Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon

Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon
File:PKMN Mastermind Mirage.png English DVD cover
Genre	Action, Science Fiction
Written by	Shinzo Fujita
Directed by	Kunihiko Yuyama (chief) Masamitsu Hidaka
Starring	see below
Composer	Shinji Miyazaki
Country of origin	Japan United States
Original languages	Japanese English
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	OLM, Inc. Shogakukan Production
Original release
Network	Kids' WB (United States) TV Tokyo (Japan)
Release	April 29, 2006 (2006-04-29) (United States) October 13, 2006 (2006-10-13) (Japan)

Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, is a special hour-long episode of the Pokémon anime series created for the tenth anniversary of the franchise. This special premiered on Kids' WB on April 29, 2006 (with the Kayzie Rogers version). It became available on DVD in the United States on September 19 that year as a special feature on the 2-disc Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew release (with the Sarah Natochenny version), and the original dub aired on October 28 in the same year on Cartoon Network. In Japan the special was available for download on the official site from October 13-October 31, 2006. The events of the specials take place during the 8th season of Pokémon: Advanced Battle.

This special marked the first time English-language production was handled exclusively by Pokémon USA (now known as The Pokémon Company International). Previously, 4Kids Entertainment (now known as Konami Cross Media NY) was mostly responsible for the Pokémon anime English dub. As a result of this change, costs were cut, and the English-language version of the special featured an all-new voice cast, replacing the original voice actors for many major characters, many of whom had worked on the show for eight years. The only three who returned were Rodger Parsons as the narrator, James Carter Cathcart (under the pseudonym Jimmy Zoppi), who voiced several recurring characters like Gary Oak, and Kayzie Rogers, who voiced minor characters and over 50 Pokémon throughout the show. Beginning with this special, Cathcart additionally carried over the roles of James and Meowth (using the pseudonym Billy Beach in the special) and Rogers also provided the voice for Max (using the pseudonym Jamie Peacock in the special). Rogers also voiced Ash for the original version of the special, but was subsequently replaced by Sarah Natochenny.

This change caused controversy and extremely negative reception among many fans as it considered one of the worst Pokémon specials ever made. It was announced at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con that the version available on DVD would be improved from that aired on TV, with dialogue being re-recorded after the new voice cast became more familiar with their roles, and after Ash was given another new voice actor, Sarah Natochenny. The redub was included as a bonus disc on the home media release of Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.

Cast

Japanese name	English name	Japanese cast	English cast
Satoshi	Ash Ketchum	Rica Matsumoto	Kayzie Rogers Sarah Natochenny (Redub)
Masato	Max	Fushigi Yamada	Kayzie Rogers
Junsar	Officer Jenny	Chinami Nishimura
Sonasu	Wobuffet	Yuji Ueda
Pikachu		Ikue Ōtani
Takeshi	Brock	Yūji Ueda	Bill Rogers
Haruka	May	Kaori	Michele Knotz
Kasumi	Misty	Mayumi Iizuka
Musashi Nurse Joy Zenigame	Jessie Nurse Joy Squirtle	Megumi Hayashibara Yuriko Yamaguchi Tomoe Hanba
Kojiro Nyarth Professor Oak	James Meowth Professor Oak	Shin-ichiro Miki Inuko Inuyama Unsho Ishizuka	James Carter Cathcart
Dr. Yung	Dr. Young	Hidenobu Kiuchi	Bill Timoney
Mew		Satomi Kōrogi
Mewtwo		Katsuyuki Konishi
Narration		Unsho Ishizuka	Rodger Parsons

External links

• The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon at Bulbapedia
• Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon at IMDb