Pikachu [SPOILERS] in New Pokemon Movie

The newest Pokemon movie is out in Japan, and spoilers are starting to make their way out into the wild. We’ve already covered the shocking (and temporary) death in the movie, as well as the surprising replacement of two key characters of the anime, but there’s one other key moment in the film that we haven’t covered yet.

One of the key facets of the Pokemon anime world is that most of its Pokemon have a very limited vocabulary. With the exception of Meowth and a few Mythical Pokemon, the creatures can only say their names…although most Pokemon and even some trainers seem to be able to understand this perplexing language without much difficulty.

Ash’s beloved Pikachu is no exception, and fans have spent 20 years listening to voice actress Ikue Otani (who voices Pikachu in both the English and Japanese versions of the show) say Pikachu’s name with every inflection and nuance known to man. However, Pikachu speaks to Ash in Japanese during a critical moment in the newest movie.

Pikachu’s single line of dialogue occurs right after Ash is blown to literal smithereens by an accumulated blast of various Pokemon attacks. Pikachu’s heart breaks and he attacks Marshadow, the mythical Pokemon responsible for Ash’s demise.

Ash’s spirit travels to an afterworld-like dimension in which he can see everything in the “real” world. Ash tries to reunite with Pikachu, but can’t (because he’s dead.) Then, Pikachu turns to Ash and says “I want to be with you forever” in Japanese.

It’s unclear whether Ash can only understand Pikachu because he’s dead and the spirit world functions a bit differently, or if Pikachu was trying to will Ash back to life using Japanese he picked up from following Ash out of his PokeBall all this time.

The scene is said to be the most touching moment in the film and should cause plenty of tears from longtime Pokemon fans.

We still don’t know when the new movie will be out in the United States, but it’ll likely be televised on Disney XD sometime in the fall.

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