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| Movies & Specials Guide | Movie
01
Satoshi and his friends cross the ocean during a terrific storm to reach the "Pokémon Castle" where they're greeted by Mewtwo, a Pokémon who claims to be both the world's strongest Pokémon and the world's strongest Pokémon Trainer! Mewtwo plans to capture everyone's Pokémon and use them to make superior Copies in a plan to get revenge against humans everywhere.
Satoshi and his friends are no match for Mewtwo's great power! After a great battle, Mewtwo's "Mewtwo Balls" (ミュウツーボール) chase after our heroes' Pokémon. Just as things get really bad, the mythical Pokémon Mew appears! A battle between Mewtwo's Copy Pokémon and the Pokémon belonging to Satoshi and the others rages on. The greatest battle in Pokémon history is about to take place between Mewtwo and Mew! Who will come out victorious?! This first movie was made with dreams, hope, and love in order to make your Pokémon Fantasy come true!
You can find out more about the Kanzenban here.
View detailed information about each home release here.
The first Pokémon film has had multiple theatrical re-releases since its original 1998 release.
Below is a list of those showings.
A total of three CDs were released specifically for this movie.
View detailed information about each CD release here.
A special pre-order ticket could be obtained for 1500 yen.
The manga adaptation of Mewtwo Strikes Back! was printed in the July 1998 issue of CoroCoro Comics.
The manga was drawn by Toshihiro Ono (おのとしひろ). It was never collected into graphic novel format and is therefore one of the most difficult manga to get a hold of.
According to an interview with Toshihiro Ono on Viz's website, the manga artist got the script and other production material for the movie in April 1998. At that time, The Birth of Mewtwo story hadn't been made public yet, so Mr. Ono ended up creating his own version of the story that ended up contradicting what happens in both the CD drama and the animated short.
According to the book Pokémon Story, plans for the first theatrical Pocket Monsters film were hatched as early as 1996, with production starting in earnest in 1997. In a written proposal dated April 15th, 1997, producer Masakazu Kubo outlined a number of projects from April 1997 through July 1998, and one of those proposals included the movie that would eventually become Mewtwo Strikes Back!
The film was first officially announced to the public on November 13th, 1997 at a press conference attended by over 100 reporters in Shimbashi, Tokyo.
The movie's Japanese title, Myuutsuu no Gyakushuu (ミュウツーの逆襲) and its given English title, "Mewtwo Strikes Back!," is most likely an homage to Sutaa Woozu Teikoku no Gyakushuu (スター ウォーズ 帝国の逆襲), the Japanese title for "Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back." The title may also be an homage to Gojira no Gyakushuu (ゴジラの逆襲), released in the U.S. as "Godzilla Raids Again" and Meka-Gojira no Gyakushuu (メカゴジラの逆 襲), released in the U.S. as "Terror of Mechagodzilla," both of which were released by the same movie studio (Toho) as the Pocket Monsters films.
The Pokémon Shock incident essentially ruined all the plans the staff of the television series had made to promote the movie in July. For example, "A Rival Showdown! The Orchid Laboratory," the Kanto episode that shows Mewtwo breaking out of the Rocket-Dan headquarters, was supposed to air before before Mewtwo Strikes Back hit theaters and serve as the introduction to the movie's titular character. On his blog, Takeshi Shudo reveals that the movie was originally going to start with that first scene of Satoshi being challenged to a battle by that pirate-like trainer but decided to create additional scenes at the start of the movie to explain who this Mewtwo character was. The new scene was written after Masachika Ichimura was cast as Mewtwo.
According to that same blog entry, Mew was going to be able to talk in the first draft of the script just like Mewtwo does, but Takeshi Shudo was convinced by director Kunihiko Yuyama to change it. Mr. Yuyama figured that it would be more impactful if Mew just flew around Mewtwo without saying a word rather than drone back at it about the meaning of life the was it apparently did in this first draft. Mr. Shudo went into the second draft of the script and replaced all of Mew's dialogue with cries of "Mew." Mewtwo's lines, meanwhile, didn't really change that much between drafts.
According to that same blog entry, the scene where Satoshi goes into the cloning machine to save Pikachu was added by director Kunihiko Yuyama because it was felt that the movie didn't have enough action scenes.
