# Detective Pikachu Detective Pikachu is a 2016 Nintendo 3DS spin-off that recast the electric mouse as a coffee-drinking, gruff-voiced sleuth partnered with a human sidekick. The talking Pikachu design shocked longtime fans and drove a wave of confused reaction posts online, eventually growing into a 2019 live-action film starring Ryan Reynolds. ## Overview Detective Pikachu is a Pokémon mystery-puzzle game developed by The Pokémon Company and published by Nintendo for the 3DS handheld[1]. The title flips Pikachu from a wordless cuddly mascot into a hard-boiled talking sleuth who partners with a human sidekick named Tim to solve cases around a place called Ryme City[6]. Motion capture was used to animate the character's facial expressions and speech, giving the tiny rodent a mouth that actually moves when it talks[3]. The game shipped in Japan under the title Meitantei Pikachu: Shin Konbi Tanjyou, meaning Great Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Duo[2]. Fans latched onto the visual gag of a small electric mouse voicing itself like a noir gumshoe, and screenshots of the grumpy detective spread quickly across Twitter, Reddit and Pokémon fan sites once the first trailer landed[4]. The whole joke of Detective Pikachu is the gap between the soft cartoon body and the middle-aged growl coming out of it[6]. ## How It Spread After the teaser, English-speaking fans piled onto the concept online. Kotaku, Polygon and Engadget all ran early stories flagging how strange it was to hear Pikachu talk after nearly two decades of pika-pika babble[7]. Screenshots of the character's grumpy expressions became reaction-image fodder, and the coffee-drinking bit was quoted repeatedly in Twitter jokes[2]. The English localization of the game arrived on March 23, 2018 for Nintendo 3DS, promoted by a fresh trailer that introduced Ryme City, Tim's missing father, cafe owner Pablo, inspector Frank, and a Mimikyu cameo[6]. Reactions to Pikachu sounding like an older man stayed mixed even in this second wave of coverage[6]. The viral moment came with the live-action film. Warner Bros. dropped the first Detective Pikachu trailer on November 12, 2018, and it pulled more than 483,000 views inside a few hours[4]. Reddit lit up with a thread in r/movies past 35,000 points, one in r/Pokemon above 16,000, and one in r/Nintendo over 7,100[4]. Twitter user @akfamilyhomeak posted a side-by-side comparing a still from the trailer to the Surprised Pikachu image macro that pulled over 4,100 retweets and 11,000 likes[4]. Ryan Reynolds' casting had been announced back in December 2017, and the movie hit theaters on May 10, 2019 under director Rob Letterman with Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton co-starring[5]. ## How to Use The Detective Pikachu joke rides on the visual mismatch between the soft Pokémon design and the gravelly voice coming out of it[6]. People typically pair a screenshot of the character with a caption written in noir-detective phrasing, or splice audio of the deep voice over footage of the traditional cute Pikachu. Reaction posts often lean into the horror of Pikachu being able to talk at all, treating the update as an uncanny break from the original 1996 design[7]. When the 2018 live-action trailer landed, the common convention was to quote-tweet a Reynolds-Pikachu still with a bewildered one-liner or a comparison to another Pikachu meme[4]. ## Cultural Impact The most-repeated fan reaction to the live-action trailer was disbelief that Ryan Reynolds' voice was actually coming out of a fuzzy Pikachu[6]. A Change.org petition asked Nintendo to instead cast Danny DeVito in the role, riffing on how well his gravelly delivery would suit a hard-boiled Pikachu[8]. The row over the film's fur-covered Jigglypuff design also spread through Pokémon fan communities, with users split between calling it disturbing and defending it as the least-bad alternative to an all-skin puffball[4]. Writer Sarah Jeong even filed the Reynolds casting under her list of the weirder happenings of 2018[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Detective Pikachu? It's a 2016 Nintendo 3DS mystery game where Pikachu appears as a talking, coffee-drinking detective who solves cases with a human partner named Tim[1]. ### Where did Detective Pikachu come from? The Pokémon Company started work on the game in mid-2013 and Nintendo trademarked the title Great Detective Pikachu in November 2013[3]. ### What does Detective Pikachu mean? In the game's context it refers to a hard-boiled sleuth version of Pikachu who can speak in a deep male voice, a first in the character's 17-year history[7]. ### How do you use Detective Pikachu? Online, people typically post a still of the character with noir-style dialogue or joke about the mismatch between his cute body and gruff voice, often citing the 2018 trailer[6]. ### Is Detective Pikachu still popular? The game and film are classic reference points in Pokémon fandom, and the trailer moment from November 2018 is still cited as a peak weird gaming crossover[4]. ### When did the original Detective Pikachu game come out? The Japanese eShop version launched on February 3, 2016 at 1,500 yen, and the North American 3DS release followed on March 23, 2018[2]. ### Who voices Detective Pikachu in the movie? Ryan Reynolds, whose casting was announced in December 2017 for the 2019 live-action film directed by Rob Letterman[5]. ### Why did fans want Danny DeVito to voice Detective Pikachu? A Change.org petition argued DeVito's gravelly delivery would fit the noir-style Pikachu better than Reynolds after the trailer dropped[8]. ### What is the Japanese title of Detective Pikachu? Meitantei Pikachu: Shin Konbi Tanjyou, which translates to Great Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Duo[2]. ### How did fans react to the 2018 movie trailer? Reactions were mixed: the trailer hit more than 483,000 views in hours and topped 35,000 points on r/movies, but users also mocked the fur-covered Jigglypuff and the deep Pikachu voice[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.polygon.com/2016/1/26/10832782/great-detective-pikachu-trailer-release-date-nintendo-3ds]() 2. [https://kotaku.com/first-look-at-the-talking-pikachu-detective-game-in-act-1755151778]() 3. [https://www.engadget.com/2013/11/07/report-nintendo-trademarks-mysterious-great-detective-pikachu/]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/detective-pikachu]() 5. [https://variety.com/2017/film/news/live-action-detective-pikachu-release-1202636823/]() 6. [https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/23/17043814/detective-pikachu-talking-voice-man]() 7. [https://kotaku.com/pikachu-gets-a-speaking-role-in-upcoming-pokemon-detec-1453555155]() 8. [https://www.change.org/p/nintendo-nintendo-of-america-get-danny-devito-to-voice-the-english-version-of-detective-pikachu]() 9. [https://kotaku.com/sneak-peek-at-the-new-pikachu-game-is-scary-1449902256]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/detective-pikachu Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library