>>56310056iktfb
>>56311494It's a cynical storytelling gimmick that was ripped from 50's American television where they would shiptease the male and female leads, but never give any sort of confirmation or resolution as a way to string the audience along for years. The Misty episode in the final Ashime arc is the closest we're ever going to get sadly. They've already confirmed that Ash and consequently Misty are never going to age past 10. They're just letting it rest on the Japanese literary trope that two kids who grow up together will get married someday, because they know their audience will pick up on that and draw their own conclusions.
>>56308518The fandom was never more casual than during the 90's, but that was indeed prior to smartphones and the mass coomerfication of society. Although game-universe Misty would have also aged alongside Red and Blue, I think maybe she hasn't been revealed as an adult so that the fandom can still think of her as a perpetual child. Anime Misty is never growing up, since Ash is never growing up. Oddly enough, anime Misty was clearly designed with sex appeal in mind.