Pokemon Movie 02: Maboroshi no Pokemon Lugia Bakutan

An ancient prophecy tells of a day when the titans of ice, lightning, and fire are disturbed. When this occurs, Lugia, the guardian of the sea, will rise up and restore harmony. Enchanted by the words of the prophecy, Gelardan, a Pokémon collector, sets out on his airship with a dreadful plan to capture Lugia by going after these three titans.

After Gelardan makes his move, drastic climate change begins to take place, as terrible storms start popping up all over the globe. One such storm causes the ship carrying Pokémon trainers Satoshi, Kasumi, and Kenji to drift off course and land on Shamouti Island. Upon arriving, Satoshi is told of the ancient prophecy, and of his destiny as the chosen one who will help Lugia restore balance to the world.

With the fate of the world in his hands, Satoshi must summon the courage to face the chaos that threatens to tear everything apart and stop Gelardan.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Satoshi Main

Matsumoto, Rica Japanese

Pikachu Main

Ootani, Ikue Japanese

Kasumi Main

Iizuka, Mayumi Japanese

Lugia Main

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Kenji Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Gelardan Main

Kaga, Takeshi Japanese

Kojirou Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Takeshi Supporting

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Musashi Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Nyarth Supporting

Inuyama, Inuko Japanese

Okuno, Toshiaki Producer

Mori, Takemoto Producer

Yoshikawa, Chouji Producer

Yuyama, Kunihiko Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Mar 14, 2010

movedtobyeol

Recommended

Honestly I find this to be the best of all of the Pokemon movies. And after this, well, they just steadily got worse and worse.

The story was gorgeous, and the music was gorgeous!

I'm giving it 10/10 because, well. That's how I feel about it.

I'm not one to give away spoilers but let's just say this one has to do with the legendary birds and gets really heated and epic. Plus, who doesn't love Lugia? AND LUGIA'S VOICE. Might as well have been Morgan Freeman (in the dub, that is. And I'm not one who usually even likes dubs. Of course I was a ... kid when I first watched this...)

Amazing.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 19, 2019

ktulu007

Mixed Feelings

For those of you who weren't around in '00, or were too young to remember, Pokemon was still at an early point. Before there were a billion games including spin-offs and enough merchandise to bankrupt an entire nation. And we were all eagerly anticipating Silver & Gold in 2001. What's that? You got those games considerably earlier? Well, in the EU we got them in early 2001. In any case, we were all gathering every scrap of information we could and this film promised us a first look at Lugia, even though the games were already out elsewhere and we'd seen her image on the Internet. Regardless, a ... lot of people were excited to see this film in theatres. I wasn't allowed to because we were poor and theatre tickets for me and all three of my siblings were pricey. But I do remember what a big deal this was for a lot of people my age. I'm still not going easy on it. 

Story:

We open with a collector, we'll call him Kivas Fajo, in his advanced aircraft base. He's after the legendary birds, Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos. He hopes to acquire them and draw out Lugia so he can capture it as well. Then he'll make them all wear their outfits, sit in their chairs and entertain his guests. Little does Kivas realise that capturing the birds will throw the planet out of balance causing upheavals and, possibly, the end of the world. It's naturally up to Satoshi and his companions to deal with the situation. 

Now, I'm not going to worry about spoilers too much since the Pokemon anime is kind of predictable and formulaic. Plus this film is around twenty years old if we're going by the original Japanese release. So, moving on to the first problem with the narrative. Kivas suffers from a serious case of "dumb villain." This dude accidentally brings Satoshi and his group aboard his airship, then he leaves them alone so they can easily interfere with his operation and foil his plans. Another problem is that the film has a lot of pointless moments. All the Pokemon converging on the islands for the confrontation and then doing fuck all, the scenes with Professor Ookido & Satoshi's mum, they just don't seem to contribute anything. 

You might argue that the Pokemon converging is to illustrate the importance of taking action even when things look bleak, but they actually do nothing so it doesn't really work. 

