Dawn's Piplup
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Dawn's Piplup (Japanese: ヒカリのポッチャマ Hikari's Pochama) is Dawn's first Pokémon. She befriended him after saving him from an Ariados's attack, when Piplup and Chimchar had fled from Professor Rowan's lab. He is voiced by 小桜エツ子 Etsuko Kozakura in Japanese and Michele Knotz in English.
History
Piplup initially would not accept food from Dawn—as described in the Pokédex, Piplup are very proud and dislike accepting food from people. However, he seems to have a large appetite for Pokémon food and does not like having any taken away from him. He shows signs of having a short temper, frequently getting into disagreements with other Pokémon and his Trainer.
Despite his prideful and fierce attitude, he was fairly weak at first. Jessie's Seviper easily defeated the starter Pokémon in his first battle. He has grown in strength since then, helping Dawn catch Buneary in Setting the World on its Buneary, as well as Dawn's Buizel in Buizel Your Way Out of This!.
Piplup is Dawn's main battling partner, used more than any of Dawn's other Pokémon and has helped Dawn win her first two ribbons in Sinnoh. Piplup seems to be very competitive; he will always try to overcome the odds and impress Dawn and get her fullest attention. He often wants to be the first one to start an event for Dawn, and also often tries to peacefully talk to enemies, rather than just attacking them, as seen for example in The Psyduck Stops Here!.
It has been shown that Dawn and Piplup have a close bond with each other. In Staging a Heroes' Welcome!, Piplup helped Dawn recover her confidence by shooting BubbleBeam at her face.
In Strategy With a Smile!, Piplup barely edged out May's Glaceon by only a half a point to help Dawn win the Wallace Cup Ribbon.
In A Breed Stampede!, Piplup was shown to be quite adamant and overconfident. He even tried to stop Piloswine from charging. However, each attempt resulted in being launched into the sky and knocked out. He tried again when Piloswine had already evolved into Mamoswine, but the result was again the same.
In Stopped in the Name of Love, Piplup began the evolution process. However, it soon became clear that Piplup was unwilling to undergo the transformation to Prinplup. After an encounter with Team Rocket, Dawn gave Piplup her full support and acquired an Everstone to prevent his evolution for as long as he wants.
In Three Sides to Every Story!, Piplup fell in love with a Marill; however, a wild Elekid is competing for the Marill's affections. When the three Pokémon get separated from Dawn and the others, Piplup tried to help Marill, but Elekid seemed to gain the upper hand. When Team Rocket appeared and captured Marill, both Piplup and Elekid work together to save Marill. Once Marill was saved, she decided to go with Elekid, and left Piplup brokenhearted.
In Strategy Begins at Home!, he battled Johanna's Glameow and Umbreon together with Pachirisu in a double battle.
Ever since Ash's Gible made its debut in A Meteoric Rise to Excellence!, Piplup has constantly been the target of Gible's Draco Meteor, mostly by accident. DP164 expanded on this event in which Piplup became separated from the group following another accidental attack. However, these events helped Piplup learn Hydro Pump. In DP173, it implies that Draco Meteor can be used to differentiate Piplup from other Piplup.
Moves used
| Using BubbleBeam | Move | First Used In |
|---|---|---|
| ||
| BubbleBeam | Following A Maiden's Voyage! | |
| Bide | Following A Maiden's Voyage! | |
| Peck | Following A Maiden's Voyage! | |
| Whirlpool | Getting the Pre-Contest Titters | |
| Hydro Pump | DP164 | |
| Moves used recently are in bold unless all moves all fit this case. | ||
Moves improvised
- Spin was first used in Wild in the Streets where Piplup, together with Buneary, battled Aerodactyl. He spun around and used BubbleBeam. A spinning variation of Peck was used in its contest appeal in DP161. It appears a bit similar to Drill Peck, especially an Empoleon's.
- Sky Attack-Peck Combination was used in the final Twenty seconds of the final battle of the Grand Festival against her long-time rival Zoey in DP177. Dawn orders her Togekiss to utilize Sky Attack while having Piplup on her back, and consequently she orders Piplup to use Peck. It results on a crimson aerial attack with which Dawn concludes her battle.
In the TCG
Dawn's Piplup is featured in the TCG as a Pokémon 
. The following is a list of cards named Piplup .
| Name | Type | Level | Rarity | Set | Set no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piplup M |  |
39 | - | Movie Commemoration Random Pack (no English release) | 007/022 |
Trivia
- For Wild in the Streets, Professor Oak's lecture is about Dawn's Piplup. He writes this Pokémon senryū about him: ポッチャマが みずにとびこむ ぽっちゃんと Pochama ga, mizu ni tobikomu, potchanto "Pochama jumps into the water with a splash."
- The opening sequence of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl shows Dawn's Piplup coming out of his Poké Ball with a trail of stars behind him. However, Dawn did not use a star seal with Piplup's Poké Ball until DP161, two seasons later.
- Dawn has been keeping Piplup outside of his ball, instead of inside of it, much like Ash keeps his Pikachu, though Piplup never directly expressed that he did not like being inside of the ball.
- Piplup was unwilling to obey Dawn when they first met. Eventually, they became fast friends after Pikachu and Piplup saved their respective trainers from an attacking group of Pokémon; Pikachu saved Ash from a flock of Spearow while Piplup saved Dawn from a swarm of Ariados.
- Also, he has expressed reluctance to evolve and chose to stay in his base form for the time being, and Dawn was given an Everstone to prevent Piplup from evolving.
- Piplup was unwilling to obey Dawn when they first met. Eventually, they became fast friends after Pikachu and Piplup saved their respective trainers from an attacking group of Pokémon; Pikachu saved Ash from a flock of Spearow while Piplup saved Dawn from a swarm of Ariados.
- Piplup's gender was confirmed to be male in Three Sides to Every Story!.
- Piplup has battled his two evolutions; a Prinplup in Settling a Not-So-Old Score!, and an Empoleon in The Rise of Darkrai.
- During an interview with former director and storyboard artist of the Pokémon anime, Masamitsu Hidaka, he revealed that Dawn's Piplup will probably not evolve very soon, referring to his evolutions as "ugly" or not good for contests.
- Of the current number of Diamond & Pearl series episodes, Piplup has only been completely absent from 17.
- Piplup is the second Pokémon in the anime to stop evolving while the process is happening, the first being Ash's Bulbasaur.
Related articles
- For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Piplup.
- Episodes focusing on Piplup
External links
- Pochama's Profile on Pokeani (Japanese)
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This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |
