With great anticipation of the Movie Detective Pikachu after two great trailers, there is a dilemma in the minds. The confusion is that whether the movie will be able to perform better than the video game movie and will be able to remove the Anime curse. Pokémon used to be a pop culture staple for 90’s kids.
Pokemon- A Pop Culture
It may be either Anime movies, trading card or other movies, Pokémon has always been a Hero. The media empire made dedicated fans of millions of people around the world. The first release was in the year 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy. This game sparked an international phenomenon that encompassed over 300 million games were sold. It made it the highest selling video game franchise of all the time right behind the Super Mario. In recent years the game Pokémon Go saw over 1 billion downloads worldwide and the new game Detective Pikachu in 2016 brought new life to one of the franchise’s most beloved characters with a fresh spin on the formula.
Given the vast popularity and sheer cultural omnipresence, it was inevitable that Hollywood will eventually make a Pokémon movie. The adaption process surrounded itself with the biggest problem. American studio is not at all so good in making movies from video games, no matter how often they try to crack the code. They are even worse when it comes to Anime into a default American story. The Video Game Movie Curse is a biggest talked out matter in the Cinema.
Why Anime and Video Game Was a Failure?
From Super Mario to Doom to Assassins Creed, Hollywood keeps on putting on the money on these adventures. But the audience does not seem to want what they are actually selling. The same goes for anime adaptations. Hollywood hasn’t been able to treat anime projects with the care resulting in the downfall of the movie. A quick look at the last decade or so of big-budget flops would give any potential producer. This is an enough indication to decide that maybe a Detective Pikachu movie isn’t a wise investment. Seems like Warner Bros. has been able to crack the code. The marketing under Rob Letterman and starring Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu, have managed to dismiss most of the cynicism surrounding the project.
Anime movies, by comparison, are facing trouble because of issues of cultural clashes than technical or structural controversies. While executives and directors continue to make excuses as to the supposed necessity of whitewashing. There were said stories almost always end up missing the point of what made the source material so exciting and special in the first place. The movie named as Death Note, for example, stripped its story of everything Japanese but did nothing to make itself especially interesting or necessary as an American story.
Accordingly, people are genuinely hyped for this film, and it’s not just nostalgia based to see the almost opposite responses from the images. It’s not so justified to start declaring Pokemon: Detective Pikachu an unquestioned victory. But the fact that people are by and large unironically hyped means the film and WB have won half the battle already before coming to thdeatres.
