Say the Characters DID Age...

[Palamon]

So, say the characters in the Pokemon anime did age. How old do you think Ash and Co. would be, if they did actually grow older? And please don't be ridiculous about it... okay, I'll give this a go.

I'm assuming a year passes whenever Ash finished a region, with the exception of Battle Frontier and the Orange Islands, which might have taken a a few months. Okay. We know Ash and Misty were ten in the original series, while Brock was fifteen... so, in Kalos time, Ash would be...

Ash - 15.
Misty - 15.
Brock - 20.

Maybe I'm botching this? But Ash should be fifteen by now, this were the truth.

May, as we know would also be ten when her story started. Max was ten. If going by the above is anything to go by I'd say, that since Hoenn was three regions ago, that three years supposedly passed between them, so that'd make May... thirteen?

May - 13.
Max - 10.

In this case, I suppose Max would have been able to start his journey now, if time passed in the anime, and characters aged properly.

Dawn, in a similar fashion to May, was also ten. Not much to say here, since I'm still going by my "a year per new region" rule here. So, I'd say, two years after Sinnoh now.

Dawn - twelve.

Honestly, I'm under the assumption Iris is a little older than Ash. My estimate is about thirteen, Cilan might be fifteen or so, or perhaps older, but I doubt that. ...If he's old enough to work in his restaurant, then no younger than fifteen, perhaps. I guess I'm making this one up as I go along, but?

Iris - 14 right now?
Cilan - 16? Probably. Calling it.

Not gonna bother going too into detail about the ages of the Kalos characters, but I'd say Clemont is maybe 13 or 14, Bonnie is anywhere between 5 to 7. Anime Serena... probably ten. Reason I'm not doing Team Rocket is because I don't know whether they're teenagers of kids in their first appearance. As for Tracey, I don't care.

You can do this however you want, just don't be ridiculous about it, like saying Ash should be 30 by now.

 

[AliceBlaze]

Before the first episode of Best Wishes confirmed that Ash was still 10, I thought that he aged a year in each region like you said. Especially because in the Pikachu and Pichu short, they celebrate the day Ash met Pikachu which I assumed was shortly after Ash's 11th birthday.

 

[Guest123_x1]

This is kind of a murky subject to respond to, as Ash's skills tend to get 'reset' with each new 'series', along with him leaving all of his Pokémon behind, save for Pikachu.

In lots of animated shows, the featured characters generally don't age as the series runs through, even though the features of the show's "universe" do evolve and keep up with the times. This is why Arthur Read was in Mr. Ratburn's 3rd Grade class at Elwood Elementary School for well over a decade.

Anyway, on to Ash's aging: If it weren't for him being 10 years old at Unova (as part of that arc being considered a 'reboot' for the anime), he'd probably be at least 16 going into Kalos.
I have, however, always seen him as being stuck at 10 years old throughout the show's long run in general. I seem to remember reading promotional material online (press releases and the like) from long before Best Wishes that claimed Ash was 10 years old going into the next region.

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

If Ash did age, he'd get a harem.

It's because Pokemon is a show for kids, like Yu-Gi-Oh.

 

[boxingboy]

Okay say Jessie and James were in their thirtys, and Jessylina thought well screw this I'm going to enter pokemon contests, and entered meowth because he can talk. Shed get the cup that year !

 

[Iceshadow3317]

A lot of this may sound very confusing. If you are confused, just look at the ages below and not my explanation, as it is not organized at all.

Ash and Serena are the same age. They were the same age at the camp. I think Clemont is the same as well. Ash seems the oldest in that group. Bonnie is 7. I think that was confirmed in the anime.

Misty I think is 2 years older than Ash and Brock was 4 years older. May was a year or so younger than Ash and Max was 8.

Iris I think was probably a year older than Ash and Cilan was 2 or 3 years older. Now going off what we know. First though, Ash did age between Kanto and Sinnoh, however, that age was reset in Unova thanks to them wanting to refresh the series. He is most definitely older in Kalos. There is no way he can still be 10, even though it isn't confirmed. So this is what I am going to say this, skipping the fact that they reset ages in Unova and Ash was just taken by surprise because all of the pokemon were new and he was overwhelmed.

Ash - 16
Serena - 16
Clemont - 16
Brock - 20
Misty - 18
May - 15
Dawn - 15
Iris - 17
Cilan - 18
Tracey - 19
Max and Bonnie seem to be the same age, Max being a little older. They are close enough in age for me to see them in a series, traveling together.

If i was writing and I ignored some facts of resetting age and the time it took. Those are the ages I would use.

If Ash had aged, he would have been in Kanto for about 3 years. It took him 2 weeks to get from Pallot to Pewter. And he has had a large amount of breaks in time in Kanto and Johto. And according to the manga, it takes 80 or so days to get all badges in Hoenn.