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How believable would you consider the kids in Pokémon?

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
Hard to say about the player characters as they are voiceless but some of the others like Hau, Wally and Lillie sound about right for their ages.

I'd say it really depends on the character.
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
They can be hit or miss. Sometimes they are kind of inconsistent with Ash, sometimes they make you remember he's supposed to be a 10-years old after all.

With manga... Depends on the manga. I think Diamond and Pearl: Adventure and Horizon are on par with your average kids' manga so the characters reflect their ages somewhat well.

Special is... I dunno... Most of the time they feel it exagerates some traits with how much of a prodigy some characters feel but it's readable so there's that.
 

Ophie

Salingerian Phony
"Improbable Age" is pretty common in Japanese media, but there's a good reason for that: A lot of such works are aimed at children, or at least initially aimed at children, and it's pretty evident that young protagonists are much more relatable in such works than older ones. They tend to be prodigies or wind up in extraordinary situations. It's less believable if you think about it, but from a marketing standpoint, it works.

Bear in mind that video game player characters will do what you want them to do (cutscenes notwithstanding). How plausible young player characters behave will reflect how you MAKE them behave. The Persona games, for instance, are rated for adults only in every major video game rating system but have you playing as teenagers. They'll come across as wise beyond their years because most people controlling their movements will be adults.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Given how they can survive electrical shocks of several thousand voltages and getting burned with Flamethrowers and still come out with that cartoonish blackened look, and can take down entire criminal organizations all on their own, I'd probably say not very.
 

Rune Knight

Well-Known Member
They are fictional children created by adults. It is no wonder that they are somewhat un-relatable in my opinion. Their language and mannerism are simply too sophisticated for the young mind.

I've often wondered why high budget films often use child actors to voice children where as lower-budget media such as in the case of anime will often have females portray younger characters. It is because it naturally tends to feel more believable for the audience and it's something that they can afford, the sounds that they produce are authentic and unique to that age.

That is why to me a character like Ash Ketchum has never felt like a 10 year old. Especially when were talking about the other big name characters that are around the same age; but of course that is fine, it is just a show after all.
 

Ophie

Salingerian Phony
Given how they can survive electrical shocks of several thousand voltages and getting burned with Flamethrowers and still come out with that cartoonish blackened look, and can take down entire criminal organizations all on their own, I'd probably say not very.

There's also how Pikachu can sit on Ash's head without electrocuting him considering the amount of electrical energy Pikachu contains within his body. Humans are full of water with particles within that conduct electricity, and they make a better conduit to the ground than air.

I've often wondered why high budget films often use child actors to voice children where as lower-budget media such as in the case of anime will often have females portray younger characters. It is because it naturally tends to feel more believable for the audience and it's something that they can afford, the sounds that they produce are authentic and unique to that age.

It's not just budget, but laws, which in turn translates to time. Both in Japan and in North America (and in Europe), child actors are required to attend school as well. Due to voice acting schedules, big studios typically set up their own fully functioning schools for child actors, complete with certified teachers and a full education schedule as a regular school. After class ends, they act. Unsurprisingly, this is a colossal expense, one that only the big Hollywood studios can afford (as are a few really big non-Hollywood studios, like FUNimation and Aardman). It's also eats into production schedules in a colossal way, since the kids are spending the majority of their days in these classes, even within the studios, and only get a few hours to play their roles, whereas adults can have the whole day. The result is that it takes much longer for voice actors who are minor to complete their lines, while for live-action, scenes involving child characters have to be crammed tight into whatever time they have available. This is the real reason why young adults are typically cast to play high schoolers in live action and why soap operas have almost no children (except babies).

There's also the fact that child actors are, well, children. They don't have the many years of voice training adults have, and they don't have the sense of awareness or narrative tropes that adults have. They also might not understand stage direction quite as well. The result is that there are very few children who can act well enough to be used in a professional capacity. This was an issue Pixar ran into when casting for Finding Nemo: Nemo had to be voiced by a child, but they spent much longer auditioning for Nemo than any other character because they couldn't find a kid who would sound convincing and believable. Otherwise, you get the weird stilted voice acting like in the Peanuts specials (the pauses in their dialogue was because they were fed fragments of sentences to say, which was discovered to be faster than letting them read the script and rehearse), Tails in Sonic Heroes (voiced by Michael Corkery before he was old enough to know what he was doing), or the kindergerteners in South Park (who were intended to sound random and incomprehensible, particularly Ike).
 
Let's see...

Kalos Ash, Serena, Clemont, Miette, Sawyer, Alain, Korrina, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, and Nini all seemed to act more like teenagers than pre-teens imo
 

Rune Knight

Well-Known Member
There's also how Pikachu can sit on Ash's head without electrocuting him considering the amount of electrical energy Pikachu contains within his body. Humans are full of water with particles within that conduct electricity, and they make a better conduit to the ground than air.



