>>49993659in the same vein Legends of Arceus is a pretty successful title, much more than PMD. I saw plenty of praises for the way portrays Pokémon which imo is the most feral they've ever been. Titles like PMD and PokePark where Pokémon are given more agency, and it's telling when there's no physical humans around, haven't been all that popular.
But even so no fictional beasts acts 1:1 with real beasts which is I point I constantly stress with examples like Scooby-Doo and Courage the Cowardly Dog, and it's also a point made by the former head writer of the original anime and he explains as to *why* it happens. The lions from the Lion King don't act 1:1 with real lions, Lassie the dog doesn't either. It's as Shudo explains, when story is involved, or drama as he puts it, animal characters have to be written like humans and that's why the Pokémon were written to be anthropomorphic in the anime. Of course limitations exist that vary from series to series, for example Scooby-Doo can talk but Lassie can't, yet people can understand her anyways. In Pokémon, and especially in the games, talking is a very reserved anthropormism.
Yet as I've said Pokémon isn't a fantasy setting like D&D, there's no elves or dwarves, there's no Alakazams secluded in towers studying science. Pokémon is pretty open on what Pokémon are and represent, especially looking it from behind the scenes such as the regulations they have in place. It's pretty telling when the head writer of the original anime constantly refers to Pokémon as animals, and how their status as fictional beasts and lack of real beasts inspired him to write a script for the 3rd movie.
