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| Directed by | Kunihiko Yuyama |
| Written by | Hideki Sonoda |
| Produced by | Yukako Matsusako · Takemoto Mori · Junya Okamoto · Choji Yoshikawa |
| Narrated by | Unshō Ishizuka (Japanese) · Rodger Parsons (English) |
| Runtime | 105 minutes (the longest Pokémon movie) |
| Box office | $26.9 million (¥3.4 billion, Japan) |
| Released (Japan) | 15 July 2006 |
| Released (Australia) | 6 February 2008 (DVD) |
| Released (US) | 23 March 2007 (Cartoon Network premiere) · 3 April 2007 (DVD) |
| Released (Europe) | November 2007 (UK DVD) |
| Japanese cast | Rica Matsumoto · Ikue Ōtani · Yūji Ueda · KAORI · Fushigi Yamada · Megumi Hayashibara · Shin-ichirō Miki · Inuko Inuyama · Yuri Shiratori · Kōichi Yamadera · Hiroshi Fujioka · Kaori Manabe · Becky · Unshō Ishizuka |
| Predecessor | Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew |
| Successor | Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai |

Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, or when directly translated from its Japanese title Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation the Movie: Pokémon Ranger and the Prince of the Sea: Manaphy, is the ninth film in the Pokémon franchise as well as being the fourth and final film in the Advanced Generation series.
Like all of its predecessors this movie was directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. It may also come as no surprise to learn that a lot of the film is based on the Nintendo DS game Pokémon Ranger, as indicated by its title – the Capture Styler, the Ranger Union and the whole idea of “capturing” wild Pokémon as temporary allies all come straight from the game.
The film’s initial release came on 15 July 2006, when it arrived in theatres across Japan. Next it was broadcast in the USA on Cartoon Network on 23 March 2007, and then continued with staggered DVD releases across the world until it finally finished releasing in Europe just in time for Christmas 2007.
For the first time since the release of Pokémon: Jirachi Wish Maker a 20-minute Pikachu short was included with this movie, called Pikachu’s Island Adventure – although not in cinemas. In Japan the short was an exclusive shown on All Nippon Airways flights during August 2006, and Western fans got it as an extra on the DVD.
A new English voice cast
For the first time in Pokémon international movie release history 4Kids Entertainment were not charged with the English dub of the movie, as The Pokémon Company themselves had decided they were going to do it from here on. But that’s not where the changes ended: this would be the first Pokémon movie produced start-to-finish by TAJ Productions, and it was also the debut of a new English voice cast, with Sarah Natochenny taking over as Ash, Michele Knotz as May and Jessie, Bill Rogers as Brock and Carter Cathcart (credited as Billy Beach) as James and Meowth.
Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea is the longest movie in the Pokémon franchise to date, with the main feature running for 1 hour 45 minutes.
Inspiration for the film’s settings and locations was drawn from Rome, Naples and the island of Capri in Italy – locations which Yuyama visited personally prior to production.
Chronology in relation to the anime
In Japan the film opened on 15 July 2006, between Aipom and Circumstance! (AG183, 6 July) and Strategy Tomorrow – Comedy Tonight! (AG184, 20 July), in the closing stretch of the Battle Frontier arc. Ash, May, Max and Brock are criss-crossing Kanto with six of the seven Frontier Symbols in hand; Ash has already lost one challenge to Pyramid King Brandon and is working his way back to the Battle Pyramid for a rematch, which would finally come in Pace – The Final Frontier! six weeks after the film. His team is Pikachu, Swellow, Sceptile, Corphish, Donphan (Phanpy had evolved in Reversing the Charges the previous December) and the mischievous Aipom he had only just caught; May has Combusken, Munchlax, Squirtle and the Eevee that hatched from her Egg in May 2006; Brock has Forretress, Marshtomp and Bonsly. In the dub the placement is slightly different: Cartoon Network premiered the movie on 23 March 2007, three weeks after the final Battle Frontier episode and a month before Diamond and Pearl began, so American viewers met Manaphy, Buizel and Mantyke here just before Sinnoh.

