This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)
So sorry for the probably very stupid question, but exactly how old are Utena, Anthy, Miki, Juri, Touga and all the other main characters? Is it ever stated anywhere? I haven't really been able to find it anywhere, so I figured I'd ask here
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Utena: 14
Anthy: 14
Touga: 17
Saionji: 17
Juri: 16
Miki: 13
Nanami: 13
Wakaba: 14
Kozue: 13
Shiori: 16
Keiko: 13
Ruka: 17
Mitsuru: 10
Mari: 11
Tatsuya: 14
Mikage: 18
Mamiya: (Actually, I'm not sure...)
Akio: An older man, though it never says his exact age.
Kanae: 18
Am I forgetting anyone?
Edit: I fixed their ages. :3
Last edited by Razara (12-14-2006 03:45:56 PM)
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Utena is 14, as is Wakaba and, in theory, Anthy. Nanami and her henchwomen are just 13 and so is Miki. Juri is 16, I believe, while Touga and Saionji are 17. Mikage and Akio are decidedly indefined. No 15-year old main characters around, it seems.
EDIT: Whoops, I was beat. I don't think that Mikage's age is ever defined, though. And isn't Kanae 18, since she's supposed to graduate soon?
Last edited by Lightice (12-14-2006 03:15:12 PM)
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I don't think Anthy's reeeeally 14, though.
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Lightice wrote:
Utena is 14, as is Wakaba and, in theory, Anthy. Nanami and her henchwomen are just 13 and so is Miki. Juri is 16, I believe, while Touga and Saionji are 17. Mikage and Akio are decidedly indefined. No 15-year old main characters around, it seems.
EDIT: Whoops, I was beat. I don't think that Mikage's age is ever defined, though. And isn't Kanae 18, since she's supposed to graduate soon?
In Japan, students only attend high school for three years. Touga, Saionji, and Ruka are actually in their final year at Ohtori. I think I recall hearing that Mikage is in his third year of high school as well, so I assumed that that was his age.
I should probably mention that these are just their physical ages. Akio, Anthy, and Mikage are actually much older, but they don't age.
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I always thought Anthy was a year older than Utena, too.
Man, can you imagine going to a school like Ohtori at like 14??
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Razara wrote:
In Japan, students only attend high school for three years. Touga, Saionji, and Ruka are actually in their final year at Ohtori. I think I recall hearing that Mikage is in his third year of high school as well, so I assumed that that was his age.
But in Japan the high-school starts when you're 16, unless I'm mistaken - it certainly does in my country. Thus, first year students are 16, second years are 17 - Touga and Saionji are never mentioned to be in the last year as far as I know - and third years 18.
I should probably mention that these are just their physical ages. Akio, Anthy, and Mikage are actually much older, but they don't age.
Indeed. And in some ways they don't age, at all, so those ages can be considered "real".
I always thought Anthy was a year older than Utena, too.
They go to the same classes, if you remember.
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Japanese school system:
Elementary - 1st through 6th grades
Junior High - 7th through 9th grades
High School - 10th through 12th grades
1st graders would be 6, 12th graders would be 18. Saionji, Ruka, and Touga are therefore in their second-to-last year of high school; I would assume that Kanae is 18, since this would make her a 12th grader (I guess she's not expected to go to college )
EDIT: Yeah, just looked it up - Kanae's a 12th grader.
Last edited by A Day Without Me (12-14-2006 03:42:40 PM)
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Sorry about that. I guess that I was misinformed. e.e
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My god. Are the girls really that young ? There's a lot of screwing in the series... Hmm... I guess thought that Utena was *at least* 15 xD And I had the feeling that Nanami was like one year older than Utena, despite her childish behavior. I guess I'm that idiotic.
Oh well Thanks a bunch for answering everyone
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The certainly do not look or act their ages, but I always knew they were young.
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Teenagers never look their age in anime. If they did, it would be harder to to fantasies about them.
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Touga could be 18 too 'cause we see his birhday party in one of the episodes. Or he may be 16 in the beginning of the series.
But I don't think age has any importance in SKU. The only time it seems relevant is in Tsuwabuki's episode in the Black Rose Arc.
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Aaaahahaha D: dick with feet man, i'm 15 and there's NO WAY D: no way josé...
Anyways, how old is Tokiko? Ruka? 8D And, we are not sure about Mikage's age, because is not the same as Nemuro's D: ....
I've got to say that all the characters end up with one year more at the end of the series.... that's obvious, right?
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One has to adjust in animeland for realism. If they say 14, the character acts 16. If they say 17, the character acts 20.
That said, SKU's characters under 15 or so do actually act rather like their ages. The older ones, Touga, Saionji, Juri, etc...all strike me as college students.
For that matter, in the manga isn't Akio in the school's university? So what...early 20s? (Or at least meant to look that way.)
