>>48306885Nah the decline started in the Gen 3 days when Pokémon became soulless and desperate to cling to relevancy. I think it was meant to end with GSC, but it had already become too big to fade into obscurity at that point. The franchise just feels less organic now than it originally did. Pardon the comparison, but it’s almost like Star Wars under George Lucas vs Star Wars under Disney and Kathleen Kennedy. That’s the impression I get of Pokémon under Satoshi Tajiri vs Pokémon under Junichi Masuda and Tsunekazu Ishihara.