The best thing I can say for the narrative is that it has some pretty neat action moments. The whole fight sequence with the birds is pretty amazing. The Lugia reveal is also nicely done. The film shows a lot of bubbling underwater and uses a bunch of other tricks to obfuscate Lugia's appearance before finally bringing it out at the climax in a massive jet of water. It's a strong, well-paced reveal. 

Characters:

The characters are kind of under-written and not very interesting. Satoshi does whine too much for my taste. One thing worth mentioning, however, is that Satoshi's companions are basically useless while Team Rocket acts heroically. Which is a weird decision. You wouldn't expect a children's work to give the spotlight to the petty villains. 

But it does. Kasumi & Kenji help pull Satoshi out of the water once and that's basically it. Aside from that they stand around picking particles out of their anuses. And Pikachu was already working on getting Satoshi to shore. So, if Pikachu had thought to grab Lapras' pokeball from Satoshi's bag, they would have been completely pointless. They don't even bring out their Pokemon to try to free Zapdos & Moltres from their cages. Musashi and Kojirou bring out Arbok and Weezing. They also go to Satoshi's rescue when he comes to an impasse and things look hopeless. Then they dodge attacks from legendary birds to get him to the artefact he needs to save the world. And they very nearly sacrifice themselves so the world can be saved. 

Art:

The artwork looks fine. Kivas' airship looks a bit out of place when compared to the rest of the art. There's also a fail with Doctor Uchikido's completely ambivalent facial expression while she talks about the potential end of the world. The action sequence with the birds is the highlight in terms of art. And seeing Lugia use Aeroblast is really cool. The whole sequence with Musashi and Kojirou taking an inflatable raft up through a bunch of caverns looks cool even if it does not follow proper laws of physics. The sequence with a speed boat going up stairs is the same way, except not nearly as cool looking. 

Sound: 

The acting is pretty good, actually. Hayashibara Megumi is always great. Miki Shinichiro does a good job. Hiramatsu Akiko & Matsumoto Rica are both good. If there's a weakness it's Kaga Takeshi as Kivas. And that's not so much his fault as it is a natural result of him getting a boring character who isn't very expressive. The music works decently enough. 

Ho-yay:

There isn't any. It's not like the Pokemon franchise is going to toss in an Utena reference or something. 

Areas of Improvement:

Make the villain basically competent. If our heroes had to actually sneak aboard and make their way to his collection, it would make for a more interesting sequence than him just letting them loose without watching them. You could even have Kasumi & Kenji create a distraction so they can actually do something of value. 
Either have all those Pokemon try to interfere with the battle or leave them out. Like I said, the sequences with all of them converging just end up being pointless since they just watch and lick their own genitals. 
Have Doctor Uchikido show some emotion. If the world is ending, you aren't going to look vaguely bored like it's a situation you get every Thursday. There's a difference between composure and just not giving a shit and her reaction is very much not giving a shit. 

Final Thoughts:

If I were watching this as a youngster back when it first came out, I'd probably enjoy it in the moment and quickly forget all the details. Watching it now, however, it does not hold up very well. While it has some good moments and the basic artwork and acting generally work well, the antagonist is forgettable and overly stupid. There are too many "plot points" that do nothing and too many characters who sit around scratching their asses. Ultimately, I'll give it a 5/10. It's one of those mundane children's films that has quite a few obvious issues because the writing staff didn't really care or think kids would really notice. 

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 24, 2020

AnimeBW

Not Recommended

It still astounds me just how damn well Mewtwo Strikes Back held up upon revisitation over 2 decades after it aired. How many films aimed at 6-year-olds explore such difficult themes as biological determinism, nature vs nurture and the lasting trauma of being denied personhood, let alone with such mythic scope behind them? Time and time again, this franchise has proved that it can go above and beyond the call of duty, pushing its toyetic critters and characters into works of genuine artistry. Pokemon’s first ever movie could have easily just been a dull lice of tie-in filler and it still would have raked in ... cash hand over fist, but the team at OLM decided to turn it into something really special. It’s that kind of dedication that made Pokemon take over the world, not just distracting kids with flashy colors but giving them something real and enduring to carry with them. And as long as it keeps proving capable of reaching those heights, I’ll have very little problem sticking with it for the long haul.

