I noticed what you thought of Krabby and Sandshrew, finding them kind of boring, so I wanted to ask about this topic… Take Dewgong for example, its an incredibly simple design but I really love it because its sleek and beautiful. I find myself liking Pokemon like that (Vulpix, Rapidash, Venemoth, Gengar…). More recent Pokemon seem to have overly bright colors and contrasts and cluttered patterns that aren’t terrible, just not as appealing to me. What do you take from that in your opinion?

I have mixed feelings about this.  I actually prefer the more complex designs that tend to prevail in the later generations, but there’s definitely something to be said for simplicity.  It’s not just the art that bugs me about Krabby and Sandshrew, though – pretty much everything noteworthy about Krabby and Kingler’s abilities and behaviour is true of fiddler crabs as well.  Sandshrew and Sandslash are at least changed a little, because the animals they’re based on, pangolins, aren’t desert creatures, but they have a very generic set of “desert creature” traits.  Honestly I think that in some ways real pangolins are more interesting.  You can’t really make a complaint like that about Vulpix or Gengar.  Rapidash, Venomoth and Dewgong are sort of borderline cases (although, as a question of personal taste, I do have a soft spot for Venomoth and Dewgong).

Short answer: the art is only part of the question for me.