Genesect and the Legend Awakened (known in Japan as ExtremeSpeed Genesect: Mewtwo Awakens) is the sixteenth movie entry in the Pokémon movie franchise, and the final entry for the Black & White saga of the anime.
It marks the anime debut of the legendary Pokémon Genesect as well as one of Mewtwo's Mega Evolutions introduced in Pokémon X and Y. The movie follows Ash, Iris, Cilan, and their Pokémon as they arrive in New Tork City, which is being attacked by the Genesect Army, a group of five Genesect led by a Shiny one known as the Red Genesect. The only one who can stop them is Mewtwonote , who notes that the Genesect are made by humans, just like it was.
The film was released in Japan on July 13th, 2013 and debuted on Cartoon Network in the United States on October 19th, 2013. It was released on DVD in the United States on December 3rd, 2013.
Additionally, the film was accompanied in Japan by the Pikachu short Eevee and Friends, which was streamed on the English website's Pokémon TV service
from December 6th, 2013 to December 15th, 2013, during which time the service was known as "Eevee TV" and featured Eevee-themed Pokémon episodes.
Just like The First Movie, this one had plot elements set up, this time within the Team Plasma Arc of the Best Wishes Series, and it had a prologue special episode as a lead-in.
Genesect and the Legend Awakened features examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Mewtwo blew up the lab where it was created and its occupants unintentionally, unlike the original who purposefully killed its creators out of anger.
- Seems to be contradicted by the special Mewtwo — Prologue to Awakening, where Pokémon Hunter Dirk is a mercenary hired by Mewtwo's creators to track down Mewtwo after it escaped from their custody.
- Action Girl: Mewtwo telepathically speaks with a feminine voice in a stark contrast to the original, but is no less badass.
- Adaptational Superpower Change:
- The Red Genesect uses a basic Drive, and its Techno Blast fires a purple laser. While the driveless version of Techno Blast in the games is depicted as a green laser (white in the Gen V games), the laser here suggests it's a Dark or Ghost-type variant (which doesn't exist in the games).
- Mega Mewtwo Y is capable of moving much faster than normal Mewtwo, though its offensive prowess isn't affected much. In the games, Mega Mewtwo Y's Speed barely increases while its offensive stats (particularly Special Attack) skyrocket.
- Adaptational Wimp: The Douse Drive Gensesect is an almost total wuss, being timider than the other four, only ever talking about going home, having the voice of a young child, and the majority of its fight scenes are when it's under the control of the Red Genesect. Not exactly a portrayal befitting a feared prehistoric top hunter turned super-cyborg by the local Animal Wrongs Group. That it's the Douse Drive Genesect that undergoes this is even something of a meta example, as the Douse Drive is often considered the only Drive worth using in the games as it's Genesect's only access to a Water-type move.
- Adaptation Distillation: Whereas in the movie Mewtwo is capable of Mega Evolving from the very start, in the manga adaptation it doesn't transform until halfway through and its doing so is treated as a serious event as opposed to something that just happens. This means scenes where Mega Mewtwo Y appeared before then are redrawn to have regular Mewtwo instead.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: The manga adaptation has several panels depicting older characters like Brock, Misty, Keldeo et cetera during Mewtwo and Genesect's scene in space when the former tells the latter that "everyone is their friend". However, this makes no sense because neither of them should know about any of those characters.note
- Adapted Out:
- In the games, an ex-Team Plasma scientist named Dudley completed Genesect after N ordered Team Plasma to cancel the project. No such character appears in the movie or series, as the Pokémon's origin has been changed so that five Genesect are created and completed solely by several Team Plasma members working for Colress.
- The manga adaptation does this, too; rather than having Team Plasma grunts at the Genesect Army's creation, a group of generic scientists are used instead (and in fact, the manga makes no effort to imply they're even a creation of Team Plasma at all).
- Advertised Extra: A Sableye was advertised on the movie's website next to some prominent characters. Said Sableye does nothing of note in the film proper and disappears after the first ten minutes or so. It gets one more appearance about half an hour in to inform Ash and friends of the Genesect attack.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Genesect Army take control of Pokémon Hills early on.
- Antagonist Title: Genesect is the main antagonist, and has a greater impact on the plot than co-star Mewtwo does.
- Apocalypse How: The Genesect build their nest in the power supply to New Tork City, threatening to destroy the place unless they're stopped.
- Artistic License – Space: Surprisingly, this is mostly averted - Mewtwo taking the Red Genesect into space causes the two of them to partially freeze, they speak telepathically thus getting around the lack of sound in space, and after a while they plummet back to Earth due to a lack of air.
- Badass Boast: Red Genesect has one during its confrontation with Mewtwo in the city:Red Genesect: Interfere, and you will be DESTROYED!
- Badass Bystander: One of the Pokémon the Genesect disturb in the nature preserve is a Feraligatr, who proceeds to spend the entire rest of the movie trying to fight them off. It fights more than the main cast, who hardly did anything but spectate everything.
- Bad Boss: The Red Genesect isn't a very kind leader, often mind-controlling its subordinates and attacking them if they disobey its orders.
- Berserk Button: Red Genesect really hates being told what to do.Red Genesect: Don't give me ORDERS!!! *Fricking Signal Beams*
- Big Apple Sauce: New Tork City is very clearly designed like Castelia City, which itself is New York City.
- Big Bad: The Genesect Army, but particularly the Red Genesect, its leader.
- Big Good: Mewtwo is a powerful Pokemon capable of Mega Evolution. It protects the wild Pokemon of Pokemon Hills and is able to empathize with the Genesect due to humans playing a key role in their current state.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Red Genesect can bend the other Genesect to his will and force them to do his bidding. This becomes a recurring plot point with the Douse Drive Genesect, who forms a friendship with Ash and friends.
- Breaking Old Trends: Until this film, all the final films released in the lifecycle of a given generation had a Pokémon from the next series of games as the main Pokémon. * While Mega Mewtwo Y is a new concept in Pokémon X and Y, it's a Mega Evolution of an older Pokémon and not a brand new species like usual. Also, Genesect gets top billing over it. Despite this, the Eevee and Friends short picks up the slack by featuring Sylveon.
- Broad Strokes: Mewtwo's backstory amounts to a basic retelling of the original Mewtwo's history (up to and including a compressed version of Mewtwo Returns), minus Team Rocket (though its creators are almost exactly the same as them anyway).
- Canon Foreigner: The Mewtwo introduced in this film and the Genesect Army, since the backstory given for both species in the games all but states that only one of each was made, and that circumstances ensured no more could (or would) be made.
- Cheerful Child: The Douse Drive Genesect is kinder than the other Genesect, as it refuses to attack anyone unless ordered to and getting excited over some flowers that it recognizes from their homeland. This can come off as odd since it's a scary-looking cyborg bug with a Backpack Cannon.
- Chekhov's Gun: Albeit not a very effective one. James drops a bazooka into the Genesect nest upon being Signal Beam'd by Red Genesect. Relatively soon after, it drops towards the Douse Drive Genesect before being knocked aside.
- Clueless Aesop: At the end, Mewtwo and the Red Genesect learn that "on this planet, we are all friends", seemingly forgetting about their creators (the former's electrocuted it for no clear reason, and the latter's was Team Plasma), both of whom were most certainly not anyone's friends, least of all their creations'. And that's ignoring the personality differences among both humans and Pokémon that ensure not all of them are friends to each other...
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All the Genesect use differently-colored Drives. Red Genesect also shows itself as the leader with its different color scheme.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Because the mechanic of Mega Evolution hadn't yet been revealed while the movie was released, Mega Mewtwo Y is referred to as Mewtwo's "Awakened Forme" in promotional material... but in the actual film, it goes unnamed.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Ash and friends first meet Mewtwo, Ash says "Wait a minute! You're-", in reference to the old Mewtwonote . Some early trailers also depicted an alternate scene where Ash says Mewtwo's name when it first appears, prompting Cilan to turn as if to say "You KNOW this guy?!".
- When Mewtwo and Red Genesect fly through Not-Times Square, some video screens show Pokémon Baccer.
- Contrived Coincidence: Mewtwo's existence arguably hinges on one - nowhere is it so much as hinted that its creators knew about the original Mewtwo or its creation, so that means they just happened to find Mew DNAnote , decided to make a super-clone of Mew for seemingly no reason, and knew just the right amount of DNA modification in the cloning process to make their Mewtwo look physically identical to the original... all seemingly without any data or knowledge of the original Mewtwo to work with.
- Could Have Been Messy: A group of Genesect looking for a home, led by a mind control-equipped leader who is quick to label everyone else as the enemy and fire their arm cannons directly at them with intent to destroy. And yet, between several Big Damn Heroes moments and a Taking the Bullet Disney Death, not a single casualty. Except a few lotuses.
- Covers Always Lie: Played with for the international release of the movie. While depicting standard Mewtwo on the cover and/or including Mewtwo's name in the title would be true to the movie, the international title leaves out Mewtwo (aside from the "Legend Awakened" subtitle) and always depicts Mega Mewtwo Y on promotional material rather than standard Mewtwo, probably to avoid confusing the audience due to their familiarity with the original member of the species.
- Dark Action Girl: One of the Genesect has a feminine voice in the dub.
- Determinator: The Feraligatr does not give up trying to drive out the Genesect, even going so far as to break into the Genesect's cocoon just to get rid of them!
- Disney Death: The Douse Drive Genesect undergoes this following its Taking the Bullet moment, complete with Eye Lights Out. It does it again later.
- Distaff Counterpart: The Mewtwo in this movie has a female voice, unlike the one in the Kanto movies, and is also more of a straightforward hero rather than a villain turned anti-hero.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Mega Mewtwo Y and Sylveon.
- Easily Forgiven: Everyone forgives the Red Genesect (as well as the other Genesect) after the climax. Never mind the fact that they forcibly evicted all Pokémon out of Pokémon Hills against their will (injuring quite a few in the process), endangered all life in the city with their nest and that the Red Genesect was a general arsehole to everyone around him. Apparently saying "Everyone is my friend" is enough for New Tork City to wholeheartedly forgive you, no matter what horrible things you did. And you thought Vegeta got off easily.
- Eye Lights Out: Unusually, a living (albeit cybernetic) creature gets this. The Douse Drive Genesect's eyes turn black when it loses consciousness.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: The Genesect Army, who died over 300 million years ago before their revival by Team Plasma.
- Flat Character: The Chill, Shock and Burn Drive Genesect have no established personality and mostly exist to shoot things and get shot back at in return.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: While it's rather ambiguous as to whether Mewtwo's creators are "evil" or not, from what we see of Mewtwo's past they seemingly made an all-powerful Pokémon for no real reason other than to shoot lightning at it and get bitten back.
- "Get Out of Jail Free" Card: The fact that the Genesect Army's motivation was building a new home seems to be the sole reason why they receive little to no punishment for attacking a protected reserve, forcing all the Pokémon in there out, injuring more than a few of them in the process, and threatening the city with outright destruction as a result of building their nest in the city's power supply. This goes double for the Red Genesect, who not only mind-controlled them against their will numerous times, but also doesn't hesitate to attack its fellow Genesect for not following said destructive orders. Nor does it hesitate to open fire on Ash numerous times.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Though not present in the movie itself, Team Plasma (and by proxy Ghetsis and Colress) are the creators of the Genesect, and thus the conflict.
- Heel–Face Turn: During the climax, the Burn, Shock and Chill Drive Genesect undergo one after being saved from their burning nest. Then, the Red Genesect turns good in the end.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: As a result of Red Genesect's mind controlling powers, the Douse Drive Genesect suffers this.
