>>58715906Clefairy was popular in Japan, but the idea that it "was supposed to be the mascot" is one of those tiny kernels of truth that Reddit turned into pseudo-fact. The mascot was determined by an internal popularity poll at GF. Clefairy wasn't in the running. Its early popularity exists somewhere between Pikachu, sharing cute appeal, and Poliwhirl, a Pokemon that had a lot of internal support from Tajiri. They just wanted to have a lot of mascots early on, but Pikachu was always *the* mascot.
