DC Timeline...why it never goes anywhere?

[Hikaru]

I've been wondering about this for a long time ever since I started to read Conan. Why does the age of the characters in the story never change? Shinichi & friends remain 16/17 forever despite apparent evidence that so many seasons had passed. I've read somewhere that even you pack the stories in the manga canon as tight as possible, the minimum time this would take would be at least 4 years. I mean, this contradicts so much with the realistic theme of the story, where the plausibility of cases and evidence is always discussed (okay, with an exception of Dr.Agasa's inventions and action scenes).

I know there are some mangas that time seems not to progress at all, but is there something else in Conan's case, considering Gosho-sensei is quite a plot master? One possibility I thought of was that in reality Shinichi was knocked out by Gin and became in coma, and all these stories turned out to be his own imagination/dream. That would be sad and make it kind of Doraemon-ish. I hope it doesn't turn out like that, maybe Gosho-sensei just didn't plan when the story should end and kept the time constant for his convenience in writing the story.

[Kor]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... edToGrowUp

One possibility I thought of was that in reality Shinichi was knocked out by Gin and became in coma, and all these stories turned out to be his own imagination/dream.

I can assure you that at least 50% of the fandom have already thought about this idea as well

[Toast]

Kind of like the thought that this might all just be a book written by Yusaku, or a bedtime story told by a grandfather to his grandson (though I've dismissed this idea due to the fact the grandson would be like 20 years old by the time the grandfather got done telling the story).

[Bloody Haven]

Perhaps Gosho never really paid attention to the time. xD
Before any of this is revealed, I'm just going to pretend the years in DC are very long. 

[irishock]

Honestly I would've liked if they actually did age and Ran/Heiji/Kazuha are now in University and Conan/Haibs are in their pre-teens. The plot could get a lot more interesting near the end, possibly with Conan in his teens already and the Mouris can't deny his resemblance with Shinichi.

[Felicita]

According to Gosho, Detective Conan runs on [url=http://"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sazae-san"]Sazae-san[/url] time. The concept is called a [url=http://"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_timeline"]floating timeline[/url] and is quite common in long running works.

By Chek.

[blackribbon]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... edToGrowUp

One possibility I thought of was that in reality Shinichi was knocked out by Gin and became in coma, and all these stories turned out to be his own imagination/dream.

I can assure you that at least 50% of the fandom have already thought about this idea as well

Not to mention that this theory is applied to absolutely everything. Pokemon: Ash almost died after getting electrocuted by Pikachu and is now imagining everything. Harry Potter: Harry wakes up in the cupboard and goes to make breakfast for Dudley. Life: When we wake up tomorrow, we'll wake up at age 5, our current life only a vague dream.

Hell, it's also a trope: Many tv shows where people have mystical powers have a "wake up in an asylum" episode. The Buffy episode "Normal Again" for example.

[Hikaru]

Honestly I would've liked if they actually did age and Ran/Heiji/Kazuha are now in University and Conan/Haibs are in their pre-teens. The plot could get a lot more interesting near the end, possibly with Conan in his teens already and the Mouris can't deny his resemblance with Shinichi.

Yea, I mean it doesn't have to go exactly the same as "our" timeline, but some progress would make it more interesting (and maybe more complicated for Gosho-sensei lol)

[El Huesudo II]

IIRC there is at least a little bit of semblance of time passing. Characters' ages have been updated at times (I recall Conan mentioning he was 7 once in a case, and Kogoro's was 38 instead of 37 in another?), and there are no multiple holiday specials (that I recall).

But it's floating like mad, yes.

[Toast]

Valentine's Day was repeated.

[PT]

Valentine's Day was repeated.

One of the cases was an AO though, iirc, so that doesn't really mean anything for the actual timeline.

[El Huesudo II]

Yeah, I'm only counting canon here.

[D.]

Would this mean that the time in the series now is roughly in March? The latest holiday i recall was White Day

[Hikaru]

Could be, they were still wearing the winter uniform the lastest time I recall.

I usually estimate the time from how the characters are dressed and the weather in the background. Judging from Sonoko wearing tank tops in the Kid episode and Ran and Kazuha in these latest files are wearing shorts right now, I think it might be a little bit passed March already. Maybe late March/early April-ish...

[Wakarimashita]

Would this mean that the time in the series now is roughly in March? The latest holiday i recall was White Day

Gosho draws what's outside his window. When it's winter in japan, it's winter in DC, when it's summer in Japan, it's summer in DC etc. Basically the same year repeats itself over and over again (since characters stay the same) with different events happening every time.