>>50550606Notice that he says on Earth. I stated in the past that he's not wrong, but he undersells how close people get to their pets im the world imo. To give an example I gave before Scooby-Doo would be closer to Shaggy than a real dog is, the same could be said for Lassie. In fiction beasts are often written to be more human-like, or anthropomorphic, than the beasts in the real world. However that doesn't mean that Lassie or Scooby-Doo do not take the role of a pet, that still very much established.
In the interview you got that quote from Masuda also compared eating rare candy to eating dog food. Rare candy looks like regular candy yet he clearly wanted to establish an "otherness" for Pokémon and even establish their petness by comparing rare candy to dog food even when he could just said it's just like regular candy for humans but instead he made the comparison to dog food and how it can even make you sick. Things like that and scenes like the OP, and many other things, are there to establish and push the idea of Pokémon as cute little pets like a dog. Verily indeed they in the past programmed dog-like behavior for the pokemon such as chewing on shoes and grass and even barking. GameFreak themselves have stated they want Pokémon trainers to have a relationship with their Pokémon like pet owners in real life and this is what is being conveyed with scenes like the OP and many other things.
