!DANGER!
If we assume the show is set in 2015, the first 3 minutes of episode 1 need to take place in 2014. Everything else after this takes place from April 2015 onwards. If we look at the calendar for April 2015, we could estimate that between 02:55 and 03:43 on the 6th of April [5].
Everything between 03:44 to 08:28 happens on different days. From 08:28 to 18:26 we can say is the 17th April.
We can then say that the episode ends on Sunday (19 April) evening.
The show opens to show Yuu standing in the street, he looks up and sees a comet passing over. There is no way to determine a date here, but this is not the Charlotte comet itself as detailed in a later episode. The next shot (0:55) shows summer [1], autumn [2] and winter [3], then Yuu attending the enterance ceremony [4].
The 17th of April is calculated from Yuu's recent medical exam, which Tomori holds up (11:01) and it is dated 15th April so the event has to take place afterwards. The next shot shows Yuu and Ayumi moving in to Hoshinoumi Academy's dorms [7] [8].
We get the 19th of April from moving in taking up the weekend.
Tomori's estimated age is 15 at this point [10].
| [1] | Evidenced by the weather - sunny, cicada sounds, ect. |
| [2] | Evidenced by the trees now having yellow leaves, and leaves being on the ground. (01:22). |
| [3] | Evidenced by students now wearing coats, gloves and scarves at 02:45, as Yuu takes the enterance exams. Addationally, in Japan, entrance exams are usually in mid-January/Feburuary [23] so this now needs to be the new year (2015) . |
| [4] | In Japan, the school year starts in April. [23] |
| [5] | Assuming that the school would have it's enterance ceremony on Monday. |
| [6] | As an inconsistancy, there is a calendar on the wall at 22:54 which has the number "5" shown, to indicate May, but I'm ignoring this per #7 below. |
| [7] | There is a calendar at 23:17, above Ayumi's head which shows April. The writing is a bit faint, but visible. |
| [8] | It appears they spend the entire day moving in, starting in the morning (18:26). Tomori and Joujirou are leaving but Ayumi says she is about to make dinner, implying the evening. [9] |
| [9] | It's not possible to determine when exactly the move into the dorms happened. We could assume it happened the next day (seeing as Hoshinoumi Academy moves quickly). |
| [10] | Tomori's age is estimated to be 15 based on she is a first year in high school. In Japan, most people start high school when 15. [22] |
From episode 1, we can still conclude that it is Monday, 20th April 2015.
Tomori's flashback (14:58) takes place in 2012. A year passes [13] and now assumed around or April 2013. Tomori meeting Shunsuke likely happened sometime near this date.
A calendar is visible at 00:08. While the legibility is poor,
In Tomori's flashback, she mentions she had just passed the middle school [11] enterance exams [12].
At 16:01 there is calendar behind Tomori and her brother. This seems to have 29 numbers on it. Going back on real world calendars, Feburuary 2012 is a leap year and has 29 days. This puts Tomori's estimated age at this moment as 12.
There isn't any evidence to say when Tomori escaped from the school, only that at least 1 year had passed since she started there.
Calender again says May. (21:34)
| [11] | In Japan, middle school [22] is between ages of 12 to 15. |
| [12] | Meaning she would have had to have taken these in January or Feburuary of that year. [23] and started the school in April 2012. |
| [13] | In the dub, at 17:40 she says "A year later". |
Estimated to be May 2015. Specific date is unknown. It does appear that the entire episode takes place within one day.
A calendar on the wall at 21:30 shows "5" to indicate May.
Still May 2015, with a specific date is unknown. Tomori arranges for the baseball game to be "next Sunday" [14].
A calendar on the wall at 00:30 shows "5" to indicate May.
| [14] | The wording here is ambiguous. As everyone is in school uniforms, it implies not the upcoming Sunday, but the following Sunday. If the calendar is correct, this could mean the 13th, 20th or 27th of May 2015 by assuming the upcoming Sunday is the 6th, at a minimum. |
The episode starts on Thursday 28th May and runs up until 05:19. Friday until 11:37, Saturday until 15:22 and Sunday (31st May) until the end of the episode.
The evidence for the end date comes from that episode 6 has a uniform change, which takes place on a set date each year [25]. If we track the passage of time using the day-night cycle, we can see that 3 days have passed.
At 14:42 on what would be Saturday, Yuu says "tomorrow is Monday, right?" this is taken to be after midnight and "tomorrow" doesn't mean 'the morning to come in a few hours' [15], but the day after [16].
