Our friend Dr. Lava did some digging into the second Pokémon movie, The Power Of One and how it ended up getting created may surprise some fans! The man responsible for the script, Takeshi Shudo, revealed that he used alcohol and over-the-counter drugs during his creative process, of which Lugia resulted.
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Shudo wrote in his online blog:
In any case, this is how I meet with different kinds of people, and then the perspectives of various characters come to me in chaos. Then, I try to make sense of them with the help of alcohol and drugs. When I’m writing, I barely eat, so I tend to get dizzy. Of course, before I turn in a script’s final draft, I read it over again when I’m sober. When I get to the point where I think “Okay, I guess this is fine,” I submit the script.
In fact, he didn’t even think the series would be able to survive what he felt was a monotonous and meandering journey through the Orange Islands while development on Pokémon Gold & Silver finished. You can read more of his translated blog on Dr. Lava’s excellent write-up.
Let us know if you were surprised to hear that the writer behind the first three movies relied on rather extreme methods to get the creativity flowing. The comments are open (exit AMP) or you can share your thoughts on Discord!