I always imagine Akio to have an outer age of 30-35. Old enough to get away with being so learned but too young to have wrinkles or any other sign of the negative effects of advancing age. But that's me. I would imagine we're supposed to imagine he's in his mid-20s.
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It's interesting also how I just noticed Kozue was 13... Same as Miki! I always imagined she was about 2 years older than Miki... But she's even younger than Utena! But, just as you all said, they rarely act their ages. As for me, Akio can be as old as he'd like
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uh.. Kozue and Miki are twins, they are the same age, that's pretty obvious D:
Hm.. yes i picture Anthy and Utena 16-17 ... the same for the rest, 2 years more than the appeared...
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When my friend and I ever watched the show, we'd just pretend they were all in college and then it made a little more sense.
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o0Natasha0o wrote:
It's interesting also how I just noticed Kozue was 13... Same as Miki! I always imagined she was about 2 years older than Miki... But she's even younger than Utena!
o_o You do know that they're twins, right? The only qualification for being a twin is that the two of them were born on the same day from the same mother. I've never really understood how it is that Miki and Kozue look so much alike, since they're opposite genders. Twins don't really work that way.
Kozue's age is pretty shocking. It's hard to believe to believe that she's that young.
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Razara wrote:
o0Natasha0o wrote:
It's interesting also how I just noticed Kozue was 13... Same as Miki! I always imagined she was about 2 years older than Miki... But she's even younger than Utena!
o_o You do know that they're twins, right? The only qualification for being a twin is that the two of them were born on the same day from the same mother. I've never really understood how it is that Miki and Kozue look so much alike, since they're opposite genders. Twins don't really work that way.
Kozue's age is pretty shocking. It's hard to believe to believe that she's that young.
Ehehehe... whoops! I have no idea how I was thinking when I wrote that maybe I meant that she was behaving that way? Sorry I honestly don't remember ofcourse I know that twins are well, born at the same time (or atleast almost) and therefore are the same age. So the 2years older thingy came out wrong
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Razara wrote:
The only qualification for being a twin is that the two of them were born on the same day from the same mother. I've never really understood how it is that Miki and Kozue look so much alike, since they're opposite genders. Twins don't really work that way.
That's not true, twins can work like that perfectly. Twins non-identical are procreated when two sperms fertilize two different ova. Identical twins are procreated when two sperms fertilize the same ova. If a sperm is Y and other one is X, there are born identical twins of different genders, but they are still being identical. I have two friends identical twins of different genders and they are identical 8D just one with breast and pussy and the other without it xD
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Epi_lepsia wrote:
That's not true, twins can work like that perfectly. Twins non-identical are procreated when two sperms fertilize two different ova. Identical twins are procreated when two sperms fertilize the same ova. If a sperm is Y and other one is X, there are born identical twins of different genders, but they are still being identical. I have two friends identical twins of different genders and they are identical 8D just one with breast and pussy and the other without it xD
I'm an identical twin, and I have several friends that are male and female twins, but they're fraternal. I was discussing the matter with one of my friends, and apparently he gets annoyed when people ask him if he and his sister are identical. Of course, that's not the worst of the questions that people tend to ask twins.
I'd like to see a pair of identical male and female twins. That would very interesting. :3
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Epi_lepsia wrote:
That's not true, twins can work like that perfectly. Twins non-identical are procreated when two sperms fertilize two different ova. Identical twins are procreated when two sperms fertilize the same ova. If a sperm is Y and other one is X, there are born identical twins of different genders, but they are still being identical. I have two friends identical twins of different genders and they are identical 8D just one with breast and pussy and the other without it xD
Er, no, I'm afraid not. Identical twins are created by a whoops in early division of the fertilized zygote. The zygote is produced by one perfectly normal ovum being fertilized by a single sperm. Identical twins are exact genetic clones. They have exactly the same 46 chromosomes, sharing 100% of their genetic material.
(When a single ovum is fertilized by two sperm, the result is a triploid zygote that generally, but not always, terminates shortly thereafter. Some children have been born who are triploid. They tend not to live very long.)
Fraternal twins are the result of two ovums being fertilized by two different sperm. They are as similar as any two siblings descended from the same mother and father, sharing roughly 50% of their genetic material. However, depending on how the dice fall in terms of cell division in the parents and which sperm hits which egg and all, fraternal twins (and non-twin siblings) can potentially share much more (or much less) than 50% of their genetic material.
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Who pays attention to their ages!? I don't!
Apparently Akio doesn't either!!!
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KissingT.Kiryuu wrote:
Who pays attention to their ages!? I don't!
Apparently Akio doesn't either!!!
Haha exactly... Well, I just wanted to find out how old they all were. Watched the whole series without knowing so obviously I didn't care either (before I became obsessed with SKU x_x)
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