Today, The Pokémon Yono all app Company gave us our first look at an upcoming Pokémon spin-off, Great Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Duo. It stars Pikachu….but not the Pikachu you’re used to. The trailer, in case you haven’t seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9j9RWkPstc What stands out about this footage is that Pikachu is speaking actual words. Not only that, but Pikachu also has a weirdly deep voice, too. Given the whole detective thing, the voice acting makes sense…and yet. It’s a weird combination, no? Pikachu is supposed to be high-pitched and cheerful! And so, I couldn’t help my reaction: Pikachu sounds like he could kill a man. Pikachu sounds like he is gonna fuck your shit up. Pikachu sounds like he has some dark secrets that he is trying to drown out all yono app with some spiked coffee. Pikachu sounds scary (and also, kind of hilarious).cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1755281160","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"culture","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"culture","TAGS":"nintendo,pokemon","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); I am not alone in this reaction. Here’s YouTuber TheJWittz, reacting to Pikachu’s voice: Relevant bit: “Oh wow. I know they said in the original game announcement that he would have a grizzled detective voice, but I just don’t know if I was quite ready to hear this coming out of a Pikachu.” I like that he pointed out how hilarious it is to hear detective Pika talk to a normal Pikachu. A couple of comments from that video: Some comments on the IGN upload of the trailer: From GameXplain’s upload of the trailer: From Reddit: From neoGAF: From Twitter: Wow the quotes from Pikachu in this new go rummy game are intense pic.twitter.com/zJLi7SsSIe — Ryan Benno ⚾️ @blvdnights.bsky.social (@BryanRenno) January 26, 2016 Man, Detective Pikachu is DARK. https://t.co/Ad6mE26erf — chris person (@Papapishu) January 26, 2016 Hard rain beats down“Pika pika”He takes a drag of his cigarette“Pika pika”A flash of light illuminates the corpse on the floor“Pikachu” — Tom Hatfield (@WordMercenary) January 26, 2016 pic.twitter.com/BdmlLDvWLz — Andy Kelly (@ultrabrilliant) January 26, 2016 https://twitter.com/embed/status/691972325890195457 https://twitter.com/embed/status/692058061070950400 And around the web: [Source: Buzzfeed] [Source: The Next Web] [Source: mrroyaute] [Source: melon-con-carne] [Source: teddybearyoshi] There’s even a Tumblr dedicated to hard-boiled Pikachu stories now, too: If nothing else, this new Pikachu is certainly an improvement over this monstrosity: