>>55394971Imagine being in their position.
Shudo wanted to focus on things like life and its hardship + beauty, the nuance of society and coming of age. He did that, but then got told he had to keep promoting Ash in a sanitized environment.
Yajima wanted to make a story about a really cool and smart trainer who had a smoking hot girlfriend and got involved in cool battles. But he was forced to try to do that with Ash, who is the last person you think of when you hear the words "cool, smart, smoking hot wife". Ash can maybe pass for cool battles, but you'll never get the kind of complexity and battle of wits like in Jojo and other popular shonens with Ash, he's too spastic.
Tomiyasu likes doing long-form stories and tying things together. But, like Shudo, he was shackled with an episodic nonce of a character who has the memory of a goldfish and the maturity of a Baboon with a fresh turd in its hands. The most you can paint with Ash restraining you is a shit smeared canvas.