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General Info on Pikachu & Raichu:

Pikachu are one of the 493 fictional species of Pokémon creatures from the multi-billion-dollar Pokémon media franchise—a collection of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards, and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri. As do all Pokémon, Pikachu fight other Pokémon in battles central to the anime, manga, and games of the series. Pikachu are among the most recognizable of Pokémon, due to the fact that a Pikachu is a central character in the Pokémon anime series.

The name Pikachu is a portmanteau of the Japanese words pika, an onomatopoeia for electric sparkling, and chu, which is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a mouse's squeak. The name is similar to, although not based on that of the pika, a small North American rodent. The name Pikachu refers to both the overall species, and to individual Pikachu within the games, anime, and manga series. Pikachu is also the name of an individual character that belongs to this species and is the Pokémon companion of the anime's main protagonist, Ash Ketchum.

In the Pokémon franchise, Pikachu are often found in forests, plains, and occasionally near electrical sources , on most continents throughout the world. Pikachu often travel in packs,[citation needed] and are rarely territorial;[citation needed] however, when threatened, a group can generate an intense electrical offensive, and the electro-magnetic forces exerted by the resulting field can even produce a short lived, localized thunderstorm.

Raichu is one of the 493 fictional species of Pokémon creatures from the multi-billion-dollar Pokémon media franchise – a collection of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri. The purpose of Raichu in the games, as with all other Pokémon, is to battle only as "tamed" Pokémon that are owned by Pokémon trainers. It is the evolved form of Pikachu, the most well known of all Pokémon.

The name Raichu is a portmanteau of the Japanese words "rai", meaning "thunder", and "chuuchuu", which is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a mouse's squeak. Raichu's name is also a pun on the word Raiju, meaning "thunder animal". The "Advanced Generation" drawing and sprite design of Raichu was created by Ken Sugimori's team for its 2003 release on the Game Boy Advance.