>>51447497I don't think he's on that level, but it's a disservice to not recognize how much of an impact the anime had on the success of Pokémon to the point that they made a version of the games closer to the anime and some Pokémon like Audino being created in part because of the anime. And of course he wrote that, he left the anime in 2002 and he wrote his blogs on Pokémon from 2008 to 2010. He wouldn't have any idea on how the current anime handles things but it's still the same as he wrote in his blog, he wasn't being passive aggressive.
Even so his blog is a treasure trove to people wanting to learn about the development of the early anime since he talks about his time writing for the anime from 1997 to 2002. And as I said, there's no reason to doubt the things he writes when it comes to the development of the anime. The food example and ghost one show that he clearly was told how to handle things. This is an interview from 2000 with Ishihara and Tajiri and Shudo mentions this scenario in his blog. He writes that the meeting was to decide to have a Pokémon being able to talk to have a way for the audience to understand Pokémon. He basically says Meowth was created for the audience to know what Pokémon are saying hence why he shows up in every episode. I forgot the reason on why they settled for meowth for the talking role, ill have to look up my notes. But the point is that Shudo's blog is invaluable because, afaik, he's the only source we have at length from someone in an important position. This is why I trust his word on the issue with crap like the OP.