Pokémon Theater Edition – Ladias and Latios, the patron saints of Mizuto, is the fifth theatrical version of Pokémon released in Japan on July 13, 2002.
First of all, here is a brief introduction to the plot, this theatrical version is based on the Pokémon No Seal (Johto chapter), and the group members are also Xiao Xia, Xiao Zhi, and Xiao Gang, the three old friends of our deepest influence.
At the same time, the content of the theatrical version of this part is different from previous periods, Xiao Zhi and others are no longer the main contradictions in the content, and Xiaoxia Xiaogang, including Team Rocket, has all become faceless dragon set characters.
The story takes the main site of the water capital as the core, telling the responsibility of the city's patron saints Lattios and Latias to the city, and the love journey of Latias and Xiao Zhi.
Yes, you read it right, the love scene of this work is very strong, and the kiss between Xiao Zhi and Latias is even more classic, becoming the precedent of Pokémon "human-beast" love.
Overall, the theatrical version of this part is very high in word-of-mouth, both then and now.
Its exotic high-quality music, romantic story content and the theatrical version of the gorgeous water capital imitating Venice, combined with Theatrical Ladias's anthropomorphic soft sister personality and the classic kiss of the ending, make this work occupy a very high position in the hearts of Pokémon fans.
But miraculously, the theatrical version of this part also grossed very badly, and before the XY theatrical version, it was the only Pokémon theatrical version that did not exceed 3 billion yen.
Subjectively estimate the reasons:
The first is that the theatrical version of this part does not have the usual credit distribution activities of the Pokémon theater version, which makes the audience's desire to go to the cinema to see it decreased.
Secondly, in this theatrical version, especially in the first half, the work has not given the audience a clear main line, and considering that the style of this theatrical version is biased towards romanticism, the audience's desire to watch it has further declined.
And this film is the least adventurous and battle scene of all the Pokémon theater versions, all of which have lived up to the expectations of the audience to a certain extent and affected its box office to some extent.
Finally, and most importantly, because of the time, the emotional scenes of Latias and Xiao Zhi are compressed very much, and if the relatively boring plot in the early stage leads to wandering or fast forwarding, it is easy to not have much feeling for the entire theater version, which is one of the reasons why we look back and think that this theater version is very classic.
But interestingly, in 2017, the official Pokémon theatrical version of the popularity vote, this theatrical version actually overperformed the box office number one "Super Dream Counterattack", becoming the most popular theatrical version.
It can be seen that although this film is not commercially successful, its romantic story and sophisticated graphics and music have made it stand the test of time and become a very high-quality work in the Pokémon theater version.