YMMV / Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon

• Angst? What Angst?: Ash doesn't seem too concerned when Misty seemingly falls to her death.
• Anvilicious: Hacked Pokemon are bad, got it?
• Complete Monster: Dr. Yung, aka the Mirage Master, presents himself as a friendly researcher, but he is actually a cold-hearted and petty man who demands absolute perfection in Pokémon. Yung developed the "Mirage System" to create living, intelligent "Mirage" Pokémon that lacked what Yung believed were the natural flaws and weaknesses of real Pokémon, but his flagrant disregard for Pokémon and mistreatment of his Mirages lead to his rejection from the scientific community. Stewing in his hatred and further perfecting his technology, Yung would create Mirage Pokémon only to abuse, enslave, and disregard them if he found the slightest flaws, the greatest example being a Mew who Yung subjects to harsh physical and verbal torment. Luring Professor Oak, Ash, and their friends to his castle, Yung forces Oak to hand over access codes to his network by torturing Pikachu with a mind scanner and threatening the kids with death. Upon creating "Mirage Mewtwo", Yung cruelly has it painfully destroy the rest of his Mirage Pokémon—including Mew, to which Yung smugly declares "Good riddance. Flawed specimen."—and then reveals his plan to spread his Mirage network worldwide and use his Mirage Pokémon to conquer the world, crushing all Pokémon who lack the perfection of his Mirages.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some fans watched the special just to see Misty make a return.
• Moral Event Horizon: Dr. Yung ordering Mirage Mewtwo to destroy Mirage Mew. What makes this event notable is that Mew was the only Mirage Pokémon capable of sentience and compassion. In many ways, it was the perfect Mirage Pokémon, but Yung was incapable of seeing that. He only saw a failure because it wasn't perfect in his mind, a mindless weapon with absolute loyalty.
• Narm: A huge problem with the English dub thanks to using the special as a testing ground for the new actors.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Most discussions about this special are about it being the testing ground for TCPi's entirely new English cast, rather than about it being the 10th anniversary special. That in itself would be controversial enough, but the fact that no one on 4Kids was even asked to return and Pokemon USA's infamous response to the backlash only served to make things worse.
• So Bad, It's Good: The DVD opening to the special.
• Spiritual Adaptation: This can be the Poké equivalent to the episode of The Powerpuff Girls "Knock it Off". Like Dick Hardly, Dr. Yung doesn't care about real Pokémon and cares about his creations being knock-offs. Even though Yung already has a "perfect" Mirage Pokémon in Mirage Mew, he doesn't care just like a scene where Dick kills off a perfect clone of Buttercup. And fittingly, they are both defeated by The Power of Love; Dick is killed off after his Xtreme clones see Professor Utonium show love for his daughters and Ash showing friendship and kindness to Mirage Mew is what gives Pikachu the opening to destroy the system.
• Tear Jerker:
  • After creating Mirage Mewtwo, Mirage Master orders it to attack the other Mirage Pokémon. It does so and they are all wiped out. What makes this sad isn't so much that those Mirage Pokémon were destroyed (they really had no will or identities of their own). What makes it sad is Mew's reaction, it floats over to where they were all standing a moment ago and looks around with a mixture of confusion and sadness. Like it actually cared for its holographic brethren, and like a child can't fully comprehend what's just happened to them.
  • Mirage Mew's first apparent death, and its real demise later. Mew's final act is to happily wave goodbye and smile, knowing it saved its only friends from Dr. Yung's wrath.

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