Darkest Pokemon Theory Possible Explains Perfectly Why Ash Never Aged

But while everyone understands it, there's still much fun in coming up with various theories for why certain characters don't age.

The Pokemon characters are not an exception: the series celebrated its 25th anniversary two years ago, but Ash and Pikachu haven't aged in the slightest!

And while some claim that the reasons are the Ho-Oh's gift of endless adventures or their coma, there's a much darker theory that makes perfect sense: it claims that Ash and Pikachu have been dead since early in the show.

How and when did they die, you may ask?

In episode 23, Ash and Pikachu visit the Pokemon Tower in their search for Ghost-type Pokemon.

There, a heavy chandelier falls on them and knocks them out, and a Haunter uses the opportunity to pull their souls from their bodies. Since then, they've been nothing but ghosts.

There are quite a few moments that speak in favor of this theory.

Ash is able to actually interact with Ghost-type Pokemon, unlike others. They treat the living differently than they treat him — ask Team Rocket. But Ash and Pikachu are also ghosts, so instead of getting spooked, they get an invitation to chill together.

Ash can clearly see other ghosts for the same reason.

He starts a new adventure in a new region from scratch every time as he can't move on from his dream of traveling and adventuring all over the world in life.

His friends and family members also don't age, but not because they're dead — he can only see them exactly as he remembers them from the time he was alive.

And the Pokemon battles work differently from how they do in the games because he creates them in his mind, and the eternally 10-year-old boy had a very limited understanding of them.

The list goes on, and you start to see everything in the anime in a different way once you learn that the main characters might have been dead this entire time. But worry not: this is just one of the theories.

Or is it?