Technically, this can be classified as both a theory and a debate, or neither a theory nor debate. It's a very weird one for me to try to classify...

BUT.

I wish to know a little bit more about roughly what years the whole BSSM series takes place. Many people have said that the series takes place over the span of two years, from the inner senshi's grade eight to grade ten, but there have also been speculations that it took place over a course of four years, from when Usagi was 14, til age 18. Which could be possible, too.

But there was so much that happened over the course of the series (both anime and manga wise), that it almost seems impossible that the series could take place over a span of just two years, unless there was a possible reboot somewhere (I've heard mention that at the end of the first season/arc of BSSM, that Usagi used the Ginzuishou to turn time back, to make it as though that whole time period had never happened (aka, repeat of grade eight/that year/etc)).

I came up with these questions whilst attempting to make a BSSM role playing forum.

Thoughts and ideas are welcome! I'd love to hear what others have to say! Like I said, this honestly can be a theory and/or debate. :3

I personally always believed that Usagi started at age 14 and ended at the age of eighteen. Lately I have realized that I may be quite wrong -- at least in the anime.

For the anime: we know that Usagi starts at age fourteen, however when the Stars begins (and I am going to say ends), the girls have just started high school. I do not know exactly the age of a starting high school student in Japan, but I am going to guess roughly fifteen to sixteen years old. Which means that technically, Usagi could never have been eighteen in the anime because she would have been graduating in the final episodes. Although the Stars anime is full of fillers, I get the feeling that it all occurs in one (weather) season. I say this because in both the first and last episode, the girls are still wearing the same uniforms.



So for the anime, it seems that it is indeed over two years.

The manga is a completely different story for me and is slightly more allusive. As I said before, it has always been my belief that Usagi is eighteen when the series ends. However, others may come to a different conclusion when reading the final pages of the manga.

Before I go there, I remember there being somewhere in the manga that King Endyniom mentions that Serenity was twenty-two years old when she ascended the throne.

Now to continue with the ending pages of the manga. After Usagi and the others leave the cauldron, we are shown Usagi and Mamoru in bed. I personally do not think this is in Mamoru's apartment because that is not his bed. So I think this scene occurs a few years after the last battle has occurred. So Usagi could be around eighteen years of age. She and Mamoru talk about how he proposed to her the night before.


Now on the next page, Usagi says "Seems like ... I was watching a very long dream." and we see the Crystal Tokyo above her. Some people say that this image shows that Crystal Tokyo is currently being built and that it is not yet completed.


Then is the wedding scene, and you can see that Usagi is wearing the same crown similar to when she is Neo Queen Serenity. However, she is wearing a regular wedding dress, they are seen at a chapel and Mamoru is wearing an elegant tuxedo. This does not seem to be the wedding of a crowned King and Queen, so Usagi may not be twenty-two yet.



So, in my personal opinion, the manga timeline encompasses around four to sixish years -- starting when Usagi is fourteen and ending somewhere before she is twenty-two years old.

Sailor Jupiter wrote:

I personally always believed that Usagi started at age 14 and ended at the age of eighteen. Lately I have realized that I may be quite wrong -- at least in the anime.

Well, at least in the manga, we know that she was 14 when she became a senshi - some scanlations got it between 14/13, which is weird, but most of them say that she was 14.



I don't know how the Japanese educational system is but, in most part of Latin America, the 8th grade is the last year of elementary school and most part of the kids finish it with 14 years old - and we have 3 years of high school.

I think that it must be around the age you said, hon. And, given the fact that there are some adult things implied on the manga (like Usagi sleeping at Mamoru's place- "Your birthday is around, Mamo-chan...."), I think that those things happened when she was a bit older - 15 or 16.

About the anime, well... it's weird because I think she was 14 - at least the dub here states that she's 14 - but they make seem that Mamoru is like, 10 years older than her....

In the anime, in the beginning of Stars, Usagi mentions that everyone is staring High School and she'll be 16 soon (old enough to get married, she says). I doubt that Stars too another 2 years to complete, so I'd say she was 15/16 when Stars ended.

At the very end of Episode 200, Usagi says this;



Which proves that she is 16 at the end of the anime. From the manga, I always got the impression that Usagi and the others were older. Like, how in the SuperS manga they are starting high school while in the anime they were still in 9th grade. So, Usagi is probably 17-18.


Also, Jupiter, in the same place where King Endymion says that Usagi became queen at age 22, he also says that it is when she gives birth to Chibiusa. Usagi is pregnant with Chibiusa at their wedding, so the youngest she can be is 21.

