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>misconceptions, the thread
Sugimori hasn't done the finalized design of every pokemon and NPC ever since generation 1. What Sugimori did do was do the promotional character art of every pokemon and NPC just for the sake of keeping the art style consistent when presenting the game.
This doesn't matter anymore. Different people are now allowed to make promotional npc character art for the characters they designed except for the main characters since since HGSS, (Takao Unno is credited with Kotone's design, but Sugimori did her promotional art. Takao Unno is credited for the designs and promotional art of the Rocket Admins).
Yusuke Ohmura had a heavy involvement both designing and creating the illustrations of NPCs for BW, basically your friends and every gym leader and elite 4. And in BW2 he was even allowed to do the main characters designs and promo illustrations.
Sun and Moon has a lot of characters designed with promo illustrated by Naoki Saito and I believe Aether are by Yusuke Ohmura but I don't have how to confirm it.
So Sugimori doesn't "design anymore". Like half of the cast of generation 1 isn't credited to him. Sugimori didn't even design Pikachu, that was Atsuko Nishida.
