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Artistic Age: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A character's age isn't always easily apparent. There's "youngin's" who are [[Older Than They Look]] or [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]], and "adults" who are [[Younger Than They Look]]. However, sometimes the characters age is obfuscated -- not from the rest of the cast, but us viewers.
For whatever reason, the artist has taken [[Artistic License]] in how they depict the character's age. They might be drawn as younger or older than they really are, or in vague enough strokes that we superimpose whatever age we want on the characters.
'''This can serve a few different purposes:'''
# The character is younger than he or she looks. This is often done in order to depict [[Fan Service]], violence and other mature behavior that would otherwise be very inappropriate if the characters actually looked as young as they are. Some viewers [[Fridge Logic|might still find it inappropriate]] upon learning the character's canonical ages. This is much like a drawn version of [[Dawson Casting]]. See also [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]].
# The character is older than he or she looks. Artists probably do this to have mature storylines without losing younger viewers. This is somewhat like casting [[Hollywood Homely]] and [[Generic Cuteness]], in that everyone is drawn in such a way that they seem attractive, or in this case the same age.
# The character models are sufficiently undefined that the player/viewer can superimpose whatever age they want on the protagonist, thus effectively bridging most any age gap to draw in a wide spectrum of viewers. Older and younger viewers will feel surprised after they [[All There in the Manual|find out their real age]] and realizing it's not the same as theirs.
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** [[Teens Are Short|Until you see one of the Gundam pilots standing next to an adult]].
** Of course this is just following a long ''Gundam'' tradition: some particularly weird ones are [[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ|Judau]] [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Judau_Ashta.jpg Ashta] (age 14; looks at least 17), [[Mobile Suit Gundam|Bright]] [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/Bright_Noah_%28Gundam%29.jpg Noa] (age 19; looks at least 22), and [[Mobile Suit Gundam|Kacylia]] [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/gundam/images/2/23/Kacylia_Zabi_%28Gundam%29.jpg Zabi] (age 27; looks at least in her late 30s). Though Heero at least looks closer to his given age without the near- permanent scowl.
* The main characters in the ''[[Battle Royale]]'' manga are all supposed to be 9th graders, ages 14 to 15, (except Shogo, who got held back) but most of them look like they're in their twenties at least. Possibly to make all the [[Gorn|extremely graphic violence]] a little easier to swallow.
** Shogo looks like a 40 to 50-year-old [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]]. He's...oh, sixteen?
** There are also some characters that are type 2; Yutaka, for example, appears to be about ten. This, however, is [[Truth in Television]]: there are quite a few people in early high school who look younger than they actually are.
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* In ''[[Black Cat (manga)|Black Cat]]'', Woodney, Train's imposter, is revealed to only be 20 years old. [http://onemanga.com/Black_Cat/44/10/ He doesn't look 20].
* Jin from ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' has a face that looks more like someone in his early thirties, but he's actually only 20. Him complaining about his back hurting in one episode doesn't help either.
* Lucia, from ''[[Venus Versus Virus]]'' is only fifteen years old, though she looks like she is at best eighteen. The fact that she [[Smoking Is Cool|smokes]] doesn't make it any better.
** She looks more her age in the manga, [[Art Evolution|beginning at]] volume 4.
* Rei and Asuka from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' appear roughly seventeen despite being fourteen, presumably for the sake of [[The Merch]]. Contrast them with their alleged classmate, Hikari.
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* ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' has this (especially with 13-year-old heroine Lucia), mainly because Hanamori Pink can't seem to draw any female character (besides [[Enfante Terrible|Yuuri]] and [[Kid Appeal Character|Seira]], both very young girls) flatter than a D-cup. And that's why [[She's a Man In Japan|changing Lady Bat to a girl]] instead of a [[Wholesome Crossdresser]] doesn't work.
* ''[[Zettai Karen Children]]''. Before the [[Time Skip]], the main heroines are 10 and look 10, but afterwards, they're 12 and look more 15-16.
* ''[[Wandering Son]]'' has a few characters, mostly Doi and Chiba (especially Chiba). The latter did look like a ten - eleven year old at first, but starting around volume 4 her appearance became more of a mid-aged teenager. It matches her mature, and angsty personality, too.
** The predecessor to the manga, ''Shikii no Junin'', relied heavily on [[Artistic Age]]. The characters can't be older then 11, but they all look like they're at least 16. It doesn't help that with [[Art Evolution]], whenever Shimura draws the protagonists in her [[Wandering Son]] styles, he looks like his actual age (and a lot like Nitori).
* ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'''s characters have appearances based on their personality, maturity, or whatever their shtick is, despite all of them being around the same age (15-18). The series is very self-aware, however, and never fails to lampshade how absurd some of the characters look.
