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I stopped following the Pokemon anime a while ago, but I know the series has
had Ash go through many regions, including retreading at least one of them.
When Ash was about to get his eight badge, Misty mentioned that they'd been on
the road for a year at that point.

I saw some recent episodes, and Ash looks nearly identical to when he first
started as a trainer. Normally I'd attribute that to cartoon sitcom logic,
where the characters never age; but in a series with continuity and references
to earlier seasons, this makes no sense.

**What's the official word on a timeline for the Pokemon anime?**


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2013-02-05T03:10:37.203
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2016-01-03T19:36:33.497
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pokemon
How is the passage of time handled in Pokemon?


Both of the comments by looper and Krazer are correct, and they tell pretty
much the whole story. As of [episode
658](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/BW001), Ash (Satoshi) is 10 years
old, the same age he was when he began his journey. However, based on
reasonable assumptions for how often the Pokemon leagues meet, he should have
aged at least 5 years.

The strongest indication that time has passed is probably the short from the
3rd movie, [Pikachu and Pichu](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/PK07).
What Ash says implies very strongly that they've been together for at least a
year:

> Don't you know what today is, Pikachu? This is the day we first met. The day
> we first became friends. I think that's pretty special, don't you?

There are a few other instances where the passage of time is referenced in the
anime. In [Episode 063](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EP063), Ash
says in the dub that it's been a year since they last visited Viridian City.
In the original, Satoshi just said that it's been a long time. Also, in
[Episode 469](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/DP003), Team Rocket says
they've been chasing Pikachu as long as Dawn's been alive, which would be 10
years. That's probably better interpreted as breaking the 4th wall, since the
anime had been running for 10 years at that point. There may be other
instances, but the fact that a lot of time has passed since the first episode
is indisputable.

This is one of the most glaring plot-holes in the anime, though it's
understandable why the writers don't want Ash to age. Presumably it could send
problematic messages if Ash were 20 years old when he first started travelling
with 10-year-old Dawn (or Iris, though I don't know her age), though it's
honestly still problematic if he's 10 years old. Of course, Pokemon is
marketed to children, so having a 10-year-old protagonist is also better than
having someone at least 15.

However, there isn't any official explanation for this. The writers have never
answered why Ash and the other characters aren't aging even as time passes. In
my opinion it's best just to regard this as a plot hole and ignore it as much
as possible. There are some [fan
theories](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Aging_in_the_anime) for why
Ash wouldn't age even as time passes, but honestly they're a little bit
Farfetch'd, if you know what I mean.


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2013-02-16T04:15:19.837
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There is also the coma theory, in which Ash doesn't age because after the
Spearow attack with him and Pikachu in the first episode, Ash falls into a
coma, and the rest of his adventures are just dreams. Although this is pretty
morbid, there is another theory attached to this one in which all of the
characters Ash meets (not including the pokemon) are interpretations of parts
of Ash's personality. Take this as you will, there is another, more reliable
theory for why Ash is still ten when he should be 16 (see MandJTVpokevids on
youtube.com). It's called: Target Audience. The target audience of pokemon is
10, so Ash remains 10 as long as Pokemon keeps running.


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