First off, let's be thankful they don't look like RJ Palmer's art because that would have been horrific.
Now to the more important part. The Detective Pikachu trailer is not anthropomorphic! Pokemon are not (usually) anthropomorphic. Anthropomorphism means ascribing human traits on entities that do not have them.
Sure, pikachu normally don't speak human language but we know the pokemon have their own language. That is clear in the Mystery Dungeon games where a human transforms into a pokemon and can speak with them and in the anime where meowth learns the human language. There's also several other examples but the overall point is that pokemon speaking is not anthropomorphism. In fact, according to the trailer, Pikachu can't speak human, it's just that one particular human can understand for whatever reason. Other people still here "Pika pika!"
The body is also not altered in any way to make pikachu (or the other pokemon seen) appear anthropomorphic. It's certainly possible to draw pokemon in an anthroporphic style but that would look completely different to this trailer. Again, there is no anthropomorphism.
The key test is, what would it be like if it weren't anthropomorphic? Given what we know about the games and anime, it would be exactly the same. This trailer shows the default, non-anthropomorphic version of pokemon.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
First off, let's be thankful they don't look like RJ Palmer's art because that would have been horrific.
Now to the more important part. The Detective Pikachu trailer is not anthropomorphic! Pokemon are not (usually) anthropomorphic. Anthropomorphism means ascribing human traits on entities that do not have them.
Sure, pikachu normally don't speak human language but we know the pokemon have their own language. That is clear in the Mystery Dungeon games where a human transforms into a pokemon and can speak with them and in the anime where meowth learns the human language. There's also several other examples but the overall point is that pokemon speaking is not anthropomorphism. In fact, according to the trailer, Pikachu can't speak human, it's just that one particular human can understand for whatever reason. Other people still here "Pika pika!"
The body is also not altered in any way to make pikachu (or the other pokemon seen) appear anthropomorphic. It's certainly possible to draw pokemon in an anthroporphic style but that would look completely different to this trailer. Again, there is no anthropomorphism.
The key test is, what would it be like if it weren't anthropomorphic? Given what we know about the games and anime, it would be exactly the same. This trailer shows the default, non-anthropomorphic version of pokemon.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~