- Hero Ball: Ash tries to stop the Pokémon Hills residents from fighting back against the Genesect Army, saying that they were just looking for a home. Despite the fact that they're far stronger super soldiers who forced all those Pokémon out at gunpoint, injuring quite a few of them in the process, so the Pokémon have every reason to be pissed off at them.
- High-Altitude Battle: Mewtwo and the Red Genesect briefly have one in New Tork City.
- Irony: Mewtwo's (failed) attempt to fly into space is very ironic, given how the original Mewtwo did it effortlessly in the opening titles for the very first season of the animé.
- Jerkass: The Red Genesect is an asshole (and extremely violent, to boot) towards anyone who isn't on its side... even when "anyone" includes one of its own kind, like the Douse Drive Genesect.
- Karma Houdini: Following the Red Genesect's Heel–Face Turn, it receives no comeuppance for its actions and how its army threatened the city at large. It also ends up getting exactly what it wanted - a new home.
- Kick the Dog: While the Genesect are trying to create a new nest in the park, they attack the Pokémon that already live there. The Red Genesect even attacks some Rock-type Pokémon, sending them into a pond full of water. Remember, Rock-type Pokémon find too much exposure to water painful.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: The Red Genesect is the Army's leader. It also happens to be the fastest.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the original Mewtwo's stories, this movie is definetly this. This Mewtwo's backstory is far less complex than the original's and isn't quite as tragic, and it's a heroic figure all the way through unlike the original; meanwhile, the Genesect Army's Heel–Face Turn is handled more simplistically than the original Mewtwo antagonist in the first movie.
- Lost Aesop: The movie can't seem to decide on what it wants to say; while much of the story seems to focus on Genesect and Mewtwo trying to find their place in the world, it also seems to repeat Pokémon: The First Movie's message of "all life is equal", and out of nowhere near the end, it seems to be "Everyone is your friend"; something that the final ten minutes harps on about.
Also, does that include those who want to exploit others for their own benefit (as happened to the both of them by their creators)? - Mandatory Line: After averting this in Pokémon: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice, Team Rocket go back to being largely pointless comic relief that never interacts with the main cast, never impacts the plot in any meaningful way, and seemingly sticks around just to remind the audience that they exist.note
- Meaningful Name: The city's Japanese name, New Talk City, was apparently chosen for meaning "a city telling a new story".
- The Meddling Kids Are Useless: All in all, Ash and friends do very little to solve anything in the plot. The threat to the substation is dealt with by Eric, the conflict with the Genesect is almost exclusively between Mewtwo and the Pokémon Hills inhabitants, and about the only thing of worth they do is saving Mewtwo and the Red Genesect from an orbital fall via a giant ball of Soft Water (though this is after an attempt to save them with their own Pokémon fails).
- Mind Control: The Red Genesect can exert this power, and the Genesect succumb to such control at various points. Given that the Genesect are cyborgs, and knowing their creator (Colress), this makes total sense.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Downplayed with Mewtwo - it doesn't like humans and gets on better with other Pokémon, but it doesn't wish to destroy them like its predecessor. Though it suddenly starts caring about them when it and the Red Genesect fight in a populated area when not long ago it still had those feelings.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Mewtwo's backstory contradicts a bit of what was established in the prologue dedicated to it.
- Never Trust a Title: No legends are ever awakened over the course of this movie, and Genesect's too ancient and Mewtwo too recent for either of them to have any legends focused on them. Presumably it refers to Mega Mewtwo Y, but no big deal is made of it in-universe, and the special episode acting as a prequel to this shows that Mewtwo has been Mega Evolving for its whole life.
- Never Trust a Trailer:
- Many of the original Japanese trailers use footage that either show certain events happening in a different way than in the movie (such as the Genesect Army's attack on Pokémon Hills taking place during the day and while Ash and co. were present) or was flat out not in it at all (Team Rocket falling into the Genesect nest, Iris and Cilan witnessing the Genesect creating said nest, and the Genesect fighting Mewtwo in New Tork City proper with people running away).
