I just tried watching the anime and portrayal of Cinderace is far too... "Human" for me. The thing, is I usually have no issue with humanoid/anthropomorphic Pokemon designs. Most of them are my favorites. I usually don't mind it when the team behind the anime decides what kind of personality they give to any particular design. But something about Cinderace is just really off. They try and make it act similar to how Pokemon are usually portrayed, similar to a pet, but this animal-like behavior but it looks very unsettling because if it's human-like proportions. In some cases it comes off like a socially extroverted teenager.
When I look at it in the anime, when it comes out of the Pokéball I see a human, not a monster meant for combat.
At least with shit like Incineroar, it's a bit more monster-like in design and it's personality comes off very vicious and harsh, so you could actually sell it being a monster despite it's humanoid proportions. But Cinderace just looks part of Ashs traveling entourage.