Today marks one of the most important days in Pokemon lore.
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February 6th marks the in-canon birthday for Mewtwo, the genetically modifed Pokemon considered to be one of the most powerful Pokemon in existence. Not only was Mewtwo the “end boss” of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, he was also the first Pokemon millions of fans saw when they watched the Pokemon anime for the first time, floating across the screen as the Pokemon theme song’s opening drum riff played.
Mewtwo has a huge year coming up, as the focus of this year’s Pokemon movie. Pokemon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution appears to be a remake of the first Pokemon film, in which Mewtwo attempted to prove the superiority of cloned Pokemon by luring trainers to a remote island and then defeating them in combat. In the original movie, Mewtwo did eventually change its ways after accidentally petrifying Ash, and it later recruited Ash and his friends to stop Giovanni’s renewed attempts to capture Mewtwo years later.
We’re still waiting to see how closely the new movie will match the original. So far, we’ve only seen one brief CGI-animated teaser and confirmation that Mewtwo’s creepy Clone Poke Balls (which are black with a red eye on them) will make a reappearance.
In the original games, Mewtwo was the result of an unnamed rogue scientist’s savage gene-splicing experiments on a pregnant Mew. When Mewtwo was born, it grew too powerful and eventually fled to the Cerulean Cave, where players can encounter him after beating the Elite Four. While the scientist is unnamed, it’s implied that Mr. Fuji, the kindhearted man who gives players the Poke Flute, is Mewtwo’s creator.
Players can currently battle Mewtwo either in Super Smash Bros or in the new Pokemon: Let’s Go games, where he’s still positioned as one of the Kanto region’s final challenges. Mewtwo is also playable in Pokken Tournament as a playable character in the all-Pokemon fighting game.
Here’s to wishing Mewtwo all the best, and hopefully it remembers that we all have a lot in common. The same air, the same Earth, the same sky. Maybe if Mewtwo starting looking at what’s the same instead of always looking at what’s different….well, who knows?