Unfortunately, just because Pokemon usually goes the extra mile doesn’t mean it’s completely immune to phoning it in. And Pokemon’s second movie, The Power of One, is every bit the mindless franchise vehicle that Mewtwo Strikes Back fought so hard to avoid being.

The story takes us back to the middle of the Orange Islands arc, with Ash, Misty and Tracy once again caught up in a potentially world-ending catastrophe related to a legendary Pokemon threatened by human malfeasance. This time, it’s the trio of legendary birds- Articuno of ice, Zapdos of lightning, and Moltres of fire, who in this continuity hang out on a trio of islands right in the middle of the archipelago. Normally there’s balance between them, but a preening Pokemon thief has shown up and started capturing them, throwing that balance into chaos. The birds are rising up to try and conquer each other’s territory, and weather around the world is going wild as a result as their fierce battle rages. The only thing that can calm them down is Lugia, the guardian of the sea, who swims deep in the waters below the islands and acts as the last line of defense to its inferiors. Unfortunately, Lugia’s also exactly who the Pokemon thief is after in the first place, the ultimate prize whom the legendary birds are just a means to an end for catching. Thus, Ash and friends must team up with some native islanders to set things right, island-hopping to fulfill a mysterious prophecy that will awaken Lugia and give it the power it needs to save the day.

There’s a lot of potential in that set-up for a tale just as resonant as Mewtwo Strikes Back. Unfortunately, whatever creative juices inspired the Pokemon team to make Baby’s First Francis Galton are not present here: The Power of One is the most bog-standard, generic Chosen One story you can possibly imagine. The prophecy is every prophecy you’ve ever seen in movies like this, and it casts Ash as the chosen one for no other reason than he’s this franchise’s nominal protagonist. The villain is so generic and meaningless that I don’t think we ever learn his name; he’s just some asshole who shows up, minces, and gets his ass kicked. There’s no effort to have our heroes naturally enter the story; they’re just dragged in by dopey convenience before they even realize the full extent of what they’re dealing with. And unlike Mewtwo Strikes Back, there’s no greater meat on the bones to give the story deeper meaning, so there’s nothing to distract from just how asinine some of this gets. At one point the bad guy just lets the heroes out of the cage he’s imprisoned them in and then leaves them behind, with nothing stopping them from pulling their Pokemon out and rescuing his other captives. Seriously, that’s phenomenally stupid, coincidence-laden writing.

Perhaps I am being too harsh in some respects; it’s not like Mewtwo Strikes Back was perfect itself, after all. It meandered in the midsection with a few too many side distractions before getting to that killer final act. But without that film’s genuine gravitas, all The Power of One has is those lesser elements. Instead of powerful emotional themes and plot turns that actually mean something, we’re left with Ash being told he’s The Only One Who Can Save The World through powers completely out of his hands and a groan-inducing subplot that pits Misty against another girl in competition for Ash’s affections and ugh, have I mentioned how much I dislike this kind of trite “romantic drama?” Thankfully, the animation team at OLM still knows how to pull off a hell of a spectacle, so we still get the super-impressive animation and background art that Mewtwo Strikes Back had. The world still feels epic, every shot is still intricately detailed, and whenever we’re just focusing on the epic storms whipping up on sea or the explosive battles between the legendary birds themselves, the chaos is truly beautiful to behold. It’s a shame that ugly CG also rears its head at points, which really does some damage to the otherwise great aesthetics; the bad guy’s flying castle, in particular, is basically just a low-rent PS2 Evil Laputa. And it really sticks out in a bad way when the hand-drawn stuff is still so genuinely impressive to behold.

Ultimately, Pokemon 2000 isn’t a disaster. It’s still an impressive animation showcase, and I think it utilizes Team Rocket better than Mewtwo Strikes Back did (their arc is the one genuine improvement over this film’s predecessor). But compared to everything that made this franchise’s first film so special, this is a major step down in every way. It lacks the meaning, it lacks the weight, it lacks the pathos, and it lacks the imagination I know this franchise it’s capable of.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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