Ikue Ōtani has voiced Pikachu in the Japanese Pokémon anime for most of the character’s appearances.
Ōtani’s performance is unusual because Pikachu’s voice is generally kept consistent across language versions rather than being fully redubbed for every country. Pikachu usually communicates by repeating variations of its name, making tone, rhythm, and emotion especially important to the performance.
The character’s vocal identity helped make Pikachu recognizable even when viewers could not understand the surrounding dialogue. Ōtani also voiced Pikachu in many related Pokémon productions and in several games, although game appearances have sometimes used digitized cries instead of newly recorded dialogue.
Pikachu has occasionally been voiced by other performers for special productions or individual lines. That does not change Ōtani’s status as the character’s principal Japanese voice actor. The English-language anime uses a different cast for human characters, but Pikachu’s signature voice has remained closely associated with Ōtani internationally.