>>50508124>believes that Ash is his better in literally every way except strengthThat sounds like a a big cope and a cosolation prize along with the medal to be honest, some didn't do anything but still got it.
Oh, and Alain was the one to look cool at the end.
So maybe it wasn't a self-insert but the bias was there, people being okay with it is the weird thing given how much they hate Tomiyasu for his Alola/Lillie "bias" while Yajima gets a free pass