>>57169768>Horizons was going to be Journeys 2 and Leon was gonna be a MC along with Goh and Ash but TPCi and GF opposed itActually the reasoning was revealed in the Teraleak, where a bunch of staff were fucking tired of having to write Ash into the story and keep him losing leagues to appease Yuyama's autism. SM was the first sign of pushback and JN was the point where they realized due to the ratings that Ash can no longer sustain the anime so they used MPM's 11 episodes to write him out.
Goh and Koharu weren't not included because they are "literally who"s, they weren't included because MPM was designed to be an 11 episode send off specifically for older fans of the anime and naturally Misty and Brock would be the ideal characters for such a thing.
Finally, no shit characters have to be approved by TCPi and GF, who do you think owns the franchise? If the anime staff went and made a product that lacks brand cohesion, they wouldn't exactly be happy. It's why every anime, no matter how original, always has a plot that loosely ties in with the games somehow and periodically brings game relevant characters into the fold. It's also why Charizard and Pikachu are still prominent in the anime.
We hate Game Freak because most of us on this board are fans of the GAMES not the fucking show that has long since been a shadow of a shadow of yet another shadow of it's former self. And the games have been ass for over a decade.
