Pikachu, Clefairy, Meowth, and Persian

[Missingno. Master]

OK, so as everyone knows, Pikachu's number (25) reversed is 52, Meowth's number. This may have been the reasoning behind Ash having Pikachu and Team Rocket having Meowth. Now, what some of you may know is that before Pikachu's immense popularity, Clefairy was Ash's intended starter. Now we take Clefairy's number, 35, and reverse it, and we get 53- Persian.

So! The question is... Was Ash's starter changed from Clefairy to Pikachu because of Pikachu's popularity.... or because the writers thought a Meowth on its hind legs would be less awkward than a Persian on its hind legs?

 

[coolcatkim22]

Meowth is a cat.
Pikachu is a mouse.
Cats eat mice.
I doubt they would have had Meowth for a villian if they didn't have Pikachu as his starter. They'd probably have Jigglypuff for the villian or something.
Also, the walking on hind leg things wasn't actually necessary at all but probably added because holding both paws up would mean double fortunate (japanese myth).

 

[Witchboi]

pikachu was picked so that it would have appeal for boys and girls

 

[Yash]

I thought Ash's original starter was going to be Jigglypuff.

Clefairy would make a bit more sense though, especially if it were to be a wise-cracking one like in that weird manga.

 

[Dogasu]

Where does this "Satoshi's starter was going to be a Pippi" come from, anyway? I've heard it several times before, but no one's ever provided a source for this information.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

I've heard that before too....

By the way, I don't have a source for this. But, I remember hearing that there was some kind of poll created in Japan, like before the anime came out. I think fans were given the choice of who they want the mascot of the Pokemon anime to be. So apparently, Clefairy and Pikachu both ranked pretty high on that poll, but Pikachu must've beaten Clefairy by a large margin or something.

With this information, I also heard that, the writers were actually considering making Clefairy be the talking Pokemon, and they also thought about it being Ash's starter (which is where the whole "Clefairy originally being Ash's starter" comes from). And because of this, Team Rocket's Meowth was originally not supposed to talk.

In addition, I remember hearing from this info, that the writers didn't want Ash's Pikachu (one of the main characters) to speak, because they simply felt the show would be a lot more interesting in general if Pikachu couldn't speak. Also, I believe they thought Ash and Pikachu's bond of friendship would be much more meaningful, if Pikachu were unable to speak. So, they decided to have Meowth speak, and that's how he became the show's talking Pokemon. And apparently, this is also how Pikachu became Ash's first Pokemon.


Anyway, that's everything I remember hearing about this story.