Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon
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 You thought the English-language version of "Mewtwo Strikes Back" is an absolute mess, eh? Think again, it's even worse! Because this is more like "The Mastermind of Mirage Messiness."
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Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon is a television special that serves as a 10th Anniversary "special" for the Pokémon franchise which was set during the events of Pokemon: Battle Frontier. This special is infamous for its extremely negative reception by the fans of the Pokémon franchise and is widely considered as the worst Pokémon special ever made.
Summary
When a scientist's Pokémon Mirage system goes rogue and causes all of the Mirage Pokémon to go berserk, Ash and his friend must find out who's behind it.
Why It Isn't A Mastermind
- This mini-movie episode is infamous for how much of a joke it is for something meant to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the franchise, unlike the Season 8 arc where Ash goes back to Kanto and meets everyone at Pallet Town again, which is way better than the crap this special gave us.
- What's very bizarre about this special is that in the anime order, it takes place after episode 157, the episode where May, her Squirtle, and Meowth go back in time.
- One big question: Was there a story arc leading to this special?
- The actual main problem is that the whole special episode is a re-hash/rip-off of Pokémon: The First Movie, right down to having Mewtwo as one of the main villains, new versions of Pokémon and Mew as an ally. Has the writer of the special even watched the show or done any research on the Pokémon franchise?
- The DVD cover is lazy and boring to look at as they came straight from other official Pokémon stock images.
- On that topic, the cover shows dark clouds in the sky, making it feel like its gonna be something that takes place in the stormy area, but that never happens, as the entirety of the special takes place in the light day time.
- Even so, Ash and the others from the bottom have their shocked expression as surprisingly dull as their mouths are open up as if they're howling as they're in trouble against the Mirage Master and his Mirage Pokemon while Dr. Oak is confused, while Pikachu is jumping up to attack beneath all of the said Mirage Pokemon.
- The twist of the Mirage Master being Dr. Yung is too obvious and ridiculous.
- And even more insulting, during the opening theme, the Specie outright spoils that Dr. Yung is the Mirage Master.
- Loads of unnecessary filler that didn't need to be in the episode.
- If you want an example: The inclusion of Team Rocket's Jessie, James, and Meowth here feels pointless compared to episodes they were used in, and they serve nothing more than bland filler.
- This special is also infamous for its tone, being very dark and somewhat more graphical than the anime series.
- While there is nothing wrong with throwing in dark moments into the Pokémon anime, especially in an anniversary mini-movie, those that do it never go that extreme, and if it does it too much, that would come off as either overly edgy or that can go way too far like here.
- Many moments in this special can get way too dark and too much (even for Pokémon standards), for example:
- There's a scene where Ash's Pikachu gets tortured in a rack until Professor Oak tells the Mirage Master the code.
- It mentions that Dr. Yung was an expelled student because his experiments on Pokémon were his cruel tendencies and just wanting revenge.
- Max gets hit by an Armaldo's Shadow Ball.
- Most of the teams' Pokémon (namely Ash's Pikachu, Misty's Gyarados, May's Combusken, and Professor Oak's Dragonite) are brutally beaten up to a pulp by the Mirage Pokémon, making this Specie a very cruel torturer episode for them.
- This is also quite miserable for Misty's Gyarados especially, considering that before his capture, Gyarados was already tortured before.
- Mirage Mew gets beaten to a pulp by Mirage Mewtwo until it's first to defeat...while squealing in pain.
- Despite Brock and Max being in this special, they do nothing of importance at all. Brock doesn't even participate in the final battle against Mirage Mewtwo.
- The entire special is set in a castle, making this a stupid, pointless bottle episode. While bottle episodes are okay, specials like this shouldn't be constrained in terms of location. Especially if you are making an anniversary special!
- Fan favorite Pokémon characters are treated very poorly in this specie:
- Ash's Pikachu is treated like a butt-monkey and gets torturer though out the whole specie until the climax were he defeats the Mirage Mewtwo.
- May's Squirtle is only seen a few times before disappearing for the rest of the specie after May saves Misty.
- Misty's Staryu gets side-lined after being defeated by Mirage Aggron.
- Misty's Golden dissapears and is never seen again after it helps Misty traverse though the water.
- Ash's Corphish also dissapears and is never seen again after it helps Ash and his Pikachu though the water.
- The worst offenders are with out a dought Misty's Gyarados and May's Combusken, as in addition to them not appearing until the climax of Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, much like Ash's Pikachu, they're also treated like total and utter butt-monkeys in this special as they get beaten up by the Mirage Pokémon.
- Unexplained plot-holes and plot threads that either made no sense or lead to continuity errors:
- Instead of Ash and his friends investigating the castle, why doesn't anyone just call the police? They have Officer Jenny, she can arrest any criminal.
- Nurse Joy makes an appearance, yet she does nothing more than be filler.
