@Sharksonaplane that's true. I think the reason I never considered Pokemon a JRPG was that it wasn't as story heavy as other JRPGs.

Though you could argue that Pokemon could be considered "baby's first JRPG". It's not as complex or story heavy as other JRPGs, and it feels a lot more intuitive than anything else. Though that could be just me talking as someone analyzing what makes Pokemon Pokemon.