Water Pokemon Master recently had an interview with Masamitsu Hidaka, storyboard artist and former director of the Pokemon anime, after he went to an Anime Expo.
Interview with Masamitsu Hidaka at Anime ExpoSecond Interview with Masamitsu Hidaka - Many Interesting Points!I can't say I'm exactly happy about these interviews for two reasons. The first is what he said about Tracey.
He mentions that Tracey was only created to replace Brock because they felt that Americans would view Brock as a racist (because of his eyes... like that makes sense). When they realized that Brock was actually popular with Americans, they decided to basically scrap Tracey and add Brock back.
All this time I've believed that Tracey had some merit for his creation. I thought that eventually more information would be released about him (where he's from, who's his family, etc...), but no. Their plan basically was to try and erase Tracey and act like he never exsisted. Tracey was basically created as an experiment...
I don't feel that Hidaka really cares about the fans Tracey has. I mean I'm not demanding that he be put back in the main cast. I knew that wasn't going to happen. I would just like it if he had cameos once in a while like Misty and May. It's not fair to the fans that love Tracey to just ignore him and try to give him as little air time as possible.
Also I dislike what he said about Misty and the other females in the cast. When WPM asked if he would consider putting Misty back in the anime and have her and Ash travel with another boy, he said that it would be much easier to just change the females in each new region and leave Ash and Brock as the main cast. This is what he said:
..they like to switch up the girls because it gives the boys some new eye candy every once in a while. He also said girls are more customizable and you can change their outfits, like when they are in their bathing suits (yes, he specifically said that). Okay yeah that was just wrong. Eyecandy? And he enjoys drawing girls for reasons other than its fun to do? Is he getting off on it? That's disgusting... Maybe I'm being a little hard on him but he totally stated this the wrong way. They don't plan to make anymore male main characters just because they want to have a new piece of eyecandy to stare at. I knew creeps like this existed in the fan community but I NEVER expected it to come from an animator.
He also said that Misty is not going to return as a main cast member but will make more cameo apperances. I bet its because they're bored with her and they want to fantasize over a new girl. Pretty soon they'll scrap Dawn and stick Ash with a new girl so the fans can fight over another girl for Ash to be with.
Well that was the buzz kill of my week.
Oh and what do you think of this new dA? I'M CONFUSED!!!!