Vol. 1, Issue 14 - My Pokémon Collection - Part 3
More of my personal Pokémon collection, the latest Pokémon news, and our first mailbag submission!
Welcome to another issue of the Johto Times! This week, I am sharing the third part of my Pokémon collection, focusing on some of the classic Pokémon movies I grew up with. Maybe you had these too? We also take a look at the weekly Pokémon news and share our very first mailbag question!
Before we begin, I would like to announce that the Johto Times has this week reached 200 subscribers! Our newsletter is read across 30 US states and 40 countries, and we are incredibly proud of what we are doing and thankful to everyone who has chosen to subscribe to us so far.
News
It was reported this week that Pokémon GO's monthly revenue had dropped to $34.7m in April, down from $39.7m in the month previous, which makes it the lowest monthly revenue since February 2018, according to Mobilegamer.biz, who made their report based on statistics from AppMagic. On March 30th, Niantic, the company behind Pokémon GO, went ahead with their plans to increase the price of Remote Raid passes and limit their use to five per day, despite widespread criticism from the Pokémon GO community due to their accessibility during the COVID-19 pandemic, and allowing people who couldn’t normally engage in Pokémon GO, such as those with disabilities or other health conditions, the opportunity to do so.
On May 4th, Niantic responded to a request from Eurogamer which suggests this information is incorrect. "We generally don't comment on third-party estimates of our revenue as they are often incorrect, which is the case here," a spokesperson for Niantic told Eurogamer after they contacted the company. The spokesperson went on to say, "This year's changes have already increased in-person Raiding and we're excited to introduce exciting new features over the coming months," suggesting that they are sticking to their announced plans.
Back in August 2021, the company had suggested that they were listening to feedback from fans and reaching out to community leaders to get involved with dialogue on topics like interaction distance for in-game gyms. While the conditions are a little different compared to then, their radio silence in response to the #HearUsNiantic campaign and recent events is a departure from their attitude almost two years ago.
Sources: Mobilegamer.biz, Eurogamer
Feature: My Pokémon Collection - Part 3
The Pokémon movies were a huge part of my childhood, and I have some great memories attached to them. This time around, I wanted to focus my collection feature on the original VHS copies of Pokémon I own. There was actually a point where I was considering selling or donating these due to my lack of a VHS player, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Pokémon The First Movie (VHS)
The first Pokémon movie was one of the very first pieces of Pokémon content I was introduced to by a friend in my class at school. When the movie finally released, I was eager to watch it. The tone was very different from the individual episodes, especially when Mew and Mewtwo accidentally turn Ash into stone and you see the emotion of the Pokémon bring him back to life. I don’t remember the exact circumstances of obtaining the video, but I do remember watching it a few times, and I still have the promo Mewtwo card.
Pokémon the Movie 2000 (VHS)
Out of all the movies I am talking about today, Pokémon the Movie 2000 is probably my favourite of them all. I really enjoyed watching this film and I loved the new second generation Pokémon that were introduced. One of the most memorable parts was when Lugia fired an Aeroblast attack at the Pokémon collector Lawrence, who was trying to capture him. It really emphasised the strength of this legendary Pokémon, maybe even more so than Mewtwo’s attacks in the previous movie. This one came with a Pikachu promo card, which is still a part of my collection.
Pokémon The Movie 3: Spell of the Unown (VHS)
While not as memorable or enjoyable to me, I vividly remember picking up the third Pokémon movie and watching it at home. I recall pulling our armchair right up to the front of the television and watching it all to myself. Like the previous releases, this one came with a promo Unown J card. It’s one of my favourite promo cards, and I recall taking it out of the box and seeing its striking orange background. I feel very fortunate to have kept all the cards from back then.
Mewtwo Returns The Movie & The Great Race Double Pack (VHS)
This double pack contained a sequel to Mewtwo Strikes Back called Mewtwo Returns and a selection of anime episodes that include The Ninja Poké-Showdown, The Flame Pokémon-athon and The Kangaskhan Kid. It was an enjoyable sequel that showed what happened to Mewtwo after the events of the first movie, but it’s sad to see that it hasn’t had any digital releases since. Unfortunately, this release didn’t come with a Pokémon card, but it did come with a sticker sheet!
Pokémon 4Ever (VHS)
Pokémon 4Ever was the last Pokémon VHS I purchased, due to DVD’s becoming cheaper and more popular. This was the first movie to be distributed by Miramax, away from 4Kids Entertainment. The yellow cases were gone, and so were the promo Pokémon cards, which was kind of disappointing. Sadly, 4 Ever wasn’t overly memorable for me, but I did enjoy the twist towards the end where we discover who the character of Sam turns out to be!
Mailbag
Want to be a part of our newsletter? You’re welcome to submit content including (but not limited to) questions, fanart, short stories, memories, photographs of your collection, or even Pokémon tattoos! We will happily publish them in our mailbag and share them in future issues of our newsletter.
Today’s mailbag contains a question from one of our readers: Miran Öztekin from Turkey!
“Some people say [that the] real Pikachu is pink! Is this true?”
Miran Öztekin, Turkey
Thanks for your question, Miran! In order to answer it, I looked through a range of different Pokémon media and attempted to find any sign of a pink Pikachu.
I felt confident enough that I had never come across a pink Pikachu in any of the mainline games, so I decided to look into Pokémon Stadium 2, where it was reported that nicknamed Pokémon can have different colours. There was no sign of a pink Pikachu here, but I did discover a very detailed guide on the topic by someone called Fëanen that you may wish to check out!
I then decided to check Pikachu’s palette swaps, sprites, trophies and alternate costumes across the Super Smash Bros. series, which also resulted in zero pink Pikachu found.
Finally, I turned to the Pokémon anime in the hope of finding something from episodes I watched as a kid. In season 2, episode 34 of the Pokémon anime titled "In the Pink", Ash, Misty and Tracey travel to Pinkan Island, located in the Orange Archipelago, where all the Pokémon are pink! Bulbapedia had a collection of pictures featuring all the pink Pokémon from the episode, and there was no sign of a pink Pikachu on the page. I decided to watch the episode for myself, and to my surprise, there was a pink Pikachu, well… kind of!
In the episode, Ash’s Pikachu eats a Pinkan berry from one of the trees that grow on the island, and is the reason the Pokémon turn pink in the first place. Officer Jenny explains to Ash that the colour change isn’t permanent unless the Pokémon eat the berries all the time, to his relief.
So while it was a temporary change, I am confident enough to say that Pikachu IS pink, although only partially, and only for this one specific Pikachu and episode, that I am currently aware of. Who knows, maybe we will see a pink variation of Pikachu in the future?
Thanks for the unlocking another memory from my childhood!
I just remembered that I have a photo with one of the poster from Pokemon Movie with Mewtwo.
I don't check our family album often, but thatyks to this article I want to check all of my photos and find any resemblence of Pokemon on the photos 😁
So happy to see Mewtwo Returns here! I loved it as a child, but nobody else had ever seen it. It's where Brock's (in)famous line "I'll use my frying pan as a drying pan" came from! Also the baby Nidoqueens lol. I still love the first six movies so much and watched them repeatedly when I was younger. This was fun to read and reminisce about. Thank you!