The book "Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon" noted Mewtwo as popular with older male children who tend to be drawn to "tough or scary" characters; Mew in contrast was described as a polar opposite, a character popular with young girls who tend to be drawn to "cute" characters. Others books, such as "Media and the Make-believe Worlds of Children", have noted a similar comparison, citing Mewtwo as "more aggressive-looking" compared to Mew and emphasizing the importance of the contrast for children. The book "Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific" compares Sugimori's design of Mewtwo to that of Japanese tokusatsu films, namely monster films like the 1954 "Godzilla" in creating "monstrous yet familiar silhouettes from the past renewed agency in the form of eyes and expressions which cut through the viewer".