Mewtwo (anime)

"Foolish human, you would take my attack to save your feeble Pokémon!"

- Mewtwo in the film Mewtwo Strikes Back

Mewtwo is a clone of Mew, created by Professor Fuji. After Fuji's death, Giovanni found Mewtwo and convinced him to join Team Rocket.

In movies and anime
As shown at the beginning of Mewtwo Strikes Back, Mewtwo has been created by a group of scientists. He destroys the laboratory, and is offered by Giovanni to be "partners". With some sort of armour on, Mewtwo is used in The Battle of the Badge against Gary in a gym battle. Gary describes him as an "evil" Pokémon to Ash, who doesn't get the chance to see it. Mewtwo escapes from Giovanni after finding out that they aren't partners, in It's Mr. Mime Time!

Then Mewtwo goes on an island named. He kidnaps the Nurse Joy of the nearest Pokémon Center, and gets her to send invitation discs to some strong Trainers. The Trainers go through a storm that Mewtwo caused as a test.

In Mewtwo Returns, the clones have found a lovely place to live, on top of Johto's largest mountain. They could live there in peace, but Giovanni finds them. In the end he departs the other cloned Pokémon so they can live peacefully as wild Pokémon.

Personality
Mewtwo's uniqueness largely stems from his psychic abilities, however, his personality is one of the defining points in the Pokémon series. Mewtwo's personality is initially complex involving existentialist anxiety, and contemplation of the meaning of existence. His temperament is very introverted, consisting of hate and anger towards humans and his creators.

Having been brought into existence through artificial means, Mewtwo quickly turned on his creators when he learned that they intended to experiment on him further. Feeling betrayed by the very humans that had created him, he decided to forge his own path. The recurring theme in the movies is Mewtwo harbors jealousy towards Mew because he is a copy or derivative whereas Mew is the original.

In the first movie, the path that Mewtwo has taken makes him into a rather immoral character. He frequently exhibits cruelty and at several intervals goes so far as to attempt to, or forthrightly, kill those who oppose him. This makes Mewtwo easily one of the most malicious characters in the series and the main antagonist in Pokémon The First Movie, prior to his change of heart at the end of the first movie.

However, in Mewtwo Returns, he is much more kind. Mewtwo only wants to protect the other clones that he created, and even protected humans that were on a bus that got thrown around by strong winds. Therefore Mewtwo is a hero in his second movie, and a victim. When Giovanni comes on the mountain, Mewtwo is willing to sacrifice himself to save the other clones as well as Ash's Pikachu and Team Rocket's Meowth. Also, he constantly wants to avoid fighting, exact opposite to the way he was in the first movie.

So, it can be said that Mewtwo, upon Ash's sacrifice in Mewtwo Strikes Back, has become a hero instead of a villain. He continues to live in Johto and, as said by himself, "In shadows."

Voice Actors

 * Masachika Ichimura (Japanese)
 * Phillip Bartlett (English; Mewtwo Strikes Back)
 * Dan Green (English; Mewtwo Returns)

Trivia

 * When Mewtwo Strikes Back was first shown in the movie theatre, Mewtwo's dialogue would only come from the front of the screening room when he was talking to himself without letting anyone hear him; but when he would psychically project his thoughts so that the human characters would hear what he was saying, his voice would come out from the surround sound speakers at the side of the room.