Sailor Cosmos wrote:

At the very end of Episode 200, Usagi says this;



Which proves that she is 16 at the end of the anime. From the manga, I always got the impression that Usagi and the others were older. Like, how in the SuperS manga they are starting high school while in the anime they were still in 9th grade. So, Usagi is probably 17-18.


Also, Jupiter, in the same place where King Endymion says that Usagi became queen at age 22, he also says that it is when she gives birth to Chibiusa. Usagi is pregnant with Chibiusa at their wedding, so the youngest she can be is 21.

I always have doubts about the last sentence - I mean, she could mean that she was either pregnant or that now they were married, the proximity to have Chibiusa with them again.

Nathy wrote:

Sailor Cosmos wrote:

At the very end of Episode 200, Usagi says this;



Which proves that she is 16 at the end of the anime. From the manga, I always got the impression that Usagi and the others were older. Like, how in the SuperS manga they are starting high school while in the anime they were still in 9th grade. So, Usagi is probably 17-18.


Also, Jupiter, in the same place where King Endymion says that Usagi became queen at age 22, he also says that it is when she gives birth to Chibiusa. Usagi is pregnant with Chibiusa at their wedding, so the youngest she can be is 21.

I always have doubts about the last sentence - I mean, she could mean that she was either pregnant or that now they were married, the proximity to have Chibiusa with them again.

Maybe more answers will be had when the reprint of the last Act is put up.... Maybe a better translation of it, or maybe a little bit more clarity of the whole thing. >:3 *can't wait for Miss Dream Monday* XD

I agree, Arekuzanra! Mixx's translations are the most accurate, and seeing another translation of the same page is always very good for comparison!

I always wonder what will happen to present/past Usagi and Mamoru. They already saved Crustal Tokyo, does that mean that they won`t experience what happened when Chibiusa came to the past? Or will it happen all over again? lol

I think it will happen all over again, in a continuous loop. Chibiusa arriving in the 20th Century is HUGELY important for most of the arcs, and she would have never had a reason to go back in time in the first place had it not been for Crystal Tokyo being attacked. Also, Chibiusa only begins to mature and awaken as a soldier after all that, so....

Quote :

In the next season (SuperS), they enter high school--in the manga only. The
scene of them entering high school does not appear in the anime until the
start of Sailor Stars, but Takeuchi Naoko has stated (manga #12) that this
was an error, and they _are_ supposed to be in high school during SuperS. This
makes them age 15-16 and grade 10 during SuperS.

I snagged this from an information FAQ thing I found on the interwebs. In Part 2 of the Sailor Moon FAQ section: http://www.rahul.net/arromdee/

Don't know if this changes much in terms of the time line, but I thought it was a pretty good point to bring up, since we're trying to figure it all out. :3 Sure, Usagi can be 16 and in 11th grade (since you turn 17 during 11th grade anyways)... But again, don't think it changes too much in terms of timeline. Just thought it was interesting.

Well, I think Mars and Cosmos pretty much offered evidence that clears up any questions about the anime timeline. Usagi states in the beginning of the Stars that she will soon be sixteen and says in the ending episode that she is sixteen. She is fourteen when the anime starts, so the anime timeline appears to cover two years. I am wondering, is there a birthday episode in the Stars that I am not remembering? She has a birthday in the SuperS, but I cannot remember if there is one in the anime.

As Nathy offered with her manga scan, Usagi states that she is fourteen years old in the beginning of the manga. And as Cosy wrote, King Endymion (in the manga), says that Usagi gives birth to Chibi Usa at age twenty-two. So I am going to stay with the belief that the manga ends at Usagi being either twenty-one or twenty-two. So yah, the manga seems to span around seven years. Which seems like a very long time when I think about it, but makes more realistic sense to me. So much occurs, especially in the manga with them getting married and all.

Arekuzanra, I have also heard speculations over whether or not Usagi's comment at her wedding literally meant that she was pregnant or not. However, since Usagi is linked with the Silver Crystal and Chibi Usa is the same, that feeling of a warm glow in her chest is one that I take to mean the literal birth of a new star in her chest -- a new Sailor Senshi, which is Chibi Usa. Gaurdian Cosmos says that all Senshi are born from Star Seeds.

I don`t think it means that the manga span around seven years.. I think Naoko just "jumped" a few years in the future to show the long awaited wedding.

Niveouslily wrote:

I don`t think it means that the manga span around seven years.. I think Naoko just "jumped" a few years in the future to show the long awaited wedding.

That is what I meant as well. I was including that "jump" into the future into the extra years that he manga encompasses as a whole.

(And thank goodness indeed that she showed us that wedding! Gyah, that would have been disappointing to never see it! )