Ash’s Age in each series
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Pokémon is different than Sazae-san or Doraemon. Everyday life that goes on endlessly in Sazae-san or Doraemon are precious, too. But personally, I want Ash to show some development as a character. I want him to one day look back on these past “days of Pokémon” with nostalgia.
Takeshi Shudo (creator of Pokémon anime)
Ash's Age in each series
We can't start talking about Ash without having clarified first the question about his age.
As mentioned in several previously published articles, the urban legend that Ash NEVER grew up, has been largely disproved by several factors, like canonical sources from the creator of the animated series and many informations given in the anime episodes themself:
What you're going to read is candidly observable in the animated series. So I have written NOTHING that you cannot check for yourself :)
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- The first animated series, in which CANONICALLY has passed more than a year: in the various episodes were regularly inserted tips about the passage of months. Therefore, you can know with absolute certainty the period of time of each episode.
- The episode in the Rival Destinies series "Goodbye, Junior Cup – Hello Adventure!", where Dawn clearly says that a year has passed since her participation to the previous Wallace Cup, so it's impossible that Ash was nine in that series.
- If we take into account the months elapsed that were mentioned in the episodes, together make more than ONE YEAR in the timeline of Pokémon anime (two monts after Ash's departure in the episode "The School of Hard Knocks", two months before the Indigo League in the episode "Showdown at the Po-ké Corral", one month before the Wirl Cup in the episode "Around the Whirlpool", three months before the Silver Conference in the episode "Why? Wynaut!", three months before the Hoenn League in the episode "Eight Ain't Enough", one month before the Kanto Grand Festival in the episode "New Plot, Odd Lot!", one month before the Sinnoh League in the episode "The Eighth Wonder of the Sinnoh World!" and two months before the Unova League).
- The third short-movie (Pikachu and Pichu Brothers), where Ash celebrated the anniversary of his meeting with Pikachu. It was not the first anniversary and moreover, it has been placed in the wrong place on the timeline (for reasons you will soon read) but anyway there is NO DOUBT ABOUT IT: since Ash's departure, more than a year has passed.
- The growth of Ash's Lapras, who changed in appearance in one of the last episodes of "Master Quest".
- In the book This is Animation Pocket Monsters The Movie "Mewtwo Strikes Back" "Pikachu's vacation" Takeshi Shudo explains that between Mewtwo'escape from the Team Rocket's base and the moment in which Ash received the invitation for New Islan, a year passes. Anime writers have decided to make pass only a couple of months (since Mewtwo's escape is present in the episode titled "Showdown at the Poké-Corral"), thus proving yet another mistake concerning the timeline in the anime. The film "Mewtwo Strikes Back", indeed, has a precise collocation in the anime: the events took place between the episodes "The Pi-Kahuna" and "Make Room for Gloom".
- Several trainers visibly younger than Ash, have already obtained their first Pokémon (Including Trevor and Scottie, in recent episodes of XY), but, as you know, it is NOT possible to receive the first Pokémon from a Professor or affiliates BEFORE having turned 10 years old.
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- In the episode "A Goldenrod Opportunity" (Pokémon Johto League Champions), the Magnet Train was not built and it needed a year to be completed. In the Best Whishes episoded where Iris and Cilan decide to travel from Kanto to Johto, they decide to use that same train, showing even in this case the passage of years in the series.
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| info also reported on Bulbapedia (click to enlarge) |
- In episode "Pokemon Emergency!" we literally see Viridian City's Pokemon Center getting destroyed. In episode ""Gotta catch ya later!" of The Master quest series it is not only rebuilt but even Nurse Joy has changed. We also get to known that the earlier Nurse Joy who ran the Pokemon Center, repaired Misty's Bike (Completely destroyed by Ash and Pikachu in the first episode).
- The same can be applied to Viridian City's Gym. It got destroyed during the episode "The battle of the badge". At the end of Advanced Battle series, Ash stops to see the gym completely rebuilt.
Ash's Birthday date
Takeshi Shudo, creator of Pokémon Anime, published two books in 1997 and in 1999 that unveiled some of the secrets of the animated series (if you are curious about it you may check THIS LINK for a detailed summary of the books).
In the first line of page 37(volume 1), Delia says "I remember all of last ten year,ten months and ten days spent with Ash".
This phrase fooled even the most well-known sites that are correlated to pokemon anime,from which even ourselves learnt that ash's birthday was on the 22th of may.
In reality, it seems that the 10 months and 10 days that are written in the text must be subtracted from Ash's age count, because they may be refered to Delia's pregnancy.
In japanese culture,the time of pregnancy is calculated in 10 months and 10 days. Nonetheless,The same time period that Delia spoke at Ash's departure day.
Now it is obvious that during the first episode there was no error: the start of the first episode was really collocated during the evening of Ash's tenth birthday.
Presuming that the day when the trainers of pallet town started their journeys was the 1st of april,now Ash's birthday would be on the 31st of March.
But,in his books Takeshi Shudo doesn't seem to define the nature of those ten months and ten days. So this leads us to structure our topic on a event timeline.
Ash's Timeline by Year
Year 0
The first episode of the pokemon anime was aired in Japan on the 1st of April 1997.
