Shudo's Ash was wildly popular, that's undeniable. It's after Shudo left and Yuyama's autism took over that the ashnime took a nosedive.
Ever since the Paul fiasco and the even bigger BW fiasco Ash became a meme. Some people briefly recovered the faith during XY, but then Alain happened and Ash was doubled down as a meme. At that point it had been almost 20 years and almost everyone who remembered early Ash fondly has already moved on in life, leaving only retards and spergs, some of which are still sperging around even today, almost a decade later. You know who.
So yea Ash is both very popular (Shudo era) and a complete joke (post DP). Even former fans pointed and laughed ("lmfao he's still around?") when Ash made a headline in normie media once in a blue moon.
He had such a long ride because of a couple of senior directors' autism and because of Japan's retarded corporate culture nobody dared to contradict them. Even Ishihara wanted Ash gone since at least DP (as per Teraleak documents) but still didn't do a move, maybe because he didn't have strong feelings or because nips consoom and the Pokémon money print machine was unaffected by the now recurring anime fiascos and the constant viewership decline.
Now audiences have changed and few people watch HZ, but also few people (maybe even fewer, I'm not sure) watched Journeys. Kids now have the attention span of a kitten and only watch 30 second tiktoks. Maybe Pokémon should drop anime altogether and focus in projects like Paldean Winds etc. Or grow a pair and make a proper anime targeted at teens/young adults. HZ gives me the feeling the creatives really wanted to make that step and the suits didn't allow it.
>>58762301>yajima was a self-inserterYajima or Yuyama? I know Yuyama was the reason Ash was forbidden from winning a League, but I'm not sure what was Yajima's role in the whole debacle.
