Welcome back to Pokemon Movies in Review, a weekly recap of the entire Pokemon cinematic universe. This week we’re revisiting Giratina and the Sky Warrior, the 11th Pokemon movie and the first direct sequel - not counting Mewtwo Returns, which isn’t technically a movie. Giratina and the Sky Warrior picks up right after Rise of Darkrai with the introduction of the third member of the creation trio, Giratina, and introduces the Reverse World, which is the anime version of the Distortion World from Pokemon Platinum. This multi-dimensional adventure taps into one of the coolest parts of Pokemon lore and adds a lot of useful context that helps us understand more about the Reverse/Distortion World. In the creation myth of Pokemon, the Reverse World is basically Hell, which means Giritina is Pokemon’s Lucifer.

The story begins in a lakeside flower garden in a mountainous, Norway-inspired region. After leaving Alamos Town in Rise of Darkrai, Dialga stops at the lake for a drink of water. Suddenly, Giratina bursts through a portal and drags it - and a nearby Shaymin - into the Reverse World. As the dragons fight, their attacks leave behind clouds of smoke that Shaymin is able to absorb. Shaymin unleashes a burst of energy that opens another portal, allowing Dialga and Shaymin to escape. Giratina pursues them, but the Temporal Pokemon locks the Reverse World in a time-loop to prevent Giratina from getting out. As Dialga flies away, Shaymin is thrown into a river where it travels for some time until it's eventually found by Ash and his friends.

pokemon 11 dialga

Shaymin is, frankly, kind of a little asshole. While it’s known as the Gratitude Pokemon, Shaymin is anything but grateful to Ash. Through psychic communication, Shaymin commands the heroes to return it to the flower garden so it can meet up with its friends and migrate. They oblige, but the whole way there Shaymin talks down to them, treats them like servants, and refuses to show any gratitude at all. Team Rocket’s Meowth isn’t even this callous. It made me grateful that more Pokemon can’t speak. I would hate to find out that Pikachu has secretly had a shitty attitude this entire time.

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Not long after their journey begins, Ash, Shaymin, and Dawn are sucked through a portal into the Reverse World. There they meet Newton Graceland, a scientist who has been trapped there for five years while studying Giratina. He explains that the Reverse World is the exact opposite of the real world, and Giratina is its ruler. Both realities are meant to keep each other in balance. Whenever there are “imbalances” in the real world, they manifest as black clouds of smoke in the Reverse World. When Dialga and Palkia met in Rise of Darkrai, time and space collided and unraveled each other, causing the Reverse World to overflow with toxicity. This pissed off Giratina, which is why it jumped Dialga at the lake and dragged it into the Reverse World.

pokemon 11 ash

The heroes escape through another Shaymin portal and continue on their journey to the Flower Garden, but are intercepted by Zero, Newton’s former apprentice, who plans to catch Giratina and make himself the ruler of Reverse World. With an army of Magnemite, Magneton, and Magnezone, Zero chases the heroes in his airship in an attempt to kidnap Shaymin and use its power to free Giratina from the Reverse World so it can capture the dragon and drain its powers. This would kill Giratina, so you know it’s an evil thing to do.

Zero succeeds in trapping Giratina and draining its power, but Shaymin is able to keep the Renegade Pokemon from dying. Zero then portals into the Reverse World and begins cutting its ties to the real world, which causes a giant glacier to move across the lake, threatening the forest and the nearby townships. The forest Pokemon work alongside Regigigas to hold the glacier back while Giratina, Ash, and Shaymin fight Zero inside the Reverse World, eventually defeating him and restoring the balance between the two realities.

Reverse World is a fascinating place where gravity constantly shifts around and the rules of physics don’t apply. It’s a world full of strange, alien geometry and - aside from the occasional toxic cloud - a world of peace. In Pokemon Platinum, Team Galactic Leader Cyrus plans to destroy the Distortion World because he knows this will also destroy the real world. Zero, on the other hand, covets the Reverse World for himself. He believes that he can sever its connection to reality to live in peace and harmony all alone in the Reverse World. His mission is just as selfish and megalomaniacal, but it speaks more to the nature of the Reverse World and its place in Pokemon canon, which is, of course, Pokemon Hell.

pokemon 11 hell

In the beginning, there was Arceus, the Original One. To give form to the universe, Arceus made the creation trio, Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina. Palkia was given control of space, Dialga was given control of time, but Giratina - whose violent nature was a threat to reality - was banished to the Reverse World. From a biblical perspective, you can look at Arceus as God and the creation trio as the first angels. Giratina defied God, and as punishment was banished to a prison world. Giratina is Pokemon Satan and the Reverse World is Pokemon Hell. It isn’t a place of fire and brimstone where unrepentant souls are tortured for all eternity, but it does serve to purify the living world by filtering out imbalances in the form of black clouds. This makes Zero Pokemon’s Beelzebub figure, who seeks to overthrow Satan and rule Hell himself.

Giratina and the Reverse World’s origin isn’t explored in this movie, but it’s sequel, Arceus and the Jewel of Life, may provide some answers. Interestingly, the recent found footage trailer for the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Arceus could be hinting at a return to the Distortion World. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl may revisit the Distortion World as well, though it technically didn’t exist until Pokemon Platinum. In any event, the Reverse World is ripe with potential for future Pokemon stories, and I’d love to see Giratina and the Sky Warrior’s legacy carry on in future Pokemon games and anime.

pokemon 11 giratina

A few stray thoughts before I go:

  • I have no idea who the Sky Warrior is. The Japanese title is Giratina and the Sky’s Bouquet: Shaymin, so I assume it’s supposed to be Shaymin in Sky Forme, but it could also be Zero or even Ash, who spends a lot of the movie riding around on a flying segway
  • Shaymin has a feminine voice in ground form and a masculine voice in sky form. In the Japanese version, its pronouns change too. This could mean Shaymin is the first gender fluid Pokemon
  • Giratina uses some recycled sounds from Mothra, which is just a fun kaiju-movie connection

The Diamond & Pearl trilogy concludes next week with Arceus and the Jewel of Life. After that is the stand-alone movie Zoroark: Master of Illusions, and then it's on to the Black & White generation.

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