User blog comment:OnePieceNation/Age Debacle./@comment-26871067-20161217000145

Like I and many other people said on the other blog page, until Gon is stated to have turned 13 (not "based on the timeline he must be 13 by now"), his age should remain 12. Media, particularly anime, are chock-full of things like floating timelines and vague aging (looking at you, Ash Ketchum), and Gon was stated in the Election Arc to be 12 with no hint that the information was incorrect. It's a trend in anime, and one that should not be ignored when it comes to arguing about how things must be based on in-universe progression of time. Fiction does not always obey the laws of our universe, whether it's intentional or not.

The "unaging child protagonist" concept isn't new. Even in shows that have multiple holidays pass, you see kids not changing grades in school, changing schools (i.e. middle school -> high school), etc. This just happens in media, our logic be damned and internal series logic be damned. Literary devices and precedents, trends, etc, should IMO be taken into serious consideration. If something's stated outright, I believe that should take precedence over a timeline you have to scramble to piece together based on vague data.

So... yeah, Gon theoretically must have turned 13, but our last confirmed age on him is 12. The words "12 years old" literally came out of that medic's mouth with not even the slightest indication that it was wrong.

Until something says otherwise, I firmly believe Gon is following the trend of shonen protags who age in spurts/timeskips rather than steadily.