May-December Romance: Difference between revisions

It refers to a romantic relationship where there is a drastic difference in age between the two participants. These seem to be less common in modern media, perhaps because some now perceive them to be [[Squick|Squicky]]y. However, they still crop up from time to time; they're very common in [[Soap Opera|soaps]] in particular.

* If a writer is [[Pair the Spares|Pairing The Spares]] or [[Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends]], they may pull a [[Last -Minute Hookup]] between two odd characters.

Keep in mind that for a true '''May-December romanceRomance''', one of the partners must be in the "winter" of life, that is, in the "senior citizen" range, while the other is in "spring." You might find the idea of a 40 year old dating an 18 year old to be [[Squick|squickysquick]]y, but it's not a true May-DecemberMay–December romance because a 40 year old is not in the "winter" of life. Similarly, a 65 year old dating a 40 year old isn't a true May-DecemberMay–December romance, because a 40 year old isn't in the "spring" of life, either. To clear up one last bit of confusion that's been cropping up, the fact that one of the participants may be underage (definitely the "spring" of life), doesn't ''automatically'' make the relationship a May-DecemberMay–December romance. As a rule of thumb, look at the picture on this page. See how the man might be mistaken for the woman's ''grandfather''? ''That's'' a May-DecemberMay–December romance.

See also [[Lolicon]] and [[Shotacon]] for when folks go after ''much'' younger partners, as well as [[Christmas Cake]] and [[Likes Older Women]]. [[Wife Husbandry]] is when someone ''intentionally'' raises a younger person to be their spouse. When the December is a woman, she may be [[Mrs. Robinson]]. Compare [[December -December Romance]] for romantic pairings between older characters and [[Merlin and Nimue]] for non-romantic partnerships with a large age gap and a gender difference. Often the result of an [[Unequal Pairing]], and almost inevitable with [[Parental Incest]].

* {{spoiler|Noriko}} and her husband {{spoiler|university professor Tetsuya Ukai}} in ''[[Gravitation]]''

* An issue (for one of the characters anyway) at some point in the series ''[[Skip Beat (Manga)|Skip Beat!]]'', though the difference in age isn't so bad as another random couple being used as an attempt to resolve the issue, in which a student and teacher married once she was finished school...and the teacher was almost the same age as the student's father.

* All over the place in ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga)|Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', as well as a lot of ''[[CLAMP]]'''s other works.

** Several people -- notpeople—not least Misato herself -- makeherself—make occasional jokes about Misato sleeping with Shinji. But the "joke" runs thin {{spoiler|in episode 23, by which point she's a barely-functioning mess in mourning for Kaji, and Shinji's faring even worse, in mourning for Rei (who soon gets better) and upset with his life in general. Misato enters Shinji's room, where he is lying on his bed, sits by him, and tries to hold his hand, telling him, "Right now, this is all I can do for you". The visuals of the scene, which are [[Freud Was Right|Freudian even by the ultra-Freudian standards of the series]], suggest that she intends something sexual -- or at the very least, something physically way beyond his comfort zone.}} When Shinji yells for her to stop and shrinks away in disgust, she flees the room, apologizing. Soon thereafter, Shinji runs away again, and that's pretty much the last time she's ever entrusted in a position as his "guardian", since later, there's her "goodbye kiss" and accompanying remarks.

* Although the gap is significantly smaller than usual--aboutusual—about six or seven years between 14 Usagi and 20-ish Mamoru--itMamoru—it's a big enough deal in the ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' anime that Usagi worries about her father's reaction. As well, Naru and Nephrite fall in love, prompting Usagi to use his (apparent) age as a reason for Naru to avoid him. In the manga, however, both men are only in their late teens and act their ages.

** Let's be fair to Mamoru: we're never told ''how'' old he is in the anime, only that he is in university - that places him somewhere in the 17-22 age bracket. A flashback in the ''R'' movie shows a 4 or 5-year-old Usagi with a not-older-than-12 Mamoru {{spoiler|some days after the deaths of Mamoru's parents ''and'' the birth of Shingo}}, so the age difference is more of May -September than May -December.

* The [[Interspecies Romance|main couple]] of ''[[WolfsWolf's Rain]]'' qualify for this on two levels: [[Mysterious Waif|Cheza]] looks to be about 13, but is [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Really Two Hundred Years Old]], and [[Bishonen|Kiba's]] human form looks about 20, but he's only about 2 or 3 in wolf years. Either way you slice it, there's quite an age gap.

* A one-sided version of this trope is used for laughs in ''[[Ranma One Half½]]''. Doctor Tofu is a licensed chiropractor who has been practicing as a professional at least since Akane was in primary school (and who may be over 100 years old, [[Epileptic Trees|if one takes a certain comment seriously]]). He is also desperately in love with Kasumi Tendo, a 19 year old girl, and has been since she was in Junior High herself. Kasumi isn't aware of this, primarily because Tofu is so infatuated that the mere sound of her voice turns him from a practical, level-headed person into a flipped out weirdo who can be a danger to himself and everyone around him with his mindless antics. Akane, meanwhile, begins the series with [[Precocious Crush|a deep crush on Tofu]] that she's been sporting since she was about ''five years old''... though she gets over him shortly into the series' run, considering him more as her [[Big Brother Mentor]] from then on. Even though Kasumi gives no sign of even being aware of Tofu's feelings, never mind reciprocating them, Akane [[Shipper Onon Deck|believes]] that Kasumi and Tofu are destined to be together, and considers the idea "cute".

{{quote| '''Ranma:''' How come I never realized just how beautiful a woman in full bloom could be?!}}

** In fact, [[Rumiko Takahashi]] seems to dislike this trope. Though it is invoked in ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'', where Kyoko's husband Soichirou was also her teacher at high school, the man died not long after the wedding and her own parents at least once expressed distaste with Kyoko having married him in the first place. Later, when Yusaku Godai becomes the target of a [[Precocious Crush]] by his own student, Ibuki Yagami, he is disgusted by and quite disapproving of the idea. Meanwhile, in [[Inuyasha]], she tried as hard as she could to sink the [[Fan -Preferred Couple]] of [[Aloof Big Brother|Sesshomaru]] and [[Morality Pet|Rin]], mostly by the Koharu incident where the characters reacted to Miroku proposing to Koharu with shock and disgust and also by turning Rin into a [[Shipper Onon Deck]] for Sesshomaru/Kagura. For those unfamiliar with the series, Sesshomaru is a [[Really 700 Years Old]] dog-demon who, [[Draco in Leather Pants]] aside, is one of the [[The Stoic|coldest]] and most ruthless characters in the series and avoids being a major villain in the early part of the series only because he's really too apathetic. Rin, on the other hand, is a human girl who is barely prepubescent, and the source of Sesshomaru grudgingly realising humans aren't entirely insignificant.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' also has a one-sided version involving Asuna's (15) attraction to Takamichi (mid 30s). {{spoiler|Inverted in that Asuna turns out to be [[Older Than They Look|at least triple Takamichi's age]], if not practically immortal. She just [[Trauma -Induced Amnesia|doesn't remember...]] [[Break the Cutie|for pretty]] [[Apocalypse Maiden|good reasons]]. }} Another one-sided example would be Evangeline for Nagi, which is sort of funny considering the apparent ages of the two.

* In the ''[[Blue Drop]]'' anime, there is the relationship between the two main characters. Hagino is quite a bit older than Mari, since the Arume don't age as fast as human beings-- thebeings—the relationship between them would have become a [[Mayfly-December Romance]] if {{spoiler|Hagino wouldn't have died in the end}}. In any case, Hagino was already looking the same age when she arrived on earth five years earlier and was by then already an experienced space ship commander.

** Most fans [[Fan -Preferred Couple|prefer to think]] that Jeremiah hooked up with [[Ninja Maid]] Sayoko (who's in a similar age bracket) and then they adopted Anya.

** As for Tianzi and Xingke, [[Shipper Onon Deck|Kaguya ships them]].

* In ''[[Rah XephonRahXephon]]'', Haruka Shitow, who is about thirty, seems to have romantic interest in Ayato Kamina, who is seventeen. {{spoiler|As it turns out, this is because they ''used'' to be together before he got stuck inside [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|Tokyo Jupiter]] and was given [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]}}.

* Ian Vashti and his wife, Linda, in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]''. Ian is even [[Lampshade Hanging|called out on how young his wife is]], causing him to defensively note he waited until she was legal to marry her (or try anything else), before demanding they focus on the important reasons they're there and not on his young wife. They are 57 and 32, respectively, in the second season (which is when Linda first appears); it's also worth bearing in mind that they have a 14-year-old daughter, the [[Bridge Bunny]] Mileina.

