Cry

A Pokémon's cry (Japanese: なきごえ cry) is the sound it makes. In most of the franchise's interpretations, this is only its name and various phrases derived from its name. However, there are several instances of talking Pokémon.

In the games

When a Pokémon is released from its Poké Ball, it will call out its cry, which consists of an electronically made "noise". It will also cry out when using certain moves, such as Growl and Hyper Voice. If the Pokémon faints or comes into battle when injured during Generation III and Generation IV, the cry will sound, but it will be altered slightly. The cry is also changed noticeably when a Pokémon is sent into a battle with a status ailment. Pokémon with evolutionary relations to each other (such as Charmander and Charmeleon) will often have notably similar cries, though others may sound very different (such as Kirlia and Gallade).

In the wild, cries of the Pokémon found in the player's current location can occasionally be heard in the Generation III Hoenn- and Kanto-based games. Also, if the player's first Pokémon in his or her party has the ability Swarm, then these cries will be more common than before.

In the anime

Most Pokémon will only say their names, and will communicate using those syllables. For example, Ash's Pikachu has been known to use the three syllables in the word "Pikachu" in various combinations to refer to several characters, including Ash (Pikapi), Misty (PiKachupi), Brock (PikaChu), Togepi (Pipipi), Team Rocket (Pipikachu), Bulbasaur (Pikakapika) and "My name is Pikachu" (Pika, Pikachu).

Due to Pokémon being dubbed, sometimes, the original cry of a Pokémon is preserved in the anime, more often than not if the name is either similar or the same in Japanese and English. An example of this would be Charizard, which can, if listened to closely enough, be heard to cry out Lizardon instead. Likewise, all Onix can be heard to cry out Iwark. Krabby's cry, which sounds similar to "cookie", is sometimes used as an internet meme. Also, Wooper's cry sounds like "Upah!" which is its Japanese name, Upah.

Some Pokémon, such as Victreebel, Porygon, Starmie and Staryu, cries are unrelated to their names at all. For example, Victreebel makes a screeching sound while Staryu has a cry that sounds like a fast, echoing male scream.

Trivia

• Three pairs of Generation I Pokémon share the same cry, despite not being related by evolution.
  • Charizard and Rhyhorn
  • Poliwag and Ditto

• Shaymin's Sky Forme and Land Forme have different cries, making it the first Pokémon to have different cries for different forms.
• Pikachu is the only Pokémon to have its cry changed without changing forms. In Pokémon Yellow, Pikachu's cry is actually provided by Ikue Ohtani. This is also the case if the starter Pikachu from Yellow is brought to battle in Pokémon Stadium or Pokémon Stadium 2.
• From Generation II onwards, possibly due to improved technology, very few Pokémon were released with cries similar to another; those that do have similar cries are usually related by evolution as they were in Generation I. As the generations continue to pass, the calls of new Pokémon seem much cleaner and more refined, while the cries of Pokémon released in previous generations, in comparison, sound more like the electronic beeps they are. In particular, the cries of new Pokémon in Generation IV are mostly recognizable digitized sounds, such as birds chirping for Starly or a xylophone being played for Kricketot.
• Despite there being 151 Pokémon in Generation I, there are only 37 completely different cries in the game. However, different Pokémon's cries are either pitched up, down, faster, slower, or disable one of the sound channels, making it harder to recognize. For example, Charmander and Charmeleon's cries are the same, but an instruction in the game tells the pitch for Charmeleon to be lower than Charmander's. Despite this, some Pokémon share the exact same cry with no sound tweaking, such as Charizard and Rhyhorn. In Generation II, there were 30 new cries introduced, applying the same rules as before (along with some Generation II Pokémon using the Generation I cries).
• In Generation I, when a player's Pokémon has low HP in the course of a battle, the cry will get deformed. This is likely due to the fact that the game has to perform two simultaneous processes: one for the alarm sound of low HP and the other for playing the Pokémon's cry. This problem was fixed in Generation II.
  • This situation occurs both when the Pokémon is sent out into battle and when its information is checked.
  • This may have been inspiration for the alteration to cries that occurs when an injured Pokémon is sent into battle from Generation III on.