There’s a legend out there, about a Sea Temple created by the People of the Water, where the Sea Crown is kept. No one has ever seen this Sea Crown, and very few people even know the story of the temple, except a few members of the People of the Water who wander through the Pokémon world. That all changes when a Pokémon Ranger named Jackie rescues a Manaphy Egg from a greedy pirate named Phantom! Phantom is absolutely determined to snatch the Sea Crown, and he’ll need Manaphy to get to it. To stay one step ahead, Jackie will need to enlist the help of the People of the Water.
A chance encounter with the People of the Water puts Ash, May and friends right in the thick of the action, and May forms a very special bond with the Legendary Manaphy, even as the specter of Phantom hovers ever closer! Together, they must find the Sea Temple before Phantom does, unlocking the secret that connects Manaphy and the Sea Temple!
— Official synopsis
Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea is broken down into the following parts
- Pikachu’s Island Adventure (Pikachu’s Naughty Island) – the Pikachu short, around 20 minutes; shown on ANA flights in Japan and included on the Western DVD rather than in cinemas
- Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea – the main feature, 105 minutes
Story

Pikachu’s Island Adventure (the short)
While their Trainers are elsewhere, Pikachu and the gang’s Pokémon come across an exhausted Wynaut, who explains that its island home has been taken over by Meowth and his cronies – a Hariyama, an Exploud and a Chatot – who have driven out the resident Wynaut, Pichu and a Buizel. Pikachu decides to take the island back, and the group spends the day training the islanders: Thunderbolt lessons from Pikachu, dodging practice against Squirtle’s Water Gun and, crucially, teaching the Wynaut to turn attacks back with Mirror Coat. The battle that follows is pure slapstick – Exploud’s Solar Beam bounced straight back at it, Meowth’s team launched off a seesaw – and the short ends with watermelons on the beach and everyone watching the sunset together.
The Egg and the Ranger
A glowing Egg drifts through the open sea among shoals of Water Pokémon until helicopters appear overhead and a huge submarine rises beneath it. Its owner is the Phantom, a self-styled pirate with a crew of mercenaries, a Chatot on his shoulder and a Pinsir and Parasect at his beck and call. No sooner is the “treasure” aboard than a masked stranger lifts it from under his nose: Jack Walker – Jackie to his friends – a Pokémon Ranger with a Capture Styler. He spins through the submarine, captures a wild Mantine to carry him to the surface and escapes, leaving the Phantom fuming.
The Marina Group
Meanwhile Ash, May, Max and Brock are trudging along a parched road when Max spots floating spheres of water in the distance – the handiwork of the Marina Group, a travelling water-Pokémon circus run by a girl named Lizabeth, her parents Kyle and Meredith and her grandfather Shep. Brock, naturally, is a fan. In their trailer May notices an Egg case tucked into a bunk, which Kyle is quick to hide. That evening’s performance is a spectacle of acrobatics inside giant water bubbles, and afterwards a clumsy Buizel knocks the Egg from its shelf; a clown whisks it away. Watching from a rooftop, Team Rocket spot the same Egg on the cover of a magazine about the Phantom and decide it must be worth stealing.
Dreams and a swapped heart
That night moonlight falls on the Egg and it glows red. May dreams of swimming through an undersea world with a tiny Pokémon at her side and a palace wrapped in a bubble ahead of her – and over breakfast Lizabeth and Meredith admit they have had exactly the same dream, until Shep hushes them. The Egg flares again, and a bolt of red light passes through Jessie, James and Meowth, swapping their minds between their bodies. The confused trio grab the Egg and flee in their balloon. The clown reveals himself as Jackie, captures a passing Fearow to give chase, and Pikachu snatches the Egg back. Jackie explains what it is – the Egg of Manaphy, the Prince of the Sea – and why the Phantom wants it so badly, just as the Phantom’s helicopters appear on the horizon.
