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Review Mewtwo: The Prologue to its Awakening

So simply crushing Monster Balls like they're tin cans is enough to set pokemon free?

We've seen this before when Jessie crushed Dustox's Poké Ball as she released it in DP to make sure it couldn't back come to her. It does kind of make sense.

She didn't crush it. She smashed it to pieces.

That's a pretty flawed system when you think about it.

I mean, some jerk could go up to some Trainer, steal their rare Pokemon's Poke Ball and smash it on to the ground. Then bye bye rare Pokemon.

Unless it wants to stay.
 
I noticed that Tyranitar's Hyper Beam in this special looked like the move's pre-BW animation. What's up with that? Does it mean that the studio responsible for animating the Genesect film animated this special as well?

As far as the plot goes, it doesn't make any sense. How did Mewtwo get injured in the first place? Why were Virgil and Team Eevee even included if they barely contributed at all?
 
know I should have seen it coming a mile away (different voice actor and all) but I'm still really dissapointed that this is *not* the same Mewtwo from the original movie. Having a brand new Mewtwo just raises too many questions I think, and they totally miss out on the chance to have Ash meet Mewtwo again and connect this to the old movies. Since the Genesect film may likely be the last pokemon movie I ever watch, I was really looking forward to the re-apperance of Mewtwo as a connection back to the very first film, but now I'm not so sure :(.
 
I noticed that Tyranitar's Hyper Beam in this special looked like the move's pre-BW animation. What's up with that? Does it mean that the studio responsible for animating the Genesect film animated this special as well?

This also happened in movie 15. Animators didn't get the memo? A stylistic choice? Who knows?
 
So when this is dubbed in English, will this be aired as an episode, special or part of the actual movie? xD
 
After it happened with the Dawn and Brock specials, it wouldn't surprise me if this was skipped, but I sure hope not.
 
They may do the opposite of what they did with the first movie and add the prologue to the beginning of the movie (or keep it as a DVD extra).
 
I can't see them adding this to Season 16, Adventures In Unova, and I also can't see this being aired as a special. Either they'll add it to the beginning of the movie or put it on the Pokémon TV app and the official Pokémon site like Meloetta's Moonlight Serenade.
 
It doesn't matter if the prologue is skipped or not, it's not like much happened here. Watching the movie itself would be more than enough.
 
This special was visually stunning and actually had very exciting battle sequences, which is worth mentioning, because I typically find Pokemon battles boring to watch and have no real interest in them (I like pretty much everything else in Pokemon, but usually not the battles). Virgil is entertaining and the characters of the day are cute. The voice acting is very, very good (the new Mewtwo, especially), but that's nothing new for this series. Content-wise? Fluff. There are a couple of cute and many exciting moments, but not much in the way of an actual plot! It's like the old Mewtwo's story, condensed, with near to none of the pathos. ^^; Not impressive.

Who was the animation director for this episode?

I don't know for sure, but it's proooobably not someone who regularly works on the series itself. Look at Iris' hair, pigtails especially. It matches her movie design more.

... was Virgil always this adorable or is it just the art and animation in this episode making everyone extra cute? Also, Eevee's laugh is the sweetest thing.

The explanation of Mewtwo's origins was much too short.

Seems like broken arms (and limps/sprained ankles) are the most common injuries for trainers. Even if this guy was faking it, of course.

Dogasu, are you really surprised? Breaking monsterballs has been in use since the first series (Kyuukon in the Mist/Just Waiting on a Friend) and as recently as the Diamond & Pearl series (Musashi/Jessie releasing Dokucale/Dustox).
But yeah, Pokemon have their own free will, you know. If it wanted to stay, it'll stay, even if the ball's crushed... the trainer might have to catch it again for easy transportation, though.

I really like the character designs, but yeah. It's all pretty imagery and little substance, sadly. Like, I can even see the story working if more care was taken to expand on this Mewtwo's thoughts and feelings, to make how affected she (?) was by the Pokemon and humans protecting one another. The tsuntsun blow-off at the end was mildly amusing, though. "Mewtwo, thank you for saving us!" "I only saved the Pokemon."
 
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Well, put it this way: Would the Mewtwo from Strikes Back or Returns go out of its way to help the Pokémon?

But that's me. I haven't seen the Prologue special, so I might be missing some details.
 
Well, put it this way: Would the Mewtwo from Strikes Back or Returns go out of its way to help the Pokémon?
The one from Mewtwo Returns would even help certain people without berating them, and presumably it's only become even more compassionate since then.
 
"Mewtwo, thank you for saving us!" "I only saved the Pokemon."
So much for Mewtwo "having actually gone out into the world and expanded its worldview".
This. Didn't Yuyama promise us this? The old Mewtwo has long moved away from that kind of complex. Takashima Mewtwo's personal crisis here seems to mirror the one the old Mewtwo had, only extremely condensed and without the details/depth that made his background engaging. She even ended the episode off with the same question the male Mewtwo left off with when it headed for Pures Rock, in the original TV Special: "I am Mewtwo. Where do I belong in this world?" Makes it even more pointless, in my opinion, and her appearance in the movie may very well be the culmination of off-screen development. Not very interesting, in my honest opinion. At the very least, I was hoping she had a background story that made her unique, but instead we get a rehash that lacks substance.

Speaking of which, there was one scene here that seemed like an insignificant callback/reference the old Mewtwo's film (at the very least, it reminded me of it). In particular, that "I heard Mewtwo's voice!"/"It's telepathy!" scene echoes a scene from the first movie, down to the character placement - just replace Oscar with Takeshi, Virgil with Satoshi, and Anna with Kasumi, and you basically have the same scene that happened when Mewtwo first spoke to the protagonists in the first film.

The latter involved characters I actually knew and cared about. We're probably never going to see Anna and Oscar again, are we?
 
