''Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea'', is a 2006 Japanese animated fantasy film, the ninth in the ''Pokémon'' film series, and the fourth and last to be set in the ''Advanced Generation'' series. Directed by

Kunihiko Yuyama is a Japanese director best known for his work on the ''Pokémon'' anime franchise. He also directed ''Magical Princess Minky Momo'', '' Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko'', '' The Three Musketeers Anime'', ''Ushio and Tora'', '' Kimagure ...

and written by Hideki Sonoda, the story follows the

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of what each of those c ...

trainer

Ash Ketchum Ash Ketchum, known as in Japan, is a fictional character in the ''Pokémon'' franchise owned by Nintendo. He is the protagonist of the ''Pokémon'' anime and certain manga series as well as on various merchandise related to the franchise. In ...

, his

Pikachu is a fictional species in the ''Pokémon'' media franchise. Designed by Atsuko Nishida and Ken Sugimori, Pikachu first appeared in the 1996 Japanese video games ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Green'' created by Game Freak and Nintendo, which wer ...

(

Ikue Ōtani is a Japanese actress, singer, voice actress and narrator from Tokyo, Japan. She is best known for her anime roles in the ''Pokémon'' series (as Pikachu), ''One Piece'' (as Tony Tony Chopper), ''Corpse Party'' (as Sachiko Shinozaki), ''Nar ...

), and his friends May, Max and Brock as they help a Pokémon Ranger named Jack Walker deliver the Mythical Pokémon Manaphy to an undersea palace called Samiya while evading mercenaries led by Phantom the Pirate. It was released on July 16, 2006 in Japan, and aired on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

in North America on March 23, 2007. It is also the first ''Pokémon'' movie to be not be dubbed in English by

4Kids Entertainment 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production company that produced English- dub ...

, but instead by The Pokemon Company International. It also the last film to use hand-painted

cel animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proce ...

, as starting with '' The Rise of Darkrai'', all film's would use

digital ink and paint Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proce ...

. The events of the film take place during the ninth season of ''

''.

Plot

An egg belonging to the Mythical Pokémon Manaphy is found floating in the sea by mercenary Phantom the Pirate, but it is subsequently stolen from him by Jack "Jackie" Walker, a Pokémon Ranger disguised as one of Phantom's crew members. Walker escapes Phantom's ship and joins the Marina Group, a traveling circus family that specializes in Water-type Pokémon, to deliver the Manaphy egg to Samiya, an undersea palace built by the People of the Water, whom the Marina Group are descendants of. Pokémon Trainer Ash Ketchum, his Pikachu, and their friends Brock, May, and Max become lost on their journey and encounter the Marina Group in their search for water, inadvertently becoming involved with Walker's mission. When Phantom leads an assault after the Egg, Manaphy hatches in May's arms, who presumes she is its mother. The group eventually escapes Phantom by running into a network of ruins belonging to the People of the Water, where Ash and his friends learn about Samiya. Walker declines Ash and his friends' further involvement with his mission and departs in a boat with the Marina Group toward Samiya. However, Manaphy shows discomfort and starts crying without May's presence, forcing Ash and his friends along anyway. Manaphy's natural instincts lead the boat toward Samiya, and to Walker's dismay, May and Manaphy bond closer. Walker warns May of Manaphy's destiny to become Samiya's leader and that she will eventually need to part ways with it. May understands, but is distraught nonetheless. Lizabeth, the Marina Group's daughter, comforts May and gives her a bracelet known as the People of the Water's Mark as a memento of her time with Manaphy. One day, May loses her bandanna to the wind and Manaphy embarks far into the ocean to retrieve it. Ash and his friends, board a submarine operated by Lizabeth to search for Manaphy, eventually finding it along with Samiya during the expected lunar eclipse. Unbeknownst to them, Phantom had been in pursuit the whole time. While exploring Samiya, the group encounters Phantom, who is able to open the chamber to the Sea Crown, the temple's central artifact consisting of numerous large crystals. Phantom begins to remove the crystals, causing Samiya to flood and sink deeper into the ocean. The group escapes to the submarine while Walker confronts Phantom, reconnecting most of the crystals to the crown before he, Phantom, and one of the crystals are washed away by the flood. Determined to save its home, Manaphy returns to the Crown's chamber with Ash, Pikachu and May in tow, while Lizabeth, Brock, and Max are forced to depart in the submarine. Ash and May reconnect the remaining crystals but notice one is missing. While escaping the flood, Ash finds the last crystal in a fountain. He puts Pikachu, May, and Manaphy in an air capsule that used to be part of Phantom's submarine before diving into the completely flooded crown chamber and reconnecting the crystal, causing Samiya to rise to the ocean's surface. While May and Pikachu mourn Ash's apparent sacrifice, Phantom appears and kidnaps Manaphy. Ash, surrounded by a glowing aura from the newly rebuilt Sea Crown, pursues Phantom and retrieves Manaphy. Phantom returns with his ship, but Manaphy leads an assault with several wild Water-type Pokémon to destroy the ship and subdue Phantom in its rubble. With Phantom defeated, Walker is able to deliver Manaphy safely to Samiya, completing his mission. May and Manaphy share a heartfelt farewell before the group watches Samiya return to depths of the ocean. Ash and his friends separate from Walker and the Marina Group and continue on their journey. In the credits, it is revealed that Phantom and his first mate Galen were either arrested and put in

