Warning! This thread may contain spoilers from the manga as well as both anime series!

Ages confirmed in the MANGA/BROTHERHOOD timeline

The "current" year in the beginning of the manga is 1914.

Subjects marked with * are confirmed within the Perfect Guidebooks.
Subjects marked with ** are mentioned within the manga.

Edward: Born in 1899*. Age: 15, and it is indicated by Winry in Chapter 34 that he is almost 16.

Alphonse: Born in 1900*. Age: 14.

Winry: Born in 1899*. Age: 15.

Roy: Born in 1885*. Age: 29 at the beginning of the manga, it is later alluded to that he turns 30 later on. (Will update with Vol. number soon).

Hughes: Born in 1885*. Age: 29.

Ling: Age: 15**. (Chapter 34/Volume 9.)

King Bradley: Age: 60**.


Guestimates based on the MANGA/BROTHERHOOD timeline

Riza and Havoc: Aged about 27-28. This is based on that Riza was in the last year of academy during Ishval, in 1908.** Havoc was also in the same year as her in the academy.**

MANGA Trivia

Ed's birthday is in winter.

Ages confirmed in ANIME-1/CONQUEROR OF SHAMBALLA timeline

Subjects marked with * have been mentioned within the show.

Edward: Age (Anime-1): 15*.
Edward: Age (Conqueror of Shamballa): 18*.

Alphonse: Age: (Anime-1) 14*.
Alphonse: Age: (Conqueror of Shamballa): 13*.



Updated info by A Pierrot's Aria 23/02/11. Tweaking required!

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Ok, I didn't find any topic that would have answered to this.
Even though I've been FMA fan for years, I can't remember has Edo's age been mentioned in manga? I mean how old is he NOW? Still 15-16 years? This just came to my mind when I read the manga and Edo looked so.. mature. But if you compare Edo's face in first and last chapters, I think the difference can be seen. O_o And, how about other FMA characters?
If there's no topic for this, then go on and talk about characters ages here. ^o^

In the beginning of vol. 9 Winry asked, if Ed was almost 16. (Which he is, in my opinion, anyway) I think we'll see Ed's 16th birthday pretty soon in the manga.

Oh, BTW. Does anyone know the age difference between Roy and Riza? I've heard it is four years but...

Winry and Roy both said Ed is "almost sixteen" in Chapter 34, and since then it's probably been around a month in canon? Anyway, his birthday is in the winter, and currently it's "almost winter." (Well, it's winter in the north already, of course.)

Other ages I can recall: Al is 14, Ling is 15, Roy has turned 30, Winry said she's the same age as Ed in Chapter 9, so unless she's had a birthday during the story she's 15 too....

Yeah.
And there is some pretty dramatic differences from Ed Volume one and the current one. You don't really notice the transformation unless you compare them...
He's eyes get smaller and he's nose gets bigger, among other things.

I'm pretty sure you all have it correct so far, though;
Edward is Fifteen going on Sixteen, Winry is Fifteen, Alphonse is 14, Ling is 15 and Ran-Fan is probably around the same age, perhaps a year older.

Which has been mentioned already.
Huzzah.

Ed told Winry that he was almost 16, so he was 15 at the time.

Then, fast forwarding to the end of the first anime series, (FMA-1 ending spoilers ahead) when Al got his body back, Winry was narrating, and she said that Al was back as a ten year old. Then, in the movie, Al was 13, so 3 years had gone by since the time that Al had got his body back. So, Ed is probably 18 right now. This might not be true, though, because I might have mistaken somewhere...

I tried looking up Riza's age somewhere, it just said "Around 25" That was all... Roy turned 30? When? @@"

Yeah, in the manga when Ling, Ed and Winry were there, he asked Ling his age, who said 15, and Winry asked Ed, "Aren't you almost 16?"

I can't imagine Ran fan being older than Ling..

Are we sure Winry wasnt just counting it? In Japan, they have a habit of counting your age from New Years so it adds a year to your total age. This is basically called the old "Kazoe" or "Counting It" system where you would be considered to be 1 year old the on the day you were born and Everyone is considered to be one year older at New Year.