At 14:13 Yuu and Joujirou talk about how long the powers will remain. He says the powers should be gone by the time they graduate highschool [22]. Yuu comments "2 more years".
| [15] | Seeing as they are sleeping in 4 hour blocks. |
| [16] | (1, 2) Any conclift over this date only means the dates on the next episode get pushed back by one. |
This episode takes place from Monday the 1st of June onwards. 2nd June starts from 15:02. 3rd June starts from 16:46 until the end of the episode, which means Ayumi dies on the 3rd of June [16].
The 1st June estimation is determined by the uniform change from winter to summer, which traditionally happens on the 1st of June [25]. We see at least 2 day cycles pass.
We take that the episode starts the next day (4th June). The date of the funeral is unclear but would have happened as soon as possible [18]. We can assume this would have taken place anywhere between the 5th of June (Friday) to the 7th (Sunday).
Yuu is in a depressive state and runs away, until Tomori finds him. The episode ends still in June 2015 but it is unclear when in June.
The episode could easily could be on the same day Episode 6 ended on. Tomori says Ayumi attended school from the 3rd period onwards [17] [26], which could put her death at around midday. Yuu wakes up, suggesting some period of unconsciousness, but the legnth is unclear so we shall assume it is the next day.
We see a calendar at 20:43. This matches up to June 2015.
| [17] | In the dub, at 18:18. |
| [18] | From Wikipedia. |
There is a timeskip between the last episode and this one. The entire episode takes place on the 19th of July (which, oddly is a Sunday). The episode takes place within 1 day.
At 08:05, Tomori slams down a concert ticket on the desk, which had the date "7.20" on it, which Yuu says "for tomorrow night's peformance" [19].
| [19] | Coincidentally, it is also the start of the school's summer break [27]. |
The episode takes place on the 20th of July.
From 6:45 onwards to 17:30 this is an alternative view, 'parallel world' or 'alternative timeline', but it is July or August 2015.
Sala Shane, the blind singer, said at the concert that they would be premiering their new song 'Trigger'. Yuu is listening to the song so it needs to be on or after 20th July 2015, with the date being on the ticket from the previous episode.
Important
Following on from episode 9, this is from Shunsuke's point of view, of a 'parallel world' or 'alternative timeline'.
This is estimated to be April 2011.
We are back to the present day, which is the 20th July.
This is a time travel. Yuu has jumped back to the 1st June. Everything that happened from the 1st June till now (episode 6 till now) is on another timeline that no longer exists because Yuu has just changed the course of history.
Is the 3rd of June, 2015.
At 00:30 Ayumi she is 8 years old and Shunsuke says they get captured "around 3 years from now".
Addationally, we see a calendar on wall at 02:09. This calendar has 30 days, the red numbers are Sundays [20], so the month starts on a Friday and ends on a Saturday. This gives us some contenders: November 2013, June 2012 and April 2011.
- November 2013 is ruled out as the clothing worn doesn't match the weather/environment for November.
- June 2012 would mean they would be captured in 2015. Ayumi would be 11 and in the last year of elementary school.
- April 2011 would mean they would be captured in 2014, in 2015 Ayumi would be 12 and able to be in middle school [21].
A night hasn't past yet following the concert on 20th July.
Ayumi becomes ill, and Pooh comes to the school about her collapse ability, which is the same as episode 6, which is already estimated as June 1st.
From episode 6, Ayumi was attacked by her classmate.
| [20] | From timeanddate.com. |
| [21] | In episode 1 at 15:50, Ayumi says she and Yuu were getting transfered to "Hoshinoumi Academy's middle school and high school, meaning Ayumi has to be 12 [22] in 2015. |
The episode starts on 3rd June.
The Charlotte comet passed by Earth at some point in 2003.
From 08:04, it is estimated to still be the 3rd of June. Tomori is kidnapped at nighttime on this day (11:31).
It is the 4th of June from 17:47 until the end of the episode.
Calculated from episode 10, and episode 6 when Ayumi would have died.
At 03:34, the scientist says the comet passed by the Earth 12 years ago. If this is 2015, that means it passed in 2003.
There is a weather change, the end of episode 10 was overcast. However at 8:04 the weather becomes sunny, this could mean the weather cleared up. More importantly, we don't see Yuu or Ayumi change clothes either. We see it is nighttime at 11:31 when Tomori is kidnapped.
There are some jumps in the time to calculate this. The kidnappers call to Shunsuke (12:03) needs to have happened after Tomori was kidnapped (11:31) as they explicitly say they have kidnapped her too (12:33). This has to be after she helped save Ayumi (21:14, episode 10). Shunsuke calls Furuki immediately after (13:11) and we see that it is daytime outside of Furuki's car windows (13:35). Yuu leaves (17:47) after Shunsuke and his team plan what to do.
