Character's ages.

[pyronical]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but the ages of the characters in the anime are surely much older than they're supposed to be.

- Ash travels for several years - if he did actually start at age 10, he'd now be around 15... for instance when he runs into his Lapras in season 5, it has aged dramatically. How does Ash remain forever young?
- Take May for example, supposedly age 10 when she begins her journey and meets Ash etc, yet she is a little erm... developed for age 10 - puberty came early for her?
- If May is 10, does that make Max 5 or 6? On what planet is a 6 year old, even a brilliant genius, that well spoken?

It would seem the ages are all out by about 5 years.

ie Ash/Misty/May ~15-16
Tracey/Brock ~18-19
Max ~10

I will say that Dawn does come across a bit younger tho. ~13.

If they really are considering making a true-to-life movie of Pokemon (like Dragonball Evolution), it will be interesting to see what ages the characters are cast as.

 

[ash k.]

ash when starting off was ten
misty was twelve
brock, i think was 17
may was ten i think when ash met her
dawn, maybe same age ten.

over time ash misty would be somewhere in late teens early twentys
i wouldnt want them to make a movie though. because what they did to dragonball was unbareable.

 

[Kirbychu]

Ash travels for several years - if he did actually start at age 10, he'd now be around 15... for instance when he runs into his Lapras in season 5, it has aged dramatically. How does Ash remain forever young?

Besides the fact that animals age quicker than humans, I think that Lapras was fairly young to begin with.

If May is 10, does that make Max 5 or 6? On what planet is a 6 year old, even a brilliant genius, that well spoken?

Max was actually seven upon debut. Like it makes a difference.

I'll just be discussing Ash in this post. First of all, I do not exactly think he is 14-16. Second, I do not think he is still ten either, which many people also seem to think.

I don't feel Ash really has an age, especially because the writers haven't even acknowledged it. If they thought it was important, and wanted us to know, I think they'd drop at least a few hints. I feel that Ash is just older in each series, and only that. I don't think he even has a real age, and the one that people come up with by counting each random episode that states "A year has passed!" (Which usually comes up as 14-16) is probably wrong. Ash is simply ageless, unless the writers decide to change that. Maybe that's just how things should be, considering it would be hard for the target audience to relate with a 20 year-old.

 

[pyronical]

ash when starting off was ten
misty was twelve
brock, i think was 17
may was ten i think when ash met her
dawn, maybe same age ten.

I realise this. I'm saying it doesn't make a lot of sense... even just the girls being so developed at that age - especially May.

And Max does not act like any 7 year old I've ever met.

i wouldnt want them to make a movie though. because what they did to dragonball was unbareable.

Haha, the DBZ movie will be better... I hope. Pokemon will be interesting, you have to wonder if they'd make Pikachu into a giant mouse or just some random creature all together. Either way, I guarentee Ash would be at least 14 years old if they go ahead and make it.

 

[Pokémon Ranger ✩ Moriarty]

Physically speaking, the characters of the anime don't age. I guess the reason for this is so that the writers a) don't have to deal with the consequences of physical ageing and b) don't have to worry about losing fans, somehow. Making Ash eternally physically 10-12 years old means that the show will always appeal to younger children, who apparently can only relate to other young children (personally I think this is bollocks; a lot of children can relate to adult characters just as well, but any television produced for kids after around 1995 seems to follow the bizarre logic that if there isn't a young kid in a show or movie, children will be utterly lost).

Their mental/personality age is a lot different, however. To take Paul/Shinji as an example, according to PokéAni and just the way he looks he's maximum of between 12-13 years old, maybe 14 at a pinch. But he's far more intelligent than most 13/14 year olds, speaks with a far older voice, and considering how long he has been travelling it would have meant he must have started his journey at around age 8, which is incorrect given that trainers are given their first Pokémon at age 10 (as stated in the first episode). Max is another good example; whilst physically looking (and sounding) around 8 or 9, his intelligence is way off the charts and he acts with a far greater maturity. sometimes.

So tl;dr I think the age that the characters look and the age that they act are two totally separate things. They are kept physically eternally young, whilst their personas seem to bely that they're actually far older than we suspect. (Ash, on the other hand, seems to have become a little younger and/or stupider since arriving at Sinnoh, but that's an argument for another thread.)

 

[Kirbychu]

I'd like to point out Brock's siblings.

Here they are in Episode 5 (Very early into the series)

Episode 1 of Chronicals (After Johto)

Episode 451 (Battle Frontier)

This might disprove the theory of humans aging in the anime all together, although it seems like Forrest (green shirt) aged a little, but that's just me. .

 

[Trap-Eds]

Shoot. I was gonna say that I think all the characters aged by at least 2 years, but then I saw that last post with Brock's siblings. o.O Animation quality aside, they all look exactly the same!! Talk about redundant.

 

[Shedinjareese]

Wow good topic, I wonder about this all the time! For example (and I brought this up in a shipping thread too), the Barry/Dawn/Kenny ages confuse me. I watched a recent episode whith all 3 in them, which threw me for a loop because this is how it seemed age-wise.

Dawn = Kenny
Dawn = Barry
Barry > Kenny

But this obviously cannot be so. Soooo, whose age is Dawn closer to? Or ARE Barry and Kenny the same age, just Barry's a lot taller with a deeper voice?