How old are they?

[Lan]

hummm, well to me ive always thought of the series starting in the late 90's, and now its late 2003. for some reason, the Ill store arc seems like mid 2003. it just fits.

[Randamo]

Nope. the mayoral campain was labled '08, so it has to be.

[SWamP]

Nope. the mayoral campain was labled '08, so it has to be.

That's the English version...

...and I was talking about the Fukuoka Mayoral Elections by Volume 3.

[Randamo]

no, i was talking about vol 18's one.

[SWamP]

no, i was talking about vol 18's one.

Nope. the mayoral campain was labled '08, so it has to be.

Again. That's only in the English version

[Uncreativity]

All right. Excel and Hyatt are hypothetically at least 20 in volume 3. Even though it wouldn't be unlike them to lie about their ages, if you give them about a year of having worked for Il Palazzo before that (and the implications of more for Excel, who has worked a huge amount of part-time jobs by the beginning of the series, some of which she was drinking at, and has been implied to have lived in the secret base BEFORE having moved into the apartment), there is absolutely no way they could reasonably be teenagers. Even calling them 20 at that point is pretty generously on the young side.

Let's call them 22, so they're the same approximate age that the government workers are at that point, who have all recently graduated college. (In volume 20, there's a point where Sumiyoshi refers to Iwata as being part of the "Showa generation," but as Showa period is from 1926–1989, that doesn't actually help us at all in pinpointing anyone's age OR what year it is supposed to be, so let's just move on.)

Now, mayoral elections are held every four years in Japan, meaning four years have passed between volume 3 and volume 18, theoretically. That would make the entire group of them around 26 - the same age that Shiouji is given to be in volume 13. Umi is 18 and turns 19 in the course of the series, and thus is still not old enough to vote.

Excel is Teriha for one year, and if you go by weather, another half a year or so has passed up to current canon. So all of the government workers are probably around 28 by this point, and Excel and Hyatt are AT LEAST as much.

Of course, none of this is taking into consideration the very probably artificial nature of Excel's existence, which throws the whole thing into chaos. And more importantly, the fact that that there is no coherent sense of time flow in Excel Saga. Seasons, holidays, and real world references seem to match real life, even as plot events go at their own pace. Remember when Ropponmatsu II got y2k? And yet, the technology in all of the recent chapters isn't 2001, 2002; it's all very clearly modern.

tl;dr answer: There is no answer.

[Pamplemousse]

Thanks for the helpful, in-depth attempt to analyze the utter chaos of ES, Uncreativity! I was tempted to go book-by-book and count the seasons for a pretty darned inaccurate estimate, but now I can stop obsessing. This is about as accurate as it's gonna get, I think...

[Uncreativity]

I think it's kind of like Pokemon, where time passes but nobody ages. 

[Randamo]

yeah, i think umi's been in the twelfth grade since vol 12.
although, i cant help but think alot of time has passed. Months go by like that, like when Elgala left, Excel went on that trip and all of vol 15's events.

no, i was talking about vol 18's one.

Nope. the mayoral campain was labled '08, so it has to be.

Again. That's only in the English version

eheh, i withdraw then

[Lord Il]

After Uncreativity's in depth theory into their ages, I can't add much more. ^^


With some of them being such unusal characters and the controversies over who, or even what they are (possible Solarian origins, cyborgs), they're pretty much like riddles wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. If you try wrapping your head around it too much, a coroner is going to pick up pieces of brain off the floor after your head explodes.


With that said, I believe Umi will remain a cosplaying teenager for the rest of her natural life. =P

[Gecko Moria]

Excel fans trying to reason this story? 

The Watanabes can be aged I guess but Excel and Hyatt are sorta supernatural creatures... kinda

[Pointless]

While I can't add much to the age question as such, my poor Engineer's brain couldn't resist the challenge of figuring out how many years have passed in the first 21 volumes.

The answer is eight years! (Slight chance it is nine, but eight seems pretty solid.)

Using seasons, holidays, and weather, the break-down ('V' means 'Volume', 'M' means 'Mission') is as follows:

Year 1: V-01 - (8 months): June - Christmas.
Year 2: V-02, V-03/M-5
Year 3: V-03/M-6, V-04
Year 4: V-05, V-06, V-07 - (very busy Spring confuses things slightly here).
Year 5: V-08, V-09, V-10, V-11/M-3
Year 6: V-11/M-4, V-12 - Umi (18) and Gojyou (26)
Year 7: V-13, V-14, V-15, V-16
Year 8: V-17, V-18, V-19, V-20
Year 9: V-21 - (~3 or 4 months)

Note #1 - In year 6, it isn't clear whether Umi and Gojyou are 18 and 26, respectively, at the beginning of the year, which means they would have turned 19 and 27 by the end of the year; or, if their 18th and 26th birthdays occur during this year.
Note #2 - In Fukuoka, Mayors can be recalled by the people, and special elections subsequently held. This messes up the '4 years between elections' rule.

I have detailed notes if anyone is so foolish as to ask for them!