Pokemon‘s original writer, Takeshi Shudo, never did write a fourth film but his initial scrapped plans for the film would have been wild to see come to life. Shudo, who served as the head writer for the Pokemon anime’s first five years and three films, wrote several introspective works. It’s why the first three films have such different tones that those coming after, and why many fans seem to prefer these first three the most. But a fourth film Shudo almost wrote would have completely collapsed the franchise’s standards as we know it.
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Months before his passing in 2010, Takeshi Shudo shared a series of blogs detailing his experience in writing for the Pokemon anime. Turned around and translated by notable Pokemon enthusiast and historian Dr. Lava, these blogs reveal that Shudo would have written a fourth film in which Pokemon would rise up against their masters and lead to a full-on revolt.
Shudo noted that while he never did write a fourth film for the anime, he would have most likely introduced one of the ideas he wanted to use for the anime’s actual finale. This fourth film would have called attention to the idea that Pokemon were being used by humans and fight against this idea, “The Pokemon would stage a rebellion much like Spartacus in ancient Rome. Although at first glance Pokemon appear to be friends with humans, they would realize they’re actually being used like slaves, which would lead to an uprising.”
This uprising would cut even deeper as Pikachu would be the one leading this rebellion to an eventual fight against Ash Ketchum himself, “Pikachu would become the leader of the revolt and end up fighting with Ash. Team Rocket, who are in possession of lots of sinister Pokemon (including Meowth, who can translate the Pokemon language into human speech) would try to mediate the conflict, but they’d do a poor job of interpreting and only make things worse…”
But noting that the anime’s objective was to essentially continue forever, Shudo noted how this would have to be the literal finale for the franchise. He even mentions that he tried to think of a different plot for a fourth film, but couldn’t do so. It was clear that Shudo had reached his limits working with the franchise, and it would then continue on for many years following his initial work.
Would you have liked to see this Pokemon film in action? Would this darker take on the franchise be a suitable ending to the anime? Do you think the anime could still do this someday? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
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