In japanese culture, the school year starts in the same day, so it seems logic that Shudo collocated the departure of pallet town's trainers during the 1st of April.
Professor Oak may have reasonably limited Pokemon assignation, because (just like how Shudo's books tell us) there's an high percentage of school dropout, especially in younger males. This because work opportunities are scarce and this leads to an High percentage of Failed trainers.
So it isn't strange that, some episodes are collocated in the same period of when they are aired on.
Another fact that confirms that the start of the anime was collocated during spring time was when summer kicked in future episodes.
The summer period is confirmed during the banned episode "Beauty and the beach" and "Ghost of Maiden Peak". In this episode we can also assist to the traditonal festival that celebrates the end of summer and the start of autumn.
After several episodes (enough time to make 6 months pass) the events of "Holiday Hi-Jynx" took place (which, according to the original numeration, it's the episode 39) and an episode of the New Year's Eve titled: "It's New Year's Eve! Pocket Monsters Encore" but which has never been broadcasted because of the scandal of the episode titled "Electric Soldier Porygon".
Another handful of episodes later we have "Princess vs. Princess" (which was postponed due to "Electric Soldier Porygon", but remains the fact that according to the original numeration it's the episode 50) set on March 3rd because it refers to the celebration of Hinamatsuri.
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Year 1
Five episodes later the events of "The purr-fect hero" (this episode was also postponed) were set on May 5th because it refers to the Children's Day in Japan.
In the following episodes, it's further confirmed that it was Summer (the episode "Riddle Me This", "The Breeding Center Secret", etc.). From there to the Indigo League another two months has passed.
During the trip between the Orange islands, it is still summer, as it was confirmed from the second movie (events of the movie are Canon because they are quoted during the anime itself. Such as Ash mentioning he met Lugia in the Orange Archipelago).
We can collocate The final tournament of the Orange islands during august/september.
In the Johto League Champions, it is winter in th episode "Moving pictures". In this period also two of the winter specials of Pokemon chronicles are collocated.
Year 2
We are now in The Master quest Series. In the first five episodes between "Around the whirlpool" and the start of the Whirlpool cup passes a month. While between the episode "Better eight then never" and the start of the Silver Cup another three months passes. The Silver Cup, was held during the spring/summer of that year.
The first episodes of the Advanced series are collocated during summer time.
When Ash wins the last medal of Hoenn in the episode "Eight ain'tenough" He's told that the Hoenn league would be helded three months later. These episodes are collocated during winter time, because the sun drops out at 16:55.
References: these two pictures as a confirmation:
In addition, during this generation Ash has also reached Misty in height.
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Year 3
Ash returns to travel in the Kanto region, where his previous travel lasted just over one year.
Later, in the episode "Spontaneous Combusken" it's shown that it was again Summer, as was in the movie "Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea".
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The last episode of the Battle Frontier series is clearly set on February, because in the Kanto region during this month the sun sets at around 5 PM, just as shown in the episode (further confirmation comes from the Diamond&Pearl series which takes place in Spring).
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Since almost an year is needed to cross the Kanto region, this is the reason why the same amount of time has passed in this case too.
Year 4
As for the journey in the Sinnoh region, in the first Diamond and Pearl series it was Spring and in Battle Dimension and Galactic Battles it was Summer (the episodes of the Pokémon Summer Academy and the 12th movie were clearly set in the Summer).
The league was held in Autumn (the tournament has started one month after Ash won the last badge, and here there are also confirmations related to the time the sun was setting).
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At the end of the Sinnoh League, Ash stayed at home for some months, then he went for a new journey.
Be careful: The events of Unova region are NOT mentioned nor in the Diamond&Pearl Series, nor the XY One. Our enciclopedia takes in consideration only what was shown during the series that are part of the original timeline. So the lenght of the Black&White series constitues a Hole in the timeline.
The time hole starts from Ash's return at home in the last episode of Diamond&Pearl (autumn) to Ash's arrival in Kalos (summer-end of the following year). So, we continue counting the timeline by adding an year.
Year 5
XY is initially set in late spring. Later, the episodes of the Summer Camp demonstrated the summer season.
Autumn is coming towards the end of Kalos Quest, indeed there are lots of autumn landscapes and falling leaves like in episode "A Fashionable Battle".
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The start of the XY&Z series is set in November because in the episode “Dream a little dream from me!” the protagonists are watching the Litleonids. Litleonids are a meteor shower mentioned in the Delta Episode of the OR AS games. It takes the name from the Leonids shower, which always falls in November (intentionally coinciding with the Ruby and Sapphire games release, reference also mentioned in OR AS). The same “Dream a little dream from me!” aired in Japan during November.
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The end of the series seems to be set in early spring, shortly before year 6.
So, How old is Ash?
As we told at the beginning, Shudo hasn't defined, how to intepretate the famous 10 months and 10 days quoted by Delia. So this lead us to two possible outcomes on Ash's age:
● If the 10 months and 10 days refer to Delia's pregnancy, the anime begins when Ash is on his 10 year lifespawn, and so at the end of XYZ he's 15 years old and a half (almost 16).
● If instead the 10 months and 10 days must be added After Ash's birth, anime begins in his eleventh year lifespawn. So at the end of XYZ Ash is 16 years old and a half.
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