- The first Japanese trailer makes no effort to imply that the Mewtwo is anything but the original; it doesn't speak, Ash instantly recognises it, and Cilan is surprised he knows what it is. The next trailer has Mewtwo speak, revealing a very different voice from the original, and the actual movie reduces Ash's familiarity to a quickly-dropped sentence with no follow-up and zero recognition from anyone else. It also uses footage that's completely different from the final version.
- The English trailer dubs over footage compiled from the Japanese trailers, but (like the first Japanese trailer) never shows footage of Mewtwo speaking, implying it's the orginal one. In the movie proper, the Mewtwo is a different individual with a similar backstory to the original and has a distinctly feminine voice.
- No Communities Were Harmed: New Tork City is an obvious reference to New York City. Likewise, Pokémon Hills is similar to Central Park.
- Strangely enough, a place based on New York City has already appeared — Unova, making New Tork City a New York within a generation based on New York.
- No OSHA Compliance: So, why exactly build a nature reserve over a city's power supply? Especially one that holds Pokémon that can easily break through barricades? Furthermore, why do this when said power supply is not only the only one a city the size of New York has (are backup generators not a thing?), but also dangerous enough that a failure would cause the park to explode?
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: For roughly the seventh time, the movies use this trope for its villains - in this case, the Genesect Army is mainly interested in going back to their prehistoric homeland (as the Douse Drive Genesect is oh-so-happy to remind the audience constantly).
- Out-of-Character Moment: At one point in the film, Mewtwo acts concerned when the Red Genesect dents a building, saying "People live in there!" This is despite the fact that earlier, it established it couldn't care less if Ash, Iris and Cilan got vaporized by Genesect so long as their Pokémon were OK.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: Both the Genesect Army and Mewtwo (especially the former, given that Team Plasma were its creators) blew up their creators' labs and escaped.
- Plot Hole:
- This film's Mewtwo is a very big one; while a second Mewtwo is not strictly impossible, it is very, very implausible that, for no real reason, a group of no-name scientists found DNA of a rare Mythical Pokémon and were able to to create an exact copy (on what looks like their first try) with no prior research or indication they knew that a Mewtwo existed beforehand, especially when all research and knowledge that went into that one is now gone. If they are somehow aware of the original Mewtwo to the extent necessary to create a new one, the movie never explains why.
- When it first meets Ash and the gang, Mewtwo quickly establishes itself as indifferent to humans; only saving them from Genesect's attack because of their Pokémon. Later on, Mewtwo protests the Red Genesect denting a building with, "People live in there!". Nothing that particularly warms it up to humans happens between these two events.
- Poor Communication Kills: The entire plot happens mostly because the Red Genesect is a stubborn bastard who refuses to listen to people.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Feraligatr and Persian seem to be the leaders of land and water Pokémon, respectively, and do the most fighting of the wild Pokémon.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When the Genesect are under Mind Control (or exerting it, in the case of Red Genesect).
- Red Ones Go Faster: The Red Genesect knows Extreme Speed and can move faster than the other four Genesect and regular Mewtwo. Apparently it's able to do this for no reason other than that it is red.
- Save the Villain: The park Pokémon have to rescue the other three villainous Genesect from a fire, causing their Heel–Face Turn. They later have to rescue the Red Genesect when he and Mewtwo are falling from orbit.
- Ship Tease: The scene with the feminine Mewtwo and the masculine Red Genesect above the Earth, and the latter later saving the former as they fall, has some romantic undertones.
- Soft Water: Mewtwo and the Red Genesect are saved from a terminal-velocity fall by a giant bubble of levitated water. Of course, being scientifically engineered superweapons probably helped their chances of survival somewhat.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: In one early trailer, Smiling Face (a happy upbeat J-pop song with lyrics that suggest a mother-child relationship) plays while the Genesect Army attack Mewtwo and destroy New Tork City. Fits that scenario like a glove.
