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Today’s mailbag contains a question from one of our readers: Miran Öztekin from Turkey!

Miran Öztekin, Turkey:

“Some people say [that the] real Pikachu is pink! Is this true?”

Thanks for your question, Miran! In order to answer it, I looked through a range of different Pokémon media and attempted to find any sign of a pink Pikachu. 

I felt confident enough that I had never come across a pink Pikachu in any of the mainline games, so I decided to look into Pokémon Stadium 2, where it was reported that nicknamed Pokémon can have different colours. There was no sign of a pink Pikachu here, but I did discover a very detailed guide on the topic by someone called Fëanen that you may wish to check out!

I then decided to check Pikachu’s palette swaps, sprites, trophies and alternate costumes across the Super Smash Bros. series, which also resulted in zero pink Pikachu found.

Finally, I turned to the Pokémon anime in the hope of finding something from episodes I watched as a kid. In season 2, episode 34 of the Pokémon anime titled "In the Pink", Ash, Misty and Tracey travel to Pinkan Island, located in the Orange Archipelago, where all the Pokémon are pink! Bulbapedia had a collection of pictures featuring all the pink Pokémon from the episode, and there was no sign of a pink Pikachu on the page. I decided to watch the episode for myself, and to my surprise, there was a pink Pikachu, well… kind of!

Pikachu from the Pokémon anime episode "In the Pink" eating a Pinkan berry, which turns his tail a bright shade of pink!

In the episode, Ash’s Pikachu eats a Pinkan berry from one of the trees that grow on the island, and is the reason the Pokémon turn pink in the first place. Officer Jenny explains to Ash that the colour change isn’t permanent unless the Pokémon eat the berries all the time, to his relief.

So while it was a temporary change, I am confident enough to say that Pikachu IS pink, although only partially, and only for this one specific Pikachu and episode, that I am currently aware of. Who knows, maybe we will see a pink variation of Pikachu in the future?