Pokemon Horizons is heading to its next phase, promising fans a new and exciting adventure featuring Liko, Roy, and Dot. The first promo for this next phase of Horizons, tantalizingly translated as Pokemon Mega Voltage, does something that the Pokemon anime has never done before – age up the characters. Liko, Roy, and Dot are given redesigns and it’s been cited that the new series will have a time skip. It is unknown how far forward the time skip will go, but it’s already more than the previous anime ever did. The classic Pokemon anime notoriously stuck with its floating timeline for over 20 years, keeping Ash as a perpetual 10-year-old.
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Restraining Ash to 10 has been one of the most frustrating aspects of the original anime, especially since the fanbase has grown since Ash’s debut. People have graduated from school, got jobs, and made families since Pokemon first aired. While it was reassuring to have this character stay the same after all these years, many fans felt Ash staying 10 limited the series. It prevented the show from covering darker and more mature themes, and it made the character feel stagnant. Pokemon Horizons is making it clear that it is a totally different anime by having the characters do what Ash could never do, grow up.
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Ash Did All That Before Turning 11 in Pokemon?
The floating timeline is a narrative device often used in long-running series to explain why characters never age even though their surroundings do. That’s how The Simpsons has functioned for decades; while the technology and social norms change around the cast, the Simpsons family never ages. Pokemon has also used the floating timeline to keep Ash forever 10, yet fans were more frustrated with Ash’s age given the story’s premise. Ash was always traveling and progressing through different regions. Whereas The Simpsons‘ status was always intentionally stagnant, Ash’s adventure was always moving forward; however, unlike Springfield’s First Family, there’s not quite the same nuance as to why they keep him the same age.
Ash caught new Pokemon, made new friends, and won many high-profile battles. It was hard for many fans to grasp that Ash accomplished all that before turning 11. Ash starred in the Pokemon anime for over 1200 episodes, meaning he couldn’t feasibly accomplish everything within a year, even if an episode took up a day. The justification for Ash’s eternal youth could be boiled down to cartoon logic, but it becomes harder to sell when the series has a tight continuity. Ash still has the same Pokemon as when he started, and the anime intentionally references events that happened years ago. The show may be light-hearted and aimed at kids, but it isn’t a sitcom in the same way as The Simpsons. The Pokemon anime had an ongoing storyline, making Ash’s stagnant age more apparent.
Why Pokemon Horizons Having the Characters Grow Older Is Exciting
Pokemon Horizons was already exciting by offering fans a new experience and characters. While Ash Ketchum will always be an icon remembered by generations of kids, the anime needed to move on from him. Horizons gave fans a new entry point to the series and had a more unique premise than the classic anime. Rather than be about Ash’s adventures to collect all the Gym Badges and become champion, Horizons is more focused on the mystery of Liko’s pendent and the mythology of the legendary hero Lucius. Horizons is more story-forward than the original anime, offering fans new lore and plot advancements.
The time skip in Horizons further differentiates the new series from the old, finally gifting fans the opportunity to grow with the characters. Promos and footage also tease that the Rising Volt Tacklers may be without their leader Friede, forcing the characters to be more independent. It’s a bold risk, something the Pokemon anime hasn’t done in years. Most importantly though, it is something different. Stagnation is the enemy of progress, and changing the status quo is always an exciting prospect, even if it doesn’t fully work. It’s vital for series to take chances, even something as all-powerful as Pokemon so fans can experience electrifying new adventures that move forward the franchise in non-derivative ways.
