Why I Cried In The First 10 Mins Of Detective Pikachu
This content is SPOILER FREE so don’t worry if you haven’t made it out to the theatre yet. It is gonna be sappy though so heads up.
I cried twice in the first 10 minutes of Detective Pikachu. Not like the cute tear-up you do when you are watching tv with your friends and you don’t want to come off like an absolute emotional freak; I was ugly crying. You might be guessing that the opening scenes had some emotional content but honestly it was pretty run-of-the-mill. Nobody died and there was truly no reasons to be that emotional unless you have a strong connection to the franchise.
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I am, and have been, a Pokémon super-fan my entire life. Even once I got to the later years of elementary and high school when Pokemon was far from cool, it is a series that has brought me countless hours of joy and pleasure in my life. I am truly grateful for the time I have spent with these games, and that I will continue fo the foreseeable future. Not everybody felt that way, however, and I experienced my fair share of teasing and condescension from people who didn’t understand why I continued to love a “kid’s game”.
I couldn’t tell you the number of times I wished or prayed growing up that Pokémon were real. I know that is odd and niche, but with every birthday candle, fallen eyelash and any other excuse I would make two wishes (Ya i’m a greedy bitch get over it). The first was for good health for myself and my family and the second was for Pokémon to exist. Going into that theatre, and seeing the incredibly lifelike CGI Pokémon alongside human actors was an incredibly validating experience.
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For the first time, I felt as If my younger self had been seen and acknowledged. I didn’t feel stupid or immature in the way I used to when I harshly judged myself. I vividly remember internal monologues where I questioned why I derived so much pleasure from something that I didn’t think was for me. There was a time were I was ashamed of telling people I liked Pokémon and would become incredibly embarrassed if somebody brought it up.
I wish this movie had come out when I felt like that. It would have shown me how widespread my love for Pokémon was. I was crying because 10 years ago I might have been to embarrassed to see this movie. At the same time, seeing Pokémon like this in the entertainment mainstream would have made me so much more comfortable. People always talk about experiences with media where they felt understood. For me, sitting in harper theatre, crying while the protagonist got off the train to arrive in a city breaming with beautifully lifelike Pokémon, a part of me felt more understood than it had ever been and a wish had, in part, been fulfilled.