- Where and how did Professor Oak get a Dragonite when he left his laboratory?
- During the climax against Mirage Mewtwo, why doesn't Ash and co. bring out ALL of their Pokémon to battle Mirage Mewtwo instead of four like Ash's Pikachu, Misty's Gyarados, May's Combusken, and Professor Oak's Dragonite?
- Early on in the special, it is shown that Mirage Pokémon can not be harmed by any means, but near the end of the special, Mirage Mewtwo (despite being one of Dr. Yung's most powerful Mirage Pokémon) gets defeated in one hit by Ash's Pikachu's Volt Tackle, a bit it was due to Mirage Mew's sacrifice, but still.
- On that subject, this scene also adds in two additional plot-holes:
- If a tie between Mirage Mew and Mirage Mewtwo are connected and if one is defeated then the other will be gone too, then why didn't Mirage Mewtwo get effected by the aftermath after it defeated Mirage Mew?
- If Mirage Mew knew that it can stun/weaken Mirage Mewtwo, then why didn't it do that in the first place?
- On that subject, this scene also adds in two additional plot-holes:
- After Pikachu defeats Mirage Mewtwo and Dr. Yung's castle explodes, May's Combusken, Misty's Gyarados, and Professor Oak's Dragonite unexpectedly disappear for no reason and are never seen again.
- Dr Yung revealing to be the Mirage Master is way too dark to be an antagonist of a Pokémon special. For example, he tortures Pikachu until Professor Oak tells him the code, as stated in the #7 entry.
- Also, Dr, Yung's goal of wanting to experiment with Pokémon in his cruel ways and replacing Pokémon with his Mirage system and taking over the world makes no sense, why does he want to replace organic life with holograms, and how is that suppose to help him take over the world?
- The climax is very bland and drags on way too long. It's nothing more than the Team's Pokémon getting overpowered by Mirage Mewtwo, and this goes only until Mirage Mew stuns Mirage Mewtwo long enough for Pikachu to defeat Mirage Mewtwo with Volt Tackle.
- There are a few noticle errors in the animation, such mention goes to Mirage Aggron, who in a few scene looks more solid looking despite being a "Mirage Pokémon".
- Due to its darker nature, this whole special feels more like something out of another anime show like Naruto and/or Dragon Ball Z, rather than something out of Pokémon, and considering how both graphic and dark those shows can get, that's saying something.
- Heck, even some of the normal episodes and even specials of Naruto and Dragon Ball Z had more light-hearted moments, and those have a higher rating than Pokemon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon.
- Many anticlimactic moments, such as the way Mirage Mew saves Ash's Pikachu from Mirage Mewtwo.
- During the first couple of minutes of Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon (including part of the climax), it shows off that the Mirage Pokémon can merge to create other Pokémon. It gives it the feeling of their moments involving mirage Pokémon to form other kinds of Pokémon that can use other attacks. During the climax were Mirage Mewtwo merging all of the Mirage Pokémon, it could have also been Mirage Mewtwo with all parts of the other Pokémon to create a chimera-like Mirage Pokémon, which the climax itself could have easily been. Instead, Mirage Mewtwo just transform his hands into Pokémon heads to use the Specie Attack (such as Arcanine, Rayquaza and Tropius' heads), then reverts them to normal, which is lazy.
- What's worst is that there is potential for it as shown by Mirage Mewtwo creating the heads of the Pokémon on his body during the climax.
- Some of the characters act either out of character or unlikable. One example is that after Ash's Pikachu defeats Mirage Mewtwo, Professor Oak (who has no emotion only with just a sad serious face) instead of having Dr. Yung arrested by the cops/police or fired from his laboratory, he....lets Dr. Yung go off scot-free after the latter refuses.
- Granted. It is unlikely that Dr. Yung did survive after heading into the fire-raring remains of his lab, but still.
- Despite The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon being a tenth-anniversary "special" of the Pokémon franchise, it does not affect the show's story in any meaningful way. Neither Ash nor his friends talk about the adventure with Mirage Pokémon, Dr. Yung (even though it’s unknown if he survived the fire or not) does not return in later series, Mirage Mew (despite being "promise" to return) does not re-appear in the series either, Professor Oak's Dragonite does not re-appear in the series and the concept or idea of Mirage Pokémon never gets brought up again.
- On that note, despite Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon even being a tenth-anniversary "special" of the Pokémon franchise, it doesn't feel like an anniversary "special" of the Pokémon franchise as its animation is the same, and beside the torturer scene with Ash's Pikachu were it shows off the first five Pokémon films and the climax were Ash's Pikachu, Misty's Gyarados, May's Combusken, and Professor Oak's Dragonite battle the Mirage Articuno, Mirage Zapdos, Mirage Entei and Mirage Mewtwo, there are no moments of fan services.
