Alola, PokéNerds! We here at Straight Outta Kanto hope you’re staying safe inside like a Cloyster or Clamperl with a shut shell and being as neurotic about hand washing as I would envision Psyduck to be!
As we’re currently without a day job like many of you guys out there right now, there’s not really a major reason to keep to normal routine hours. Not gonna have a great impact on my health down the line – but for now I am loving an almost twenty four hour devotion to all things Pokémon with no interruptions.
Last night, I finally got to tick off one of the Pokémon related items on my nerd bucket list! I’d heard whispered years ago about a Japanese exclusive Pokémon radio drama called “The Birth of Mewtwo” that aired in 1998 in advance of the Mewtwo Strikes Back movie.
(Fun fact, the title “Mewtwo Strikes Back” always confused me as a child. As far as I was aware, this was the first movie – I didn’t understand why Mewtwo was striking back when technically speaking he hadn’t been struck in the first place…!)
This five part radio play was written by Takeshi Shudo and according to Bulbapedia aired on Japanese radio over the five Sundays preceeding the release of the movie. An animé adaptation quietly followed.
I found all five parts of the radio play adequately subtitled and readily available on YouTube. Obviously this was released right at the start of the Poképhenomenon and therefore that meant it was much more flexible in its freedom with regards to plot and characters that we know now, but were still fresh and unformed twenty two years ago. Fan fiction writers – buckle up!
The five short radio episodes are narrated by “Sakaki”, or, as we know him: Giovanni. Enigmatic Daddy and mastermind of Team Rocket. However, while Sakaki narrates the present day, he refers to an incident twenty years prior involving the then Boss of Team Rocket… his own mother. Not only is Giovanni’s mother the Boss of Team Rocket, her underling is none other than… Jesse Rocket’s mother.
Both women are represented as cold, materialistic, domineering and maternal-rejecting profit seekers. Miyamoto, Jesse’s mother, even proclaiming to have left Jesse (or Musashi) up for adoption so that she Miyamoto can continue working tirelessly for Team Rocket.
The plot initially starts out with Sakaki’s mother and Miyamoto examining their South American fossil finds. Enter Mew’s eyelash fossil. Team Rocket are thrilled. They hand the fossil over to their science team – fronted by Dr. Fuji – with the intent of trying to replicate the original Mew from such a small fragment of fossil through the power of cloning and genetic mutation.
However, the plot darkens considerably as the series progresses and travels through time from the twenty years old find of Mew’s fossil all the way to the present. Dr. Fuji has been endeavouring all this time to create Mewtwo and… something else.
I will not spoil the highly dramatic and emotive plot twist, but let’s just say from episode three get your tissues ready, the feels just got real.
For a promo show for what is in essence a children’s movie, the radio play gets very serious with regards to making the listener think about the morals and ethics of human/animal cloning and genetic manipulation. How far is too far in science?
Don’t get me wrong, the show isn’t heavy all the time. Miyamoto, Jesse’s mother, is the main comic relief character for each episode. There are also elements of audio slap-stick comedy that really add charm and warmth to the drama. Also, the backstory and insight in to the family backgrounds of the well known characters is fascinating and adds an alternate perspective on current accepted theories.
As a fan of the Pokémon franchise for twenty one years, I can honestly say this was one of the most unique and stand alone additions to the Pokémon universe cannon I have come across.
It may be too left of centre to be everyone’s cup of polteageist, but for hardcore fans who’d like to expand their PokéLibrary of knowledge – I would highly recommend “The Birth of Mewtwo.”
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