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Pichu is also considered to be a Pikachu clone in and of itself, not just a pre-evo.
>Sugimori: “In every generation, we have a cute electric type Pokémon that fills the Pikachu role. In the spirit of this tradition, we’ve created Pichu, Plusle, Minun, and Pachirisu. They’re all following in the footsteps of a true star (laughs). This Pokémon’s only purpose is its cuteness. We create other Pokémon with the mindset that simply being cute isn’t enough, but this one really just has to be cute and that’s all.”
>Sugimori: “This time we wanted to combine the Electric type with one more type, and we decided that it would be based on a flying squirrel. We thought that a Pikachu-like creature soaring in the sky would look interesting and very picturesque, so we made it look like Emolga is wearing a cape, and the resulting design was extremely cute. In this generation, we had the advantage of using animated sprites, so we were able to show him gliding. I think the result is great.”