In yet another blog entry, Takeshi Shudo reveals that there were plans to have an episode where Satoshi and Mewtwo actually meet before the Pokémon Shock incident messed everything up. The two weren't going to battle but they were going to at least cross paths. Takeshi Shudo was set to write the episode.
Takeshi Shudo was originally asked to write the script for Pikachu's Summer Vacation as well but declined due to the extra workload it would have caused.
And, according to this blog entry, Masachika Ichimura seems to have been the first person the movie's producers had in mind to play Mewtwo. Mr. Ichimura was basically unknown in the world of movies (his only other film credit at the time was in Nightmare Before Christmas) but was a superstar in the world of Japanese musical theater. His performance in Phantom of the Opera is what really brought him to the director's attention.
Takeshi Shudo read up a lot on DNA and cloning since that was such a huge topic back in the late 90s. In his blog he specifically mentions Dolly the Sheep making headlines at the time. He also talks about how that even though Mewtwo is supposed to be a copy of Mew the two of them actually don't look that much alike.
According to the book This is Animation: Pocket Monsters The Movie "Mewtwo Strikes Back" & "Pikachu's Summer Vacation," about one year passes between the time Mewtwo escapes from the Rocket-Dan's base and the moment when Satoshi receives the invitation to go to New Island.
The fact that the professor in the movie is named Dr. Fuji and is working for the Rocket-Dan, information that's obtained from The Birth of Mewtwo CD drama, are never actually mentioned in the actual film itself, the "Birth of Mewtwo" animated short, or in any of the promotional material / guide books for the movie. Dr. Fuji is simply referred to as hakase (博士), or "doctor," and Sakaki's meeting with Mewtwo after it destroys the lab in which it was created is treated as nothing more than a chance encounter. Though most fans would consider The Birth of Mewtwo CD drama as canon with the animated movie, none of the official sources even acknowledge its existence.
Though music from Mewtwo Strikes Back was released on CD, none of the background music from the accompanying Pikachu short, Pikachu's Summer Vacation, has ever been made commercially available.
*This may be a typo as the same person's name was written out as 福田年秀 in the credits for "Pikachu's Summer Vacation."
Click here to view the credits for the Pikachu short Pikachu's Summer Vacation.
Gross-to-date: N/A
The movie made 7.24 billion yen during its theatrical run in Japan.
Pokémon The First Movie made $85,744,662 during its theatrical run in the U.S. The movie came in at number one in its opening weekend and made $31,036,678 over the Thanksgiving weekend. The movie was released in 3,043 theaters nationwide.
| "Mewtwo Strikes Back!" ("ミュウ ツーの逆襲) |
"Pikachu's
Summer Vacation" (ピカチュウのなつやすみ) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Release / General Information |
| Japanese Premiere Date | July 18th,
1998 (original theatrical version) July 8th, 1999 (Kanzenban) |
| American Premiere Date | November 10th, 1999 |
| Runtime ("Mewtwo Strikes Back!") |
75
minutes (original
theatrical version) 85 minutes (Kanzenban) |
| Runtime ("Pikachu's Summer Vacation") |
23 minutes |
| Opening
Theme ("Mewtwo Strikes Back!") |
"Mezase
Pokémon Master '98" (めざせポケ モンマスター '98) Performed by Rica Matsumoto |
| Ending Theme ("Mewtwo Strikes Back!") |
"Kaze to Issho
ni" (風といっしょに) Performed by Sachiko Kobayashi |
| Opening
Theme ("Pikachu's Summer Vacation") |
"Natsuyasumi Fan
Club" (なつやすみファンクラブ) |
| Ending
Theme ("Pikachu's Summer Vacation") |
"Pika
Pika-massai-chu" (ピカピカまっさいチュウ) |
| Spoiler-Free Synopsis ("Mewtwo Strikes
Back!") |
While
on a
journey to become a Pokémon Master, Satoshi and his friends
receive a
special invitation. However, what they don't know is that this
invitation is really a trap planned by Mewtwo!
