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09 Jul 2019 12:41 AM
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A new news article has been posted!
The official Pokémon movie website has updated. Translations follow:

"Mewtwo Strikes Back"'s LA Premiere was a Huge Success! We Also Release the Latest News on Pokémon GO, as Well as a Special Video That Features Rita Ora's Singing!!


The Enthusiastically Received LA Premiere


"Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution" was invited to the largest anime convention in North America, "Anime Expo 2019" in Los Angeles, USA, where it had its LA premiere Thursday July 4th (local time)!

This first international screening was attended by the person indispensable to Pokémon, Satoshi's voice actress Rica Matsumoto, as well as Director Kunihiko Yuyama and Director Motonori Sakakibara.

The day before the premiere, the three of them visited the entrance of TCL Chinese Theatre, where the premiere the first Pokémon movie, "Pocket Monsters the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back", had taken place.
As they were standing at this spot that had become "the Pokémon movies' first step towards the world", they talked about their thoughts towards the next day's screening, which was going to be this movie's overseas debut.



Matsumoto:
There's going to be so many people watching the movie with us I get goosebumps at the mere mention of the premiere. All kinds of people continue to love the Pokémon World, including both the video games and the movies, and I would love if it could connect them and form a circle of happy faces. Let's get smiles!

Director Yuyama
I came to America to see an actual screening of the first movie back when it was in theaters here, and it was a very novel experience to witness the audience yelling "Yay!" during the opening and when Satoshi made his appearance. Now I'm back in America again after 21 years, and I'm really excited to see how the movie will be received this time.

Director Sakakibara
3DCG animation is mainstream in America, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the movie will be received. I was working on a movie back when the first Pokémon movie premiered, and when I saw with my own eyes that a movie like this, a product of the Japanese entertainment industry, became such a massive blockbuster, I was thinking how I really wanted to make a movie like that myself one day. Though I'm still astonished I got to work on one now, 20 years later.

On the day of the LA premiere itself, Anime Expo hosted an autograph session, a screening of the Japanese version of the feature film with English subtitles, as well as stage greetings.
At the autograph session, we got both fans cosplaying Satoshi taking photos with Matsumoto and fans that wanted their personal Pokémon memorabilia autographed.
Some fans had even been waiting in line all night, and they exploded with joy when they got their autograph, showing just how much it meant to them.



When the screening finally begun, the audience burst out in loud cheers.
Adults and children displayed a variety of emotions as they were taking in the movie; One moment they were watching the opening scene where Mewtwo swears revenge on the humans with their eyes glued to screen as they sat there in complete silence, the next they were roaring with laughter as the Rocket Gang made their appearance, and at the end they were watching the exchange between Satoshi and Pikachu with their cheeks wet with tears.

And when the post-screening stage greetings began, Matsumoto, Director Yuyama and Director Sakakibara received a warm welcome by the local fans, who greeted them with loud cheers and thunderous applause.



Matsumoto:
I'm seeing the earliest days of Pokémon flash before my eyes, and I really wish I could've told everyone back then that a day like this would come. Seeing your reactions, like how you cheer loudly out of love for Pokémon, brings tears to my eyes.

Director Yuyama:
I've made more than 20 Pokémon movies so far, but this is the first 3DCG one, so this time I was watching your reactions to it with the same excitement as if this was my debut movie. What did you all think of it? (the audience applauded loudly)

Director Sakakibara:
I could feel the Pokémon love in your cheers, and it made me really happy we made this movie. This is an amazing feeling.

When Matsumoto performed "Mezase Pokémon Master", the enthusiasm from the audience hit its absolute peak.
The phrase "Pokémon is a universal language" truly fits this situation, and Matsumoto, Director Yuyama and Director Sakakibara all got caught up in the whirlpool of enthusiasm the LA premiere had turned into!
They truly had a blast as the event concluded with a commemorative photo taken with roughly 2800 Pokémon fans.
After the highly successful LA premiere had concluded, Matsumoto commented "All kinds of things were coming to my mind and I got deeply moved, thinking about how it's really been 21 years now. I'm really grateful I've had all this, it's something very few people will ever be able to feel or experience. I'm happy to have shared my song and thoughts with all you LA fans."

The movie and Pokémon GO are having a crossover! Armored Mewtwo makes its appearance!
A Pokémon GO promotion video that utilized various scenes from "Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution", a crossover between the two, premiered at Anime Expo.
Armored Mewtwo, the restrained form from the movie that suppresses Mewtwo's power, will appear in Pokémon GO between Thursday July 11th and Wednesday July 31st Japanese time.
And if you win a raid battle against it, you'll have the chance to get Armored Mewtwo as well!

A special promotion video set to one of singer Rita Ora's songs has been released!
A special promotion video for "Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution" featuring one of Rita Ora's songs was released as well. Rita Ora is an artist popular all over the world that also handled the theme song for "Detective Pikachu", which was released in May this year.
This is a must see video where Ora's bright, clear and wonderful singing goes perfectly with the beautiful 3DCG Pokémon world.



The LA premiere came to an end amidst great enthusiam.
The Japanese premiere finally takes place Friday July 12th!
Keep looking more and more forward to it!

©2019 Niantic, Inc.
©2019 Pokémon. ©1995-2019 Nintendo/Creatures Inc. /GAME FREAK inc.

Source: https://www.pokemon-movie.jp/news/?p=3763