A Day Without Me wrote:

Time is something that is definitely quite messed up at Ohtori - particularly in pertaining to people's ages. Time also seems to be the main culprit in the warping of people's ability to remember the truth of long past events.

I would propose that
- Ohtori somehow affects how well people can remember things; my example for this would be Utena's inability to recall how many times she has dueled Touga in all
- Miki's fooling around with the stopwatch indicates that maybe he realizes there is something wonky about the timeflow at Ohtori, but he isn't really sure what
- children at Ohtori do age, but only to a certain point - once they hit adulthood, they get stunted; my support for this would be that Akio and Mikage haven't aged, but the members of the Student Council are shown as having aged prior to the series - Juri in particular supports this, since she is shown as a younger girl on campus, and Shiori, who went off campus, doesn't seem to have aged at a different rate than Juri has

Ah! I love this aspect of the series. Personally, I've always thought it has something to do with the perception of eternity most of the duellists strive to attain -- they usually want to preserve some precious memory, or keep some perfect moment static. I've mentioned this in other threads, actually, but it's a very encompassing theme of the show. Nanami and Saionji are prime examples in the basic sense; they want to stay in their childhoods where things were better (not perfect, perhaps, but certainly far <i>simpler</i>). Miki also wants to be back in the "garden" with his sister. I think this is why time is so warped; quite a few of the characters are trying to turn back time, and in so doing so are dilating their present. If that makes any sense. (It probably doesn't help that I've been watching a show called <i>The Insider's Guide To Happiness</i> as of late, and currently the funny Buddhist monks are trying to explain to the guy from Wanganui that we just work backwards to the future. And it makes sense, in a warped way. I love predestination and there being "plans" for everything...)

And Mikage...well. I Nemuro and his shadow-self. Mikage doesn't age, I think, because he stopped changing at the time of the fire -- and if you don't change, you don't age. This seems to be a big part of the show, really, because many of the characters are trapped in an age-bracket because they refuse to move on to the next (Akio being perhaps one of the biggest man-children of all). The others do, however, because they are not, as yet, completely held by their own memories. Nemuro seems to have generated his own static field in which he can not age, and although it couldn't be done without Akio, I think Nemuro had to WANT to do it in order for it to happen. And this is how Akio creates his little pawns. (Or porns. He probably creates his own porn, too. ...although that's really neither here nor there. ) The thing is, though, when Nemuro graduated -- did he leave the school as a teenager, or did he revert back to his true age? We really have no way of telling, although I once tried to write a fanfic in that vein. It kind of collapsed in upon itself, like a dying star or something, but that's what you get for writing about physicists.

As for Miki, I always figured the stopwatch to be a metaphor for the fact time is mutated at Ohtori. I mean, there aren't even any real seasons, are there? This could be because the time frame of the show is rather narrow, but it's glaringly obvious when one notes the change of seasons in Nemuro's backstory (although the snow and the following spring are a metaphor in and of themselves for Nemuro's development from the dry man to the dedicated "philanthropist"). I think the stopwatch is the series' way of indicating that Miki isn't quite as oblivious as he wishes he was, although of all the duellists it is only Nanami and Saionji who, by the end, really seem to acknowledge the fact that the school is really messing with their heads and the natural timelines of their lives.

Frau Eva wrote:

What I want to know is how the students haven't noticed that Anthy never ages and they all have up to a certain point. I mean, she'd have to stay around the same grade level for each generation of duellists. Students would probably remember seeing the dark-skinned girl around even if they didn't know her(I mean, look at the demographics of Ohtori. She sticks out like a sore thumb).  Someone would have to notice that she's been there the entire time they've been at the school.

But I guess I should just chalk it up to Ohtori memory messing with people's heads.

I'd say so. I mean, surely someone would also have noticed that that creepy guy who freaks out the faculty hasn't aged in the last twenty years, either. Not to mention the Chairman's daughter's fiancee looks a lot like that guy who was hitting on the Chairman's grandmother way back when...yeah, that's Akio. Making his way down the family tree with his own big stick.

...er, if that made no sense to anyone, don't worry. My brain's in the drier, I'll go get it when it's done frying.

Ragnarok wrote:

Student 1: Himemiya Anthy... She's that weird girl with the glasses, right?
Student 2: Yeah, she was in our class last semester, but where is she now?
Student 1: No she's a year younger than we are.
Stuident 2: Oh? But I thought... Hey you're right, what was I thinking?

Man, I was gonna cite the forgetting of Utena and Mikage, and the brief forgetting of Saionji and Ruka, as evidence that Anthy doesn't need to age to not raise suspicions, but that quote is amazing and awesome and proves it so well.

Although, I do think Anthy did age physically for a little while at Ohtori at least - after all, we see Anthy as a small girl wearing the Rose Bride's dress at one point (this is the shot used on Empty Movement's homepage!). But I doubt she has aged in a long, long while.

Akio said to Tokiko that while the students were inside this school, they wouldn't turn into adults. When you graduate is when you mature, I suppose.

Lightice wrote:

To the students, especially those who are chosen by the Ends of the World, the Academy is a magical place that can grasp them into its hold and not let go until its master chooses to throw them aside.

In a way, this is how a lot of kids (at least in some Western societies) view high school: a magical place. Just think of how many people think high school is the end all to be all - its a bit frightening once you consider it.

I still think its worth noting that Touga's birthday episode (10) aired on his birthday. I mean, they could have easily made it another season in show, and really, I would have never thought anything about it. It kinda hints at a real time thing, since his birthday obviously happens, and on his birthday no less. But time is still OBVIOUSLY messed up, but you'd think someone would noticed said birthdays being inconsistent or something. (Of course, it could be argued Touga knows everything before hand, but we don't know if they had any say on what day the episodes aired. Did they already all have birthdays in the manga? I don't remember... I think it was released a bit prior to the show and written in production, and I'm not sure if they gave him one in a profile...)

I want to argue that characters are whatever age they are mentally. Of course, there are too many exceptions, like Anthy, Miki and Kozue. (That might make Juri 8, wouldn't it...)

But obviously, Tokiko is proof SOMETHING weird is happening there. But the whole Nemuro Hall thing was really weird. No one could remember crap, Miki went from knowing ALL about the place, to knowing exactly how it burnt down years before. I'd rather argue though, that Mikage is a ghost, and he and Nemuro Hall were strong memories that were relived, and manifested as actual happenings. Tokiko could have come back and seen him that way instead. (I can easily believe Akio's full of crap. THOUGH I also think he LIKES telling people way too much.)

Maybe  they just have something on someone's minds. Whenever the normal school people talk, they always have really inconsistent stories. (Like no one knows what happened to Utena... But yeah, I guess all three could be true.) No one at Ohtori seems to know what the hell they're talking about.

Ohtori = mind trap