Well, put it this way: Would the Mewtwo from Strikes Back or Returns go out of its way to help the Pokémon?
The one from Mewtwo Returns would even help certain people without berating them, and presumably it's only become even more compassionate since then.

That answers my question. Many thanks. Come to think of it, Ichimura's Mewtwo in Returns came across more embarrassed than miffed when he helped the bus full of passengers.

"Mewtwo, thank you for saving us!" "I only saved the Pokemon."
So much for Mewtwo "having actually gone out into the world and expanded its worldview".
This. Didn't Yuyama promise us this? The old Mewtwo has long moved away from that kind of complex. Takashima Mewtwo's personal crisis here seems to mirror the one the old Mewtwo had, only extremely condensed and without the details/depth that made his background engaging. She even ended the episode off with the same question the male Mewtwo left off with when it headed for Pures Rock, in the original TV Special: "I am Mewtwo. Where do I belong in this world?" Makes it even more pointless, in my opinion, and her appearance in the movie may very well be the culmination of off-screen development. Not very interesting, in my honest opinion. At the very least, I was hoping she had a background story that made her unique, but instead we get a rehash that lacks substance.

Speaking of which, there was one scene here that seemed like an insignificant callback/reference the old Mewtwo's film (at the very least, it reminded me of it). In particular, that "I heard Mewtwo's voice!"/"It's telepathy!" scene echoes a scene from the first movie, down to the character placement - just replace Oscar with Takeshi, Virgil with Satoshi, and Anna with Kasumi, and you basically have the same scene that happened when Mewtwo first spoke to the protagonists in the first film.

The latter involved characters I actually knew and cared about. We're probably never going to see Anna and Oscar again, are we?

Well then, it's probably a good thing that this likely isn't the same Mewtwo, but it leaves us with another question: What exactly is the point of this special? What were the writers trying to accomplish by going down more or less the same path? As far as I'm concerned, they could have skipped the special altogether and used that time on refining the 16th movie, assuming that turns out to be a disappointment.

Honestly, I really don't get why this needs a prologue. Mewtwo's story is so well known by the fandom at this point, that trying to directly retell it is kind of pointless. To refer to another legendary franchise, it would like if the James Bond film Licence To Kill disrupted its flow for a good five or so minutes so Bond could detail his history with his late wife, Tracy. Fortunately, instead of doing that, the movie only mentions it in a single line of dialog that only lasts about five seconds and uses implications to explain why Bond acts the way he did in the movie and hint at exactly how Bond's marriage ended. Telling the story like that lessens the chances of veteran fans from getting bored with information they already know and pipes the curiosity of new comers to look into the previous stories.

Assuming it fails to do this, Extremespeed Genesect could reveal Mewtwo's past through implication, that Mewtwo was a creature that dealt with its issues with anger like the Genesect Army is doing in this movie and is trying to prevent them from making the same mistake; in a sense, Mewtwo would be dealing as much with his previous self as he is with the Genesect Army.
 
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Well then, it's probably a good thing that this likely isn't the same Mewtwo, but it leaves us with another question: What exactly is the point of this special? What were the writers trying to accomplish by going down more or less the same path? As far as I'm concerned, they could have skipped the special altogether and used that time on refining the 16th movie, assuming that turns out to be a disappointment.
The point is merely to get kids excited for the movie. The full title of the prologue is "The Anime That will Make You Enjoy the Pokémon Movie 100 Times More: 'Mewtwo: The Prologue to its Awakening'". That says it all.
 
"Mewtwo, thank you for saving us!" "I only saved the Pokemon."
So much for Mewtwo "having actually gone out into the world and expanded its worldview".
This. Didn't Yuyama promise us this? The old Mewtwo has long moved away from that kind of complex. Takashima Mewtwo's personal crisis here seems to mirror the one the old Mewtwo had, only extremely condensed and without the details/depth that made his background engaging. She even ended the episode off with the same question the male Mewtwo left off with when it headed for Pures Rock, in the original TV Special: "I am Mewtwo. Where do I belong in this world?" Makes it even more pointless, in my opinion, and her appearance in the movie may very well be the culmination of off-screen development. Not very interesting, in my honest opinion. At the very least, I was hoping she had a background story that made her unique, but instead we get a rehash that lacks substance.

Speaking of which, there was one scene here that seemed like an insignificant callback/reference the old Mewtwo's film (at the very least, it reminded me of it). In particular, that "I heard Mewtwo's voice!"/"It's telepathy!" scene echoes a scene from the first movie, down to the character placement - just replace Oscar with Takeshi, Virgil with Satoshi, and Anna with Kasumi, and you basically have the same scene that happened when Mewtwo first spoke to the protagonists in the first film.

The latter involved characters I actually knew and cared about. We're probably never going to see Anna and Oscar again, are we?

Yeah, that's my issue with this Mewtwo, unfortunately. She could have a compelling story if only hers wasn't just the old Mewtwo's story condensed and devoid of emotional depth and pathos. It's not developed enough!

Oh, right, those were their names... they might originally be from Kalos or related to someone from there, because those names are very French. That's all I really have to say!

No, wait, also, well said about the reason for rehashing the story: for all the little kids watching who never saw the first movie or the Kanto episodes leading up to it.
 
No, wait, also, well said about the reason for rehashing the story: for all the little kids watching who never saw the first movie or the Kanto episodes leading up to it.

And even then, that's somewhat of a confusing thing in itself. Why remaster and re-air the first film and TV Special if you're going to assume none of the kids are going to/have seen it anyway? They even had the first film available for free viewing on Nico Nico Douga the day before the prologue special aired. How do these writers rationalize the things they do? If they had the kids in mind, why risk confusing the children that did catch those recent rebroadcasts?
 
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