* Arguably in ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' with Hikaru, Eagle and Lantis. Their exact ages are unknown (especially since the possibility of long life exists) but they're easily young adult men in their early to mid 20's. Hikaru is a 14 year old Middle Schooler.

* Itsuki "Ikki" Minami, the 15-year old protagonist of ''[[Air Gear (Manga)|Air Gear]]'' developed a crush on 20-something Simca pretty much the moment he first saw her. Simca, in turn, has reciprocated... sort of. It's an on-and-off thing. {{spoiler|Though he now has a girl his age as his link turner and partner: Ringo, his childhood friend.}}

* In ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'', Chief Soichiro Yagami is revealed to be 7 years older than his wife, Sachiko. Despite the tragedy that befalls the Yagami family, they are portrayed to have an otherwise [[Happily Married|normal, loving relationship with each other.]]

* ''[[Junjou Romantica]]'' loves this. While the Egoist couple may only have four years between them (and they angst plenty about that), the Romantica couple is ten years apart. And last but not least is the Terrorist duo-- 17duo—17 years apart, not to mention one is in high school and the other is a college professor. But it gets worse-- theworse—the student also happens to be the younger brother of the professor's ex-wife. And his boss' son.

* A ''very'' strange version occurs in the ''[[Two Thousand One Nights (Manga)|2001 Nights]]'' short story 'So Brief, So Lasting a Love.' Decades after her husband is sucked into a black hole and finding out she finds out she's dying from a disease, a colonist receives word that {{spoiler|the black hole that had sucked in her husband has returned. Due to the effects of the black hole on space-time, ''he's still in there and he hasn't aged a day.'' She is quickly shuttled to the black hole for them to be reunited for the last 60 seconds of their life... a minute that will last an eternity for those on the outside looking in. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Awwwww...]]}}

* Yoshihara Yuki's josei comedy manga ''[[Itadakimasu]]''; with the main couple being a middle-aged OL (office lady) in a relationship with her ex-husband's younger brother, who happens to be in high school for the first half of the manga. The fact that he's been in love with her since she married his brother, when he was in junior high, makes it even moreso.

* ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (Literaturenovel)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'': Howl and Sophie are an example in both ways: he's 27 and she's 18. Or if we take the aging curse into account, he's 27 and she's temporarily 90.

* In ''[[Detective Conan]]'', Inspector Juzo Megure and his wife Midori are also a May September deal. They met when she was in highschool and he was already a junior officer, meaning he was in his early-mid 20's.

* ''[[Ristorante Paradiso]]'' has the main couple, Nicoletta (early 20's) and Claudio (mid 40's), as well as Vito and Marina. {{spoiler|Also, Teo and Vanna.}}

* In ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]''{{'}}s Japanese version (and the dubs that follow it, like the Latin-American one), when Iori questions Miyako's crush on Ken since she's a year older than him, Miyako reveals that her mother is five years older than her father so she sees no problem with such hook-ups.

* In the anime ''[[Gungrave]]'', there was Harry and Sherry. Sherry was only twelve and Harry was a full grown man when they first met. Maria and Big Daddy is a more obvious example.

* Genderflipped in Kaoru Mori's ''[[A Bride's Story]]'' aka [[''Otoyomegatari]]'', where the bride Amir is a 20-year-old female [[Country Mouse]] and her arranged husband Karluk is a 12-year-old [[Cute Shotaro Boy]].

* In the extras of ''[[Tsukigasa (Manga)|Tsukigasa]]'', it turns out that the significantly older Toubee had been having an affair with an 18 year old whom he got pregnant and is now going to [[Shotgun Wedding|marry]]. Even his son is older than his fiancee.

* Midori in ''[[MaiMy-HiME]]'', who is 24 (although she tries to convince others that she's 17), is romantically interested in her professor, who is in his mid-fifties.

* Let us not forget Kenshin and Kaoru of ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', she's 17, he's 28. Though he at least is [[Older Than They Look]].

* The ending of ''[[Kobato.]]'' has {{spoiler|a reincarnated sixteen year old Kobato getting together with Fujimoto, who was in his mid-twenties and after an additional sixteen years, probably in his late thirties/forties.}}

** She has at last found an age-appropriate partner in the sprightly octogenarian [[Captain America (comics)|James Barnes]].