The Prince of the Sea
Fleeing through a rocky pass, the Egg hatches in May’s hands and Manaphy imprints on the first face it sees. It cries whenever anyone else tries to hold it and, within days, has learned to say “happy” and to call May something very like “Mama”. At the port Shep’s boat, the Blue Lagoon, is waiting, and Jackie – whose mission is to deliver Manaphy to the Sea Temple so that it can lead its own kind – insists the voyage is too dangerous for Ash’s group. Manaphy settles the argument by using Heart Swap on Ash and Jackie themselves, and nobody is leaving anybody behind.
The voyage of the Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon follows the ocean currents south with Shep’s three shipmates Gabu, Dabu and Zabu at the oars. Jackie worries that Manaphy is becoming too attached to May to ever take up its place as the Prince of the Sea, and asks Ash to help the two of them grow apart – a conversation May overhears. Yet at night Manaphy sits alone on the rocks and sings, and every Water Pokémon for miles comes to listen. When May’s bandanna blows overboard Manaphy dives after it and does not come back; the group search in the boat’s little submarine, lose their tether in a racing current and are guided to safety by Manaphy, bandanna and all. Jackie, who protects Pokémon because a Pokémon once saved him as a boy in a blizzard, begins to understand.
Samiya, the Sea Temple
Under a red lunar eclipse the Sea Temple Samiya appears: a vast palace sealed inside a bubble of air, half full of water and invisible to anyone the sea does not choose to show it to. Inside, Manaphy’s song parts the waterfalls, and the People of the Water read the inscriptions that lead to the Sea Crown – except that the Phantom has stowed away among them and, using a stolen bracelet as a key, opens the treasure room himself. The Sea Crown turns out to be a ring of crystals set into an altar, and the moment he pulls one free the whole temple begins to shake and sink. Jackie fights him through the flooding corridors until both are swept away.
Ash and the Sea Crown
With Samiya falling towards the sea floor, Ash sends May, Manaphy and Pikachu to safety in one of the Phantom’s escape pods and goes back alone for the last crystal. He finds it wedged in a crack at the bottom of the flooded treasure room and nearly drowns freeing it; it is May’s wish, passed to him through Manaphy’s Heart Swap, that gives him the strength to slot it home. The Sea Crown blazes gold, the temple rights itself and surges back to the surface, and Ash is lifted out of the water wrapped in its light. When the Phantom makes one last grab for Manaphy, the Water Pokémon of the whole ocean answer – Chinchou short out his submarine, and Kyogre itself rises from the deep to finish the job. Beneath the Phantom’s tattered coat is a mechanical exo-suit, which is why he was always so strong; it overloads, and Jackie radios the Ranger Union that the mission is complete.
Farewell, Manaphy
As the sun sets Samiya sinks back beneath the waves to hide once more, and May says goodbye to Manaphy, who swims off to its new life saying her name and, for the first time, that it loves her. The Blue Lagoon returns to port, the Phantom and his crew are handed over to Officer Jenny, and Jackie rides off on a captured Zapdos. Over the credits, Team Rocket are blown out of a Wailord’s blowhole and Manaphy is seen once more at the temple, surrounded by the Pokémon of the sea.
Major Characters
Ash Ketchum (Satoshi) spends much of the film as a supporting player in May’s story, but the climax is his: diving back into a sinking temple for the last crystal, and emerging wrapped in the Sea Crown’s golden light. May (Haruka) gets the most emotional arc any of the companions has had in a movie, as the reluctant surrogate mother to a Legendary Pokémon she knows she will have to give up. Brock (Takeshi) falls hard for Lizabeth – one of the few girls in the series to seem to like him back – and Max (Masato) is the first to spot the Marina Group’s water spheres on the horizon.
Manaphy (voiced by Yuri Shiratori in Japanese and Michele Knotz in English) is the Prince of the Sea, a Mythical Water-type that hatches on screen and learns to speak a handful of words over the course of the film. Its signature move, Heart Swap, swaps the minds of two people – Team Rocket, then Ash and Jackie – and later carries May’s wish to Ash at the bottom of the sea. Jack Walker (Jackie; Kōichi Yamadera / Rich McNanna) is a Top Ranger of the Ranger Union: acrobatic, cocky, and armed with a Capture Styler that lets him borrow the help of wild Pokémon – a Mantine, a Fearow, a Mantyke and finally a Zapdos. He is the first human character introduced in a movie to appear later in the TV series.
