One of PokémonPokemon’s rarest and first ever event may have just been discovered 26 years later. In April 1996, Japan, the magazine CoroCoro be the first Pokémon distribution arrangement for Pokemon red and greenwhere it gave away”Legendary Offer Mew” to select fans who correctly answered a question from the magazine. Only 20 fans would be chosen by CoroCoro to receive Mew, making the event among the most exclusive in Pokémon history. Given that so few people won Mew and that the memories of Pokemon red and green cartridges were stored on permanent batteries, the chance of any of these Legendary Offer Mews still existing today seems slim to none.
However, a rag-tag team of Pokémon fans and archivists recently discovered a Japanese cartridge of Pokemon Green which may possibly have one of the legendary offer mews. Reddit user Julius_Blaze, who helped organize the investigation into the legendary offering Mew, shared the story of how this particular Mew was found. History shows how cooperative they are Pokémon fandom actually is.
How the legendary offering Mew (possibly) was discovered by Pokemon fans
According to Julius_Blaze, the legendary offering Mew came with five specific traits when it was released by CoroCoro: it was level 5; it only had the movement “Pound”; it would hold a bitter berry when traded for Gen 2; its original trainer name (OT) was コロコロ (CoroCoro), and it had an ID number between 00001 and 00020. Although a hacked copy of a Pokémon the game could potentially have a pocket monster with these traits, faking the ID number and OT would be time consuming tasks to do to fake a pocket monster many people had forgotten existed.
That’s why, when Julius_Blaze caught up with fellow Redditor AkonnWalker, it looked like they might have found a legendary bargain mew. AkonnWalker had apparently found a used, boxed copy of Pokemon Green with a distinctive Mew on it with the ID number 00016 leveled all the way up to 100, which he shared on Imgur. When Julius_Blaze contacted AkonnWalker and ran the information by others Pokémon fans and archivists, they found nothing suspicious about Mew, leading them to believe that they may have found the 16th Legendary Offering Mew.
However, two problems emerged as the investigation continued, the first of which involved a strange Lickitung on Pokémon cartridge. The Lickitung was strangely 100 and was called Namezou – possibly after a popular artist who specialized in adult content. The problem with Lickitung was that it only had 10 HP while it was level 100, meaning it was likely a hacked Pokemon, and if Lickitung was hacked, there was a likelihood that Mew would be hacked as well. The other problem was the letter that came with the cartridge. The ones who won Mew from CoroCoro received a letter from the magazine about their winnings, and this letter was found with AkonnWalker’s copy of Pokemon Green. However, there were significant clerical errors indicating that this was likely a forged document.
Still, the possibility that this strange Mew is one of the Legendary Offer Mews is higher than one might expect. Lickitung was a meme Pokemon in Japan in the 90s, so it wouldn’t be surprising for one to be hacked. Furthermore, the Mew event was hastily put together, and even some of the published press material contained typos. Whether Mew is authentic or not, all of this shows the level of dedication the fans have Pokémon the series continues to add to the franchise and its history.
Sources: Julius_Blaze / Reddit, AkonnWalker / Reddit, AkonnWalker / Imgur
