
@Nintendo_Ninja @Danny429
I'm sorry you guys
HHD FTW!
@Nintendo_Ninja lol you don't have to be sorry! i found it rather funny!
Interesting stuff, as always!
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