Ash's Pikachu (Japanese: サトシのピカチュウ Satoshi's Pikachu) is the signature Pokémon of the Pokémon anime, and the first Pokémon that Ash obtained on his journey as a Pokémon Trainer. While now a beloved mascot of a multi-million franchise, the original anime scriptwriter Takeshi Shudo had quite preposterous plans for the character for the ending of the original series.
In a blog post written in 2009 (before passing on in 2010), Shudo discussed his experiences writing for Pokémon, sharing a lot of new behind-the-scenes information. Among these revelations were two possible endings he had thought of for the anime. Besides the "Ash becoming an old man looking back at his childhood journeys" ending, the other planned finale, which would have served as the fourth movie, would see Ash's Pikachu to lead a "Spartacus-like rebellion" against mankind.
The plan was quenched primarily due to The Pokémon Company stepping in, as not only would have that story been antithetical against the original purpose of the game(s), it would have severely derailed the Pokémon anime, which was a key medium in the franchise's blockbuster success and profit.
Behind the scenes[]
Takeshi Shudo was prestigious, albeit also a rather infamous anime scriptwriter. Before taking his duties for the 1997 Pokémon Anime, he was mainly known for Magical Princess Minky Momo, a magical-girl anime franchise perhaps best known for the infamous ending of the first series, where Momo loses her powers and dies after being hit by a truck, which was devised by Shudo & Ashi Productions when they found out that the show was cancelled.
In his 2009 blog post discussing his experiences in writing Pokémon, Shudo talks about various colorful plans he had for the series. He often wanted to explore quite radical ideas, but was often prevented by the Pokémon Company from doing so. When the first Pokémon movie was being developed, the "Pokémon Shock" incident occurred and the series was disbarred from Japanese televisions for four months. This actually gave Shudo additional time (and less supervision) to write the first Pokémon movie into a darker experience - notably the intro where Mewtwo kills his creators.
The first movie was a huge success, which secured Shudo more creative freedom, especially while writing the second movie - including famously becoming the creator of Lugia.
The fourth unmade movie[]
While he was unable to work on the fourth Pokémon movie (which would have ultimately become Celebi: The Voice of the Forest), Shudo had outlined ideas for what he wanted to explore in the original fourth movie, as well as having a clear intent to making it the anime series' actual finale. Shudo himself acknowledged that his idea "would break the rules of the Pokémon world and make it impossible for the series to continue", and that if the story was produced, "it would literally have to be the last episode ever".
According to Shudo; "The Pokemon would stage a rebellion much like Spartacus in ancient Rome. Although at first glance, Pokémon appear to be friends with humans, they would realize they're actually being used like slaves, which would lead to an uprising".
In this plan, he envisioned Ash's Pikachu to be the one spearheading the revolt, with Ash forced to try bring his life-long companion down by any means necessary. Team Rocket were meant to use Meowth as a translator for the Pikachu's revolt. But in a unfortunate twist, it would have only made things worse.
Prior to the fourth movie, Shudo had explored the ideas that were to found the building blocks of the fourth movie in the anime. These include:
- EP019 / Tentacool & Tentacruel: in which Tentacruel would attack a human settlement, and using Meowth as the translator.
- EP086 / Pikachu Re-Volts : where Ash's Pikachu (and Misty's Togepi) join a group of angry Pokémon. Here, the cause is a Drowzee used by Butch and Cassidy of Team Rocket.
- Mewtwo in the first Pokemon movie. Though, the plan to rebel against humans is a plot-point created in the English translation.
Furthermore; while not outright identified as "having malicious intent" in-universe, Ash's Pikachu often exhibited rather defiant and mean disposition in the early anime, which may have been setting up to its intentions of uprising. Pikachu was unwilling to take Ash's orders early on, mocking him, as well as prone to electrocuting others. There is also a scene from the anime where Pikachu refuses to save Meowth from drowning and expresses frustration when Meowth manages to survive and not die.
Shudo ultimately abandoned the script due to being pigeonholed by the Pokémon Company, and the uprising story being the only idea he could think of.
Aftermath[]
Eventually, Shudo stepped down from his duties, with his final piece of work for Pokémon was in 2002, writing the screenplay for the 244th episode of the anime, Enlighten Up!.
As a result, the series started to undergo a certain tonal shift. With Pikachu becoming even more toned down. Notably, Shudo leaving caused a the plot regarding the GS Ball go unaddressed, as well as being associated as the reason the Johto season is considered quite stale.
It is also worth mentioning that in the games set in Unova, Team Plasma's puppet leader N's plan is to "liberate all Pokemon", feeling them to be being exploited and enslaved by humans, which is in vein of Takeshi Shudo's observations and plans for the original fourth movie. In-fact, with Shudo having died 2010 and with Pokémon Black/Pokémon White introduced the year later, it could be assumed that N might be some kind of tribute to Shudo.