- As a matter of fact, if you remove most of the filler scene, and replace the intro with the Pokémon: Battle Frontier theme, Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon would come across as a normal Pokémon: Battle Frontier episode.
- Beginning with this special, the English dub would be handled by TAJ Productions and Pokémon USA (now The Pokémon Company International) instead of 4Kids Entertainment. As such, almost the entire English voice cast was changed, which came as a rude awakening for the dub's fans when it first aired as Pokémon USA used the special as a testing ground for the new voice actors but in 2008 starting with Pokémon DP: Battle Dimension, supporting voice actors from 4Kids like Lisa Ortiz, Wayne Grayson, Dan Green, Mike Pollock, Sean Schemmel, Erica Schroeder, Ted Lewis, Marc Thompson, and Amy Palant started to return for the series.
- Veronica Taylor was replaced by Jamie Peacock (Kayzie Rogers), who was the voice of Ash only one time, which of course sounded terrible and sounds like she wasn't even trying with Ash at all.
- May's new voice sounds alright for her but sounds a lot more adult-ish sounding than the voice given by Veronica Taylor, where she does sound like a 10-year-old girl.
- Misty's voice, though not as good as the original, is somewhat passable.
- In general, this should have been done for Season 10 if Season 9 was the last season of the 4Kids era for Pokémon before the new cast for Season 10 considering Season 9 had the Battle Frontier arc, the Kanto Grand Festival Contest arc, and the Battle Pyramid arc.
- Laughably dialog from some of the characters, one of the most infamous examples in during the climax of the special, were after Ash's Pikachu gets thrown off my Mirage Mewtwo and is about to be finished off before being rescued by Mirage Mew, Ash only says "Don't give up!", which comes across as an odd thing to say when someone is about to be potentially killed by something.
- Overall, because of its darker/mean-spirited tone and the fact that this special never gets mentioned again, Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon feels more like an OVA fan projected/Spin-Off of another anime series, rather than be a Pokémon Special.
- Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon was given such a negative feed back that it nearly killed any chances of Pokémon getting another television special, until Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles sixteen years later.
- In addition to this specie being down right mean-spirited and a joke, Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon in someways feels rushed, since this specie only lasts a total of 45 minutes, and the pacing is too quick since certain moments either last only a few seconds, some scenes that appear are never seen or mention again, and or the film tends to cut several corners in order for the film to go a little quicker, and due to its basic animation(as stated in the #20 segment) nearly half of the specie feels like an extended episode of the Pokemon: Battle Frontier anime with the length of a mini-film, which makes the mini-film feel way too short overall, resulting in the film feeling cheap, its as if Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon was original meant to serve as a threaten-length film, but there wasn't enough time to add more things in order to make the film run just a little bit longer, so its because of the same animation, the poor use of the main characters' Pokemon (namely Misty's Gyarados and May's Combusken as they don't even appear until the climax), a platter of miss opportunities, Brock and Max barely contributing to the plot and the unresolved conclusion with Dr. Yung after his "defeat" makes it feel like a very un-finished film, and was only made just to modernise the 10th Anniversary "special" for the Pokémon franchise in general.
Redeeming Qualities
- Thankfully, the whole mini-movie is 100% non-canon since none of the events were mentioned ever again.
- The idea of a mini-movie episode is interesting, but it is poorly executed.
- Mirage Mew is a likable character.
- The action scenes are decent.
- Despite Team Rocket's inclusion being pointless, at the very least they serve as comic relief to balance out this other-wise dark special.
- While the same as the show, the animation is as good as always and the Japanese voice actors give their usual performances, which all of them are very good with their roles.
- Sarah Natochenny took over as Ash's voice from the following season, Pokémon: Battle Frontier, onwards, as well as the DVD release of this special. Her voice is an improvement over Peacock's, and for Ash's voice, although not the same or nearly as perfect as Veronica's voice for Ash, is at least tolerable and got better over the years. The rest of the English voice cast remained unchanged from the special, but their voices have been refined.
- Misty returned for the third time in the Advanced Generation era, which is nice.
- While badly implemented, the idea of making the a Pokémon television special darker was not at all a bad concept and could have been implemented very well, in fact sixteen years later, Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles was able to handed its dark tone WAY better.
Reception
Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon received overwhelmingly negative reviews by fans and critics alike, which fans criticizing the specie for its harsh style adult-like dark-tone, poor and yet silly plot, the poor usage of the main characters' Pokémon and considered it a complete joke for the Pokemon Anime series.
Trivia
- Despite being recast for the role of Ash, Kayzie Rogers would continue to voice Pokémon like Wobbuffet and Eevee, until her retirement from Pokémon after the Pokémon XY series finale episode "Till We Compete Again".
- The designs of Hyper Beam and Solar Beam that have been launched by Mirage Mewtwo have been altered in Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, with Hyper Beam looking more liquidity-like and Solar Beam looking more stream-like, rather than a solid beam like in the anime.
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