>>51091237>And the very idea of changing the protag ever is something Japan fucking despises because muh traditions or whatever autism is going on thereNo. They're quite literally used to changing protagonists. Kamen Rider, Sentai, Ultraman, Gundam, Jojo, Precure, Digimon, and so many other franchises swap out casts either regularly if not yearly in some cases. It's common practice in Japan to just dump it all and start over for franchises. The reason Pokemon doesn't do it has nothing to do with Ash and everything to do with Pikachu. They'd have to give the new protagonist a Pikachu every single season and at that point it's easier to just keep Ash around since every season up to Sun and Moon involved the same damn formula anyway.
And there was not really a backlash when Gohan replaced Goku. Toriyama himself wasn't a fan of Gohan being the protag. The backlash is a myth.
