>>32843929See, the problem is that Transformers had dormant periods for the US and not a lot of it blew up the way it did since the 80s cartoon for a while. Brand identity was specifically for the 80s cartoon, even though stuff like Beast Wars and the stuff Saban made did show up out of all the Transformers stuff we DIDN'T get in the West. Bayformers brought in that old audience and some new ones like it was forging a new identity based on what the old fans grew up with to a point where the movies became their own thing, kinda like the MCU (which also sells toys and somehow manages to be fun for the whole family despite all the lewds and swears)
You can't pull that shit with Pokemon. Pokemon had highs and lows but has NEVER SLEPT like Transformers did, so it never flew off the face of the West so much as it was available and fans either grew out of it or just stopped but it remained relevant. You can't put brand identity on something that isn't the same every 3-4 years and always has a new audience every 3-4 years who sees Pokemon differently than the current audience. You might have people who say Gen 1 or Gen 2 was what Pokemon was to them but you now have people old enough to be nostalgic about Hoenn or Sinnoh the same way. 4-5 years, Unova's next. Not to mention fans in Japan are far more quicker to embrace change to the series than the rest of us, so they also have a say on the brand identity if not The Pokemon Company themselves with their stipulations.
It only looks like similar scenarios from a distance.
