>>58901752You don't understand what Pokemania is or how it happened.
Children watched the Ashnime because Pokémon, as a brand, was popular and literally no other reason. It was not because it was good, and it was certainly not cause they liked Ash so much, it was because of the Pokémon brand attached to it and how obsessed children were with it because it was literally the biggest children's media fad in history and kids religiously follow trends. They slapped the Pokémon brand on fucking egg waffles and perfumes and it all sold like hot cakes, that's how crazy kids were about the Pokémon brand. Of course they watched the anime. Kids would've eaten brussel sprouts and spinach en masse if it said "Pokémon" on them.
The anime helped spreading Pokémon's popularity, yes, that's LITERALLY why it was made. They didn't make it because they wanted to write a cool story or create art, the Ashnime's sole purpose was to promote and sell the games and merch. That's why it loosely follow the game progression, features the same locations, why Ash had all 3 starters etc.
And it did do that, because a cartoon that airs on public TV is more accessible than a game on a handheld console that you have to buy first. But the game sales are irrelevant because merch was selling way, WAY better. And what did kids buy? Merch with POKÉMON on them. Not with Ash or the other characters on them, 99% of the merchandise had the creatures on them, and that's the sole reason why the Ashnime was popular. Every kid owned a Pikachu plush and collected cards and listened to the anime music, pretty much no one was collecting Ash merch. It's not like Dragonball because there, people love the characters like Goku. With Pokémon, the human characters are not what kids were watching for. It's the Pokémon.
