Mewtwo and the Phantom of the Opera
Holy cow.
I did NOT expect to be this vindicated when I wrote my Mewtwo post back in 2020: https://aikaterini.livejournal.com/130067.html
Because I learned a few things today:
1) The original voice actor for Mewtwo, Masachika Ichimura, was hired partly because of his role in the first Japanese production of "The Phantom of the Opera" musical.
2) Takeshi Shudo, the screenwriter for "Mewtwo Strikes Back", said that Erik's "talented yet dark and distorted character may indeed be of the same quality as Mewtwo in ‘Mewtwo Strikes Back."
3) It was Ichimura’s casting that inspired Shudo when writing Mewtwo's tragic backstory.
4) After reading the script, Ichimura said, “It’s just like the Opera House.”
I had facetiously compared Mewtwo with the Phantom of the Opera (along with a few other villains) just because I thought that they shared the same basic character archetype. I had NO idea how right I was.
In fact, I wonder if Nurse Joy's outfit in "Mewtwo Strikes Back" was also inspired by the costumes in the POTO musical. And the fact that Mewtwo hypnotizes her to follow his commands...is that not reminiscent of the almost hypnotic trance that Christine seems to be under as she and the Phantom venture into his lair in the musical? I guess we should be glad that Mewtwo didn't make Nurse Joy sing for him.
But, of course, this only goes to show that I wasn't wrong about the reception of both characters. Again, hardly anybody cares if someone says that they're a fan of Mewtwo. But to this day, there are still people who go on and on about how Erik x Christine shippers are delusional and romanticize abuse. There are still people who sneer at fans for sympathizing with Erik.
Which only goes to prove my point that if Mewtwo was an attractive human instead of a weird-looking feline humanoid hybrid and if he had a Christine to his Erik, so many people who are fans of him now would be sneering at him too. I don't know how many of the antis who rant and rave about Erik are Pokemon fans, but it would be tempting to ask them, after they yelled at fans to stop romanticizing the Phantom, "So, what do you think about Mewtwo?"