>>51223530Read the interview.
As for your other points GameFreak treats Pokémon as if they were fantastical critters. Pokémon may take inspiration from the things you say but they're not that. They exist and are conceptualized as critters and pets with fantastical qualities. Indeed you don't play fetch with those as if they were your dog nor do those things you mention exist to be pets for humans. Even the 1996 zukon you love so much mentions that Pokémon make better pets than cats and dogs, Oak, even in the Japanese version, mentions people keep Pokémon as pets. Verily so the series takes away the fantastical aspects of some of the inspiration from Pokémon. Pokémon doesn't have yokai, only Pokémon that may take inspirations from them. This is even more open with the way the structure Pokémon-player interactions. I don't need to remind you that they program Pokémon to act like dogs around the player.
Ghost Pokémon for example are living creatures perceived as natural creatures. One of the best examples is here:
https://youtu.be/0fk_Wl-6v4AJesse and James only become scared of Mimikins after learning it's a real ghost, a supernatural entity, rather than a ghost Pokémon, a fantastical natural critter. Or in that poketoon where the ghost Pokémon proclaim they're not ghosts and the children become relaxed around them or Allister ability to see the ghost of ghost Pokémon in the games.
Indeed the Japanese headwriter of the original anime left us a blog where he constantly refers to Pokémon as animals, even calling the 151 the "151 animals", not once describing them as as yokai or even monsters and he recognized their fantastical qualities.
