>>19157773you are wrong, just think about MLP. Small male audience?
>>19157737>>19157758>Would Pokemon not last as long as it has?>Would there be a bigger female fanbase?hard to know
just like MLP can be a big example of how something targeted for young girls can reach much more than the intended audience, if they insisted on clefairy as mascot, the pokemon franchise COULD have acheived the same sort of fanbase as MLP. But since the beginning, even before any mascot, pokemon was a game targeted for kids with no distinction of gender, this was influential on changing the mascot to better represent the company's intentions
>Would Fairy Type be introduced earlier?
maybe
>Would Ash be a girl?not entirely related
not all media targeted to female audience needs a female protag in the same way as not all media targeted to boys have male protags
very likely to keep as a boy since the original game had a male character
pic somewhat related :3c