Who made the decision of Ash maining Pikachu?

Seems like a weird choice for that time period. You would think they they would give the protagonist one of cool mons instead of fat mouse.

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you think that's bad? originally the franchise mascot was gonna be Clefairy

Pikachu was the perfect mascot.

Eevee is better, especially since it puts an emphasis on "pick your favorite".

Must have clicked on a market study that nips made for their people

They chose Pikachu because it happened to be the perfect coincidence at the time.
Kids in Japan literally couldn't shut the fuck up about Pikachu when discussing Pokemon with their peers because it was an uncommon Pokemon in Viridian Forest, the first dungeon of the game, with a unique typing you wouldn't be able to get otherwise until Jolteon at the next earliest if you decided to evolve your Eevee into it, otherwise the whole type was locked behind needing Surf so you could get to Route 10's Grass and the Power Plant, and of course, an extremely appealing design that perfectly conveyed what it was supposed to be.

The fans of Gen I Red and Green on release. Blame this fucker, he was autistic and didn't want anyone to play with his fvourite. But because people heard of its rarity and how derpy-cute it looked, THEY all wanted one, people started writing guides about where to find it and by the time Pokémon had moved westwards, the pople making decisions decided Pikachu was a better mascot than Cleefairy, which they'd initially thought should be the mascot (wouldn't have appealed as hard to boys though, Pikachu was androgynous enough to appeal to boys and girls).
Might add, Japan has an entirely different mindset when it comes to cute things, just look at Kirby's US boxart or even Yellow edition boxart to Special Pikachu Edition's boxart (the US art adds "angry eyes" to Kirby/Pikachu in contrast to the Japanese' more open and happy expressions).

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Pikachu was one of the cool mons. The few cool mons that were also marketable enough to be appealing to girls.

It especially helps Pikachu's case that when the anime started redesigning it, it made the yellow fuck a lot more dynamic in movement potential so it could have "cool" moments just as much as it had "cute" moments.

I'm guessing that was a directive from on high and not just the anime wanting to make it easier to animate it in more active ways. Game Freak had already started drawing focus away from its rotundness in Gen I official art by Yellow and by DP, it was probably as slim as the anime versions' portrayal of them.

Yellow was made solely to cash in on Anime Hype, so no surprise there they'd tweak its looks along with all the other Pokemon to match what's in or what would be in the show.
Still took them until Gen 3 to really make a full design shift commitment regardless, GSC was more of a middle ground between the two designs.

Yellow was made as much to fill out time while they still delayed GS to keep Nintendo off their backs, but with Pokémon 2/GS being started before the anime hit, I'm sue they had the sprite designs done, then needed to edit them after delays, anime and Yellow, so went the go-between route due to Yellow.
Have to say, hashing out the origins and evolutions of designs (in as much the outside meta factors occurring at the time that drove them) is interesting as fuck to me. We know it happened, but I like knowing how exactly it happened.

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Eevee was just cute but Pikachu was cute and cool.

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>top of the meta
>learns almost everything
>always good and reliable
vs
>xfce mascot
>when MATE is better and Unity is back
what would you pick?

Does Pokemon ever planned to have a mascot at first? All the time I read Pikachu, Eevee, Clefairy, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Heracross, Lucario, fuck! So many to tell.
Does at any point in the beginning, any market nip said "hey, our brand could reach more people if we have a mascot"?

I always had the theory that the anime wanted to create a pathetic generation.

They intended to make Clefiry the mascot, as they assumed boys and girls would have no issue with it When game released and Pikachu's popularity exploded alongside Pokémon's, they changed their minds to the will of the fanbase and given how popular it has remained with following generations of children, they called it absolutely correctly.

IIRC, they specifically didn't want to make any the starters the mascot, as they didn't want the fans of the other tow to feel alienated, regardless of which one was chosen (it's also why Red had all three+Pikachu on his GS/HGSS/SMUSM teams).

>as they didn't want the fans of the other tow to feel alienated
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAAHHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAaHAAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAEH

Pikachu was super popular and they didn't want to show favoritism to any one starter, so they had Ash start with Pikachu and catch all three starters later.

Charizard is more popular irl than retards online claim it's disliked user. That recent "best-selling mech" chart had it it tenth overall, with the other two kanto starters far behind. They're just *not* as cool as a flying, fire-breathing dragonalike, no matter how much you seethe. Was true back in Gen I, when Shudo chose to evolve Charmander as Ash's acemon, still holds true today, regardless of how shit it is in the meta, like you cunts can't handle (for what it's worth, last Gen's fire starter was the best-ever in the meta, you cunts still cried).

Nah manipulating or conjuring lightning is way better than whatever Eevee could have gotten up to. Like the other user said, Pikachu was cute and cool. Eevee would have been a terrible mascot unless Ash actually evolved it, which he probably never would have done given how it elevates one evolution above the others. Although they may have created a third new evolution for him come Gen 2.

Clefairy is pink, so boys, at least in the west, wouldn't have been attracted to it in the same way as Pikachu. The connotations of pink are way too effeminate for the era.