Pokemon Executives Promise Japanese Dub Movies Will Screen in U.S. One Day

Pokemon is one of the largest franchises in the world, and its anime has got its own massive following separate from the video game and trading card game releases of the series. With each new movie release, the franchise gets even bigger and with the increase of subtitled anime releases to theaters, Pokemon fans were wondering if they would ever get the chance to see the non-English dub Pokemon films get a proper theatrical release as well.

During Anime Expo 2019, Pokemon directors Kunihiko Yuyama and Motonori Sakakibara revealed that there absolutely is a chance that the original Japanese dub releases of the Pokemon films will make there way to United States theaters too.

When asked about that possibility Sakakibara was very confident in this, “Please count on it! And you can look forward to that.” Yuyama agreed with this sentiment as well due to the increased advent of Japanese language films getting full subtitled releases in theaters. In fact, both versions of the film are shown in Japan already, “So in Japan, actually both the subtitled version and also both languages sometimes are shown at the same time. So hopefully that is an option that you’ll have here in the United States in the near future.”

Fans were definitely interested in seeing the original Japanese release of the newest film, Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution, because it’s a fully CG animated take on the franchise. Yuyama revealed the staff was initially worried about this move, “So this is actually one of over 20 Pokemon films. However, this is first time we have done full 3D computer generated animation. So even though we’ve done over 20 Pokemon movies, it feels like this is the first time. I was so worried that this was just going to be a flop and that people weren’t going to like it.”

But the Japanese language release of the film was a success when it debuted during Anime Expo 2019. Pokemon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution officially released on July 12th in Japan, but there currently is no word on a Japanese or English language release in the United States as of this writing. The film is directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and Motonari Sakakibara, with a screenplay written by Takeshi Shudo. There was a hint that the film would be a complete CG remake of the original Mewtwo Strikes Back film, but that was not confirmed until the first audiences saw it for themselves during its world premiere at Anime Expo 2019 earlier this month.