‘Pokemon’ Has The Best ‘Star Trek’ Easter Egg You Never Heard Of

These days, it seems Pokemon is blowing up bigger and bigger. The franchise is living large with its latest game, and fans are riding the high of Detective Pikachu‘s first trailer. Now, fans are digging deeper into Pokemon to keep the hype train going, and it seems one impressive easter egg has resurfaced.

After all, Pokemon has shown itself to be a die-hard Star Trek fan, and readers cannot believe they didn’t know that until now.

The whole thing dates back to a complicated piece of manga history. The Electric Tale of Pikachu stands as one of Pokemon’s most well-known stories, and it introduced fans to Jean Luc Pikachu.

You know, like Jean Luc Piccard? The captain of the USS Enterprise-D? Does that ring a bell?

As you can see above, Pokemon really did make the covert Star Trek reference back in The Electric Tale of Pikachu. The creature was introduced after Ash Ketchum defeated Brock at the Pewter Gym. The win puts the trainer in a good mood, prompting Misty to tease him a bit. It was there the girl asked Ash if he had named his Pikachu… and it turns out he named his buddy Jean Luc.

Of course, the name doesn’t stick, but the panel itself is a clear nod. Jean Luc Pikachu is seen looking plenty happy, and he’s even given a badge which resembles the Starfleet logo. Also, Pikachu’s gold coloring would fit him right in with anyone on the Command track, giving him the chance to rub tail with guys like Piccard.

So, are you in love with this out-of-world reference? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

If you haven’t kept up with the franchise, Pokemon the Series: Sun & Moon is its latest anime venture. The hit series is described as follows, “What starts as a summer vacation in the tropical Alola region turns into the next exciting chapter in Ash Ketchum’s quest to become a Pokémon Master! There’s plenty for Ash and Pikachu to explore in this sunny new region, with exciting new Pokémon to discover and interesting people to learn from along the way—including the cool Professor Kukui and the fun-loving Samson Oak.

More new faces will help guide Ash’s Alolan adventure, in the form of a group of skilled Trainers—Kiawe, Lana, Mallow, and Sophocles—and a mysterious research assistant called Lillie. Frequent foes Team Rocket have also made the trip to Alola, looking to swipe some high-powered new Pokémon. But they have some heavy competition on the villainy front: the ruffians of Team Skull, who delight in causing chaos and may have more sinister intentions…”