Okay let me be more specific here. According to the Manga timeline, Ed was born on 1899. The Manga's current time is 1914. Now 1914 -1899 = 15. Assuming that it is still currently 1914, this would mean that Ed is suppose to be 15 in 1914 and he's not going to grow any older until he hits his birthday next year in 1915. Now by "counting it," Ed would be considered to be 16 years old even though it is still 1914.

Sorry for bumping this thread up quite a way. ¬¬

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about Scieszka's birthday, or even age. I'm guessing she's in her early to mid-twenties. What does everyone else think?

No clues as to Birthday but I would say the same as you in that she seems in her 20's. She gets along well with Winry and seems fairly new to the world of being alone

I've got a question that may or may not have an answer:
How old is Hohenheim?

Short answer: old
Long answer: However long ago Xerxes was destroyed + middle agedness. Arakawa's sketches show Ed at 40 years old to look amazingly like Hohenheim as we know him, so it can be inferred that Hohenheim was about 40 before he got all Stoned. How long ago was Xerxes transmuted off the map? 500 years ago or so? So maybe ~540 years old?

that makes sense, though I'm not sure about Xerxes being destroyed... not that I don't believe you I just can't remember if or when they stated it x.x

Characters' Ages?

Apologies if this topic hasn't been made before or I'm missing anything blindingly obvious.

I know Ed and Al's age is revealed in the manga/anime and technically Winry's too, I think...But it just occured to me that I don't know how old any of the other characters are. Particularly those with families and long running military careers. And I can't seem to find anything on Izumi's age anywhere.

Anyone know 'em? Guesses? Discussion?

Roy was 29 at the start of the series but eventually turns 30. I don't remember the exact volume but Arakawa makes a joke about it.

We also know Ling's age but I am not sure if that will be considered a spoiler.

Also although it was never revealed I am convinced Mei is older than she looks.

Well, Arakawa never determined the date of birth of any of the FMA characters (aside the years), as far as I'm concerned. The only thing I remember her saying is that Ed's bday was on winter.
The rest of them, I remember her saying she doesn't like to fix any characteristics that might influence on the story unless they're a part of the plot, 'cause that can get in the way of what she wants to do and sorta diminish her scope of action.

There's also some ages, like Roy's (he and Hughes were born in 1885) and you can imply some ages like Riza's and Havoc's, since they were both in the same class at the Military Academy and were in their senior year when Riza went to Ishbal, which means they're both between 26-28 years old, nowdays... But that's about it, isn't it??

Wouldn't Riza be much younger than Roy? She seems a lot younger than him here.
http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/60/02/

I always thought of Maes being a bit older than Roy (anywhere from 3-5 years older) and Riza being 2-4 years younger than Roy as I always thought of the military academy as 1 part college (most entering around 17-18, but can be younger/older than the standard) and 1 part basic training.

ExhileVoid, the year is already 1915 at this point of the manga, because it was said on the 'Promise day' chapter that the promise day would be just after New Year's.

And about Maes' age. The timeline from the Perfect Guidebook 2 states he was born at the same year as Roy: 1885.
Just as well, Ed and Winry were both born in 1899.

And about Riza's age, she can't be a LOT younger than Roy, cause she would have to be a LEAST 18 years old by the time of Ishbal (probably a little older, since she was at her Senior year at the Academy, which means she was probably around 20, 21 at that time) and Roy was 23 when he went to Ishbal, so their age difference is probably somewhat around 2~4 years. No more than that.
And she looked younger on that scene posted because that was WAY before Ishbal. Probably Roy was about 20 at the time of that scene, which would make Riza about 16-17 and, at that age, physical differences are very big. (you change a lot between 17 to 20 years old)

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Perfect Guidebook timeline...they may have been born the same year, but Maes definitely seems much more older than Roy. Ah well, settling down and having a family will definitely put your life into perspective.