Important
Yuu wakes up on the 6th of June.
He spends several weeks/months recovering from his injuries.
Yuu leaves the country at some point before the 1st of October.
At 00:33, X says "it's only been 2 days since the surgery.
Time passes, but it is not possible to calculate it. We see that Yuu has recovered some (05:22) and doesn't need to be immobilised anymore, and we see him do physiotherapy (09:36 and 12:59). Injuries like this are not healed quickly and can take weeks to months to heal. We also see that Yuu celebreates his 16th birthday at 11:49.
We see Tomori still wearing the summer uniform as Yuu leaves on his flight (22:53). The uniforms change to winter on the 1st of October [25] so it's safe to say Yuu was recovering throughout July, August and left towards the end of September 2015.
Estimated to be April, or October of 2016 or 2017.
It is not possible to determine any definitive date of when this takes place.
At 20:07 we see Tomori in the winter uniform, so we know as a guarantee that it needs to be between 1st October and 1st June [25]. Based on the weather outside Yuu's hospital window, we see that it is sunny and bright with birds singing. At a guess this would be April.
The last shots show people wearing jackets, suggesting it is warm but not too hot, humid or uncomfortable, which aligns with the month being April and October.
If Yuu left in September, if he was gone for 6 months this would put the time around April 2016. If he was gone for a year, this could put the date in October 2016. 1 year, 6 months at April 2017. 2 years at October 2017.
This section is more for the visual graph. While some information is not mentioned in the anime, we can use the information we have already gathered to determine other facts.
Her age, or date of birth is never mentioned. However because of Japan's school system, we can assume that she is 15 in April 2015. This would mean she is 11 when her mother "betrays" her, and 12 when she starts the new school. This is also backed up because she says in episode 2 at 14:47 that she had just passed the middle school enterance exams.
We are told in episode 10 at 00:32 that Ayumi is 8 years old, but we don't know directly what year this is. For Ayumi to be in middle school in 2015, she needs to be 12. Working backwards, that means she is 8 in 2011.
Like Tomori's, it is never mentioned when his date of birth is. However we see in episode 10 at 04:23 that he celebreates his 15th birthday, but we don't know what year it is. If he is 15 in 2011, he is 19 in 2015 and his power might have vanished. However, if we say he is 15 in 2012, he is 18 in 2015.
In an interview, Key/Visual Arts said that Yuu's journey took 6 months. However, considering the route Yuu took, it doesn't appear logically possible.
The route Yuu took, as shown in the anime is the Philippines, South Africa, Egypt, Afghanistan, India, Peru, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Poland, Sweeden, Finland, Russia, France, Portugal, UK, Sicily, New York, Arizona, Siberia, Cambodia, Turkey, Australia, China (Beijing). Here is the route mapped on Google Maps.
A post on reddit estimated that there may be around 25,355,958 ability users, not counting carriers. Another reddit user on the same post estimated that if Yuu took 50 abilities a day, it would take him 1,389 years to take all abilities. Another user estimated he would need to steal abilities from 34,734 people a day for Yuu to finish within 2 years.
I stopped the line at 1 year and 6 months, as episode 13 seems to end more in April over October. Furthermore, extending the line further and further adds nothing of value as the exact time he was travelling can not be determined.
This section is for references tied to real world events, such as exam dates, uniform switches, etc.
| [22] | (1, 2, 3, 4) Taken from web-japan.org, criced.tsukuba.ac.jp and gogonihon.com. |
| [23] | (1, 2, 3) The exact dates exams are held vary from school to school, but typically early in the year (January/Feburuary). Some references for this include Wikipedia, asia-u.ac.jp (Translated). |
| [24] | The exact dates for exam results vary from school to school, but per this reference (translated), from the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education says the results are announced throughout March. |
| [25] | (1, 2, 3, 4) Students change into summer uniforms from 1st June and into winter uniforms from 1st October. From allabout-japan.com |
| [26] | The timetables differs between school years and schools themselves. For reference, elementary school (Okinawa International School, Japanese Ministry of Education via JET, abandonedkansai.com). Middle school (Okinawa International School). High school (Grades 10-12, bokukoi.hatenablog.com) |
| [27] | Per web-japan.org the summer break is typically lasts for 40ish days between 20th July to 31st August. Winter break for 10ish days between 26th December to 6th January. Spring break for 10ish days between 25th March to 5th April. The new school year starts at the end of the spring break. |