* in Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan, Zakuro is canonically 9, when physically she looks about 18, due to her...features.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Pretty much all Western comics, especially Marvel and DC. Characters who are supposed to be in their early- or mid-teens are regularly drawn with the musculature and...[[Most Common Superpower|endowments]] of someone much older. This is so pervasive that listing the exceptions would be easier.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Angela in ''[[Silent Hill]] 2'' is actually nineteen, even though she looks to be mid-thirties or so. This was done to make her look [[Rule of Scary|more than a little off]].
* ''[[Crisis Core]]'' has an odd example: when Cloud first shows up in the game he's only 14 years old...but, Cloud doesn't look any different than usual, and is voiced by [[Takahiro Sakurai]] and Steve Burton, like always. The only reason you buy that he's a kid is his ''attitude''.
*** Looking at Angeal, you'd think he's hitting his mid to late thirties, what with the muscles and the [[Perma-Stubble]]. Turns out he's actually 25 years old, born ''after'' Genesis.
* Ages are amazingly hard to judge in general in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' universe. For an excellent example, let's take Auron from ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'': he's widely considered to be a great warrior from the past generation, has plenty of wrinkles and greying hair, and yet is only thirty-five. Then again, his life has sucked badly enough to make him prematurely decrepit. {{spoiler|And being dead and still aging probably didn't help either.}}
** This causes a lot of problems in the spin-off ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' - Bartz looks and acts closer to Zidane's age (16) and is practically babysat by the extremely mature and stoic Squall. This tends to shock people to learn that Squall is only 17 and Bartz is his ''senior'' (and in fact one of the oldest heroes) at 20.
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* [[Iji]] is supposed to be twenty but she looks like she's about high school age. Despite canonically being a decent height for a man the size of her gun gives her the appearance of [[Small Girl, Big Gun]] and the lack of assets to that could make her look older.
* ''Everyone'' in the ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' series. The main characters (in particular, your own character and potential spouses) look to be about 10-12 despite ''getting married and drunk''. Your potential spouses' parents tend to look maybe in their 30s or 40s, but anyone younger almost always looks like they haven't even hit puberty yet. Bonus points if the game is in [[Chibi]] style.
** Rather [[Squick|squicky]] in the [[PlayStation]] 2 version of ''[[Harvest Moon a Wonderful Life]]'', where the 12 year old girl (Lumina) in the Gamecube version is now apparently 18 and available to marry...without changing her appearance at all. In the JPN version she was sixteen in SE.
* [[Earthbound|Does Ness]] [http://starmen.net/mother2/images/official/clay_m2ness.png seriously] [[Word of God|look 13]]?
** Note that those in charge of localizing the American version clearly didn't think so, and made a new clay model that makes him look considerably older, to the point that he could almost pass for 13. [http://earthboundcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/claycompare1.jpg Compare the two models for yourself].
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' all the characters are [[Chibi]], so their real age is hard to pin down by just looking at them. Their ages ranged from a 6 year old white mage to a 33 year old knight and Quina, who's an nonhuman gag character with little in the way of biographical information like age or ''gender''.
* Most characters in ''[[Disgaea]]'' may be [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]], but that doesn't mean that characters don't find themselves subject to this by merit of just comparing age. We seriously doubt that you would have guessed that Mao and Raspberyl are about the same age (1578), that Yukimaru is 20, or that Adell (17) is younger than Almaz (18), without looking at their listed ages.
* In the [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] franchise, while Sonic's age is stated to be 15, his actions, size, design, and manner of speech make it just as easy for him to be whatever age the player is, though it has been noted that [[Sonic Generations|he was once much younger than he is in the current game series]].
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Class 3-A in ''[[Negima]]'' is all around 14-15 years old. Their actual character designs run from Type 1 to Type 2, and even some who actually ''look'' like teenagers in the middle. This has gotten ''[[Playing with a Trope|numerous]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade hangings]].
* ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' have largely avoided this with the main cast (especially the girls) actually looking relatively like 14/15-year olds. Bianchi (18) and Adult Lambo (15) who are Type 1 and the two 5-year olds who are Type 2 are some of the more noticeable exceptions.
** ''Really'' jarring when, in a flashback, Gokudera is of a normal height at three years old.
* ''[[Baccano!]]'' has a case where three major characters (Firo, Luck, and Claire) were all roughly the same age (19, give or take a year), but don't look like they could be. Firo's Type 2 status [[Older Than They Look|has been pointed out in the books]], but few would ever pick up on the fact that Luck is physically ([[Immortality|and chronologically]]) ''younger'' than Claire unless they looked at their family photos.
* ''[[Kamichama Karin]]'' has both Type 1 and Type 2; the younger characters (around 12-13) look more like elementary schoolers than middle schoolers, where as the older characters (14-15) look more like highschoolers.
** Everyone except the older characters is drawn as a chibi, which makes accurately ageing them just by looking very hard to do.
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