Um, possible stupid question ahead, but... do anyone knows how old Hoho-papa, Father and Pride are? When was Xerxes destroyed for that matter? I had the impression that it happened something like 2000 years or less before the storyline, but I might be wrong.

comparing the timeline with our at early 20th century, I guess the people there would enter college at about 15-16 years old. It is pretty plausible that Maes is about the same age as Roy. You know, Roy does look younger than his age. Actually, I have a sister who shares the exact birthday as Roy. She does look 5 years younger than her age. Baby face!

What about Izumi-sensei? In a chapter that I don't remember exactly, she said that if her child had been alive, s/he would have been the about same age of Ed or Al. Does it mean that she is nearly 40 now? Even older than Roy?
Oh the female characters in FMA surely look much younger than their ages can show. Olivia is the eldest daughter of the Armstrong family, and while he is around 40, it possibly means that Olivia is around 50 , since Alex has other 2 older sisters.

when did Alex get around the 40 mark? I imagined him a little younger than that, allways assumed he was in his 30's and olivia early 40s, I'm convinced Mei is older than she looks, its hardly uncommon for manga characters to appear abnormally young, lol Honey from Ouran looks about 5 and he's 18 XD I think Mei is about 13

I would also estimate Mei at around 13 years of age.
These are the people who's ages have been stated:
Roy: 29 (30)
Ed: 15 (16)
Al: 14
Winry: 15
Ling Yao: 15
King Bradley: 60
I would estimate Riza at around 25 or 26. She's definatly younger than Roy. I'd say Izumi is in her late 30s. 35 at least. The homunculi... well it doesn't really matter, does it? I think Hughes was also 29-30... Pinako is obviously 60+.
Am I the only one who finds the age difference between Trisha and Hohenheim a bit...large? Not to say they're relationship isn't cute.

you should put al-14 (15) in brackets, cause if ed has turned 16 its more than likely that Al will have turned or be near to turning 15, i belive thats what it sais on his wikipedia page anyway! hahahahaha xD

^Well not necessarily. They could have birthday's that are far apart. It probably IS safe to assume that Al with be 15 soon, but I'm going strictly by what's been said in the manga. And Al's birthday hasn't been brought up yet.

I have read about it somewhere...in someone's blog But Alex looks much older than Roy, don't you think?

Hohenheim has an immortal body. If Trisha were still alive, she would soon age and look even older than her husband, which wouldn't be nice, so I think that's why Arakawa let she die before it would happen

he does look a lot older than Roy i guess XD but I dunno Olivia just seems more in her early 40s than 50s, the age gap between them could be pretty small though Alex could be like 38 and Olivia 42 or something

Lulz I thought the age gap between Hoho and Trisha was too big XD Hoho looks in his 30's and Trisha was probably like 18 or something when she had Ed (i remember her gravestone put her in her early 20's when she died but I forget the age XD) by most peoples standards a teenage girl and a guy in his 30s is pretty pervy XD but der we go haha

It's impossible because Ed lost his mother when he was 10 so even Trisha had Ed when she was 18 she turned 28 when she died. However, she and Hoho might just have lived together as husband and wife, so she might even have had Ed early than 18.

10??? lol he transmuted her when he was 11, in the manga he lost her when he was about 5, dunno about the anime, know he was older though

As far as I am concerned, Ed lost his mother when he was 10. In order to resurrect her he became Izumi's apprentice and trained with Al for one year. Then he failed at human transmutation when he was 11, losing one arm and one leg. Desperate to get Al's body back, he succeeded in finishing rehabilitation in only one year, and became the youngest state alchemist at the age of 12. Makes sense?

Not sure about the actual number so I looked into the manga. When their mother died, Ed was still taller than Al and both of them were smaller than Pinako: http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/21/08/
And when Izumi becomes their teacher, the boys are already the same height (Al maybe a little taller) and taller than Pinako: http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/21/24/ so I guess there was a few years in between.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the events didn't happen one right after the other, because after Trisha died Ed and Al continued going to school and studying ways to do human transmutation. After a while they decided they needed a teacher, which is when Izumi showed up and they spent a year with her. And then more time passed while they perfected their theory and gathered materials, so I'd say Ed and Al were definitely younger when they lost their mom.

edward was DEFINATLY not 10 when trisha died XD the events inbetween can't have happened in a year, and they look waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too small to be 10, lol link of trisha's gravestone? that'll clear it up XD

Well my bad. I realize it's illogical to assume Ed lost his mama at the at the age of 10 because at that time he looked smaller than he was when he tried the human transmutation

Has this been asked yet?

