Film
Pokémon: The First Movie
A sleek, intense Pokémon adventure about a creator facing his creation. Mewtwo, a lab-made legendary, challenges Ash to battle on its terms—and the film earns genuine stakes by letting the question of the Pokémon's right to exist matter. Visually striking for 1998, it carries unexpected weight beneath the adventure-serial exterior.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you grew up on bright, scrappy adventure cartoons and want a fable about pride, identity and a creator's ego, delivered with big set-piece animation.
Skip it if you find the franchise's bright, pocket-monster cheer wearing thin, or want a light summer romp, since its mood turns heavier and more philosophical than the cute premise suggests.
What it asks of you: Ninety-six minutes of mostly steady build, with bursts of spectacle and a talkier middle, so it asks for patience between the big clashes rather than constant bounce.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Our War Game2000
The spiritual equivalent: a creature-battle franchise film that similarly balances kid-friendly adventure with real peril and questions about the digital world's sentience. Slightly more cohesive storytelling than the Pokémon film.
But The Digimon designs are less iconic, and it assumes more familiarity with the TV show's cast. Pacing can drag in the middle act.
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie2004
Same era trading-card-game energy, with gorgeous animation and genuine emotional stakes around a supernatural tournament. Captures that '90s-'00s anime movie magic without pretension.
But The card game mechanics might baffle non-players. It's very much a love letter to the fanbase, assuming you care about the characters.
Gundam Wing: The Endless Waltz1998
A mecha film that proves anime action doesn't have to be for young children to be exhilarating. Gorgeous animation and a meditation on what weaponry means to a world.
But Zero familiarity with the show is a barrier. It's dense, philosophical, and entirely uninterested in explaining itself to newcomers.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Pokémon: The First Movie
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train2020
Both use a single supernatural confrontation to explore grief, mortality, and what we owe to those we love. Both prove a franchise film can have genuine artistic ambition.
A contemporary anime film that learned from Pokémon's playbook and perfected it: gorgeous, emotionally devastating, focused on a handful of characters facing an overwhelmingly powerful enemy. One of the highest-grossing anime films ever made for good reason.
But You need to have watched the first season of the TV show. It's very long for a action climax, and the emotional beats will not land without investment.
More like this (5)
Sailor Moon R: The Movie - The Promise of the Rose1993
A sparkly magical-girl film that nonetheless carries genuine dread about a parasitic threat. Beautiful animation for its era and a love story with real consequence.
But The Sailor Moon TV show is essential context. The romance subplot may feel saccharine if you're not invested in these characters already.
Record of Ragnarok2021
An anime about gods and humans locked in a tournament of champions. Visually inventive, with the same mythological stakes and one-on-one confrontation energy as Mewtwo's scheme.
But Extremely violent and often gratuitous. The first arc drags, and character development takes a backseat to spectacle.
Cardfight!! Vanguard2011
A trading-card anime that takes itself seriously about the spirituality of the game and the connection between player and deck. Sincere without being maudlin.
But The card game rules are impenetrable. The show is very long and repetitive in structure, and the stakes feel artificial.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners2022
Like Mewtwo, Edgerunners is about the moral weight of creating something beyond your control, and what happens when power meets desperation. Both ask: what do we owe our creations?
A 10-episode anime about a street kid and a cyborg outcast defying a megacorporation. Staggeringly beautiful animation, urgent storytelling, and a bittersweet ending that breaks you cleanly in half.
But Extremely violent and graphic. It's sci-fi noir, not adventure; much darker in tone than anything Pokémon touches. Will devastate you.
The Iron Giant1999
Both films hinge on a created being weaponized against its will, and both argue that connection and choice matter more than programming. Both suggest that what you're built for isn't what you have to become.
A hand-drawn American film about a boy befriending an alien war machine during the Cold War. Visually sumptuous, wickedly funny, and built on the same core idea as Mewtwo: a created thing learning to choose its own nature.
But It's a quieter, more contemplative film than Pokémon. Very few action sequences; much of it is about conversation and connection. Bombed at the box office because it was ahead of its time.
People
Cast
Rica MatsumotoSatoshi (voice)
Ikue OtaniPikachu (voice)
Mayumi IzukaKasumi (voice)
Yuji UedaTakeshi (voice)
Satomi KorogiTogepi (voice)
Megumi HayashibaraMusashi (voice)
Shin-ichiro MikiKojiro (voice)
Inuko InuyamaNyarth (voice)- Ayako ShiraishiJohi (voice)
Chinami NishimuraJunsar (voice)
Hirotaka SuzuokiSakaki (voice)
Unsho IshizukaNarrator (voice)
Directing
- Kunihiko YuyamaDirector
Writing
- Satoshi TajiriOriginal Story
- Takeshi ShudoScreenplay
Production
- Choji YoshikawaProducer
- Tsukasa KoitabashiProduction Manager
Recommended by
Sailor Moon R: The Movie - The Promise of the Rose, Our War Game, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie