Was there ever a given reason why the anime gave Pikachu top billing from day 1 over, say, one of the Kanto starters? Was Pikachu that popular in Japan even back then?
just a good design, simple as
>>56458513Firstly it's to not say any one starter was the right one. Bulbasaur was pushed as the starter to choose but they wanted to avoid this in the anime.Second, Pikachu had organic popularity because he was one of the first rare pokemon you'd find, looks different from the more standard bugs, birds, and pests you'd see early on- more friendly and has a unique typing. Kids in Japan in the days before game guides would discover it, tell friends, and it became an early popular Pokemon.This part is complete conjecture- but I think the yellow color was considered gender neutral enough to appeal to boys and girls.
>>56458546>This part is complete conjecture- but I think the yellow color was considered gender neutral enough to appeal to boys and girlsyou're probably right, considering Clefairy was in consideration as the mascot too, they might have decided pink was too girly. yellow is a nice neutral color, but it pops visually, and Pikachu kind of skirts the line between cute and cool.
Yes basically, the noise and hype around Pikachu from series release until they greenlit the anime saw it supplant Game Freak's own choice of Clefairy as mascot, because people were THAT fucking taken by it. So when they started planning the anime, the brief was "He needs a Pikachu, it's the mascot and most popular thing we created".
>>56458513Yuyama said that they didn’t want to show favoritism by picking one Kanto starter over another. Ash would get all three later on. Pikachu’s design stood out more from the other options (Pidgey and Rattata) so they went with him.
>>56458513AFAIK Rhydon was the first ever pokemon they actually conceptualized so imho it should have been Rhydon instead
>>56458747Zero marketability No one likes or cares about RhydonAnime would have been a flop
>>56458687Nah, even Gamefreak shilled Pikachu back in the early promo campaign for Pokémon in 1995/1996. It was always meant to be the popularmon
>>56458513>Was Pikachu that popular in Japan even back then?Yes. Nishimori said he gave Pikachu a low encounter rate in Viridian Forest because he liked Pikachu so much he wanted to keep it for himself. Then that backfired when there were guides published on how to find the rare Pikachu which only made it more popular.There's also this New Year's card that was posted on Game Freak's website before the games even released so it seems Pikachu was already popular with the staff from the beginning.
>>56458747He almost made it into the logo.
>>56458788That was a thank-you note for the support shown to RG at the end of '96, retard-chan.After Game Freak pivoted to pushing Pikachu as the mascot.
>>56458513Why did they forcibly put all Pikachus on diets?Did they think a fat mascot would've been too much of a bad influence on children?
>>56458546>bulbasaur was pushed as the starter That's just not true, I was there during Pokemania, it was always about selling Charmander. The merch, the tcg, school yard talk at the peak, the movie, the Burger King gold plated Charizard. It's not good to lie to people.
>>56458901To add to this, even the booklet that came with Red/Blue American release labeled Bulbasaur as the harder starter pick.
>>56458901>>56458915Charizard was pushed in the west, after the anime had already gotten to Charizard in Japan and all, but early Japanese material definitely pushed Bulbasaur as the main choice in everything from Sugimori art to the manga. Hell, even Ash's dream in the first episode showed that Bulbasaur was his first choice if he hadn't overslept.
>>56458851Actually Pikachu was slimmed down for the anime so it'd be easier to animate.
>>56459022>still applying western ideals to PokémonBulbasaur is the most popular base stage Kanto starter, followed by Squirtle and then Charmander. Charizard is the most popular final stage starter (by a BIG margin, greater than from Bulba to Charmander). The west shilled 'Zard by promoting the whole line, as western mentality is wont to do. But in Japan, they treat everything individually and only compare it to its peers. Bulba is better than the other two, but 'Zard is far better than the other two (that's why it got added to base SS with a Gmax and SV with the first MM raid, while the other two needed to wait until DLC added their alt forms in SS and they as useable pokémon in SV.Telling how despite how "popular" the base stages are, they didn't waste time with trying to add any of them until the DLC where all starters made a return.There's also the elephant in the room of the fact they already knew they were shilling a Pikachu as partner, thus it didn't actually matter which he "chose" in his dream, as they were making him pick all 3 to make up for not actually giving him one.
>>56459293Yup. There is a reason why Ash’s Charmander evolved while Bulbasaur and Squirtle didn’t.
>>56458901>I was there during pokemanianot in Japan.
>>56459293this reads like you're a weeb so I dropped it halfway through
>>56459410I'm an oldfag with eyes and a brain. If they didn't evolve Rowlet because it was so fucking popular, but broke their necks to evolve Ash's Charizard, because it was so fucking popular and kept the other two as cute base stages, they obviously were following Japanese reception to the things. 'Zard was always the most popular final form. Contrarian internet retards and historical revisionism will never change that. A better design may have.
>>56459293All that rambling only to miss the obvious point that Bulbasaur was what they pushed at the very start in Japan before they saw the reception. It's no wonder they did, either, as the Charmander and Squirtle lines were some of the very last Pokemon they added, with the Bulbasaur line being added long before them. Incidentally, Bulbasaur was originally meant to evolve.
>>56458546>Firstly it's to not say any one starter was the right one.Exactly. This is one of the reasons I hate Pokemon origins.
>>56459895>Bulbasaur was always going to evolve and not SquirttleWell fuck you too Pokemon franchise. I can believe whatever I want because the Ashime was left open ended anyway, so neener neener neener.
It's the gen 1 Electric Type that had the most unisex appeal. Electric was the best type for a mascot since it's an elemental Special type that isn't Fire, Water or Grass and has a strong color theming. Pikachu is a neutral figure in the Bulbasaur vs Charmander vs Squirtle playground wars. Making a starter or Pokémon with a starter type the mascot would put a chip on the shoulder of the other factions.
>>56458901We're talking about Japan retardchama
>>56459410>implying glorious nippon poketto monsta give a rat ass whatever your average johnny thinks and wants.
>>56460000Holy quads of truth
>>56458513Quick switch from clefairy
>>56460000>Electric Type that had the most unisex appeal.it's the most girly shit cutemon ever every single anime girl has a cute animal when boys got cool dinosaurs and shit
>>56459927>Charizard was unruly >Venusaur could have been cooperativeThat would have made for a great dynamic, and symbolizing Red/Green perfectly. Hell, Charizard's character development could have came from losing to Venusaur who was more strategic and cunning.
>>56460188Pikachu is pretty badass per se, Its tail is shaped like a lightning bolt, but it also looks amazing to cuddle. They were in their bag when they made it.
>>56458513Starters will have had their fans and there already will be discussions between the kids. Also it's a pleasant and easy design that won't change through leveling up and kids who see the anime will have some pokemon they are interested in if the starters didn't get them so they will try to get to a deeper part in the game. Also the possibility of releasing pokemon yellow was just too great.
>>56460325>Badass Yeah just like a little cute child trying to look badass and failing at that they even made a pokegirl designed over pikachu it's pretty much a girl pokemon
>>56458803Looks like a fusion of Rhydon, Nidoking and Tyranitar (tail) which is pretty based
>>56458513Yes. How do you not know the story?
>>56458513they rolled the dice and it paid off big time. pikachu gave pokemon the success they needed to be here today
>>56458851Because Pichu was created
>>56459895No, it wasn't. Because by the time they started MAKING The anime, they had got the early hype feedback (where's pikachu merch? I want to buy a charizard!). This isn't a "pokémon killer" situation lad, they started off with nothing and grew a franchise organically, not launched it all ready-to-go and pushing what they wanted you to like (jibyan or whatever the fuck its name was).And Venusaur just wasn't popular enough to warrant evolving and losing Bulba yen. That they continue to avoid evolving the most popular base stage with a poorly-received final stage (Dawn's Piplup, Ash's Rowlet) only reinforces the choice they made in Gen 1 - keep the kawaii little frog-thing as it is, evolve the badass dragon lookalike, best of both worlds (as soon as TCG hit, 'Zard holo was automatically considered the most valuable Gern 1 prices were £10 while the other two struggled to hit £5 in value). Why do also--rans try and re-write historical record to people who were there when it was being written down?
>>56458546>yo bro, there's this rare pokemon in viridian forrest>bring it against Brock>into the box it goes
>>56460788>more hindsight rambling missing the pointYes, they eventually decided against evolving Bulbasaur. There's literally proof right there that they were originally planning to have it evolve all the way into Venusaur by the league, though, and in the first place, it not evolving doesn't mean it wasn't the starter that the creators subtly favored. Charizard was an unreliable wildcard after evolving, with the series having a tendency to demonize evolutions compared to their unevolved forms in general. Meanwhile, Bulbasaur was a trustworthy companion that would stick with him all the way until mid-Johto long after Charizard and Squirtle left, with his spirit living on all the way through Unova in how Ash would always get a grass starter during the first five generations. And this is all putting aside the actual point being discussed, namely the pre-anime stuff like early artwork and Pokemon Special. Basically, Bulbasaur is much like Clefairy: While they ended up being organically superseded by Charizard and Pikachu respectively due to fan reception, it doesn't change the fact that they were the Pokemon that the creators originally thought of as "the default starter" (with the rival getting the imposing fire dragon) and "the mascot" (as evidenced by the Clefairy manga) respectively.
>>56460995There was no "eventually", by time Nintendo ordered the anime, 'Zard had taken a clear and commanding lead in the favour of the fanbase. There was only ever going to be one starter evolved and it wasn't the mascot or the cute plant thing. It was the badass dragon lookalike, because even back then a fire breathing lizard was still far fucking cooler to 7 year olds than a walking tree. Sorry you're still stuck in your also-ran child mindset, but that's why you're denying a reality you were not aware of, for your own shitty little headcanon to handle the fact you picked the also-ran.
>>56460945you use your starter for brock
>>56461013>by time Nintendo ordered the animeWhich was, yet again, some time after the release of the original games. You're also mixing up the matter of whether Bulbasaur would evolve in the anime (which that promotional illustration proved was being considered at one point. Remember, Ash's Pidgeotto evolving and fighting Fearow in the final episode of Kanto was set in stone from the start as seen in the opening and how it mirrors the plot of the first episode, so the illustration illuminates a fair bit about what the original plan for the anime was before the Porygon disaster gave them the opportunity to restructure the plot of Kanto's second half for marketing and longevity reasons) and whether it was the golden child so to speak of the creators during the development of Red/Green (which, again, is amply proven by early official illustrations and the simple fact that the index numbers reveal that Charmander and Squirtle were some of the very last Pokemon to be added, clearly to act as alternative options for the player for the sake of variety).
>>56461021By the time you found it, you likely have you starter leveled up enough anyway
>>56458513>>56458535it was literally designed to rival mickey mouse
>>56461059No, you're pushing your retarded assumption of reality. Thing didn't release as part of a package like Yo-Kai Watch did, there was 6 months before Nintendo looked to get an anime running and a year and a quarter before they got it out.By that time, the fanbase had condensed around the tropes you despise today - 'Zard everywhere, because it's fucking cool. Eevee and Pikachu everywhere, because girls loved them as much as boys. It's hilarious how you shudoniggers think every 'tarded idea he put on his blog was a potentiality, when the fat fucking mess didn't even understand the IP, let alone the children's reactions to it. The anime happened as it did, because the people directing shudo at the time WANTED it to play out like that.
>>56460788This. Also Venusaur was very difficult to animate. There are more details in his design compared to Charizard and Blastoise, hence why even today the latter two get more appearances in the anime then Venasaur.
>>56461396>more irrelevant hindsight bias nonsense ignoring the reality at the time>there was 6 months before Nintendo looked to get an anime running and a year and a quarter before they got it out.Plenty of time. And years of development for R/G before that. Yes, Charizard quickly proved to be a fan favorite. No, it wasn't the starter Game Freak thought of first.> It's hilarious how you shudoniggers think every 'tarded idea he put on his blog was a potentialityThat's not some random Shudo rambling, though, that's finalized promotional artwork that was meant to represent Ash's team during the league. If there wasn't a consensus about it at some point, the image would never have been drawn in the first place. It's more like the Rocket vs Plasma arc in how it was intended at first, but ended up being written out after a hiatus caused by a disaster made them re-analyze how to handle the series and rewrite things. It's common knowledge that the series was going to have a one and a half year long run initially, so obviously, some things were going to be written differently before they decided to make it a never-ending series.Also, Charizard has always been my favorite out of the gen 1 starters, I'm just analyzing what the original intent of the authors was based on the early material. God knows the zoomers going "hurr sneaky stones" are cancer.
Bulba is OG Red's canon starter.
>>56461977Special isn't OG. It isn't even the first Pokémon manga.
>>56460545It's badass enough for a six year old anon.
>>56458513They just wanted to market something cute so it wouldn't be only a boys' franchise. They probably hired Nishida and gave her a third of the designs for this purpose.
