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Pikachu's design is commonly believed to have been based on a mouse, right? After all, even the pokedex listing describes the yellow blighter as a mouse-type pokemon. Well, this isn't the case at all apparently, as it turns out that creator Atsuko Nishida actually based Pikachu's original designs on a squirrel.
Speaking with Yomiuri, Nishida-san revealed that she was actually big into squirrels back then (because why not?), and that Pikachu's initial Pokemon Red/Green designs drew major influence from these animals, right down to the cheeks, which spilled into the whole electricity angle. After all, squirrels would store lightning in their cheeks if they could, right?
'At that time, I was really into squirrels,' she said, 'so I wanted the character to have puffy cheeks. Squirrel tails are cute (so I wanted it to have a tail). However, I wanted the character to have a lightning element, so I made it shaped like lightning.'
To be honest, we can kind of see where Nishida is coming from. Looking at Pikachu, the tail and ears definitely look more squirrel-like than a mouse, albeit one that has clearly gone overboard on nut consumption.
However, when the character was eventually given the Pikachu name, Satoshi Tajiri would adopt the whole mouse-that-shoots-electricity angle, which became a major design staple despite numerous revisions over the years.
