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I really like Gen I Sugimori art Red. He seems like a fairly standard shonen character, but it makes him likable. He's a 10 year old Japanese boy going on a journey and seeing the world. He's the most well-rounded protagonist. His sprites make him look quiet and like a bit of a loner, and when you come across him on Mt. Silver, everything about it becomes epic in the actual sense of the word. I understand why Pixiv Red exists, even if I think the aloof bishonen look is cringe.
FRLG feels like Sugimori tried to keep a coolness about him, made him look serious and fixated, but I think it loses all of the charm of the original design. He doesn't feel like a well-rounded kid anymore. The colors also don't look very good, more of a pink salmon than red. His cyan pants are ugly too, everything is also kind of washed out. The blacks aren't really black, his hair isn't even black anymore. But he manages to look a bit better in his HGSS sprite.
SM Red, despite using the same colors as FRLG Red, at the very least is more expressive. His design is minimalist, the stance is cool, he doesn't look like an adult dressed like a kid which so many amateur artists do. There's a lot of novelty to the design, it's like looking at an entirely new character. You don't really think of Pokémon characters as children, they're just characters, but Red is one of the biggest contrasts you can do and it really does hammer in that the old design is a child.
