memes

Y'know.

The people doing the Ash Coma theory for Pokeymen are really sleeping on a much cooler and equally dark theory.

Ash did die in the first episode. Not a coma, but a straight up death.

... And then he was brought back to life. As he wakes up from Pikachu's sacrifice, he sees Ho-Oh. A lot of ado is made in the first few serieses of the Anime about how Ho-Oh appears before trainers that are earmarked for greatness.

Ho-Oh brought Ash and Pikachu back to life after both of them showed they were willing to give their lives for their newly met friend -- It IS a literal Phoenix. It presumably liked what these two idiots were going for, and decided to give them another chance at life.

The reason Ash doesn't age -- And the reason he seems to cartoonishly shake off danger in every episode after Pokémon I Choose You -- is because when Ho-Oh revived him it made him immortal like itself, time-freezing the young boy.

And in exchange, every time something went wrong in the Pokémon anime world, Ash was the one who was always coincidentally nearby and ready for adventure (see: Every movie)

Of course, our boy doesn't mind, he mostly enjoys adventures. And he got basically infinite tries at his dream of becoming League Champion -- Which eventually stuck.