Once again I’m going down the rabbit hole of determining the age of anime characters 😆 I’m part of a Sailor Moon fan group, and someone posted something about Ami and Shingo being a ship, to which someone else replied with appalling surprise, “Isn’t Shingo 10?!?!?!” Well, even if he is 10, the age gap would be the same as the one between the main couple of the show.
But that did get me wondering, how old is Shingo? He is obviously still in elementary school, because he doesn’t go to Usagi’s Junior High school, which means he could be 6th grade, which means he could be as old as 12. But then I realized, at least within the show, we could determine his actual age.
In the Sailor Moon R movie, Usagi and Momoru meet for the first time as children. They are in the hospital, Momoru is there recovering from the car accident that killed his parents, and Usagi is there because *drum roll* her mom just gave birth to Shingo. So how does this help us? Well, I did some digging, and most of what I read said that the car accident that killed his parents took place on his 6th birthday (meaning Momoru is 6 at this first meeting). So now the question is, how much older is Momoru than Usagi? I stated earlier that they’re about 4 years apart, but I wanted to make sure that was accurate (because if they are 4 years apart, that means Usagi is 2 at their first meeting).
Now, we know Usagi is in her second year of junior high at the start of the series, and by season 3 Usagi is in her third year of junior high and she has her 15th birthday. So the majority of seasons 1 and 2 she is 14, but I would say she’s probably 13 in the first few episodes for a few reasons: Japanese schools start in April, Usagi is wearing her long sleeve uniform (meaning it’s probably not late spring and definitely not summer), and Usagi’s birthday is June 30th, roughly a month before Japanese schools’ summer break (which takes place in episode 20 of season 1).
A lot of sources I read say that Momoru is 17 at the start of the series, which considering his birthday is in August, that actually makes perfect sense. He is 17 at the start, and then roughly around episode 20, he turns 18, making him 4 years older than Usagi. Which means Usagi is only 2 when she first meets Momoru on the day Shingo is born (why is this 2 year old wondering around the hospital by herself?!?!).
So in terms of the shipping of Shingo and Ami, they’re only 2 years apart, which is less than the gap between Usagi and Momoru. Now, this particular ship does come from an episode (17) in season 4, which is a bit messed up in terms of the timeline. Season 3 obviously ends in winter (as it is snowing in one of the later episodes), and season 4 still has all the main girls in junior high, which means it all happens before late April, but in the episode where Shingo shows an affection for Ami, they’re all at the beach… in winter… yeah the anime creators really screwed up the 4th arc. In the manga they’re in high school by this arc, so I’m not sure why they didn’t do that with the old anime.
Anyway, to sum this up, at the beginning of the series, Shingo is 11, and then turns 12 in August or September (depending on how long Momoru was in the hospital after the car accident).
And because I know someone is going to ask, the other ages for season 1 (and probably season 2) are as follows:
Usagi: 13 for the first few episodes, and then 14 sometime before episode 20
Momoru: 17, 18 after episode 20
Ami: 13, 14 sometime after episode 20 (her birthday is in September)
Rei: 14 (her birthday is April 17th, meaning she’s the oldest)
Makoto: 13 (there’s a good chance she doesn’t turn 14 until season 2, as her birthday is in December, which oddly enough makes her the youngest)
Minako: 13, there’s also a possibility that she is 14 by the time she first appears, as they are all in their long sleeve uniforms again (her birthday is in October).
Season 3 would have them all one year older (as it is a new school year), and the outer guardians’ ages would be:
Haruka: 16, maybe 17 at the end (her birthday is in January, and it is winter at the end of season 3)
Michiru: 16 (her birthday is in March, so it’s unlikely she ages up in this season)
Hotaru: 12 (first year junior high) and instead of aging up on her January birthday, she ages down at the end of the season 😆 (it’s not clear if her “birthday,” is her first birthday or when she is reborn at the end of season 3, or if they happen to be the same day)
Setsuna: who knows lol. She’s not in school in the anime, and she’s not really shown having a life outside of being a guardian, so there’s really nothing to base her age on in the old anime. Her “birthday” is October 29th, but the 90s anime kind of gives off the impression that this Setsuna wasn’t reborn, but is the original Sailor Pluto who came straight from the door of time (which would make her really really really old, like thousands of years old 😅)
Now, these ages only apply to the 90s anime, the manga and Crystal are different (and that’s a post for another day).
