Both Utena and Anthy are fourteen. Miki, Kozue and Nanami are, if you can believe it, thirteen! The art style makes everyone look so slender and long-legged that I was shocked too (I was under the assumption as yourself on my first watch through, that Utena was about 16).

When you know the cast's real ages, it definitely makes Akio's seduction of Utena much, much creepier.

Welcome to the forum, by the way! I see this is your first post.

Like almost all anime and manga characters, the cast of Utena are victims of what I like to call the Five Year Rule: for any anime/manga character whose age is officially stated, add five years to that number to arrive at a more realistic age that more closely matches what they actually look and behave like.

As you point out, Utena - and pretty much the entire rest of the cast - neither look nor behave like their official ages, but now add five years. Both mentally and physically, Utena makes far more sense as a nineteen year old, as does this age adjustment on the rest of the cast in turn.

Again, this is nothing unusual; anime and manga characters are routinely given ages much younger than they look and act. This has to do with, ah...let's be charitable and call it Japan's "fascination" with the time of youth and the state of being young. There are much less flattering ways that it could accurately be described, however.

Last edited by Aelanie (10-12-2013 12:00:55 PM)

The five year thing makes so much sense!! But yes, Utena definitely isn't even the worst in that respect.

If Utena had looked her age in ep. 33, I don't know if I would have continued watching the series...

Aelanie wrote:

Both mentally and physically, Utena makes far more sense as a nineteen year old, as does this age adjustment on the rest of the cast in turn.

I can get physical appearance, but the ages of the characters are so tied into their personality and the themes of the show that the "five year rule" just doesn't work for me.

I'd prefer an inverse "3-5 year rule," where characters are always 3-5 years younger than they look.

Nah, Utena's in her last year of middle school, so she would be 14 in Japan. Kanae's in her last year of high school, so she is 18—kind of makes me wonder why there are no upperclassmen on the student council.

Atropos wrote:

kind of makes me wonder why there are no upperclassmen on the student council.

Senioritis, perhaps? By senior year, a lot of people start to mentally drift away from high school and focus on their futures, particularly in Japan, where every senior is obsessed with passing the entrance exam for their favorite university. The SC members are totally caught up in school drama without heed to the world outside, which is just the way Akio wants it.

Come to think of it, Kanae isn't ever seen in a school uniform and after her introduction in "Boys of the Black Rose," her status as an Ohtori student is never really brought up. I don't think there are any other 12th-year characters, which has to mean something. I wonder if Ohtori students mysteriously disappear after their junior year. It makes sense if Ohtori is a school that no one can really graduate from. Seniors have reached the end of childhood; they represent a concrete end to the high school experience, and the End of the World has to be more distant and mysterious than that in order to fuel Akio's fantasy.

I still stand by my stance that she's 19.

Ikuhara does it on purpose, to question our sexual preferences.

I always thought that Akio was meant to be 22, 23?

Giovanna wrote:

He is, that's why I said 27; I was basing it on the five year rule. Seriously, how many 2 year olds have you met that act like that?

And with this typo, the thread has officially gotten weird.    Gio: "Akio obviously isn't 2.  Maybe 7."

I like how much discussion this thread has generated.  The question we're examining is important to how we understand SKU.  For instance, if we take the show at its word about the characters' ages, then we have a pretty solid case for Touga's sexual abuse by his foster father.  If we implicitly add five years to everyone's age, though, then that case thins quite a bit: Touga may be seventeen on paper, but we should examine him as a twenty-two-year-old, and those five years make a lot of difference.  Something similar happens to Kozue, Akio, and Utena herself if you add five years.  They all start looking less precocious and/or damaged.

But if you add five years to Saionji's age, or Nanami's, or Juri's, then these characters start looking worse.  Each of them seems to be more reasonably analyzed at their stated ages than at age-plus-five.  Saionji at 17 is contemptible in an ordinary teenage way; Saionji at 22 is genuinely frightening.  Juri at 16 is an angsty teen; Juri at 21 is emotionally stunted.

What do we do?  Do we say, "Some of the characters are portrayed at their stated age and others aren't?"  If so, is that on purpose or is it bad writing?  Do we say, "All of the characters should have their age adjusted" -- and deal with what that says about the characters who seem to behave age-appropriately?  Or do we say, "We shouldn't adjust anyone's age" -- and deal with what that says about the characters who don't behave age-appropriately?

My preference, I guess, is for the latter unless proven otherwise -- with the one footnote that Akio and Anthy, of course, are canonically a lot older than their apparent ages.

Last edited by satyreyes (10-17-2013 12:54:12 AM)

I would be interested to know Tokiko's age, too.  Because of Mamiya, she sure has taken on a lot of responsibility for someone apparently in her early twenties.

Is it actually the case that Nemuro was a high-school senior?  Mikage was supposed to be a high-school senior, but Nemuro was a professor, albeit a young one; he must have at least had a high school diploma to be hired as a professor, no?

satyreyes wrote:

Is it actually the case that Nemuro was a high-school senior?  Mikage was supposed to be a high-school senior, but Nemuro was a professor, albeit a young one; he must have at least had a high school diploma to be hired as a professor, no?

There are cases of 13-year-olds getting college diplomas. I don't think it's impossible for an eighteen-year-old in Japan to get his high school diploma early, considering his exceptional talent.

Last edited by Atropos (10-17-2013 01:21:06 PM)