>>52951016I think the issue arises because the series doesn't present Pokémon as monsters despite their fantastical nature. Monsters are often associated with aggressiveness, as scary and at times the unknown.
We know from early guidebooks that they didn't want 3rd parties referring to Pokémon as monsters as early as 1998. This is in contrast to series like Digimon where they proudly wear the monster label, and it also helps that Digimon are otherworldy digital creatures. It’s also telling when Pokémon designers talk about ecosystems, or The Pokémon Company explicitly telling others that Pokémon *replace* real animals in-universe with zero mentions of monsters, indeed in that same section TPC tells others not to refer to Pokémon as monsters. Likewise we know thanks to Takeshi Shudo that from the start the anime decided to depict Pokemon and human relationships as the relationship between animals and humans in the real world. Pokémon are usually not portrayed as aggressive nor scary and they're not otherworldly or bizarre, in-universe, creatures, they're very much attached to the natural and the natural world. And more importantly is that the series itself seems to reject the monster label even in the games.
Given these circumstances it shouldn't really surprise us when others don't think of Pokémon as monsters when the series itself doesnt and makes a concentrated effort to separate Pokémon from that label.