* In another [[DC Comics]] example, Black Canary and [[Green Arrow]] managed to have it both ways. Originally, Black Canary was the native of Earth 2 (which was populated by DC's [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] heroes), while Green Arrow was the native of Earth 1 (which was populated by the more contemporary heroes). In other words, Black Canary was at least twenty years older than Green Arrow. This wasn't that big of a deal back in the late 1960s, when the relationship was originally introduced, but as [[Comic Book Time]] widened their age difference, Black Canary was retconned into being the original's daughter who thought she was the original Black Canary due to memory tampering (a long, very convoluted story). A few years later, [[Crisis Onon Infinite Earths]] retconned all of that out. In the new continuity, the Black Canary Green Arrow dated was always the original's daughter, and Green Arrow was now at least a decade older than her.

* In the dystopian divergent timeline of the ''[[Age of Apocalypse]]'', where Magneto became the earth's greatest superhero and founded the X-Men, he and Rogue eventually married and even managed to have a son. This was still controversial among fans because they initially had a surrogate father-daughter relationship, because he mentored her in the use of her powers after she permanently absorbed the powers and part of the psyche of his own secretly long-lost biological daughter Polaris.

* There is quite a bit of it in [[X-Men (Comic Book)|the X-Men franchise]], starting with Professor Xavier's repressed crush on Jean Grey (this was written at a time when he was supposed to be in his twenties or thirties, so it was not as extreme an age difference as it was when they reused that plot element in the 1990s for the ''Onslaught'' arc. OccasionalyOccasionally it verges into May-SeptemberMay–September or [[Mayfly-December Romance]] territory as characters are rejuvenated through comicbookcomic book-science means or have powers that render them impervious to the effects of aging. Thus Magneto in the main timeline has the body of a man in his 30s since being de-aged and partially re-aged, which takes some of the sting out of his relationships with Cyclops' ex-girlfriend Lee Forrester and with Rogue. The chronological age difference is even more pronounced in the case of many of the romantic entanglements of Wolverine and Mystique, both of whom are canonically over 100 years old. In Logan's case Jean Grey, Mariko Yashida and Yukio were in their twenties and Melita Garner is probably in the same age-group. Mystique had an affair with Iceman, the youngest of the original five X-Men, which left her with fairly strong lingering feelings. On a more mundane level, there was Cannonball (16 years old at the time) and rockstar Lila Cheney.

* Played with in ''[[Ultimate Spider Man|Ultimate Spider-Man]]''. Spider-Man is presented as a teenager, while Black Cat is shown as an adult. She kisses him a few times, then actually takes off his mask and finds that there's a teenager under there. Her response? Vomiting.

* Played for [[Squick]] in "The Judas Contract" storyline from ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|New Teen Titans]]'' in the 1980s. Forty-plus Deathstroke the Terminator had an implicitly sexual relationship with fifteen-year-old psychotic Terra. Also shades of [[Mayfly-December Romance]], as Deathstroke is apparently immortal.

* In ''[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/185.htm The False Prince Andand The True]'', a young man on trial for his life is offered knowledge that will save him, for a price. {{spoiler|He agrees, his father insists on the marriage, and she turns out to be a beautiful princess younger than he was, under a [[Curse]].}}

{{quote| ''{{'}}You will not need to do that,' answered the old woman, 'you have only got to marry me, and you will soon be free.{{'}}''<br />

''{{'}}Marry you?' exclaimed he, 'but--but--I am not yet twenty, and you --why, you must be a hundred at least! Oh, no, it is quite impossible.{{'}}'' }}

== [[Fan FictionWorks]] ==

* Popular in ''[[Naruto]]'' fanfictionfan fiction. The title character is paired with Anko (who is at least ten years his senior) in a number of the more well-known/serious stories, including one of the more popular stories irght now, That Look, by lord of land of fire.

** Hell, ''Naruto'' fanfictionsfan fictions are a teasuretreasure trove for these. Sakura and Shikamaru are often paired up with [[Hot for Teacher|Kakashi]] and [[Comforting the Widow|Kurenai]] despite being thirteen years younger than them, Sasori (35) is sixteen years older than Deidara (19), and Kakuzu, who is 91, is paired up with Hidan, who is 22. And lets not get started on [[Memetic Molester|Orochimaru]].

* Lenore and Ragamuffin from ''[[Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl]]'', biologically. Lenore looks 10 years old physically and Ragamuffin looks around twenty years old in the comics. In reality they're actually [[Undead Child|100]] and [[Vampire|400]] years old, respectively. