The Characters Age

[stoogefreaky]

How old is Boyton? To me he can be 30 years old. What do you think?

[Ataru Moroboshi]

I think he's a young widower man in his forties, more than in his thirties.

[Astro Forever]

I'd put him in his forties as well, in his late thirties at the youngest. I have a hard time picturing a minister of science in his young thirties.

Okay, I know James Watson discovered DNA when he was 24 and won a Nobel Prize for it later, but still... However, assuming Boynton was the best ever at robotics, it's something else to be minister as well.

That said, I always felt it was a bit unrealistic that a minister of science would be so often in the labs himself. He can't manage a ministry while he's doing that. And one can be good at the technical side and not so much on the business side, or vice-versa.

[jeffbert]

It seems strange that he would wait until about 30 to father his first (& only child), but on the other hand, I agree that a minister of science would not be younger than 40. It is more than intelligence, it is experience that qualifies for that job.

[Astro Forever]

It seems strange that he would wait until about 30 to father his first (& only child), [...]

Not to me...

I don't know how it is where you live, but around here, people are waiting later than ever to have their first child. Many want to finish their studies, live as a couple, get financially comfortable, buy a house and after all that, have children. Many moms want to get settled in their job before getting pregnant. Others, men and women, just don't find the right partner and have to wait.

Of course many young couples have children too, but having less children and having them (or just one) later is more and more common. No wonder why our birth rate is low!

Even in the past generation, I've seen several people around me (friends, neighbors, family) who were born while their parents were older (some moms were even close or past their 40s), and some of them are only child as well. Of course, things could be different in Japan, among other places, but in itself, to me it's a common situation.

As for Tenma, I could totally see him absorbed in his robotics work and forgetting there is life outside of the laboratories, and thus marrying and having his first child past his 20s. In fact, in the 2003 series, I even have a hard time picturing the lonely and crazy Tenma in a couple, even if at the time he may have been a little less insane since he had not lost his son yet.

[stoogefreaky]

I agree about having to wait to have kids untill a later age. However, when the child is 10 and your 40, what if you can't play and do fun stuff with your kid because you're old and can't move as much.

Anyway, I'll say he's 30 something, 34. What about Reno. He was already working it seems.

How old do you think Elefun is? I say 50.

[PuppetMasterKuruku]

I'm 20 and my mom is in her 50's and my dad is in his 60's. Having a child when you are forty, I don't see how that is unusual. My parents were always busy at their jobs (you can't afford to have less than two jobs when you support a family of five, it seems), so they never came to field trips or school things, and they taught me how to cook ramen and canned food so that's pretty much all I usually ate in terms of hot meals. My parents didn't know anything about me, I almost never saw them.

I personally think that only rich people are supposed to have children. It's just too hard to enjoy your life as it is when all you have to worry about is yourself, much less others. Unless I become successful (which, considering I'm not talented at anything is highly unlikely), I don't plan to marry or have kids, and I'm sure as hell not going to live in a house. I'd rather live in a studio apartment so I don't have to work myself to death just to eat. This world is catered toward the rich, it's expensive and materialistic, but people don't really seem to mind for some reason which alludes me entirely.

[Ataru Moroboshi]

Now I remember something: In the manga, Daddy Walrus says he's 42, but he looks older because he had a tough life. Thats why he hates being called a grandpa.

[PuppetMasterKuruku]

Yes, Daddy Walrus (Ban Shunsaku) is supposed to actually be younger than he really looks, including outside of Astro Boy.

[CommanderEVE]

I would say he is 44. he just seems to be, i just hope he is not hiding his age, for all we know he could be 88.