“pika” on its own is a sudden flash of light. This onomatopeia is very old (edo era old). What kind of light flashes do you think you’d find 400 years ago? There was pretty much just lightning. Not to be confused with the repeated “pika pika” which like the other commenter said indicates more of a glimmer or shiny and is way more common today.
Not according to an interview by the creator of Pikachu, Atsuko Nishida:
https://web.archive.org/web/20211108083831/https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/creator-profile-the-creators-of-pikachu/
That’s… what I said?
Its light in general, not lightning
“pika” on its own is a sudden flash of light. This onomatopeia is very old (edo era old). What kind of light flashes do you think you’d find 400 years ago? There was pretty much just lightning. Not to be confused with the repeated “pika pika” which like the other commenter said indicates more of a glimmer or shiny and is way more common today.