>>56691679>>56692469During Gen V and VI in general they were trying to push the character's ages to be mid to late teens instead of just turning 11 to run some more mature storylines within the confines of an E for Everyone rating. Then Yokai Watch stole their lunch on the children's TV show and merchandise front so they went back to having 11 year old protagonists.
The anime during Black and White could borrow Iris to fill in the "girl the same age as Ash" role in a similar way to Misty when there wasn't a female character, but when XY came around there wasn't a female gym leader young enough, so they made Anime Serena and differentiated her with her costume redesign halfway through the series.