The Phantom (Hiroshi Fujioka / Eric Schussler) is a pirate out of a spaghetti western, with a Chatot called Casey on his shoulder, a Pinsir and a Parasect, a crew of helicopters and submarines and – it turns out – a powered exo-suit under his coat. His lieutenant is Galen (Guijeau), who commands the Phantom’s Beedrill. The Marina Group are the People of the Water: Lizabeth (Hiromi; Kaori Manabe / Emily Williams), her father Kyle (Kai) with his Dewgong, her mother Meredith (Minamo) with her Poliwhirl and her grandfather Shep, captain of the Blue Lagoon, with his Seaking. Judy, voiced in Japanese by TV personality Becky, is the Ranger Union operator who keeps in touch with Jackie by radio.
Other Characters & Pokémon Debuts
Kyogre makes a thunderous late appearance to answer Manaphy’s call, and a whole aquarium of Water Pokémon – Wailord, Mantine, Relicanth, Huntail, Chinchou and Lanturn, Luvdisc, Corsola, Kingdra and many more – gather around the Sea Temple. The Marina Group’s performers include Goldeen, Politoed, Whiscash, Barboach, Wooper, Seel, Poliwag, a Meditite and Medicham and the troupe’s Buizel. The “World of Pokémon” opening is stuffed with cameos: Brendan from the Ruby and Sapphire games with his Swampert, Ranger Solana from the anime’s Pokémon Ranger episodes with Plusle, Marina from The Legend of Thunder!, Rebecca from Destiny Deoxys, and Professor Sebastian, Attila and Hun from The Legend of Thunder! with a captured Rayquaza. Shep’s shipmates Gabu, Dabu and Zabu row the Blue Lagoon, and Team Rocket spend the film inside each other’s bodies.
Pokémon making their anime debut in the film
Four Generation IV Pokémon made their first anime appearance in this film, more than two months before Diamond and Pearl reached Japanese shops.
Manaphy#490 · the Prince of the Sea
Buizel#418 · the Marina Group’s
Mantyke#458
Chatot#441 · the Phantom’s Casey
Cast
The voice cast of both the Japanese and English versions of Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea. This was the first film recorded by the new English cast assembled by Pokémon USA and TAJ Productions.
| Character | English voice actor | Japanese voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Ash Ketchum (Satoshi) | Sarah Natochenny | Rica Matsumoto |
| Pikachu | Ikue Ōtani | Ikue Ōtani |
| May (Haruka) | Michele Knotz | KAORI |
| Max (Masato) | Kayzie Rogers (as Jamie Peacock) | Fushigi Yamada |
| Brock (Takeshi) | Bill Rogers | Yūji Ueda |
| Jessie (Musashi) | Michele Knotz | Megumi Hayashibara |
| James (Kojirō) | Carter Cathcart (as Billy Beach) | Shin-ichirō Miki |
| Meowth (Nyarth) | Carter Cathcart (as Billy Beach) | Inuko Inuyama |
| Manaphy | Michele Knotz | Yuri Shiratori |
| Jack Walker “Jackie” | Rich McNanna | Kōichi Yamadera |
| The Phantom | Eric Schussler | Hiroshi Fujioka |
| Lizabeth (Hiromi) | Emily Williams | Kaori Manabe |
| Shep | Simcha Whitehill | Tomomichi Nishimura |
| Kyle (Kai) | Craig Blair | Seiji Sasaki |
| Meredith (Minamo) | Annie Silver | Takako Honda |
| Galen (Guijeau) | Sean Reyes | Kenta Miyake |
| Judy | Rhonda Krempa | Becky |
| Gabu, Dabu and Zabu | — | Hiroshi Ōtake · Toshiya Ueda · Katsuhisa Hōki |
| Chatot (Casey) | Sean Reyes | Hori |
| Buizel | Daisuke Sakaguchi | Daisuke Sakaguchi |
| Mantyke | Daisuke Sakaguchi | Daisuke Sakaguchi |
| Munchlax | Carter Cathcart (as Billy Beach) | Chie Satō |
| Corphish | Bill Rogers | Katsuyuki Konishi |
| Squirtle | Michele Knotz | Tomoe Hanba |
| Aipom | Miyako Itō | Miyako Itō |
| Mantine | Takafumi Kawakami | Takafumi Kawakami |
| Narrator | Rodger Parsons | Unshō Ishizuka |
Trailer
The official English trailer for Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, from our own Pokémon Dungeon YouTube channel.
