From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Dawn's Piplup (Japanese: ヒカリのポッチャマ Hikari's Pochama) is Dawn's first Pokémon. She befriended it after saving it from an Ariados's attack, when Piplup and Chimchar had fled from Professor Rowan's lab. She also fed Piplup before receiving it from Rowan. It is voiced by 小桜エツ子 Etsuko Kozakura in Japanese and Michele Knotz in English.
Piplup initially would not accept food from Dawn - as described in the Pokédex, Piplup have high pride and dislike receiving food from people. However, it seems to have a large appetite for Pokémon food and does not like having any taken away from it. It shows signs of having a short temper, frequently getting into disagreements with other Pokémon and its Trainer.
Despite its prideful and fierce attitude, it was fairly weak at first. An example being when it was easily defeated in its first battle, by Jessie's Seviper. It has grown in strength since then, defeating Buneary for Dawn so she could capture it. However, it still has only decent strength at the moment.
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; it will always try to overcome the odds and impress Dawn and get her fullest attention. It often wants to be the first one to start an event for Dawn.
It has been shown that Dawn and Piplup have a close bond with each other.
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.
Moves used
Trivia
- For Wild in the Streets, Professor Oak's lecture is about Dawn's Piplup. He writes this Pokémon senryū about it: 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
- In Team Shocker!, Piplup, Pachirisu and Buneary are cheering for Dawn in cheerleader outfits. This may suggest Pachirisu, Piplup, and Buneary are female. It is also seen in a cheerleader's outfit again in A Triple Fighting Chance cheering for Ash. However, in Tanks for the Memories!, when Dawn and Ash's Pokémon are dressed as maids, Piplup, along with Ash's Turtwig and Pikachu, were all blushing in embarrassment. This could be hinting that it may be male instead.
- In DP087, Dawn tried to understand what Piplup was telling her, saying 「僕にまかせろって？」 Boku ni makasero tte? meaning Are you trying to say "Leave it to me"?. Dawn uses the Japanese pronoun 僕 Boku (meaning I, mostly used by males) for Piplup. This may mean Piplup is male. Within the games as well, Piplup have a 7/8 chance of being male. However, Anabel also uses the pronoun to refer to herself, because while Boku can be used for males and usually is, it is not unheard of for females to use it.
- The opening sequence of Pokémon shows Dawn's Piplup coming out of its Poké Ball with a trail of stars behind it, this may mean that Dawn will use a star seal on Piplup's Poké Ball in a future episode.
- Dawn has been keeping Piplup outside of its ball, instead of inside of it, much like Ash keeps his Pikachu, though Piplup never expressed distinctly that it did not like being inside of the ball.
- Due to Piplup's original name, Pochama, Dawn's Piplup often says Piplup Pip in the English dub, due to the different number of syllables.
- Piplup is Dawn's only Pokémon whose species is not based on a real-world mammal.
- Piplup has battled its 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 its evolutions as "ugly" or not good for contests. However, Kenny's Prinplup seems to do fine in contests, but many fans agree that Piplup fits to Dawn's stereotypically "cute" or "girly" image. It should be noted that this was only stated by Hidaka and no other cast members.
Related articles
For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Piplup.
External links
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