>>49992718Charizard and blastoise have a certain obviousness to their designs. Charizard is a dragon looking thing and fire spitting is obviously useful in an animal fighting game. Blastoise is a sturdy looking turtle with water jets. Venusaur's just a big toad with a flower. Yeah we get it, powders and solar beam and whatever, but in this franchise function often takes a backseat to form. It's pretty telling that many many years later venusaur still trails far behind both blastoise and especially charizard.
>b-but bulbaYeah first stage pokemon have different rules for popularity and bulbasaur checks off almost every one of them, no shit it's popular. Anime bulbasaur had the right idea, because the #1 thing bulbasaur did to become unpopular is evolve.