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...

or still subdued in its rubble.

Cast

Note: ''Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea'' is the first film in the series to be released since Pokémon USA's acquisition of US distribution from

, which resulted in a new English voice cast.

Production

On December 9, 2005, the title for the ninth Pokémon feature film was revealed to be ''Pokémon Ranger and the Prince of the Sea'' in the Japanese children's program ''

Oha Suta ''Oha Suta'' () is a Japanese children's breakfast television show. Produced by Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions (ShoPro) for TV Tokyo, the show airs on TV Tokyo & TX Network. It premiered in 1997 as a relaunch of (. ''Sutajio'' is a loanword ...

'' on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified ...

. Setting designs were inspired by cities and ruins in Italy, particularly in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (Romulus and Remus, legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's admini ...

, and

Capri Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has bee ...

Music

Shinji Miyazaki is a Japanese composer and arranger. He was born in Kobe, and lived in a variety of areas on the island of Shikoku for much of his childhood. He developed a taste for pop music, which eventually led him to study musical arrangement and piano ins ...

, the composer for the ''Pokémon'' television series, also composed the score for ''Pokémon Ranger''. The film's soundtrack was released on July 26, 2006. ; Track listing

Release

Theatrical run

''Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea'' was released in Japan on July 15, 2006 with a 105 minute running time. The film was distributed by

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

in Japan.

TV broadcast

In North America, ''Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea'' was aired on

on March 23, 2007.

Home media

The original Japanese version of the film was released on DVD on December 22, 2006. The English dub was first released in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...

on April 3, 2007. It was later released in Australia nearly a year later, on February 6, 2008. The American set included the

short , which was previously shown in August 2006 as an exclusive in-flight short film on the Pokémon Jet of

All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had m ...

(ANA). The film has yet to be released on DVD in the United Kingdom although it has been released in UK

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,000 ...

. Blu-ray Release on December 13, 2021 in the UK.

Reception

Box office performance

The general screening of ''Pokémon Ranger and the Prince of the Sea: Manaphy'' ran for 6 weeks, from July 15 to August 25, 2006. # July 15–16, 2nd overall, 2nd domestic, 1st anime # July 22–23, 3rd overall, 2nd domestic, 1st anime # July 29–30, 4th overall, 3rd domestic, 2nd anime # August 5–6, 5th overall, 4th domestic, 2nd anime # August 12–13, 4th overall, 3rd domestic, 2nd anime # August 19–20, 6th overall, 4th domestic, 2nd anime

Critical reception

Pokémon Ranger and the Prince of the Sea received mixed reviews. Film Music Central gave it a positive review saying that "that being said, I can’t really say anything bad about the story, it was fun, it was tear-jerking (yet another Pokémon film that made me cry), and if you’re looking for a good time you’ll definitely find it with this story"

Notes

References

External links

Official Japanese Movie Page

Pokemon.com's Manaphy Promotion Page
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea 2006 anime films 2000s Japanese-language films Films directed by Kunihiko Yuyama Japanese sequel films Pirate films Ranger and the Temple of the Sea Sea adventure films Toho animated films Viz Media anime Films scored by Shinji Miyazaki OLM, Inc. animated films Films set in Italy