How Old Are Ash & His Companions At the End of Their Pokémon Journey? (2024)

Ash Ketchum of the Pokémon anime is canonically 10 years old. That's as true back in the first episodes in Kanto as it is in Ash's final Aim to Be a Master miniseries episodes. But suppose time had been flowing for Ash all this while--how old would he be if that were the case?

There's no one right answer to that question, unfortunately, but there are several different ways one could estimate his age and some markers in the anime help establish some sort of timeline. Many fans believe that Ash is somehow being kept from aging in Pokémon, but if that were the case, other characters would surely have commented on it by now.

If anything, the passage of time in Pokémon is more akin to the passage of time in Western comics--just perpetually set in a "modern-day" when nothing happened too long ago, even if it was years ago in real life. Time may pass for characters off-screen, but anyone getting focus is stuck as they are. Still though, if that weren't the case, how old would Ash be?

Ash Would Be 36 Years Old If Pokémon Happened in Real Time

Ash would be 36 years old in Pokémon if he aged alongside the real world, but there's no reason to assume time is passing at the same rate as reality for Ash. The simplest way to estimate Ash's age would be to count up the number of episodes. Most episodes of Pokémon take place over a single day, so equating one episode to one day would mean 1,232 days have passed from the beginning of his journey to the end, or 3 years and 137 days, making Ash between 13 and 14 years old.

That seems like a pretty reasonable period of time, if a bit short. That's a very rough number, though, and doesn't account for episodes that take place over a longer period of time, or episodes from a story arc that all take place on the same day.

Ash Should Be 17 By the End of His Pokémon Journey

The anime does occasionally give markers of the passage of time, however. For example, around the time of the third movie, Entei and the Spell of the Unown, a short before the film established that it had been a year since Ash and Pikachu met in Pallet Town (it's stated elsewhere that Ash left on his 10th birthday). The movie was released between episodes 155 and 156 in Japan, suggesting that those 155 episodes unfolded over the course of a year, slower than the 1-day-per-episode pace.

Episode 158 reveals a magnet train is being built in Johto over a year, and that train is ridden in the final episodes of the Black and White era, meaning that at least one year has passed over 640 episodes, and other episodes in there suggest more than one.

Some series seem to take place over a fixed period, like Sun and Moon, which essentially lasted an entire school year. There are also incidents such as Professor Burnett having had a baby since Ash left Alola, suggesting that the first 36 episodes of Pokémon Journeys take place over at least 9 months of time. Certain other big events, like tournaments, are sometimes said to be coming up in a specific amount of time, providing a duration for the intervening episodes. Taking these specific measurements of time into account, Ash should be at least 17 years old, if not older.

Ash's Companions Would Be Even Older

The same logic can be applied to Brock and Misty as well. Misty's age is never stated in the dub of Pokémon, but in the Japanese version, she's also 10 years old, meaning she'd be roughly the same age as Ash, by any of these metrics.

Brock is a bit older when he's first introduced, at 15. That means that Brock would be in his 40s in reality, just over 18 using the 1-episode-per-day metric, and at least 22 using the increments of time given in the show. Incidentally, that aligns pretty well with what he has been up to towards the end of the series, as Brock is shown training to become a Pokémon doctor, odd for a 15-year-old but appropriate to a young man in his 20s.

Why Pokémon Refuses to Age Ash Up

Many fans wonder why it is that Ash hasn't aged in the series; after all, the show could've aged alongside its audience at least a little, like most other anime and manga do. However, the answer to that is very simple, and it's that Ash represents the show's target demographic. While the Pokémon anime has plenty of adult fans who've been watching since they were Ash's age, the show is ultimately aimed at young children (even younger than the "shonen" demographic, which aims at 12-18-year-olds).

It's common for a protagonist's age and position in life to reflect that of the work's intended audience, and Ash is no different in that regard. Had they committed to aging Ash up early on, that would've left them in a sticky situation as the years went on, with Ash outgrowing the young demographic and losing relevance to them. By refusing to address the issue of age at all, the creators of Pokémon ultimately saved themselves a lot of headaches later on, and that's what allowed Ash to star in the series for so long.

As surprising as it seems, Ash should almost be a full-fledged adult by the time of Aim to Be a Master. Still, these only offer an idea as to how old Ash might be had he aged properly over the course of the series. While Ash officially remains 10 years old, the Pokémon anime's 1,200+ episodes prove a lot of time has passed, and there have even been specific amounts of time mentioned at various points. Ash and the Pokémon anime's other heroes would've grown up alongside the viewers, and in some ways, it's a shame they never did.

Pokémon's anime is streaming on Netflix!

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