>>54785160They would, and they did. As a European who grew up in the "Japan is cool" years, it's weird just thinking about it, but America was (and let's not kid ourselves, still is) very racist towards Asians (just like they are towards anything perceived as not "white"). So when a Japanese media franchise miraculously got so obscenely popular worldwide as Pokemon did, the Japanese suits calling the shots got so hot and bothered about not ruining the cash flow from abroad that they ended up coming up with a dumb idea that was a little too extreme to be true (Brock as a major character in the animated series being detrimental to its image) and then acted on it even though it just didn't hold any water. But though they fixated on the wrong thing, the concern was warranted.
