Sho

For the character of the day from A Bout With Sprout whose Japanese name is Shō, see Zackie.

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Sho

Sho (Japanese: ショウ Shō) is a character of the day who appeared in Pika and Goliath!. He specializes in the Pikachu evolutionary line.

Sho initially came off as incredibly arrogant, a trait seemingly shared by his Raichu and Pichu. When his Pichu came across Ash's Pikachu, it called its Trainer over. Sho assumed it was a wild Pikachu, and was going to attempt to catch it before Ash explained it was his. Sho offered to trade his Mareep, Magneton, and Magnemite for Pikachu in order to complete his evolution collection. Of course, Ash refused on all offers and Sho started to accuse Ash of being a weak Trainer, and not being able to handle Pikachu's power.

From there on, he challenged Ash to a battle with his Raichu. Ash in turn uses Pikachu. Sho's Raichu knows two moves that Pikachu knows: Iron Tail and Volt Tackle. However, since it's fully evolved, it also knows the move Hyper Beam. One of Sho's battle strategies is to have Raichu pin down opponents with its tail and then fire a Hyper Beam at them for a finishing blow at point blank range, proving to be brutal, if not merciless. He enacted this technique on Ash's Pikachu which injured it so much that it needed to be sent to the Pokémon Center in critical condition.

Later on, Ash challenged him to a rematch. This time, Pikachu went on to defeat Raichu. Sho seemed to have a change of heart, accepting Ash and Pikachu's battling abilities and admitting defeat.

Pokémon

On hand

Raichu ♂

Debut	Pika and Goliath!
Voice actors
Japanese	Miyako Itō
English	Miyako Itō

Raichu is Sho's main Pokémon, and is an extremely powerful battler and also shared the arrogant attitude Sho displayed. Sho sent him up against Pikachu when Ash refused to trade him so Sho could own the entire Raichu evolutionary line. Although Pikachu was powerful, Raichu knew many of Pikachu's attacks with the addition of having extra strength that came from being a higher evolutionary form, making him more than formidable. Using his tail to restrain Pikachu against a rock, he brutally defeated Pikachu with his close-range Hyper Beam.

The defeat caused both Ash and Pikachu to question their earlier decision not to evolve Pikachu into Raichu, as there would always be attacks and abilities Pikachu could only gain by evolving. After some thought, both eventually decided that they made the right decision all that time ago and Pikachu was sent up against Raichu again after Pikachu recovered. Having learned new ways to move, Pikachu was able to out-speed Raichu and after a hard fought battle finally defeated him, earning both Sho and Raichu's respect.

He reappeared in a flashback in The Same Moon, Now and Forever!.

Raichu's known moves are Iron Tail, Thunder, Volt Tackle, and Hyper Beam.

Pichu

Debut	Pika and Goliath!
Voice actors
Japanese	Tomoko Kawakami
English	Tomoko Kawakami

Pichu, like Raichu, also displayed an arrogant attitude when it stole a berry from Pikachu and Piplup. Sho refused to allow it to evolve into Pikachu as it would upset his quest to own Raichu's entire evolutionary line. Sho allowed Pichu to watch both battles he had against Ash.

None of Pichu's moves are known.

Mentioned

Sho offered these Pokémon for a trade with Ash's Pikachu to complete his collection, but Ash rejected all the offers, not wanting to give up his best friend.

Mareep

Magnemite

Magneton

Voice actors

Language Voice actor Japanese 陶山章央 Akio Suyama English Tom Wayland Czech Michal Holán Finnish Petri Hanttu European French Alessandro Bevilacqua Italian Davide Albano Norwegian Scott Maurstad Polish Grzegorz Drojewski Brazilian Portuguese Júlia Castro Spanish Latin America Gabriel Ortiz Spain Ricardo Escobar

Trivia

• Sho has a similar personality as Lt. Surge as well as Pokémon choice. Both can be arrogant but will admit defeat and gain respect for the one who defeated them.
• In the English dub, Sho speaks using contemporary street slang, using terms like "homeboy", and "noob".
• In both English and Japanese, his name can be extracted from the word shock, which makes sense considering his team is made up of Electric-type Pokémon.
• He is the second character named Shō in Japanese who wanted Ash's Pikachu for himself, the first being Zackie. Also like him, he first mistook Pikachu for a wild Pokémon.

This article is part of Project COD, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each one-time character of the Pokémon animated series.