- Story-Breaker Power: Mega Mewtwo Y has no reason to not be used — it doesn't require immense concentration or cause Mewtwo physical or mental straining, it makes Mewtwo faster than even the extremely fast Red Genesect, there's no sign it weakens Mewtwo's power or stamina, and it has no pre-requisite to transform; it can just do it whenever it wants from the moment it was created. And yet Mewtwo often opts to revert back to its normal state and even go into battle without transforming, despite having no clear advantage in doing so.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: The Genesect Army was resurrected from 300 million year-old fossils and no longer fit into the world they once inhabited.
- Super Mode: Mega Mewtwo Y functions as this for Mewtwo. Interestingly, it can do this without Mewtwonite Y or a strong bond with a Trainer.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Despite being a separate individual from the original Mewtwo (which it legally had to be, as Takeshi Shudo's estate owned the rights to that version of the character), much of this Mewtwo's personality and backstory lifts several beats from that of the original's (such as being created and used by a sinister organization, though with nary a red "R" in sight).
- Taking the Bullet: The Douse Drive Genesect leaps to take the combined attack from the other four Genesect in the army that's aimed at Ash.
- Telepathy: Mewtwo and all Genesect use telepathy to speak. Mewtwo also uses the ability to read the Douse Drive Genesect's mind to learn of its past.
- There's No Place Like Home: The Genesect Army's main motivation is to find their home; however, their home has changed over 300 million years and they come across New Tork City while searching for the landscape they're familiar with. In the end, they make a new nest in a place where ancient flowers that grew in their homeland grow.
- Token Good Teammate: The Douse Drive Genesect is the most pacifistic of the lot, and whenever it does fight, it's always while being mind controlled by the Red Genesect.
- Transforming Mecha: The Genesect Army, who can turn into High-Speed Flight Forms to achieve flight.
- Uniqueness Decay:
- Prior to this movie, Mewtwo was portrayed as a unique specimen with a consisitent personality across all Pokémon media. This movie introduces a second Mewtwo into the animé's canon, and essentially turns Mewtwo from a one-of-a-kind character into a race of two. One might be inclined to justify it as a means of both Mega Mewtwos appearing together... but outside of a meaningless five-second clip in the first Mega Evolution special, this meet-up has never happened.
- In the games, there was only one (non-shiny) Genesect ever created as opposed to the five seen here. It's much less blatant than Mewtwo, however, as Genesect hadn't been previously established to be a one of a kind Pokémon in the animé continuity.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: After meeting Mewtwo for the first time, Ash thinks it's the original Mewtwo from Pokémon: The First Movie. Mewtwo doesn't seem to care that Ash seemingly knows it despite them meeting for the first time, nor do his friends seem to care that he knows it despite meeting for the first time, nor does anyone (particularly Mewtwo, who spends part of the movie believing it's alone) seem to care that there has apparently been another identical Mewtwo that Ash had met before.
- Useless Protagonist: Ash and friends don't do much to impact the plot beyond interacting with the Douse Drive Genesect, and largely take a back seat to Mewtwo and the Red Genesect.
- Villainous Breakdown: Red Genesect has one when the other three Genesect turn on him and try to stop him, screaming that they're all enemies and trying to blow them to bits with his Wave-Motion Gun.
- Vocal Dissonance:
- The Douse Drive Genesect telepathically speaks with a voice actress doing a young voice. And this is coming from a 4'11" tall cyborg insect with a cannon on its back, red eyes, and a permanent Slasher Smile. Made even more jarring when you hear the Genesects' real voices - garbled Dalek-esque noises.
- The Chill Drive Genesect sounds female in its few lines.
- All prior appearances of Mewtwo have the Pokemon speak with a deep voice. This movie has a different, feminine-sounding Mewtwo whose voice leans towards a contralto instead.
- With Us or Against Us: When the four purple Genesect decide to ignore the Red Genesect's orders to keep fighting, it sees them all as enemies and tries to destroy them.
- Would Hurt a Child: Red Genesect has no qualms in harming Ash and friends the few times he comes across them.
