Jirachi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jirachi | |
|---|---|
 National Pokédex Rayquaza - Jirachi (#385) - Deoxys Hoenn Pokédex Rayquaza - Jirachi (#201) - Deoxys |
|
| Japanese name | Jirachi |
| Evolves from | None |
| Evolves into | None |
| Generation | Third |
| Species | Wish Pokémon |
| Type | Steel / Psychic |
| Height | 1 ft (0.3 m) |
| Weight | 2.4 lb (1.084 kg) |
| Ability | Serene Grace |
Jirachi (ジラーチ Jirāchi?) is one of the 493 fictional species of Pokémon from the Pokémon Franchise - a series of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards, and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri. It is a magical sprite, or fairy, with the power to grant wishes to anyone who finds it. It has a friendly and somewhat playful nature similar to other Legendary Pokémon Celebi and Mew.
It first appeared with the release of the Nintendo games Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire in early 2003, and it is listed as the 385th Pokémon in the games' National Pokédex.
The name Jirachi is a Japanese transcription of the Russian verb "to wish" (желать, zhelat).
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[edit] Biological characteristics
Jirachi appears to be a small sprite with a star-shaped "hat" upon its primarily white body, seemingly achieving the motif of a "star child." It has blue paper-like tags hanging from the three protruding ends of its hat, and it has a closed line on its stomach. The flesh of Jirachi, as well as its hat, feels smooth-yet-hard, almost like metal. This Pokémon originates in the Japanese legend of Tanabata and genies.
Jirachi is a seemingly magical creature that is capable of wielding telepathic and telekinetic powers, able to levitate and float at will, and able to communicate with those around it through psychic vibrations configured to sound like human-language sentences (compare with Mewtwo and Lucario). It can also grant wishes like a genie, made possible by an apparently cosmic power within its body, though the mechanics of this ability are mostly left to speculation. Most intriguing of all is the line across its stomach area, which has been revealed to be a literal third eye while shut and dormant. This third eye, which appears to be very different from the two eyes on its head, is apparently the funnel for the cosmic power noted above, and is not used for natural sight.
The video games' account of Jirachi's mythological connotations and life cycle differs quite a bit from the anime. In the games, Jirachi hibernates within a crystalline "cocoon" made of a very hard substance, so as to protect its body from harm. Whenever the cocoon is threatened, particularly from a potential foe Pokémon, Jirachi's cocoon acts on its own accord and "fights" the opponent with magic defensive powers, all without Jirachi awakening inside. The Pokémon is said to awaken from its deep sleep every 1000 years. However, the term "awaken" is used here to signify a more complicated process that is heralded when its cocoon vanishes and its true body is revealed, but it still has not stirred. In this state, any person that has found it can write his or her wishes down on the paper-like tags on Jirachi's star points. Then, to awaken the Pokémon, the person must sing to it in a pure voice. Once the creature has awakened, it has the sole goal of granting the wishes written on the tags, just as the genie of Arabian mythology takes its master's wish as its command. Upon fulfilling them, it returns to hibernation in a newly-formed cocoon, waiting for the next thousand years for its next master's wish.
[edit] In the Pokémon video games
Jirachi possesses the attributes of a Steel/Psychic-type Pokémon (the only others who have these types are Beldum, Metang, and Metagross, and more recently Domirror and Dōtakun), and it has a unique and unusual special attack Doom Desire (a set-damage Steel-type move with an Attack power of 120 and an Accuracy of 85% that hits a foe two turns after use, making Doom Desire a powered-up version of the Psychic-type move Future Sight). Like its fellow promotional legendary Pokémon Mew and Celebi, each of its base stats are 100, making it quite a menace in battle as opposed to most non-legendary species. Fans usually relate Jirachi and other Psychic legendary Pokémon as a good pair for double battles.
Jirachi is the third promotional legendary Pokémon to fall under the "small and cute, but powerful" category, with the other two being Gold, Silver, & Crystal's Celebi and Red, Blue, & Yellow's Mew -- and after that, Diamond and Pearl's Manaphy and Sheimi.
Jirachi also appears as a boss in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.
