Based on your observations, do you think anime characters look like their given age?

Depending on the show, I've seen characters who look much older than they really are and some much younger. Especially when they're supposed to be 14, I can watch a different anime and sense that a character with the same age is either older or younger than the one I am comparing him\her to (both emotionally and physically).

Most characters look older than their given age, and I have a hard time remembering what their given age _is_ because of that. The seiyuu has a lot to do with it too. Sometimes, the voice of a seiyuu is just too mature for what the character should be.

I think that there is some Anime that the characters look much older or younger than they are said to be in the anime. for example Ichigo from bleach looks about 18-19 years old but in the series that I've seen he is said to be 15 years old.

But well... IRL some people may look/sound older or younger.

I don't think that seiyuu may make their characters older if they are fit.

i somtimes get confused with the ages of character's.

I suppose a part of that depends on if the creators want any loli mo-e or boobs mo-e lol... Especially if there's fanservice, the "teens" look a bit too well-developed.

But if it's a normal anime, you can usually determine the age when given their status, behavior, voice, appearance, and all that.

If that's not the case then the drawings alone can be hard to go by, like a 28-yr old teacher looks the same as a 16-year old student, just taller.
But like you said, character designs are all relative and vary from anime to anime. It all works out in the end though, that's for sure!

i think it depends on the anime, sometimes u get little girls that seem to have the body of girls that should be a lot older...

it depends on the series. sometimes they look older than their given age, sometimes younger. there's really no general consensus.

Hmmm....
Depends on the series.... Sometimes they look younger, sometimes they look older.
But i think most of them look older. They also seem to be much more matured than their actual age. There's also this trait where the voice of the character seems to be over matured for their age.

Actually, I think it doesn't depend so much on the series, but how the characters are drawn in a certain series. Some animators like to draw everyone lanky, such as Tsubasa Chronicle. In episode three, Kurogane's arms look wayyyyy too long at one point. Also, it seems height is focused on to display age in that show. They often refer to Syaoran as a teenage kid, and I guess him and Sakura are supposed to be, but I can't help as view them older than just teenagers because of how they're drawn.

In other animes, characters look younger than they're supposed to be, such as in Mahoromatic. (We'll set aside that that anime was almost *entirely* fanservice [that teacher with the obsession with the main character comes to mind....]). The characters seemed to be younger than they were really. I think they were supposed to be in high school, but they appeared to be in middle school.

I don't think some anime character look the age they are they do look older at times to me.

Well, it does depends but one which is obvious is Tenipuri. Some really looks like they are Senior High School than Junior High School Student.... hehe!

Depends really. But most of the time, they look a older than they their actual age. The common age for most anime nowadays are about 15-17. But if you look at the art, they alwalys look like they are in their late teens.

I agree.. usually they look older.. specially the girls.. tooo well developed!
In fact, the only animes i think kinda respect the ages of their characters are:
CCS- they do look like they're on their early adolescence
Ranma 1/2- the difference between adults and teens is bigger than in other anime's.. the adults have longer faces, young girls r developed but not THAT much.. etc
Animes that didn't respect the ages of their char:
Sailor Moon- The girls where supposed to be 14! No way! And Chibi-Usa is SO short.. she looks like she's 4! And she's supposed to be older.. In this anime u had people that looked like babies or like adults! nothing in the middle! I wonder when did they grow up? overnight?

Sometimes, it's hard to imagine that a character like Alucard could be 300-something years old. But mostly, looks can be quite decieving. Also, Chibi Moon may be small and cute like a schoolgirl but...but...she's so much older...hm... a few hundred years old...