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Here's something I've thought about for a long time -- I'm guessing Dr. Elefun/Ochanomizu is a bit older than Tenma -- he's gotta be at least in his 50's, and I'd say Tenma is probably mid-40's so really they're both baby boomers (not if it's 2030, of course)

Seeing as how they're world class scientists, chances are, they were educated in the US. I picture Elefun as an Harvard or MIT grad who was at the Woodstock festival. He's a hippie in the very best sense of the word.

Tenma's way too uptight for that -- he probably went to RPI and was a reclusive guy who spent a lot of time online, listening to heavy metal music interspersed with J.S. Bach (I nearly fell off my chair laughing when they showed him playing a pipe organ in the 2003 series -- I was waiting for him to break into Toccata in G!)

I see Elefun "grew up" (bald/gained weight) and Tenma's still wearing his 1990's-style haircut and beard.

I wanna see a picture of these two "back in the day" -- if I were an illustrator I'd tackle that -- any takers out there??

In I think its volume 7 of the Dark Horse translation there is a part where you get to see a younger Dr. Elefun. He has a FULL head of hair!!!

No kidding!! Okay, so I need to get #10 and #7... I wish THAT pic could be posted.

I know in the 2003 series they showed Tenma as a teenager with his robot bear

Thanks for the scoop!

"AprilSeven" wrote:Seeing as how they're world class scientists, chances are, they were educated in the US.

There were and still are world class scientists in many many countries... Anyway, for the sake of argument, I'm fine with imagining them as US students.

Somehow Tenma did manage to marry and have a child at a relatively young age (around 30), so he can't be that seclusive, he had to have a few social skills, not to mention that being the head of a ministry also requires interactions. I suppose that side of him went away once he lost his son.

I also loved watching him playing the organ. It's as if he needed a sense of beauty of some kind, instead of all these violent plots.

I forget which reference book I saw it in, but, in any timeline where the series is set in 2003, Tenma was born in 1966 and Ochanomizu/Elefun in 1951. Either I'm making things up in my head, or I remember Young!Ochanomizu mentions having been to Europe in volume seven.

I always thought the younger Tenma always looked the same, minus the beard. And yeah, Ochanomizu had the Asian equivalent of an afro.

"AprilSeven" wrote:No kidding!! Okay, so I need to get #10 and #7... I wish THAT pic could be posted.

I know in the 2003 series they showed Tenma as a teenager with his robot bear

Thanks for the scoop!

If you get #7 you need to get #6 and #8 too. It is one long story.
(And you get to see Elefun's hair disappear lol)

BTW -- I don't mean to sound like an America-first dweeb or anything -- just thinking of where young Japanese students of that era would go for a college education (if they were the "best of the best"). Was also considering Oxford for Elefun (he had a British accent in the original US series) -- like a Rhodes scholar or something. I could picture him studying with Stephen Hawkings (and liking the Beatles).

Elefun with a 'fro!! Yeah and love beads! Definitely!

Tenma reminds me soooo much of the guy I almost married (physically, brainy, intense), he's just a certain type of geek - and I don't doubt for a second he could run the ministry, and not surprised he married, etc. But he's a demanding personality. That's what makes him so fascinating.

But I don't picture him at a peace march or wearing a ban-the-bomb t-shirt (I DO see Dr. E doing that because he's very focused on egalitarian matters).

Hey, I guessed the ages pretty closely!

"LLM" wrote:In I think its volume 7 of the Dark Horse translation there is a part where you get to see a younger Dr. Elefun. He has a FULL head of hair!!!

Thats another great reason I have to look into getting copies of that. I'd enjoy seeing the original translated story.

Its interesting that although the characters were created so long ago the dates of birth seem reasonable by todays standards give we see them in 03. Makes you wonder if there are some very similar people out there right now.

"AprilSeven" wrote:Elefun with a 'fro!! Yeah and love beads! Definitely!

I... must... make... this... TO PHOTOSHOP!!! AWAAAAAAYYY!!!

"Astro Forever" wrote:[QUOTE=AprilSeven;98105]Seeing as how they're world class scientists, chances are, they were educated in the US.

I also loved watching him playing the organ. It's as if he needed a sense of beauty of some kind, instead of all these violent plots.[/QUOTE]
I believe the organ was likely to make a reference to THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. I recall that in one of the Pink Panther films, Dreyfus was playing the pipe organ as he was being disintegrated. I think that was a parody-- oops, I think Capt Nemo also played the organ as the Nautilus went to its doom.