This is an original, exceptionally rare Japanese B1 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. Mewtwo Strikes Back was the first Pokémon theatrical film, and this is the rare large-format B1 Mewtwo silhouette key visual from its original Japanese campaign. The Japanese B1 format measures approximately 72.8 × 103 cm (28.7 × 40.6 inches).
Film background
Mewtwo Strikes Back launched the Pokémon movie series in Japan. The story centres on Mewtwo, a bio-engineered Pokémon created from Mew’s DNA, who draws Satoshi and other powerful Trainers to an island and forces a confrontation between original Pokémon and their cloned counterparts. The feature was directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and written by Takeshi Shudo. The accompanying short, Pikachu’s Vacation, was also directed by Yuyama, with a screenplay by Hideki Sonoda.
Creator / artist background
This sheet does not print a separate standalone poster-illustrator credit, so the key creative names are those attached to the original film and printed within the campaign credits. Satoshi Tajiri is credited with the original concept, Tsunekazu Ishihara as supervisor, Yoichi Kotabe as animation supervisor, and Kunihiko Yuyama as director. The film’s original character-creation credits name Ken Sugimori, Shigeki Morimoto, Motofumi Fujiwara, and Atsuko Nishida, linking the poster directly to the founding creative team behind the first generation of Pokémon.
Poster design
Printed in the rare, large B1 Japanese cinema-poster format, this advance / roadshow design is a dramatic counterpoint to the brighter Pikachu campaign variant. A vast black field is split by violent yellow, red, blue, and purple lightning, while Mewtwo appears as an almost complete silhouette, gathering a blinding sphere of psychic energy at the centre of the composition. Mew glows in the upper-right corner as the visual and narrative counterpoint.
The vertical slogan 最強のポケモンは誰だ?! translates as “Who is the strongest Pokémon?!”, while the enormous green Pocket Monsters logo and molten orange-red ミュウツーの逆襲 title give the sheet the scale and impact of a major summer event. A small Pikachu panel at lower left promotes Pikachu’s Vacation, and the bottom line ’98年夏休み 全国東宝洋画系ロードショー announces the nationwide summer 1998 Toho cinema roadshow. The lower margin also retains the original Pikachu Project 98, Toho, and classification marks, all integral to the first-release campaign.
This poster is in very good+, theatre-used condition. The colours remain remarkably strong, with deep black printing and vivid green, red, orange, pink, and yellow. As shown in the photographs, there are small pinholes from original display and principally along the top margin—light surface marks, and handling creases / rippling visible from both the front and verso. The reverse is generally clean, with no obvious heavy staining or foxing, and there is no significant paper loss affecting the central artwork or title. 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 28 years old.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
