Pokemon Movie 13: Genei no Hasha Zoroark

The shapeshifting Pokémon Zorua and Zoroark are captured by a mysterious group intent on using their illusory powers for their own gain. They unleash Zoroark on Crown City, forcing her beforehand to take the form of Suicune, Entei, and Raikou, the guardians of the town.

As Satoshi and his companions visit Crown City to watch the much-anticipated Pokémon Baccer World Cup, they encounter Zorua, who managed to escape captivity. At the same time, Zoroark goes on a rampage, unaware of Zorua's breakout. Disguised as the Legendary Beast Trio, she starts destroying the city and terrorizing its inhabitants.

Will Satoshi manage to stop the deranged Pokémon before Crown City perishes? Will the sudden arrival of long-unseen Celebi change the outcome of the seemingly inevitable clash between Zoroark and the impersonated Legendary Beasts?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Satoshi Main

Matsumoto, Rica Japanese

Pikachu Main

Ootani, Ikue Japanese

Takeshi Main

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Hikari Main

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Pochama Main

Kozakura, Etsuko Japanese

Zoroark Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Zorua Main

Mamiya, Kurumi Japanese

Kodai, Grings Main

Jinnai, Takanori Japanese

Kojirou Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Shirona Supporting

Okamoto, Junya Producer

Yoshikawa, Chouji Producer

Mori, Takemoto Producer

Kawasaki, Yukio Producer

Reviews

May 17, 2011

Luru86

Recommended

Another good Pokémon movie.

While Zorua bordered to annoying and still managing to be really entertaining too with its transformations, Celebi's role seemed kind of insignificant even though it was important. Zoroark was a bit hard to grasp, although still interesting.

The plot was quite effective, the art was good, and the presence of Legendary Beasts (Raikou, Entei and Suicune) definitely rocked.

This was the first time Unova Pokémon were introduced. It was kept vague, though, which is nice seeing as Ash's story is not taking him to Unova just yet.

The villain, Kodai with a fading ability to see his own future, was somewhat interesting, but the rest ... of the new characters were left a little thin: none were overwhelmingly deep or momentous. They did their thing, served their purpose, and kept the story moving.

All things considered, the plot was solid and entertaining, didn't fail too badly at anything, and the movie was thoroughly enjoyable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jan 22, 2011

Tomah

Mixed Feelings

So here we go again, with yet another movie to promote the famous franchise of Pokemon and entertain us by throwing random villains, powerful Pokemon and some explosions. Being those the primary objectives, Phantom Ruler Zoroark actually does a decent job. As a matter of fact, no matter how hard you try, it's impossible to see a single attempt of making a movie which sustains itself; all for the sake of advertisement. So why bother writing a review? Exactly because of this uncompromised environment, allowing the viewer to simply erase everything in his mind and enjoy an equally uncompromised experience.

Quality-wise, the movie holds the tradition ... and invests on eye candy visuals to grasp attention — since this job isn't very suitable to the plot or characters, but we'll talk about these latter. Fluid animation and CGI effects are elements essential in order to build some exciting action scenes, which absolutely cannot be removed of a Pokemon movie. The character design... well, it's the same as always: generic and childish, but it's part of the franchise's style, so you can't avoid it. The sound? Oh, yes, there is sound. It's not like Pokemon's voice actors lack emotion, though that's precisely the case of the soundtrack, but probably the lame ones are the characters themselves. Not even Wakamoto Norio could do something to help if he wanted.

Speaking of characters, that's a somewhat difficult to analyse item in the franchise's movies: you can't discuss about the protagonists because their development happens in the original series, since the movie is merely another adventure, but you can't simply discard them. Nevertheless, what doesn't change is the fact that characters serve, amongst other purposes, as means to get the viewer's empathy or hate. Phantom Ruler Zoroark fails at both, whether at the good or the bad side.

Let's start with the villain perspective for a change: a one-sided dude who wants power at all cost despite any consequences. Oh, we've never seen this type before, right? The interesting part is that he really doesn't give the vibes of a big bad guy many times. I mean, he is bad all right, but who is he against? The three legendary dogs, Celebi, Zoroark and Zorua. The previous two don't seem much of a threat, but have you ever tried to mess with a son in front of the mother? Don't even try, as that's definitely not a good idea. And his ability doesn't help too much because he can see an immutable future, meaning no one can change it.

As for heroes, you have Ash, his usual gang and a couple of random guys. This time there isn't even a back story or something, they are simply pawns used to face the villain. Actually, facing the villain isn't really their jobs; instead, all they do during the whole movie is: distract enemies, help setting traps and other minor chores. The rest us up to Zoroark, Raikou, Entei, Suicune and Celebi. Look, Director-san, Writer-san, no one is saying that Ash needs to be a legendary hero destined to save the world in every single movie (I don't even like him), but c'mon, he is the freaking main character!

Surprisingly, the narrative is pretty good for a Pokemon movie. Of course, this whole time travels/future stuff has been explored many times, twice just in Pokemon movies, but the plot flows well enough. Little by little the pieces come along: first there is a problem, then our heroes try to solve it, while at the same time we have a cunning villain making his moves and the legendary dogs trio observing the situation. Eventually the good guys figure out the villain's plan and use his own scheme to defeat him. A pretty straight forward approach, but it works.

Anyway, the main question remains: "Should I watch this?", to which I can answer with another interrogation: "Well, why not?". Phantom Ruler Zoroark is overall a nice family movie, although teenagers who are not fans may want to skip this, offering mindless fun with cute, likable and innocent monsters fighting against an evil ambitious man. Just think how many moral lessons the parents will be able to elaborate! ... Not really an exciting thought, but there is some good amount of action scenes for those with a fare for adrenaline. As for the fans who withstood every single movie until now, one more shouldn't hurt.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 2, 2013

aHappyPikachu

Not Recommended

Over all, I was underwhelmed.

I'm a huge Pokemon fan but I was never really into the anime. It was always so childish, and I thought they could do so much more. However, the producers totally step it up in every way when making the movies.

The story is about Zoroark and how it is both a good guy and a bad guy. The sound and artwork is pretty good, but the story is too bland in my opinion and they are always making lame plot twists that could have been more interesting. The Pokemon battles left me bored, and the new characters were boring as well. ... I did not enjoy this very much, and I thought it was a horrible way to promote the 5th generation of Pokemon. More importantly, it didn't leave me with that feeling of nostalgia that the early Pokemon movies did.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't watch this, but I'm warning you not to have high expectations as this movie is incomparable to Pokemon 2000 or Pokemon Heroes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Apr 1, 2019 10:30 AM by Sakana-san | Discuss (1 comment)

	Poll: Pokemon Diamond & Pearl the Movie: Phantom Ruler Zoroark Episode 1 Discussion Alipio - Feb 13, 2011	15 replies	by Ranxomare »» Nov 11, 9:07 AM
	_______________ mvetS - Apr 22, 2012	2 replies	by Raitora »» Jul 29, 2013 12:28 AM
	Is this movie even out yet? nygren - Jul 26, 2010	19 replies	by mangafreakZX »» Apr 7, 2011 1:35 AM