Satoshi and his friends cross the ocean during a terrific storm to reach the "Pokémon Castle" where they're greeted by Mewtwo, a Pokémon who claims to be both the world's strongest Pokémon and the world's strongest Pokémon Trainer! Mewtwo plans to capture everyone's Pokémon and use them to make superior Copies in a plan to get revenge against humans everywhere.
Satoshi and his friends are no match for Mewtwo's great power! After a great battle, Mewtwo's "Mewtwo Balls" (ミュウツーボール) chase after our heroes' Pokémon. Just as things get really bad, the mythical Pokémon Mew appears! A battle between Mewtwo's Copy Pokémon and the Pokémon belonging to Satoshi and the others rages on. The greatest battle in Pokémon history is about to take place between Mewtwo and Mew! Who will come out victorious?! This first movie was made with dreams, hope, and love in order to make your Pokémon Fantasy come true!
| Spoiler-Free Synopsis ("Pikachu's Summer
Vacation") |
Welcome to Pokémon
Square, a place where Pokémon come to play, and Pikachu and
its friends have come here to spend their summer vacation. Just
as everyone is finally able to get Togepy to sleep, four Pokémon
walk
by and wake it up by laughing loudly! The four Pokémon - Raichu,
Karakara, Bulu, and Maril - begin to fight with Pikachu and the others
when they start yelling at them!
A race between Zenigame and Maril, Pikachu and Raichu running side by side...during all this commotion, Lizardon's head gets stuck in a pipe! What will everyone do!? This music fantasy shows off the friendship between Pikachu and its friends!
Coming Soon
A race between Zenigame and Maril, Pikachu and Raichu running side by side...during all this commotion, Lizardon's head gets stuck in a pipe! What will everyone do!? This music fantasy shows off the friendship between Pikachu and its friends!
| Characters |
Coming Soon
| Promotions for the Movie |
 |
 |
| Production on Pocket Monsters The Movie "Mewtwo Strikes
Back!" & "Pikachu's Summer Vacation" was first announced at
a press conference on November 13th, 1997. Find out what all was
revealed on this historic day here! |
An early trailer for the first movie contains a number of confusing characters and scenes, none of which ended up being used for the actual movie. You can check out an in-depth analysis of that first trailer here. |
 |
 |
| A radio drama called The Birth of Mewtwo was created to help promote the movie Mewtwo Strikes Back. You can find out more about the radio drama here. | How was CoroCoro Comics covering the movie back in late 1997 / early 1998? Take a look at this fascinating time capsule of a very different era in this franchise's history. |
| Translations |
 |
 |
| Pocket Monsters The
Movie "Mewtwo Strikes Back!" & "Pikachu's Summer Vacation" Movie
Pamphlet Supervisor Tsunekazu Ishihara prepared a statement for the pamphlet that was sold in movie theaters back in the summer of 1998. Click on the image above to read a translation of that comment. |
This Is Animation:
Pocket Monsters The Movie "Mewtwo Strikes Back!" & "Pikachu's
Summer Vacation" Screenplay Writers' Comments The "This Is Animation" guide book for the first Pocket Monsters double feature includes comments from the screenplay writers of the two films, Takeshi Shudo ("Mewtwo Strikes Back!") and Hideki Sonoda ("Pikachu's Summer Vacation"). Click on the image above to read translations of those comments. |
| Behind the Scenes |
 |
| Check out behind the scenes artwork and stories from the cast and crew of the movie here. |
| The Kanzenban |
To prepare for the movie's North American debut, a special
edition of the movie known as The Kanzenban was
created. This version of Mewtwo
Strikes Back features touched up animation, new special effects,
and a ten minute animated adaptation of The Birth of Mewtwo radio drama.
You can find out more about the Kanzenban here.
| Home Video Releases |
Mewtwo
Strikes Back! and Pikachu's
Summer Vacation have seen
eight home releases between the two of them.
View detailed information about each home release here.
| Theatrical Re-Releases |
The first Pokémon film has had multiple theatrical re-releases since its original 1998 release.
Below is a list of those showings.
 |
| In
late July / early August 2021 the Jimbocho Theater showed the original
theatrical version of the first movie. My event report of the showing I
attended can be found here. |
| Soundtrack Releases |
A total of three CDs were released specifically for this movie.
