>>37782152It's just the way Sugimori draws these days. Again, given that gen I Ash, the design depicted in that poster, is basically just a pallet swap of Red, it's only natural that they look so similar. No one can say for sure how he views the two personally,
However, the two are distinctly different characters. Hell, not counting spin-off anime, there's at least three different canon personalities for Red. The stoic hero shown gen II and gen VII, the confident, ambitious young battle expert in PokeSpe, and whatever kind of personality he has in Pocket Monsters. They're all very different characters compared to Ash.
And honestly, can you blame anyone for making the distinction? Referring to them as the same character is an insult to Red. Ash is literally everything wrong with the anime. He's a mostly static character that resets what little growth he's experienced every new gen, he constantly fucks up everything, and he's made more asspulls than every Yu-Gi-Oh antagonist combined while STILL being a fucking loser.
