What if this edit of official Rosa/Mei art was supposed to be that way? Like if Game Freak wanted to capture the edginess of Hilda’s design, but went too far.
Rosa's/Mei's outfit with the short-short skirt and her overall figure would never make it in the game. I think the tights was added because of corporate censorship. The designs of the female characters DO have some edge, but Pokemon as a huge brand does not allow Game Freak to take many risks to do something different with its formula.

Maybe that’s why early sprites of gen 1 Pokemon had much more edge. Then the anime broke out and Pokemon became a world phenomenon. It was on that point The Pokemon Company and Nintendo indirectly forced Game Freak to go for the ‘’long term’’ plan what they did with gen 2 and forward.

Anyway… If Game Freak would developing post gen 1 Pokemon games on their own will rather than what’s profitable, would they aim for a more niche and older demographic? I think I found the answer by checking out old Ken Sugimori art of Quinty…