The Words of a Pikachu

By now, most Pokémon fans will have known about the 20^th Pokémon movie or feature film, which is subtitled "I Choose You!" in English (which is a literal translation of the Japanese "Kimi ni Kimeta!"). There is a highly-publicized peculiarity regarding a part of the movie, and it concerns Pikachu; in that part, Pikachu's voice is not of its usual Pokémon-name utterances, but instead of human language. The following is the excerpt of that part in the English dub of the movie:

Ash: Pikachu... why won't you get in your Poké Ball?
Pikachu: It's because... It's because... I always want... to be with you...

It was documented that this part caused some furor among those watching the movie. And why not? For 20 years, fans have been accustomed to the fact that in the anime, the Pokémon (commonly, with only one very notable exception) speak using their names as utterances, and only in very rare cases this is actually deciphered into human language, and practically never in their actual voice... until this happened. It is thus very surprising and a bit maddening.

This situation is almost identical to someone speaking a nearly completely undecipherable foreign (or fantasy) language who then suddenly speaks an understandable human language. In fact, this has happened in an English novel I once read; in that novel, it is understood that the characters continue to speak the fantasy language for which the novel is concerned, but the speech is transparently presented in English for the purpose of understanding, though later on this issue becomes sketchy with the introduction of outsiders. The situation in the movie could be thought to be a one-off version of that, returning to the usual norm afterwards.

It has been suggested that at that point Ash was in delirium (supported by the situation) and what Pikachu said is what Ash thought Pikachu was saying. This is a plausible explanation given that Ash seemed to comply, though it's not the one I favor. Of course, what doesn't explain the situation is that in the old Pokémon manga, some Pokémon actually spoke human language. This is a totally different canon and thereby doesn't apply to this, but it is worth mentioning because of the similarity.

In any case, this is the 20^th movie after all, so to pull a maneuver like this is hardly surprising. It's a special milestone to be celebrated, not the least of which is because of the setting. Such a maneuver, however odd it seems, only makes the movie even more special. It is a totally, absolutely must-see movie for any Pokémon fan...