View detailed information about each CD release here.
| Pre-Order Bonuses |
A special pre-order ticket could be obtained for 1500 yen.
| The Manga Adaptation |
The manga adaptation of Mewtwo Strikes Back! was printed in the July 1998 issue of CoroCoro Comics.
The manga was drawn by Toshihiro Ono (おのとしひろ). It was never collected into graphic novel format and is therefore one of the most difficult manga to get a hold of.
According to an interview with Toshihiro Ono on Viz's website, the manga artist got the script and other production material for the movie in April 1998. At that time, The Birth of Mewtwo story hadn't been made public yet, so Mr. Ono ended up creating his own version of the story that ended up contradicting what happens in both the CD drama and the animated short.
| Notes / Other Trivia |
According to the book Pokémon Story, plans for the first theatrical Pocket Monsters film were hatched as early as 1996, with production starting in earnest in 1997. In a written proposal dated April 15th, 1997, producer Masakazu Kubo outlined a number of projects from April 1997 through July 1998, and one of those proposals included the movie that would eventually become Mewtwo Strikes Back!
The film was first officially announced to the public on November 13th, 1997 at a press conference attended by over 100 reporters in Shimbashi, Tokyo.
The movie's Japanese title, Myuutsuu no Gyakushuu (ミュウツーの逆襲) and its given English title, "Mewtwo Strikes Back!," is most likely an homage to Sutaa Woozu Teikoku no Gyakushuu (スター ウォーズ 帝国の逆襲), the Japanese title for "Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back." The title may also be an homage to Gojira no Gyakushuu (ゴジラの逆襲), released in the U.S. as "Godzilla Raids Again" and Meka-Gojira no Gyakushuu (メカゴジラの逆 襲), released in the U.S. as "Terror of Mechagodzilla," both of which were released by the same movie studio (Toho) as the Pocket Monsters films.
The Pokémon Shock incident essentially ruined all the plans the staff of the television series had made to promote the movie in July. For example, "A Rival Showdown! The Orchid Laboratory," the Kanto episode that shows Mewtwo breaking out of the Rocket-Dan headquarters, was supposed to air before before Mewtwo Strikes Back hit theaters and serve as the introduction to the movie's titular character. On his blog, Takeshi Shudo reveals that the movie was originally going to start with that first scene of Satoshi being challenged to a battle by that pirate-like trainer but decided to create additional scenes at the start of the movie to explain who this Mewtwo character was. The new scene was written after Masachika Ichimura was cast as Mewtwo.
According to that same blog entry, Mew was going to be able to talk in the first draft of the script just like Mewtwo does, but Takeshi Shudo was convinced by director Kunihiko Yuyama to change it. Mr. Yuyama figured that it would be more impactful if Mew just flew around Mewtwo without saying a word rather than drone back at it about the meaning of life the was it apparently did in this first draft. Mr. Shudo went into the second draft of the script and replaced all of Mew's dialogue with cries of "Mew." Mewtwo's lines, meanwhile, didn't really change that much between drafts.
According to that same blog entry, the scene where Satoshi goes into the cloning machine to save Pikachu was added by director Kunihiko Yuyama because it was felt that the movie didn't have enough action scenes.
In yet another blog entry, Takeshi Shudo reveals that there were plans to have an episode where Satoshi and Mewtwo actually meet before the Pokémon Shock incident messed everything up. The two weren't going to battle but they were going to at least cross paths. Takeshi Shudo was set to write the episode.
Takeshi Shudo was originally asked to write the script for Pikachu's Summer Vacation as well but declined due to the extra workload it would have caused.
And, according to this blog entry, Masachika Ichimura seems to have been the first person the movie's producers had in mind to play Mewtwo. Mr. Ichimura was basically unknown in the world of movies (his only other film credit at the time was in Nightmare Before Christmas) but was a superstar in the world of Japanese musical theater. His performance in Phantom of the Opera is what really brought him to the director's attention.
Takeshi Shudo read up a lot on DNA and cloning since that was such a huge topic back in the late 90s. In his blog he specifically mentions Dolly the Sheep making headlines at the time. He also talks about how that even though Mewtwo is supposed to be a copy of Mew the two of them actually don't look that much alike.
