Talk:Reiko Mikami/@comment-397235-20140726064134/@comment-397235-20140727011211

See, a friend of mine determined Ash is a Time Lord, which works much the same way.

Think about it: he never really seems to age, his comapnions constantly rotate in and out (and once they're gone, are rarely ever seen again; cough Tracy Skechit cough); Pikachu could even be his TARDIS.

I think I prefer the boring but practical explanation, which is Nintendo refuses to believe there are actually people still watching Pokemon who've been doing so since 1998 and would like to see the characters age at least a little...Thus Ash manages to forget how to catch Pokemon when he goes to Unnova.

Nintendo understands their target demographic doesn't really want to watch the adventures of a 25-year-old vagrant who forces adorable animals to battle each other. Personally this is why I prefer Pokemon Adventures to the anime (it's...far more adult than the TV show; Gary's Scyther blatantly kills one of Koga's Pokemon during their battle in Lavender Town, for instance): the characters age, but it's handled in an interesting way because each series focuses more or less on the games and therefore the main characters in each arc are the same age as the target demographic (to a point: Red, Blue, and Green are eleven in the first series; Yellow is eleven in her arc two years later and everyone else is older; Gold, Silver, and Chrys are also about thirteen in the Johto arc, etc.).

If I were writing Pokemon, I would (after getting down on my knees and thanking God because I'm pretty sure I'd forever after be set for life) start over, have each arc take roughly a year in universe, and have more callbacks to the previous seasons, but not in such a way to make the series unapproachable to new viewers. Doctor Who manages to pull this off, and it's older than the vast majority of its audience and its crew, for crying out loud!