It's not just budget, but laws, which in turn translates to time. Both in Japan and in North America (and in Europe), child actors are required to attend school as well. Due to voice acting schedules, big studios typically set up their own fully functioning schools for child actors, complete with certified teachers and a full education schedule as a regular school. After class ends, they act. Unsurprisingly, this is a colossal expense, one that only the big Hollywood studios can afford (as are a few really big non-Hollywood studios, like FUNimation and Aardman). It's also eats into production schedules in a colossal way, since the kids are spending the majority of their days in these classes, even within the studios, and only get a few hours to play their roles, whereas adults can have the whole day. The result is that it takes much longer for voice actors who are minor to complete their lines, while for live-action, scenes involving child characters have to be crammed tight into whatever time they have available. This is the real reason why young adults are typically cast to play high schoolers in live action and why soap operas have almost no children (except babies).

There's also the fact that child actors are, well, children. They don't have the many years of voice training adults have, and they don't have the sense of awareness or narrative tropes that adults have. They also might not understand stage direction quite as well. The result is that there are very few children who can act well enough to be used in a professional capacity. This was an issue Pixar ran into when casting for Finding Nemo: Nemo had to be voiced by a child, but they spent much longer auditioning for Nemo than any other character because they couldn't find a kid who would sound convincing and believable. Otherwise, you get the weird stilted voice acting like in the Peanuts specials (the pauses in their dialogue was because they were fed fragments of sentences to say, which was discovered to be faster than letting them read the script and rehearse), Tails in Sonic Heroes (voiced by Michael Corkery before he was old enough to know what he was doing), or the kindergerteners in South Park (who were intended to sound random and incomprehensible, particularly Ike).

It's why they often cast twins to the play the same character. A lot of them are trained under strict supervision for the purpose of auditioning for big roles. Unfortunately, just because of that the world of child acting can be a cruel place which often ends in tragedy.
 

Ultra Beast Lover

Well-Known Member
I think their behavior is decently believable in the games though sometimes they do act older than they should and the protagonists rarely seem to get scared of different threats. I might complain a little about kids taking on adult responsibilities but, realistically, this is the ultimate child's power fantasy. Working alone to save the world, being mature, and getting really popular by becoming the champion, what kid wouldn't love that? I'm an adult and I still love it and I mean, it's popular with kids for a reason.
 

Jesness

Togekiss Enthusiast
I can't really say that the kids in any of the games act like any kids I've ever known. The protagonists are usually somewhere around 10-11 and in my experience realistically kids that young are still pretty immature and unsophisticated, much more so than the protagonist characters in the games or Anime. How many 10-year-olds do you know that could travel hundreds of miles through wilderness either on foot or by bike catching dangerous wild creatures with no adult supervision or aid? I'm an adult and I couldn't do that now let alone when I was 10.
 

jaden767

Amphetamine
A lot of them have relatable personalities but one thing that I hate is shipping when it comes to really young characters being paired up with others. Like I know that kids in the Pokemon world are meant to be more mature than in real life but still the idea of 10 year olds having romantic feelings for each other bugs me. :(
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
Well, it's kind of possible but I agree that sometimes people wanting to force long-life commitments on such young kids is really annoying.
 
A lot of them have relatable personalities but one thing that I hate is shipping when it comes to really young characters being paired up with others. Like I know that kids in the Pokemon world are meant to be more mature than in real life but still the idea of 10 year olds having romantic feelings for each other bugs me. :(
Well, they aren't exactly 10 canonically. The only time where we know any character's age is at the very beginning of the Original Series (Ash is 10, Misty is 10, Brock is 15) and at the very beginning of BW (Ash is 10). Any other time, you may want to go by how they act. So it isn't exactly 10 year olds with romantic feelings unless you're talking about pokeshipping or even negaishipping.
 

Monox D. I-Fly

Well-Known Member
How many 10-year-olds do you know that could travel hundreds of miles through wilderness either on foot or by bike catching dangerous wild creatures with no adult supervision or aid? I'm an adult and I couldn't do that now let alone when I was 10.
To be fair, back when we were 10 year olds, didn't we think it was possible? That's why the games just try to fulfill their imaginations. Now we think it's impossible because as adults we can think logically and rationally.
 

Jesness

Togekiss Enthusiast
To be fair, back when we were 10 year olds, didn't we think it was possible? That's why the games just try to fulfill their imaginations. Now we think it's impossible because as adults we can think logically and rationally.

If it was only about what the kids imagined was possible, then I would agree with you, but in the games, anime, and manga they actually do that stuff. To me, it doesn't seem realistic.
 

pacman000

On a quest to be the best...
That's why they were given a Pokémon to begin with; it's supposed to help them on their journey.
 

Xaby

SW-3553-0104-8530
All I will say about kids in the Pokémon world is that professors must have really pulled their legs saying that you need to be a certain age to get your first Pokémon, and then a few miles later you're beating a brat half your size and age who have their very own Pokémon.

No, I don't care if your shorts are comfy and easy to wear. Give me all your money.
 

pacman000

On a quest to be the best...
Perhaps Youngsters & Jr. Trainers are runaways? Or special classes of trainers who can't go far from their homes.
 
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