According to the book This is Animation: Pocket Monsters The Movie "Mewtwo Strikes Back" & "Pikachu's Summer Vacation," about one year passes between the time Mewtwo escapes from the Rocket-Dan's base and the moment when Satoshi receives the invitation to go to New Island.
The fact that the professor in the movie is named Dr. Fuji and is working for the Rocket-Dan, information that's obtained from The Birth of Mewtwo CD drama, are never actually mentioned in the actual film itself, the "Birth of Mewtwo" animated short, or in any of the promotional material / guide books for the movie. Dr. Fuji is simply referred to as hakase (博士), or "doctor," and Sakaki's meeting with Mewtwo after it destroys the lab in which it was created is treated as nothing more than a chance encounter. Though most fans would consider The Birth of Mewtwo CD drama as canon with the animated movie, none of the official sources even acknowledge its existence.
Though music from Mewtwo Strikes Back was released on CD, none of the background music from the accompanying Pikachu short, Pikachu's Summer Vacation, has ever been made commercially available.
| Main Staff ("Mewtwo Strikes Back!") |
| Opening Credits |
|
| "Pocket Monsters" created by 原案 |
Satoshi Tajiri (田 尻 智) |
| Superviser スーパーバイザー |
Tsunekazu Ishihara (石原恒
和) |
| Animation
Supervisor アニメーション監修 |
Youichi Kotabe (小田部羊一) |
| Publication 掲載 |
CoroCoro
Comics (月刊コロコロコミック) CoroCoro Special (別冊コロコロコミック) Shougaku Ichi-Nensei (小学一年生) Shougaku Ni-Nensei (小学二年生) Shougaku San-Nensei (小学三年生) Shougaku Yon-Nensei (小学四年生) Shougaku Go-Nensei (小学五年生) Shougaku Roku-Nensei (小学六年生) Mebae (めばえ) Yochien ("Preschool") (幼稚園) Educational Preschool (学習幼稚園) TV-kun (aka "Terebi-kun") (てれびくん) Ciao (ちゃお) |
| Production 製作 |
Tsuneyoshi
Kawai (河井常吉) Kantarou Tomiyama (富山幹太郎) Ken Sakamoto (坂本 健) Kou'ichi Miyagawa (宮川鑛一) Toshihide (?) Ueda (福田俊秀)* Hidefumi Kawamura (河村秀文) |
| Executive
Producer エグゼクティブプロデューサー |
Masakazu Kubo (久保 雅一) Takashi Kawaguchi (川口孝司) |
| Original
Character Design キャラクター原 案 |
Ken Sugimori (杉森建) Shigeki Morimoto (森本茂樹) Motofumi Fujiwara (藤原基史) Atsuko Nishida (西田敦子) |
| Screenplay 脚本 |
Takeshi Shudo (首藤剛志) |
| Production 演出 |
Masamitsu
Hidaka (日高政光) |
| Character
Design and Chief Animator キャラクターデザイン・総作画監督 |
Sayuri Ichi'ishi (一石小百合) |
| Art
Director 美術監督 |
Katsuyoshi Kanemura (金村勝義) |
| Director
of Photography 撮影監督 |
Hisao Shirai (白井久男) |
| Editing 編集 |
Toshio
Henmi (辺見俊夫) |
| Sound
Director 音響監督 |
Masafumi Mima (三間雅文) |
| Music 音楽 |
Shinji
Miyazaki (宮崎慎二) Hirokazu Tanaka (たなかひろかず) |
| Animation
Producer アニメーションプロデューサー |
Toshisato Okuno
(奥野敏聡) Shuukichi Kanda (神田修吉) |
| Animation Production アニメーション制作 |
OLM |
| Producers プロデューサー |
Chouji Yoshikawa (吉川兆二) Tomoyuki Igarashi (五十嵐智之) Takemoto Mori (盛 武源) |
| Production 制作 |
Shougakukan
Production (小学館プロダクション) |
| Director 監督 |
Kunihiko Yuyama (湯山邦彦) |
*This may be a typo as the same person's name was written out as 福田年秀 in the credits for "Pikachu's Summer Vacation."
