>>41357745>By your logic, is Ash a self-insert of Tajiri and Gary a self-insert of Miyamoto?Uh, yes? Did you miss Satoshi Tajiri's interview, where he literally highlights how Satoshi is him as a kid, and Shigeru is the eternal rival he can catch up to, but never truly surpass?
>TIME: The main human guy is named Satoshi. That's your name. Is he your alter ego?Tajiri: Basically, he's me when I was a kid.
>TIME: His main rival is named Shigeru. That's the first name of Miyamoto, the famous game designer at Nintendo who did Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. Do you consider him your rival?>Tajiri: No! I really look up to Miyamoto-san. In the TV series, Shigeru is Satoshi's master. In the game, they are rivals. Shigeru is always a little bit ahead of Satoshi.>TIME: Does Satoshi ever catch up with Shigeru?Tajiri: No! Never!
>TIME: Have you caught up with Miyamoto-san?Tajiri: I think very highly of him. I'd memorize each piece of advice he gave.
>TIME: But Pokémon is more popular than anything Miyamoto-san has done. Hasn't the student passed the teacher?Tajiri: No, because Pokémon was made with Miyamoto-san's advice. Since I was a teenager, playing Donkey Kong, he's always been my role model. He's a mentor for my heart.
>TIME: You know what Miyamoto-san said? He said, half-jokingly, that Pokémon wouldn't stay popular forever because he was developing a new version of Mario Bros.Tajiri: Is that what he said?
You may now picture Miyamoto smelling Tajiri later.