Trading Cards
Japan’s summer-movie card tradition continued with the Movie Commemoration VS Pack: Sea’s Manaphy, a 19-card half deck that went on sale at Pokémon Center stores on opening day, 15 July 2006, before reaching other shops on 4 August. Built entirely from the film, it is headlined by Sea’s Manaphy and backed by Samiya’s Mantyke, Buizel and Fearow, Ash’s Aipom, May’s Combusken, Brock’s Marshtomp, Lizabeth’s Medicham, Shep’s Walrein and the Phantom’s Beedrill and Chatot, with Trainer cards for Manaphy’s Egg and Jackie’s Capture and a blue Manaphy coin in the box. It is the only VS Pack with eleven Pokémon cards rather than twelve.
The film’s cast also spilled across the PCG-P promotional series: Meiji chocolate packs from 27 June 2006 carried Samiya’s Mantyke, Samiya’s Buizel, Sea’s Manaphy and Samiya’s Chatot; further Sea’s Manaphy prints came with the official deck case and card file, with Shogakukan’s school magazines (alongside a second Samiya’s Buizel), and in Pokémon Wonderland, and All Nippon Airways gave out a Pikachu and a Sea’s Manaphy during the “Pika Summer Trip” campaign that screened Pikachu’s Island Adventure on board. None of these cards was released in English – Western players met Manaphy in the Diamond & Pearl base set the following year. Everything is catalogued in our Trading Card Game section.
Movie Commemoration VS PackSea’s Manaphy · Japan, July 2006
Sea’s Manaphy005/019
Phantom’s Beedrill001/019
May’s Combusken002/019
Samiya’s Mantyke003/019
Samiya’s Buizel004/019
Shep’s Walrein006/019
Lizabeth’s Medicham007/019
Brock’s Marshtomp008/019
Samiya’s Fearow009/019
Ash’s Aipom010/019
Phantom’s Chatot011/019
Manaphy’s Egg016/019
Jackie’s Capture018/019
Samiya’s MantykePCG-P Promo 137 · Meiji chocolate
Samiya’s BuizelPCG-P Promo 138 · Meiji chocolate
Sea’s ManaphyPCG-P Promo 139 · Meiji chocolate
Sea’s ManaphyPCG-P Promo 146 · Official Deck Case
Sea’s ManaphyPCG-P Promo 147 · Official Card File
Sea’s ManaphyPCG-P Promo 150 · Shogakukan magazines
Samiya’s BuizelPCG-P Promo 151 · Shogakukan magazines
Samiya’s ChatotPCG-P Promo 152 · Pokémon Wonderland
Sea’s ManaphyPCG-P Promo 154 · ANA Pika Summer Trip
Movie Ads & Posters
Posters and home-video artwork for Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea – the Japanese one-sheets and teaser, the Pikachu short’s poster, the English poster, and DVD releases from Japan, the States, Australia and the Netherlands, the last of which is a complete sleeve with the back cover. Magazine clippings and adverts are still wanted; if you have any, please get in touch.
Trivia & Facts
- In Japan the film was released between Aipom and Circumstance! (AG183) and Strategy Tomorrow – Comedy Tonight! (AG184); the Pikachu short followed between AG185 and AG186.
- At 105 minutes this is the longest Pokémon movie ever made, and it is the only Advanced Generation film set in Johto: Samiya is hidden in the sea south of Cherrygrove City.
