Gekijô-ban poketto monsutâ - Myûtsû no gyakushû (1998)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Kunihiko Yuyama

Writer:

Takeshi Shudo (writer)

Release Date:

18 July 1998 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Family

Plot Keywords:

Pokémon | Pocket Monsters

Cast

Rica Matsumoto	...	Satoshi
Ikue Ootani	...	Pikachu
Masachika Ichimura	...	Mewtwo
Kôichi Yamadera	...	Mew
Mayumi Iizuka	...	Kasumi
Yûji Ueda	...	Takeshi, Hitokagetwo
Satomi Koorogi	...	Togepî, Zenigametwo
Megumi Hayashibara	...	Musashi (voice)
Shinichirô Miki	...	Kojiro
Inuko Inuyama	...	Nyarth
Hirotaka Suzuoki	...	Sakaki
Ayako Shiraishi	...	Joey (Woman Physician)
Chinami Nishimura	...	Junsâ (Patrol Officer)
Sachiko Kobayashi	...	Voyager
Aiko Satô	...	Sweet

Also Known As:

Pocket Monsters: Mewtwo Strikes Back! (Japan: English title)
Pokémon: Mewtow Returns (USA) (dubbed version)

Runtime:

Japan:75 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Company:

Pikachu Project '98

Movie Connections:

Features Poketto monsutaa: Pikachû no natsu-yasumi (1998)

Soundtrack:

Kaze to Issho Ni

Its Based on Frankenstein, How Could It Be Bad?

I first saw this when I was probably 10 or 11 years old, and I appreciated it then as being a moving and entertaining film, as well as surprisingly philosophical. I was deeply offended when they did it in English and, through dubbing, changed the entire moral lesson into something far more cheesy, clichéd, and dumbed down.

See, even a 12 year old can appreciate quality film! (I just gained another year there......) In any case, it was the first anime I'd seen in Japanese, and I was impressed with the whole thing; the music was awesome, the dialogue was meaningful, the voices were cute, and the names were....strange and hard to remember. But thats OK. Names are not important.

I liked the way Mewtwo kept saying "Where am I? Who am I?". He said it so often, it was the first phrase I learned in Japanese. I concluded that both would come in handy should I ever find myself lost in Japan.

Later, as my Anime horizons expanded, and a anime-obsessive friend of mine taught me some basic phrases, and found I could recognise a lot of what was said. The vocabulary is fairly simple; its a good movie to practise your Japanese on.

And finally, the most impressive thing I found. Upon reading Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, I kept noticing similarities. Of course many, many things are different, but the basic themes are there: who asked to create me? I hate everything that made me."This is not an attack, nor a declaration of war, but revenge on you who made me" Except this one has a happy ending.

If You have seen the movie in English....well, what can I say, its better in Japanese. :P