This is an original, very rare, Japanese B2 advance / roadshow poster printed in 1998 to promote the Japanese theatrical release of Gekijōban Pocket Monsters: Mewtwo Strikes Back (劇場版ポケットモンスター ミュウツーの逆襲), released in Japanese cinemas on 18 July 1998, with Pikachu’s Vacation (ピカチュウのなつやすみ) shown alongside it. Official Japanese film histories identify Mewtwo Strikes Back as the first Pokémon movie, and Suruga-ya catalogues this exact sheet as a B2宣伝ポスター / B2 promotional poster key visual for “Mewtwo Strikes Back / Pikachu’s Vacation.”
Film background
Mewtwo Strikes Back is the film that launched the Pokémon movie series in Japan. The story centers on Mewtwo, a bio-engineered Pokémon created from the DNA of Mew, while the original release paired the feature with the short Pikachu’s Vacation. Credits for the feature list Kunihiko Yuyama as director and Takeshi Shudo as screenwriter; the short was directed by Yuyama and written by Hideki Sonoda.
Creator / artist background
This sheet does not print a separate standalone poster-illustrator credit on the image, so the key creative names to know are the people behind Pokémon and Pikachu themselves. Satoshi Tajiri is identified by both Nintendo and Game Freak as the creator of the Pokémon series / Game Freak’s representative director. For Pikachu, an official English Pokémon.com feature frames the character’s origin story around Ken Sugimori, Koji Nishino, and Atsuko Nishida, and Japanese profiles describe Nishida as the Game Freak-era designer who worked on Pokémon Red/Green and designed Pikachu. Film credits for Mewtwo Strikes Back also list the original character-creation line as Ken Sugimori, Shigeki Morimoto, Motofumi Fujiwara, and Atsuko Nishida.
Poster design
Printed in the standard Japanese B2 cinema-poster format, this advance / roadshow design is brilliantly simple and incredibly memorable: a colossal, front-facing Pikachu fills almost the entire sheet, with the cheerful top-line 劇場で待ってるよ！ (“Waiting for you at the theater!”), bold red roadshow copy for summer 1998, and small inset campaign art at the bottom for Mewtwo Strikes Back and Pikachu’s Vacation. Rather than selling plot, it sells instant recognition. By the late 1990s, Pikachu had already debuted in Pokémon Red/Green and become the anime’s signature partner character, which makes this huge all-Pikachu image feel like a perfect snapshot of the moment when the franchise was exploding across games, manga, television, and cinema.
This poster is in excellent condition. There is only a small tear repaired with archival tape on the verso (additional imagery provided). Please refer to the imagery (front and back), as this is the exact poster that is for sale. Once framed, it will display fantastically.
It is over 27 years old.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