- The “World of Pokémon” opening is a parade of cameos: Brendan from the Ruby and Sapphire games with his Swampert (May’s Combusken and his Swampert mirror the games’ rival starters, though the two never meet), Ranger Solana with Plusle, Marina from The Legend of Thunder!, Rebecca from Destiny Deoxys, and Professor Sebastian, Attila and Hun with a captured Rayquaza.
- Director Kunihiko Yuyama travelled to the ruins of Rome, the city of Naples and the island of Capri to gather ideas for the setting, and the water-filled architecture of Samiya shows it.

Inside the Sea Temple. Screenshot: Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea · via Bulbapedia - This is the first movie built around a spin-off game rather than the main series: the Sea Temple, the Sea Crown and Manaphy’s connection to both were all introduced in Pokémon Ranger on the DS, which had been out in Japan since March 2006. Jackie’s capture of a Fearow may be a nod to Spenser, the Ringtown Ranger Leader in that game, who also has one.
- Jack Walker is the first Pokémon Ranger ever shown without a partner Pokémon – though the Phantom’s Chatot seems to adopt him – and everything he captures is at least part Flying-type. He went on to appear in All That Glitters is Not Golden! and in an updated version of the Japanese opening Spurt!, making him the first movie-original human to cross over into the series. His surname may be a wink at Walker, Texas Ranger.
- Manaphy is the only Pokémon in the anime to use a move – Heart Swap – before it has even hatched, the only one to hatch from an Egg in a movie rather than an episode, and the only Pokémon to hatch on screen that cannot evolve or be bred in the games. Several later Manaphy distributions gave it a Red Scarf to hold, a likely reference to May’s bandanna.
- The Phantom is a pirate from top to bottom: his Chatot is the parrot on his shoulder, English voice actor Eric Schussler gave him a West Country accent, his swagger is modelled on Tuco from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Ken Sugimori’s concept art gave him silver hair before it was changed to blue. Chatot’s nickname, Casey, appears only in the closed captions.
- This was the first Pokémon movie dubbed under Pokémon USA rather than 4Kids, the only one recorded by TAJ Productions (DuArt took over from The Rise of Darkrai), the first dubbed movie shown in its original widescreen format, and the first whose English logo did not use the usual “Pokémon” wordmark – the title copies the font and colours of the Japanese logo instead. Rodger Parsons narrates for the only time in an Advanced Generation film. An English-dubbed print was screened as early as 20 July 2006, only five days after the Japanese opening.
- The dub has fun with what was coming next: the first time “diamonds and pearls” are mentioned, Meowth remarks that it sounds like a good name for a game; the second time, he says “let’s get through this season first”.
- Although the posters and DVD covers show Ash in a headset at the wheel of the Blue Lagoon, he never does that in the film. Near the climax he does, however, turn his cap backwards for the first time in several seasons.

The English poster, with its never-filmed shot of Ash at the wheel. Image via Bulbapedia - The Japanese teaser shown after Pokémon Ranger – Deoxys’ Crisis! included several scenes that never made the finished film: Pikachu being washed away while calling for Ash, May’s and Lizabeth’s bracelets glowing, a different design for the Sea Temple and a night-time shot of Kyogre leaping from the water.
- This is the last film in which Jessie has red hair; the series had switched her to magenta years earlier.
- In the United States, Target and Toys “R” Us bundled exclusive bonus CDs with the DVD. It premiered on Cartoon Network alongside Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, before Destiny Deoxys had even reached DVD, and Lizabeth is one of the few girls in the whole series to seem to return Brock’s affections.
- It is the only Pokémon movie never dubbed into Hindi, and – like Lucario before it – it was skipped entirely by the Finnish and other Nordic dubs, although its manga adaptation was translated into Finnish.
- Pikachu’s Island Adventure is the only ANA-exclusive Pikachu short ever dubbed into English; its dub was the first Pokémon work by DuArt Film & Video, and apart from Pikachu none of the Pokémon keep their Japanese voices in it.

