>>49962608Even if they moved on from Red(anime version) to Gold, Brendan, Lucas, Hilbert, etc. and gave every single one of them a pikachu, it wouldn't be the same pikachu. So they'd have to start over with a different characterization for this new pikachu undermining the effort of making pikachu as charming and adorable as possible. No more ketchup love, no more impressions, all the gags and defining moments would be split up between what would essentially be a bunch of different characters that look the same that they'd be forced to differentiate between. It wouldn't work well.
I wish they had been willing to run that risk early on and see what happened trying to sell a new anime mascot pikaclone with each new gen, but it would have been a huge unnecessary risk. They made the logical choice keeping Ash/Pikachu
