Swooping in right after Summer Game Fest season has wrapped up, Nintendo has just held a fairly lengthy Direct. Over the course of 40 minutes, Nintendo announced a slew of upcoming games, both from first-party and third-party developers. Some of the most exciting announcements included a brand new 2D side-scrolling Super Mario game, a remake of Super Mario RPG, a new WarioWare game, the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection, and the Batman: Arkham Trilogy. But one of the more memorable trailers from the Nintendo Direct, and not necessarily for the right reasons, was Detective Pikachu Returns.
Released in 2016, Detective Pikachu was an incredibly unique Pokemon spinoff for the Nintendo 3DS that put players in the shoes of Tim Goodman, and young Trainer who meets a talking Pikachu who claims to be a great detective. Suffering from amnesia, Tim must help Pikachu uncover his identity while solving a few big mysteries along the way. Detective Pikachu Returns is the long-awaited sequel, but much like its predecessor, there's one big element that could stand out for all the wrong reasons.
Detective Pikachu's Voice Is Uncanny
In the vast majority of Pokemon adaptations, Pikachu is given a small, mousey, cute voice. Even when Pikachu gets riled up, its voice is still very cute. If fans heard Pikachu's voice completely isolated, they'd immediately know it comes from a small, mouse-like animal. With Ikue Ōtani voicing Pikachu for over 25 years, this portrayal of the character has become ingrained in the minds of fans. So naturally, when Pikachu doesn't sound like Ikue Ōtani, it can be pretty jarring.
While giving Pikachu a more deep or gruff voice is one thing, it's something completely else to give Pikachu a human voice, and that's exactly what the Detective Pikachu series does. In the 2019 live-action Detective Pikachu movie, one of its most jarring initial elements is the fact that Pikachu is speaking with a human voice, and not just any human, but Ryan Reynolds. Thankfully, Reynolds' voice actually works quite well for this version of Detective Pikachu, giving him a sort of mischievous yet sweet tone that really helps to bridge the disconnect between Pikachu's normal noises, and a fully-grown adult man's voice.
The Detective Pikachu game, however, doesn't bridge that disconnect nearly as well. In Detective Pikachu, the titular Pokemon sleuth is voiced in the North American release by Kaiji Tang, an excellent voice artist that's probably most well-known for his work on the Yakuza series as Ichiban Kasuga. For a character like Ichiban - a lovable, roguish, whimsical buffoon - Kaiji's voice is absolutely perfect, but that same voice just doesn't sound right coming out of Pikachu's mouth.
Kaiji Tang once again reprises his role in Detective Pikachu Returns, and if the recent reveal trailer is anything to go by, then it strays dangerously close to the uncanny valley. Though Kaiji is clearly doing an excellent job, absolutely nailing the tone of a Sherlock Holmes-like figure, that voice just feels wrong when paired with Pikachu's cutesy movements and demeanor. The biggest disconnect comes from Kaiji's lower vocal register, giving Pikachu an oddly gruff voice. Comparing Kaiji's Pikachu voice with Ikue Ōtani's is like night and day, and when the latter has been really the only voice the vast majority of fans have heard consistently over the last two and a half decades, there's naturally going to be a pretty big disconnect for long-time fans. Then again, Kaiji's portrayal of Pikachu does help to give Detective Pikachu Returns a unique hook right off the bat.
Detective Pikachu Returns releases on Nintendo Switch on October 6, 2023.
