ZA high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Zoroark: Master of Illusions is the 13th Pokemon Movie, and for the last letter of the month, that is my topic – Pokemon Movies. Yes! Got through the alphabet!

A Pokemon movie is a feature length film, typically 90 minutes or more, which will generally feature Ash and his friends from the current anime series, and a legendary or rare Pokemon. There are also a number of shorts that focus on Pikachu and the adventures that he gets up to without Ash around, and they tend to be super cute Pokemon centred adventures. These are often shown before the movie.

Typically there is one film released every year, usually in July, and by this point, this means that has been at least one film every year since 1998. Which means that there are 19 movies in the running total ‘main’ series as it were:

  • Pokemon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back
  • Pokemon The Movie 2000 – The Power of One
  • Pokemon 3: The Movie – Spell of the Unown: Entei
  • Pokemon 4ever – Celebi: Voice of the Forest
  • Pokemon Heroes: Latios and Latias
  • Pokemon: Jirachi: Wish Maker
  • Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys
  • Pokemon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
  • Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea
  • Pokemon: The Rise of Darkrai
  • Pokemon: Giratine and the Sky Warrior
  • Pokemon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life
  • Pokemon – Zoroark: Master of Illusions
  • Pokemon the Movie: White – Victini and Zekrom / Black – Victini and Reshiram
  • Pokemon the Movie: Kyurem vs The Sword of Justice
  • Pokemon the Movie: Genesect and The Legend Awakened
  • Pokemon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction
  • Pokemon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages
  • M19 – Coming later this year

Typically, because they have more time, they can explore different and deeper topics then the ones they touch on in the anime, and usually it involves the battle between greedy people who want to use Pokemon for evil and their own gain, and people who are friends to Pokemon, such as Ash and his friends.

MewvMewtwo

Outside of Japan, we haven’t had them released in the cinema’s since the early movie, but they are always released in Japan and they tend to do quite well over there. In the UK and United States, we tend to get them shown on cartoon channels and we can always buy them on DVD.

As well as movies, there have been four specials. These weren’t released in cinema’s, but they are a lot longer than the normal half hour episode of the anime, so they get their own special little category. Interestingly, only the two prefaced with ‘Pokemon:’ contain Ash and his friends, the other focus on different trainers. Origins tells the stories of Red and Green, the trainers from the original Red and Green games/anime/books.

  • Pokemon: Mewtwo Returns
  • The Legend of Thunder!
  • Pokemon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon
  • Pokemon Origins

Basically, there are a lot of movies and move length features, and they are an excellent showcase of Pokemon, the trainers, the world, and those things that cartoons like to try and teach kids about. I just like seeing the legendary Pokemon getting up to hi-jinx. Mew & Mewtwo are my favourites, and turn up in more than one movie much to my delight.

 

ZekromPokemon of the Day

Z is for Zekrom

Zekrom is a duel Dragon/Electric type Pokemon, is the game mascot of Pokemon White, and along with Reshiram and Kyurem is a member of the Tao legendary trio from the Unova region. This black bipedal Pokemon resembles a dragon or dinosaur, looking almost like it is covered in modern armour. It’s large, conical, spiked tail has been likened to an electricity generator, as it produce lightning for attacks and emits an anti-gravity field, allowing Zekrom to fly. It can cause thunderstorms and will generate them and then hide in the thunderclouds.

There are actually a surprising amount of Pokemon that begin with the letter Z, far more than X or Y, but I went with one of the legendaries because A) it’s a dragon, and B) I rather enjoy the black-white combination and that they swapped the colours of so you get the Black Legendary in White and the White Legendary in Black. That, and it ties in nicely to the theme of the day, because in the movies, they did something slightly odd. They released two movies, one featuring Zekrom, and one featuring Reshiram. The plot was the same, but the Pokemon got swapped over, and you could choose which movie to watch, which was pretty awesome.

yin_yang___zekrom_and_reshiram_by_hibiyoruchihiyro