Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:11, 19 May 2007

Abra, Kadabra, and Alakazam are among the 493 fictional species of Pokémon creatures from the multi-billion dollar Pokémon media franchise – a collection of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri. Their main purposes in the games, as with all other Pokémon, are to battle both "wild" Pokémon, which are untamed creatures encountered while the player passes through various environments, and "tamed" Pokémon that are owned by Pokémon trainers.

Biological Characteristics

Abra

Template:Pokeinfoboxmedium Abra (ケーシィ, Kēshī, Casey in original Japanese language versions) Hocus in English-language beta versions of Pokémon Red and Blue is vaguely fox-like in appearance. It has two legs and two arms, but is always depicted in a sitting position, and sleeping. Its colouration is gold and brown, and it has a long tail. The brown upper torso seems to be armored, also it appears to wear two pauldrons.

Abra's lifestyle is reminiscient of the koala's, sleeping eighteen hours a day to conserve its psychic abilities and only awakening to feed. Its eyes are almost always closed, and it opens them only to launch one of its psychic attacks.

Using its psychic powers, it can teleport away from danger – and even conduct a battle – while sleeping. If it teleports multiple times over short distances in rapid succession, it can create an illusion that there is more than one of itself. Abras also teleport once an hour whilst sleeping.

Abras are supposedly good allies, and are useful in the Pokémon world thanks to their amazing and unique ability to teleport themselves and any object they desire to another place.

Kadabra

Template:Pokeinfoboxmedium Kadabra (ユンゲラー, Yungerā, Yungerer in original Japanese language versions) is a strong psychic pokémon that owes much of its power to the alpha waves it emits from its body at all times. These alpha waves are affected by Kadabra's current mental state - if it has a headache, the waves change. The psychic power it gives off can also trigger off headaches to nearby humans. It is also said to grow more powerful when faced with a difficult opponent. The silver spoon that Kadabra holds amplifies the waves' power - if it does not hold a spoon, it is said to be limited to half the usual amount of its telekinetic powers. It has been claimed (in a Pokédex entry) that one morning, a boy with extrasensory powers woke up to find that he had become a Kadabra, and although this has not been verified (it could possibly be an urban legend in the Pokémon world due the way it is told in the Pokédex), it is possible it could happened given the events in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon where a human is turned into a Pokémon (though it is not a Kadabra).

Like Abra, Kadabra is vaguely fox-like in appearance. It stands on two legs and always holds a silver spoon. Kadabra's coloring is gold and brown. It has wavy-lined patterns on its abdomen, and a pink star on its forehead, similar to patterns found on cards developed Karl Zenner, a psychic researcher, which were used to measure the psychic abilities of an individual. It wears a long, thin moustache, and has a thick tail. This mustache is smaller in the female than in the male.

Alakazam

Template:Pokeinfoboxmedium Alakazam (フーディン, Fūdin, Foodin in original Japanese language versions) loses the thick tail it once possessed as Kadabra (which might explain why it is 19 pounds lighter than Kadabra). It stands on two legs and always holds two silver spoons - this can be taken as a reference to psychic Uri Geller, who can allegedly bend spoons with the power of his mind. Parts of Alakazam's body are brown, but its predominant colouring is gold. Alakazam wears a long gold moustache - nonetheless, some Alakazam are female, though in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, females have dramatically smaller moustaches, while the males have longer ones.

Alakazam's brain is the most powerful of any Pokémon, with an IQ said to be in excess of 5,000. It can outperform a supercomputer and memorize anything that it sees. When it closes its eyes, all of its other senses are heightened dramatically, which is its cue for attack. It is able to calculate a great deal of information in order to gain the advantage over its opponent. (Compare with Metagross.) However, its large brain is too heavy to be held up by its neck and shoulders, so Alakazam must use its psychic powers to keep its head aloft. In fact, its muscles are far underdeveloped, so Alakazam uses its psychic powers to move parts of its body. This makes Alakazam's frail body its weakness, but often it does not need to worry because its mental powers can thoroughly defeat most Pokémon before they can attack.

In the Pokémon video games

Like most Pokémon, Abra (and more rarely, Kadabra) can be located and captured in random encounters in various Pokémon video games. Abra is a particularly difficult Pokémon to capture, as the first move it uses in any random encounter is its signature Teleport, which warps it away from the player and ends the battle. Teleport is actually the only move that Abra will learn naturally, although it can acquire more moves through other methods.

Upon reaching the appropriate level, Abra can evolve into Kadabra. Its arsenal of attacks greatly increases, as do its stats. Kadabra can also undergo evolution. It will automatically evolve into Alakazam in most cases upon being traded to another trainer, at which point it can be kept or traded back.

