>>53136495Shudo didn't really establish that. According to him that context was established by the anime staff and he was building his understanding of the Pokémon world off it hence why nature vs humanity and humans being unable to understand animals were big themes he brings up constantly in his posts.
But Tajiri did envisioned Pokémon as these cute friendly critters that are like cats and dogs. He was writing about it all the way back to 1995 about it and he makes mention of it in his 2018 biography. The series foundation is build off that vision from the anime to the games, hence why the product guide from 2012 is written the way it is and thanks to detective pikachu film makers we know it's meant to be taken very seriously. The series itself keeps constructing Pokémon to be similar to cats and dogs both in interaction with the player and how they act. For example in SV you wash your Pokémon like people do with their pets like dogs and cats and Pokémon even dry themselves just like dogs do. Pokémon behavior outside of their pokeball is also very dog-like to the point that they included specific behaviors like zoomies for all Pokémon.
Things like that only reinforce the viewpoint of Pokémon as cute critters and a big part as to why bodyshape doesn't play as big of a role as you expect.
