"Mewtwo Strikes Back!" Pamphlet: Comments from Tsunekazu Ishihara

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When Pocket Monsters The Movie "Mewtwo Strikes Back!" & "Pikachu's Summer Vacation" was running in Japanese theaters in the summer of 1998, a pamphlet was sold at movie theaters to accompany the double feature. The roughly 23 page pamphlet is mostly composed of screenshots from the two movies and a brief summary of the events that occur in the films but the very beginning also features a comment from Mr. Tsunekazu Ishihara.

An English translation of Mr. Ishihara's comments can be found below.

Comment from Supervisor Tsunekazu Ishihara

Wow, Pokémon's finally hit the big screen! I'm just as surprised as you are! I've been a huge movie buff for a really long time but even I can't believe we've made it; somebody pinch me! I can't wait to look back on this movie years and years from now and think back to how I'm feeling at this very moment.

With this film, the world of Pokémon has been able to gain a scale and richness it didn't have before. And I also think that world of Pokémon that all of you have been adventuring in has had some charm added to it as well. This, to me, has been both the big gamble and the payoff of this film. The production team challenged itself to tackle new themes and use artistic techniques it hadn't been able to with the weekly TV series, and I think the team rose to those challenges splendidly.

When I was at the film's preview screening I got misty eyed about three times, and one of those times I even allowed a few tears to escape. But, thanks to the energy exuded by characters like Satoshi and Pikachu, as well as the warm hearts displayed by Mew and Mewtwo, I was able to dry my eyes and put a smile on my face. Because of them nobody at the screening noticed me almost lose my composure. I think the next time I see this movie I'll just let myself bawl my eyes out without caring what anyone else around me thinks. I'm sure I'll see this movie at least four more times, maybe...?

Supervisor Tsunekazu Ishihara

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