Doing some quick math, if Professor Oak is only 47 at the start of the Kanto games, that means he was 37 when Blue/Gary was born. And while we don't know how old Daisy is, even if she were only a couple years older than Blue/Gary, that still would've made him a grandfather in his early to mid 30's.
And on a related note, I guess that makes Agatha somewhere in her late 40's-early 50's during the Kanto games, too? I guess this whole Pokemon thing ages people quite a bit faster than most...
Yes, Pokemon characters age much faster, they both mature younger due to the practice of setting out on a journey at ten and having to be responsible, not just for themselves, but many varied creatures' needs, and they either physically age faster too or the art style just makes almost everyone look way older (showing a ten year old from later seasons of the anime often nets reactions that assume they're in their mid-teens ^^;;;; People have trouble believing Takeshi/Brock is honestly only fifteen... but a fifteen year old who was stuck taking care of nine siblings because of two deadbeat parents
and running a Pokemon Gym!
I feel like this is why so many people failed to have sympathy for Alan/Alain too... he was probably around Takeshi's age, just 15 or so, when he was isolated from everyone [including the closest thing he seemed to have to a father figure, Professor Platane/Sycamore] and unknowingly serving a monster, but XY's style is
even more mature than the usual anime's style, so he looked far older than his naivete and how the people around him treated him suggested [when Pachira/Malva calls Lys a "bad man" for using such a "pure boy"].
Doing some quick math, if Professor Oak is only 47 at the start of the Kanto games, that means he was 37 when Blue/Gary was born. And while we don't know how old Daisy is, even if she were only a couple years older than Blue/Gary, that still would've made him a grandfather in his early to mid 30's.
And on a related note, I guess that makes Agatha somewhere in her late 40's-early 50's during the Kanto games, too? I guess this whole Pokemon thing ages people quite a bit faster than most...
According to Takeshi Shudo's novelization, Hanako/Delia never got to go on her own journey... she got married at 18 and Ash's dad just. Abandoned her and his unborn child to go on his own journey and never really made it anywhere [this may have been retconned to being a successful trainer, but still not a decent father]...).
Professor Oak could also have gotten married in his late teens.
The Zensho manga had Gary and Daisy [Gary's sister from the games and in Toshihiro Ono's manga despite not being in the anime Ono's manga is based on!] be orphans...
If all of that can be assumed true, Oak also had a difficult life! Between having kids as a teenager and in Zensho, at least, having to be the one to bury one of his own children and then raise his grandchild/grandchildren... that will make anyone feel old!
It's part child fantasy fulfillment of being independent and going on a journey and saving the world, part sad (by our world's eyes) that they're often expected to take on so many responsibilities really, really young, but at least their society prepares them for it, since it is their norm!
It's also one-part taking a common Japanese "
Send the beloved child on a journey" adage very, very literally (it's to teach them independence, hence why Japanese kids commute to school and go lots of places by themselves, which works because Japan is overall very safe).