Got into a tiff with a friend... How much time has passed in the FMA world so far. Has is been a year or less? I was thinking more since Ed passed his exam at 12. Then when he meets Ling we Find out hes 16. Is is 17 now? Its lot to think about. Volume 23 is out. I was under the impression that Ed has to be at least 17 or 18. What do you guys think.

When Ed met Ling, Ed was "almost 16" (Arakawa said somewhere that Ed's birthday is in the winter, and there was going to be a winter soon in the story). Now it's spring, so Ed is still 16. I think when the manga begun, it was late spring/early summer in 1914 (and Ed was 15 years old), and now it's spring in 1915. About a year has passed in the manga.
[quick edit] Oh, and Ed becoming a state alchemist happened in a flashback. It was late September or early October 1911, just a bit before the brothers burned down their house (see the date in Ed's watch; October 3th 1911).

Hey I dunno if it's been asked, but How old is Olivia Armstrong??? She's supposed to be Alex's Older sister. Plus she's a pretty high rank. I know that FMA is a bit unrealistic when it comes to age and ranks in the military here. Like Roy being a Colonel at his age is pretty crazy.

So how old is Olivia??? She looks like she is in her 30's at the most.

She's probably in her late 30s. She looks way too young to 40. Then again this is a manga.

Well, being a State Alchemist, Mustang was already a Major when he started so he did get a bit of a head start.

As for Olivia, I've always imagined her to be in her late 30's maybe early 40's, simply because of the rank she has, but it's hard to tell for sure.

I read on the net that Roy's birthday is on Oct 25 1885. Is that really true? I mean so far as I've known Arakawa never wanted to publish such kind of information..

No, it's not. NO FMA characters have defined birth dates. Only year of birth, for some of them.

We know that Ed and Winry were born in 1899, Al was born in 1900 and both Roy and Hughes were born in 1885. But there's nothing about the month and day and I've seen various places and people claiming it was some particular date, but we're actually not even sure if the months in the FMA world are like ours! XD

That's just people making up.

If you are interested, though, the timeline of FMA, as stated in the Perfect Guidebook 1 is here: http://www.zomgfta.com/hagaren/timeline.html

~ Character Ages: A Few Questions ~

I tried doing a search for this thread, but didn't come up with anything. Sorry if this is a repost!

- Are Ed and Al still 15 and 14 in the manga?
- Have the ages of Mustang and the gang ever been mentioned?
- Say Al gains his body back in a year or two. Would his body grow during that time, or will his soul and body remain different ages?

I'm still getting caught up in the storyline, so sorry if any of these questions have blatant answers that I'm overlooking...

@Deadbeat007 - I try to answer your questions the best I can.

In the manga, Ed is 16 and Al 15, as almost a year has passed. Al's body is aging, so if he gets his body back, his 'soul age' and 'body age' will be the same.

Mustang's gang... now answer to that is more unclear. Mustang is 30 (he was 29 at the beginning of manga) but age of the others were never mentioned.
Breda, Havoc and Hawkeye are probably similar ages - all of them got to his team shortly after their graduation from military academy, so they are a few years younger than Musatang.
Fuery is (not sure here) younger than the three others... and I gave up on Falman. He might be older than all of them or he might just be young and grey. (I guess older but who knows?)

Tombow's link to character ages discussion isn't working for me so here it is in case there's something wrong with the link and not my computer.

@Deadbeat007 - About Mustang Tachi, there're some things we know:

It seems like Havoc was a colegue to Hawkeye in the academy (I remember Rebecca talking something about them being at the same class, or something of the sort), so they're both probably about the same age. Riza was at least 17 when her father died (since she said she 'went to school'), combined to her being at the last year of academy during Ishval, in 1908, which makes me believe she's around 2 to 3 years younger than Mustang, which makes both her and Havoc being about 27-28 years old. They're definitely not younger than that.

Falman and Breda are a little younger, but not too much younger since they're both 2nd lieutenants (except for Falman at the start of the manga).So I'm figuring they're probably Falman around 26 and Breda 26~27.

And finally, Fuery. He's a sargent, and of course, the youngest. I'm guessing he's not out of academy for long, but he's definitely long enough to be selected as a subordinate to Mustang after Ishval, so I'm guessing he's around 23, 24...

So, summering up, by my calculations, it's something around this: (though not confirmed and only estimatives)
Riza and Havoc: 27~28
Breda: 26~27
Falman: ~26
Fuery: ~23

Hello there, I have been pondering Zolf J. Kimblee's age for quite a long time. If I may, can I inquire about it here? I sincerely appreciate any responses.

If I remember correctly.
Ed is 15-16
Al is 14
Roy is 29 (in an omake it says he's already turned 30)
Maes was in the same class as Roy so 29-30
Ling is 15

The rest is speculation on my part.
Riza can't be that much younger than Roy, I'd say anywhere from 24-28
Ran Fan is implied to be slightly younger than Ling (the joke being that the two don't look their age)
Mei is older than she appears, so around 13? (once again the joke is that she's short)
Pinako is 60+
Hohenheim could be anywhere from 400 to over a thousand years old (takes time for a civilization to be wiped off the map)
Grumman and Bradley are in their 60's and Fu is even older.
Scar appears to be in his early to mid 30's.
Izumi I assume is in her mid 30's or early 40's
Armstrong is probably anywhere from his early to mid 30's
Olivier is impossible to tell but I'd guess between mid to late 30's
Marcoh and Dr. Knox appear to be in their late 40's to early 50's
Kimbley is likely in his early to mid 30's

Sorry, but I just have to ask - are you serious? I can assure you that neither Breda or Falman are in their 20's and they are so totally not younger than Mustang or Hawkeye (or Fury). I think that it's far more likely that Breda's in his mid 30's and Falman in his early 40's. At least. They can be even older. And even thought they are both 2nd lieutenants and Mustang is their superior, it doesn't mean automatically that they must be younger. Hell, Mustang's rank was major from the very beginning (because he's state alchemist) and because neither B or F had that advantage, it's only logical that they're lower in ranks. And I doubt neither of them was even in their 20's when they joined in the military.

Yeah... they could be older. But I don't think they're THAT older. Especially Falman: he doesn't look at ALL 40. Just because his hair is more 'white', that doesn't mean he's older: I've know people who're 24 and almost white haired. A big friend of mine is 27 and has more white hair than Falman.

But even so, it's pretty unusual for you to see any lieutenants over 35 years old. This is usually an official rank for younger people, unless it's like Armstrong's case, which was set aside because he flew from Ishval, so he didn't get any promotion since then and it's still a Major (which is pretty low, considering his a State Alchemist). And 6 years is a LONG time to go without promotions.

And the people that were Roy's age during Ishval are usually in the Lieutenant-colonel rank (or something close to that), which was Hughes' case.
The people who ARE lieutenants in the current situation are almost all of them along Havoc and Riza's age (such as Rebecca, Maria Ross, etc), which is 26~28. So, unless they were in academy along with Riza and Havoc, they're around 1, 2 years younger than them.

So, yeah, in my viewing, they're definitely not older than Roy. At least its my opinion and, since there's nothing to indicate if I'm right or wrong... well, it'll remain just an opinion.

Falman's a puzzle. You assume he has to be young just because Mustang chose young team as a whole. On the other hand there is something confusing about his appearamce, be it his greyish hair (doesn't mean automatically old but...) or his eyes.
What rank do you graduate from military academy in Amestris? I always assumed Hawkeye joint Mustang's team shortly after, rank 1st Lieutenant. If it's 1st Lieutenant that would mean Falman didn't attend and had to climb the ranks longer, meaning he's older.

*end of specualtion*

Agree on Breda and Havoc being around 26/27.