This year is shaping up to be one hell of a ride for Pokémon fans. The franchise, which has remained consistently popular since its inception in the late 90s, has never left fans wanting for reasons to get excited, of course, but 2019, in particular, has cranked hype levels way beyond their usual safe levels. Having kicked off the year with the announcement of two brand new Nintendo Switch games, fans of the core RPG series are quite rightly chomping at the bit for any and all new details on that front, but there’s been – and continues to be – plenty of content in the pipeline to help pass the time.
One of those, of course, is Detective Pikachu. The franchise’s first ever foray into live-action cinema has been hailed as the best big screen video game adaptation to date, earning stars Ryan Reynolds and Justice Smith thousands of new fans in the process. That flick, however, is far from the only theatrical release based on the cultural phenomenon slated to drop before the year is out. At least in Japan, July marks the debut of Pokémon The Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back – a complete remake of the original animated film released way back when in 1998.
Since its announcement, speculation regarding how closely the recreation will follow the events of the original has been rampant, especially concerning the titular legendary ‘Mon’s iconic suit of armor. We’ve since learned that Mewtwo will, in fact, don the outfit, though not until now, have we been privy to a complete, unobscured look, which you can see for yourself below.
As per Serebii’s translation of the latest issue of CoroCoro magazine, details accompanying the image reveal that, as before, the armor serves to suppress Mewtwo’s powers, though the suit itself is considerably more detailed than before. The film’s CGI nature has clearly allowed The Pokémon Company to go wild with its design, but some appeal has certainly been lost over the original, more simplistic design.
But that’s just our take – what do you think? Is the redesign unquestionably superior in every way, or will the original always have the nostalgia factor advantage? Sound off in the usual place below!
