Ash Ketchum began his journey when he was 10 years old, and up to this point, he has remained that age in every version of the franchise. He has been around for more than 20 years, but he hasn’t changed; from what we can tell, he will always be 10 years old because that is how the anime’s creators chose to depict him.
We will explain why Ash is still 10 years old despite being on the radio for more than 20 years in the remaining sections of this essay. In this post, we’ll show and discuss some of the hypotheses and explanations that account for this fact as well as give you some background on Ash and his travels.
How Come Ash Ketchum Doesn’t Age?
The age of Ash Ketchum is ten. He started his adventure when he was 10 years old, and he is still that age today, more than 20 years later. Years have passed, both in the real world and in the Pokémon universe, yet Ash’s age has not changed, which makes sense. Because that is how anime works, none of the characters have aged.
Although you may not agree with it, it is what it is. In every Pokémon series, Ash Ketchum is 10 years old, and he will stay that age for the duration of the anime. We will attempt to explain why in the section after this.
As we’ve already established, no matter how many seasons the anime gets in the future, Ash Ketchum won’t age. Sure, there are some unofficial estimations that put his age at around 17, but this is just a supposition as Ash’s age has been officially determined to be 10.
We will provide you with some potential reasons for this phenomenon in the paragraphs that follow.
Theory of Eternal Youth
According to the eternal youth theory, in many animated shows the characters never mature and are frozen at the age of their debut, in Ash’s instance, being 10 years old. A floating chronology, a plot element employed to “explain or explain away contradictions in the way that events and characters occur within a reality,” is another suggestion made by the theory.
Time Slowing Theory
The so-called slowed time theory contends that because anime only airs one episode per week, time moves much more slowly than it does in reality. This view is reinforced by the character’s obvious, albeit slight, development and by the recognizable signs of time. The issues with this hypothesis are similar to those with the theory of eternal youth, though.
In many other anime series, such as Detective Conan, One Piece, or Bleach, where a lot of time passes but characters don’t seem to age at all or, if they do, mature only slightly, this idea might explain why characters age more slowly.