Click here to view the credits for the Pikachu short Pikachu's Summer Vacation.
| Voice Cast ("Mewtwo Strikes Back!") |
| Voice
Cast |
|
| Satoshi | Rica
Matsumoto 松本梨香 |
| Pikachu | Ikue Ohtani 大谷育江 |
| Kasumi | Mayumi Iizuka 飯塚雅弓 |
| Takeshi | Yuuji
Ueda 上田祐司 |
| Togepy |
Satomi Ko'orogi こおろぎさとみ |
| Musashi | Megumi Hayashibara 林原めぐみ |
| Kojirou | Shin-ichirou Miki 三木眞一郎 |
| Nyarth | Inuko Inuyama 犬山犬子 |
| Sakaki |
Hirotaka Suzu'oki 鈴置洋孝 |
| Joy |
Ayako Shiraishi 白石文子 |
| Junsar |
Chinami Nishimura 西村ちなみ |
| Mew |
Kou'ichi Yamadera
山寺宏一
|
| Professor |
Yousuke Akimoto 秋元羊介 |
| Sorao |
To'oru Furuya 古谷 徹 |
| Umio |
Wataru Takagi 高木 渉 |
| Pirate-Type
Trainer |
Raymond
Johnson レイモンド・ジョンソン |
| Kamex | Tesshou
Genda 玄田哲章 |
| Fushigibana | Ryuuzaburou
Ootomo 大友龍三郎 |
| Kairyu | Mitsuru
Ogata 小形 満 |
| Zenigame | Rikako
Aikawa 愛河里花子 |
| Scientist |
Katsuyuki
Konishi 小西克幸 |
| Scientist |
Chiyako
Shibahara 芝原チヤコ |
| Narrator |
Unshou Ishizuka 石塚運昇 |
| Special Guest
Voices |
|
| Mewtwo | Masachika Ichimura 市村正親 |
| Voyager |
Sachiko
Kobayashi 小林幸子 |
| Sweet |
Aiko Satou 佐藤藍子 |
| Voice Cast ("Pikachu's Summer Vacation") |
| Voice
Cast |
|
| Pikachu | Ikue Ohtani 大谷育江 |
| Togepy |
Satomi Ko'orogi こおろぎさとみ |
| Zenigame | Rikako
Aikawa 愛河里花子 |
| Fushigidane |
Megumi Hayashibara 林原めぐみ |
| Lizardon |
Shin-ichirou Miki 三木眞一郎 |
| Nyarth | Inuko Inuyama 犬山犬子 |
| Matadogasu |
Unshou Ishizuka 石塚運昇 |
| Arbok |
Kou'ichi
Sakaguchi 坂口候一 |
| Bulu |
Naoki
Tatsuta 龍田直樹 |
| Raichu |
Urara
Takano 高乃麗 |
| Maril |
Mika Kanai かないみか |
| Karakara |
Chiyako
Shibahara 芝原チヤコ |
| Satoshi | Rica
Matsumoto 松本梨香 |
| Kasumi | Mayumi Iizuka 飯塚雅弓 |
| Takeshi | Yuuji
Ueda 上田祐司 |
| Special Guest
Voices |
|
| Narrator | Aiko Satou 佐藤藍子 |
| Japanese Box Office Performance |
Gross-to-date: N/A
The movie made 7.24 billion yen during its theatrical run in Japan.
Pokémon The First Movie made $85,744,662 during its theatrical run in the U.S. The movie came in at number one in its opening weekend and made $31,036,678 over the Thanksgiving weekend. The movie was released in 3,043 theaters nationwide.
Sources
Zaikei Shinbun (Japanese Theatrical Figures)
Box Office Mojo (U.S. Theatrical Figures)
Zaikei Shinbun (Japanese Theatrical Figures)
Box Office Mojo (U.S. Theatrical Figures)
| Pokémon The First Movie "Mewtwo
Strikes Back" & "Pikachu's Vacation" |
 |
| How different is the English dub of this
movie from the Japanese
original? Click below
to find out! | "Mewtwo Strikes Back!" | "Pikachu's Vacation" | |
Found an error? Spot an omission? Please help me keep this page current and error-free by e-mailing me with a description of the error or omission.
