Pokémon seems to have fallen foul of this a lot, with Ash Ketchum of Pokémon: The Series being the poster child of the trope.
Pokémon: The Series
- Ash has been declared as still being 10 years old at the start of Best Wishes! (Black and White, Season 14 outside Japan). This was said in the original Japanese as well. Pokémon: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel also confirmed he's still 10.
- Contrary to popular belief, this is stated to be a Comic-Book Time scenario, with the anime world being locked in an eternal summer, which also means that every human character in the anime (with the exception of Burnet and Kukui's newborn son) hasn't aged a day since Ash started his Pokémon Journey.
- Former storyboard artist Masamitsu Hidaka explicitly said in this interview
that Ash and his friends remain their respective ages for as long as the show is on, however many years that may be! - To make things more confusing, Ash (in the dub only) noted the one-year anniversary of him and Pikachu meeting. And even more confusing in both the English and Japanese versions, where Ash's voice has deepened a lot in later seasons. It has happened in many other versions as well, which cast kids to play Ash's role back in 1998/99, but said kids have since aged and remained doing his voice.
- The dub also makes direct reference to a year's time passing between Ash's first two visits to Viridian City. However, anything added in the dub that is not mentioned in the Japanese version is not considered canon.
- In Ash's talk with Drew (in the dub at least), one of his lines was something like "- all the friends I met throughout the years".
- Meowth pointed this out in one episode, telling Dawn that Team Rocket had been chasing after Pikachu since Dawn has been alive, which puts that at over 10 years (how long the show had been running at that point). This could be viewed however as Breaking the Fourth Wall (something the Team Rocket trio and Meowth in particular are famous for) and not indicate the age of any characters.
- Apparently, time passes in the Japanese version too, as in the Kalos saga Jessie mentions she recently had a birthday (however her Gourgeist was the only one who remembered).
- This trope applies to many Pokémon and their evolution. Certain Pokémon simply don't evolve, some for specific reasons, like Pikachu doesn't want to become different or Meowth, who is clearly either in adolescence or adulthood, hates his evolved form. Other Pokémon who fulfill mascot roles like Dawn's Piplup, Iris's Axew, and Ash's Rowlet don't evolve to keep them cute forever — Piplup even holds an Everstone for that purpose, Axew simply shows no sign of evolving despite wishing to reach his final stage until Pokémon Journeys: The Series that is, and Ash's Rowlet casually ate an Everstone whilst looking for pebbles to practice Bullet Seed. Surprisingly, Misty's Togepi does evolve...and leaves her.
- It was basically tradition that none of Ash's Water-type Pokémon he has caught since Totodile would ever evolve, and even before that, his Squirtle might have even started this trend before Totodile. Unlike Pikachu and Bulbasaur, none of his Water-types are shown to refuse to evolve; they simply don't. Until Froakie, only Krabby has evolved, and Froakie is the first to finally break the curse. Not only that, Froakie even evolves twice and gets an exclusive Super Mode on top of that. And then he was released following the ill-fated Kalos League.
- The fact characters have not been allowed to grow up actually has caused trouble with adapting games as time goes on. Several games either make it clear that timeskips are going on or they outright feature cameos from previous games that depict the characters as noticeably older than they were before (Sun and Moon even features the original protagonist, Red, as an adult). The anime usually ignores the references and glosses over characters aging. This, however, has caused inconsistencies. For example, Bianca is shown to have her original Pokémon Black and White design however her childhood friend Cheren uses his Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 design that is two years older (the anime doesn't reference them knowing each other either).
- In Pokémon Sun and Moon, the game says Island Challenges can only be taken when a child reaches age 11. Yet Ash is still confirmed as 10 in that series, along with showing his classmates as pre-teens in spite of them being teenagers in the games.
- A Hoenn interview confirmed that Ash was always ten. Later, an interview for Pokémon: I Choose You! stated that Ash is eternally 10 years old as time does not flow since his journey started, making the world another trope.
- When Ash returns to Alola in Pokémon Journeys, we learn that Professor Burnet has already given birth to Professor Kukui's child. And Ash is still 10 years old.
Pokémon Manga
- Red from Pocket Monsters hasn't aged much in twenty years. The manga is even older than the anime, but he still looks and acts like a kid.
- Averted in Pokémon Adventures, in which each new game adaptation adds a few years to the length of the story. Older characters, like Red and Green, return in later arcs as people in their early to late teens, with new designs each time.
Pokémon Games
- The games usually averts this trope (featuring sequels that have timeskips and cameos from characters that present them as older than before), however Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 doesn't. In the World Tournament, all the characters were given new sprites however not new designs, despite the games taking place at least a decade after some of them. So we have gym leaders like Misty or Whitney who glaringly haven't aged a day. Subverted with the Unova characters themselves. All the characters aged during the two-year timeskip between the sequels and Pokémon Black and White, though it's mainly noticeable with the child characters like Iris and Bianca.
- Thoroughly averted in Pokémon Sun and Moon, where Red and Blue actually look like they are in their late teens if not early twenties as at least a decade has passed since FireRed and LeafGreen, where they were eleven. It also features cameos from other characters such as Grimsley, who also look noticeably older and is greying. Wally, on the other hand, plays this straight: he looks almost exactly the same as he did in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, despite that game taking place at the same time as FireRed and LeafGreen. This is unusual because Anabel, who was roughly the same age as Wally and debuted in the same game as him (albeit she didn't appear in the remakes) is an adult and it's noted that at least ten years have passed since then.
