>>56825164Pokemania happened, and because Pokemania was defined by the anime being the face of Pokemon in the west, that meant Ash was the human face of Pokemon in the west. And if they got rid of Ash, they risked killing the brand's iconography in the west, potentially bringing Pokemon's success to a complete grinding halt even more than how the Nintendo VS Sony Consolewars made it uncool to continue liking Pokemon unless you were a toddler or one of the social reject kids.
Likewise, any sort of charm or fun they could've gotten out of Ash had to be almost immediately sucked out not even 30 episodes in due to the Porygon incident, which is when everyone went into panic mode and had to sanitize the FUCK out of the anime to make sure it doesn't get into any deep shit controversies in Japan again, which is especially evident with how the absurdity and quality of the show in general declined.
