>>53014969>>Pokeshipping>Liked because it was the "bickerers to lovers" trope the 90s America was maniacally obsessed with.It wasn’t only Americans who were obsessed with that dynamic at the time, Japan was too, because it was at the height of Rumiko Takahashi’s career and she popularized (hell, practically CREATED) the trope of the “mutual tsundere” couple such as Ranma/Akane and Inuyasha/Kagome. This was the type of dynamic Pokeshipping was based on. “Classic Tsundere” girls in general were just also really popular during that time period such as Nadia and Rei Hino. It wasn’t until Eva came along and tried to “deconstruct” the tsundere girl trope with Asuka that we got the modern nu-tsunderes who are just otaku bait designed for bland, self-insert, harem protags.
> AG was the last saga where you could still catch glimpses of the full-of-life character Ash used to be.Don’t kid yourself, Orange Islands was the last time we ever had Shudo/SOUL Ash, maybeeee early Johto if I’m being generous. By the time Shudo left Ash was already a neutered facsimile of the character he used to be.