Alakazam's statistics are extremely polar. It has blinding speed, almost always allowing it to move first in combat. This is coupled with Alakazam's extremely high Special Attack, a stats that affects the power of Alakazam's energy-based attacks. Alakazam has the highest Special Attack out of all non-legendary Pokémon, though it shares this title with Porygon-Z. On the other hand, its physical Attack, which empowers other moves, is extremely low, and all of its defensive statistics are below average. Abra and both of its evolutions are Psychic-type Pokémon.

In the Pokémon anime

In the Pokémon anime, Abra's first important appearance is in Abra and the Psychic showdown. Ash Ketchum and his companions arrive in Saffron City, where Ash challenges Sabrina to a Gym battle. Sabrina sends out her Abra, which almost immediately evolves into Kadabra. Kadabra makes short work of Ash's Pikachu. Ash later returns with a Haunter. Though it does not battle Kadabra directly, it entertains Sabrina and makes her laugh. Because Sabrina and Kadabra are telepathically connected, Kadabra becomes immobilized and Ash wins the battle.

Alakazam's first major role is in "The ancient Puzzle of Pokémopolis. An ancient, giant Alakazam did battle with an equally ancient and gigantic Gengar until both are subdued by the song of an ancient and gigantic Jigglypuff. Alakazam also makes another appearance in the Orange Islands. Luana, the Gym Leader of Kumquat Island, used an Alakazam along-side a Marowak against Ash in a Gym Battle.

Abra plays a main role in "Fear Factor Phony!" In this episode, several Psychic-type Pokémon and Ghost-type Pokémon engage in a rivalry battle. Abra's evolutions also make cameo appearances in this episode.

Aside from this, Abra and its evolutions have made several cameo appearances of minor importance.

Uri Geller lawsuit (Geller v. Nintendo)

In November of 2000 it was reported that Uri Geller, an Israeli psychic-magician who claims to bend spoons with his mind, sued Nintendo over the Pokémon "Yungerer" (renamed Kadabra in English localizations) which he claimed was an unauthorized appropriation of his identity. The Pokémon in question has psychic abilities and carries bent spoons. He also claimed that the star on Kadabra's forehead, and the lightning patterns on its abdomen, are symbolisms popular with the Waffen SS of Nazi Germany, and was outraged at the connotations that Nintendo had supposedly made. Although the symbols are derived from Zener cards, the name is a pun; the katakana n (ン) resembles the kana ri (リ) (the translation of Mr. Geller's name into Katakana would be ユリゲラー Yurigerā). Geller sued for the equivalent of $100 million, but lost.

References

1. Psypoke - Picture Dex :: #064 - Kadabra

• The following games and their instruction manuals: Pokémon Red and Blue; Pokémon Yellow; Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2; Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal; Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald; Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen; Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness

Publications

• Barbo, Maria. The Official Pokémon Handbook. Scholastic Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0-439-15404-9.
• Loe, Casey, ed. Pokémon Special Pikachu Edition Official Perfect Guide. Sunnydale, CA: Empire 21 Publishing, 1999. ISBN 1-930206-15-1.
• Nintendo Power. Official Nintendo Pokémon FireRed & Pokémon LeafGreen Player’s Guide. Nintendo of America Inc., August 2004. ISBN 1-930206-50-X
• Mylonas, Eric. Pokémon Pokédex Collector’s Edition: Prima’s Official Pokémon Guide. Prima Games, September 21 2004. ISBN 0-7615-4761-4
• Nintendo Power. Official Nintendo Pokémon Emerald Version Player’s Guide. Nintendo of America Inc., April 2005. ISBN 1-930206-58-5

External links

• Official Pokémon website
• Bulbapedia (a Pokémon-centric Wiki)’s article about Abra as a species
• Bulbapedia (a Pokémon-centric Wiki)’s article about Kadabra as a species
• Bulbapedia (a Pokémon-centric Wiki) ’s article about Alakazam as a species
• Template:Serebiidex
• Template:Serebiidex
• Template:Serebiidex
• Pokémon Dungeon Pokédex entry, full of statistics analysis
• Pokémon Dungeon Pokédex entry, full of statistics analysis
• Pokémon Dungeon Pokédex entry, full of statistics analysis
• PsyPoke - Abra Pokédex entry and Usage Overview
• PsyPoke Pokédex entry
• PsyPoke - Alakazam Pokédex entry and Usage Overview
• Smogon Pokédex entry
• Template:WikiKnowledge
• Template:WikiKnowledge
• Template:WikiKnowledge
• BBC News report on the Uri Geller vs. Nintendo lawsuit

• Fictional characters with telekinesis
• Fictional characters who can teleport
• Fictional mammals