BAKUTARO:
I always wonder if the people who complain about Ash's age/maturity forget that he is the main protagonist in a series aimed for kids to watch. From what I understand, kids in Japan often find older characters boring. What do you think?
PKMNCOORDINATORS:
I fully understand why Ash doesn't age — because a 10-year-old protagonist is more relatable to children — and I think that aspect of it is fine. My problem with Ash remaining 10 is because of the way the series handles continuity. Yes, believe it or not, the Pokemon series has continuity.
People often cite Timmy Turner or Bart Simpson as animated characters who stay one age for a very long time. There's a difference, though. The Fairly Odd Parents and The Simpsons do not have an overarching plotline that suggests the passage of time. Pokemon does.
Pokemon is a travel narrative. It is journeying from one place to another, accomplishing tasks, working toward a final goal or destination within a set amount of time. You'll often hear characters say things such as, "It will take a few days to reach the Pokemon Center," "The next contest is in two weeks," or "The Kanto League begins in three months." Once we reach that destination or event—that Pokemon Center, that contest, that league—we know that the specified amount of time has passed.
The problem is, this time passage has amounted to years, but Ash is still 10. Ash himself has said a year has passed multiple times, but he is still 10.
It breaks down to this: Time is passing in Pokemon, but no one is getting older, and that's a flaw in the series' continuity. Relatively speaking, time is not passing in an animated series like FOP and The Simpsons, therefore there is no hard continuity, so it's OK if the characters remain one age.
For someone who has been watching the Pokemon anime since I was a child, the continuity error with age is jarring. Yet, I understand that the series is not directed to me or my age group and that most viewers stop watching Pokemon at some point — which is why I don't make a big fuss about it or let it hinder my enjoyment of the series.
I still don't think that you should place an age stagnant character in a moving story, but for the sake of the longevity of the Pokemon series and the maintenance of Ash as the main protagonist, I understand why it occurs. Pokemon was intended to be only one series — through the Kanto league, with the first movie being the finale. It was so wildly popular, though, that it kept going. Yet, the writers had built this moving world and there was no changing that. As a result, Ash has to stay 10 in a narrative where time passage occurs, because he still needs to remain relevant to his young audience.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the issue. While Ash's age is undoubtedly an irksome continuity error, as older viewers, we have to learn to suspend our disbelief if we want to enjoy the series — because I don't think Ash is aging anytime soon.