Director Kunihiko Yuyama with the Japanese cast – Hori, Becky, singer Sowelu, Kaori Manabe, Hiroshi Fujioka, Kōichi Yamadera and Rica Matsumoto – at a promotional event for the film. Photo via Bulbapedia
Errors
- The title sequence opens on the hexagonal lattice of ordinary ice, but the water molecules are drawn wrongly: there should be one hydrogen atom on every edge and one oxygen atom at every vertex.
- In the English dub, when Jackie says the Marina Group are helping him with his mission his mouth moves but no sound comes out. Later, when May first calms Manaphy down, Brock says “Hey, thanks, Lizabeth!” and May replies “I think” – Lizabeth did nothing in the scene, and May’s answer makes it sound as if Brock was talking to her.
- In several European dubs May teaches Manaphy to talk in the dubbed language and Manaphy answers in English, which May understands anyway.
- When Ash puts May and Manaphy into the Phantom’s escape pod, the red and white of May’s bandanna are reversed for a few frames.
- In the Japanese version Jackie’s remarks about the Phantom’s strength are puns on Machamp and Machop, whose Japanese names relate to strength; the English dub has him ask whether the Phantom takes vitamins, and the Latin American dub whether he drank his chocolate milk. An a cappella Spurt! was also replaced in the dub by an instrumental of Together We Make a Promise.
- In Pikachu’s Island Adventure, Wynaut repeatedly bounces special attacks back with Counter, which should only work on physical moves, and the narrator calls Wynaut’s Mirror Coat “Counter” the second time Exploud fires a Solar Beam. When Hariyama and Exploud are knocked out, Hariyama’s head crest is coloured dark blue instead of cream, and as Meowth’s gang blast off Chatot’s eyelids are white rather than pink. The English DVD subtitles spell Wynaut “Whynaut” and Buizel “Buoysel” – the latter, to be fair, being its official Japanese romanisation.
Reviews & Reception
Pokémon Ranger and the Prince of the Sea: Manaphy ran for six weeks in Japanese cinemas, from 15 July to 25 August 2006. It opened in second place at the national box office – first among anime – and stayed in the top six for all six weekends, finishing on around ¥3.4 billion, or roughly $27 million: a respectable result, if a step down from Lucario and the Mystery of Mew the year before. Critical reaction in Japan was mixed.
There was no Western cinema release. The English dub premiered on Cartoon Network on 23 March 2007 and arrived on DVD in North America on 3 April 2007 with Pikachu’s Island Adventure as an extra; the Japanese DVD had come out on 22 December 2006, Australia followed on 6 February 2008 and Europe through late 2007. Reviews of the dub were mixed too, with critics tending to find the pirate plot thin while allowing that the undersea animation was the series’ most lavish yet.
Among fans the film’s reputation has grown over the years, and it is usually remembered for two things: the bond between May and Manaphy, which gives one of the companions a real emotional arc for the first time in a movie and ends on one of the franchise’s most tearful farewells; and the sheer confidence of its ocean setting, from the Marina Group’s water-bubble circus to Kyogre’s entrance. For many English-speaking viewers it is also remembered as the point where the voice cast changed, which coloured first impressions at the time but has long since faded as the new cast became the familiar one.
Scores at a glance (as of October 2026)
- IMDb – 5.9/10 from around 3,300 user ratings
- Rotten Tomatoes – 68% audience score (2,500+ ratings) · no critics’ score – only one review“A predictable and occasionally corny plot” – Sebastian Zavala Kahn, Más Gamers
- Letterboxd – 3.0/5 average from 13,000+ ratings
- DVD Talk – Skip It (for grown-ups – “a good watch” for young children)“Unless you are a young kid, it is not worth your time”
- Anime News Network – “Worth Seeing” tier in ANN’s ranking of every Pokémon movie“Much of the film now appears dated” – Callum May




























