[edit] Obtaining Jirachi
Currently, one can obtain Jirachi through one of several different ways. One can go to a Pokémon Center in New York City, Osaka, Tokyo, or any of the additional centers in Japan. In each of these locations, a special machine transfers a randomly selected Pokémon with a 1 in 1000 chance of receiving Jirachi. Recently, the Pokémon Centers have restricted use of the machines to special events - most recently at the New York Pokémon Center.
If players had pre-ordered the game Pokémon Colosseum by 9 February 2004, they received a bonus disc that then allowed them to download Jirachi into their Pokémon Ruby or Pokémon Sapphire game carts. You could also get a UK version of pokemon channel. Downloading Jirachi from this disc is also one of several ways to fix the berry glitch in Ruby and Sapphire.
Even if it's unobtainable, strangely, the catch rate of Jirachi is three, unlike Celebi, Mew, Manaphy, and Sheimi, who have catch rates of forty-five. It might be because there have been obviously false rumors that the player can capture Jirachi by going to the Mossdeep City space center and flying to the "moon".
In Europe and Australia, Jirachi comes included with Pokémon Channel, and players can download it to the game after completing Channel. The Berry Fix mentioned above also comes included here.
One can alternatively obtain this Pokémon by use of a Gameshark or Action Replay.
[edit] In the Pokémon anime
As Jirachi occurs exceedingly rarely in the Pokémon world, the fan community, even devotees, know very little about it. It has starred in the 6th Pokémon Movie, Jirachi Wishmaker, where it will wake up from the long sleep to which the Pokédex definition alludes. However, contrary to the Pokédex definition, one does not write wishes on the tags attached to its head. The movie, in a way, represents a race against time, as the Japanese title (Wishing Star of the Seven Nights) may insinuate, since there's only seven nights for Jirachi to be awake. It is during the course of these seven nights that the antagonist, the magician Butler, seeks the innate powers of Jirachi to achieve his own wish: the creation of a Groudon. However, possibly due to how he forced the necessary energy out of Jirachi using an energy extraction machine, the Groudon he creates with it is an anomaly of evil, with hardly any relation to the true Groudon.
The movie reveals about half-way through that the "line" on Jirachi's belly actually opens as a third eye on rare occasions. In the movie, this eye is used to absorb the cosmic energy of the Millennium Comet in order to fuel the forest sanctuary of Forina, where Jirachi hibernated. This third eye is referred to by the characters in the movie as "Jirachi's True Eye." Jirachi evidently does not use it to see, but it is suggested that the True Eye is able to see things on a more cosmic, subtle scale. It is a still mystery as to what secrets the eye holds.
[edit] In the Pokémon Trading Card Game
Jirachi is similar to Celebi in the fact that it has made more mainstream appearances than Mew. It has appeared multiple times in Pokémon Trading Card Game expansions:
- EX Team Aqua vs Team Magma (Psychic-type)(#97/95)
- EX Hidden Legends (as a dual Psychic/Steel-type) (#008/101)
- EX Deoxys (Steel-type)(#009/107)
- EX Crystal Guardians (as Jirachi EX, a Psychic-type) (#094/100)
Jirachi also appeared as a Psychic-type promotional card that was packed in with the American DVD release of the sixth Pokémon movie, Jirachi Wish Maker.
Perhaps its most popular release was in the EX Deoxys expansion. It is used in many competitive matches to help get their strategies in motion. Additionally, when the strategy is set, one can play a certain card to switch it with another basic Pokémon in their deck. Much to the delight of players under the "Pokémon Organized Play" system, Jirachi and its set, EX Deoxys, will be legal in the Deoxys-On format.
[edit] References
- Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Pokémon Colosseum, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
- Books
- 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 Version & Pokémon LeafGreen Version Player’s Guide. Nintendo of America Inc., August 2004. ISBN 1-930206-50-X
- Nintendo Power. Official Nintendo Pokémon Emerald Player’s Guide. Nintendo of America Inc., April 2005. ISBN 1-930206-58-5
[edit] External links
- Official Pokémon website
- Jirachi as a species on Bulbapedia (a Pokémon-centric wiki)
- Jirachi’s fourth-generation Pokédex entry on Serebii.net
- Pokémon Dungeon Pokédex entry, full of statistics analysis
- PsyPoke Pokédex entry
- Smogon Pokédex entry
- WikiKnowledge.net’s entry for Jirachi Previously hosted by Wikibooks
