Quote from: El Sargento on October 03, 2009, 03:12:52 PM
Again, that's only if Excel is a "normal" human...

Well, in volume 12 she busts out that old junior high swimsuit, which would suggest that she's been to school, at least...

Well, that was fast. Thanks for the timely reply. I hadn't even thought about the guy in the foreground - I just always thought he was Doctor Iwata, even though it wouldn't make any sense for him to be so tan in one panel and then appear from a tank some pages later. But hey, Excel Saga, amirite?

Coincidentally El Sargento, where's that picture in your sig from? I'm guessing volume 20 since it's the only one I don't have yet, but I might be wrong.

Hahahaha. Oh wow, that was a lot easier than I thought. Can't believe I missed that when I was leafing through my volume 12. I wonder if there's some way we can deduce the City Environmental Security Administration heroes' ages from these hard facts?

The question of exactly how long the plot has been going on is still also open.

I'm also wondering WTF this character is (don't have a scanner right now. For those in the know, I'm talking about volume 9, page 21, first panel, the woman walking in the foreground when Detective Excel escapes from nurse Fukuya's house in the side story.) Now, we all know Rikdo never draws a character he hasn't used already or isn't planning to use in in the future. So who the hell is she? I haven't found her in any of the other books. She kinda sorta resembles Miwa, but I don't think that that could be it.

Yeah, I just remembered. Shiouji's age has been mentioned twice - once in volume 12, when it's said he was fourteen when he first met Umi, and the second time in volume 16, when Kabapu? (I don't think Tenmangu was that neglectful a father) says that when he last saw Shiouji, he was only three years old, which would suggest that there'd been at least a year when Kabapu'd last met baby Shiouji. Now, this exchange happened 22? years ago (Kabapu first met Tenmangu "about 30 years ago". Tenmangu disappeared 20 years ago. The discussion happened when the Ropponmatsu prototype had been completed, which was said to have taken eight years. Hence - assuming the clock started ticking immediately after Tenmangu met Kabapu - 22 years), so Shiouji'd been four back then, which is where I got my present-day 26. How's that for "easy calculations"?

This would also make Umi 6 when she first met Shiouji, which - like her present-day age of 18 - I also think was mentioned somewhere, perhaps as canon a source as the Oubliette or back cover.

Going on another limb here, Watanabe and co. are at most 23 or so. They're all college graduates, which usually happens in Japan at the age of 21, and I don't think they could have survived being unemployed for several years, and none of them apparently had a job prior to work in the City Environmental Security Administration.

BUT THEN AGAIN. I'm wondering if someone has actual facts, or even alternative theories.

I have no idea why this is bothering me as much as it is but I absolutely have to know how old the characters we all know and love exactly are. "In their twenties" isn't good enough. So if any one of you has perused Excel Saga factbooks or the like, please share your knowledge ASAP.

I can't shake this strange feeling that it's either been outright stated or can be pretty easily calculated that Umi is 18 and Shiouji is 26, but I can't be bothered to leaf through my 19 volumes for the single aside that confirms it. Can you good people lend me a hand here?

Another question would be how long the plot has been going on. There's been several three-to-four month timeskips between chapters by now. Has anyone been keeping a tally? Have they survived working under Kabapu for a whole year now?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. The GIMP image I made has eight layers. Maybe you're missing the background layer? It should be the only "special" layer in the image, so I can't really think of any other explanation.

Either way, good to know that at least it mostly works. Thanks for the compliments.

Hey, I'm a huge Excel Saga geek, so much in fact that I wanted to make myself a pin bearing the Solarian triangle logo thing. I was, however, quite rightly devastated when I found out that apparently no one on the internet had made a high resolution graphic of the emblem. So I had to make one myself and figured that hey, I hate nothing quite as much as not finding what I want on the internet and don't want anyone else to share that feeling so maybe I should put this thing up somewhere. This seemed like the place where it would be appreciated best.

The symbol looks like this:


The original image is available for download as a 1200dpi (2600x2600) .xcf and .psd file. All the guidelines, paths and layers I used to make this thing are still in place so you can modify it pretty easily if it doesn't match the version you seek to imitate. I made this in GIMP though so I can't vouch that the PSD will work perfectly.

This thing's public domain so use it however you want in your fanart or whatever.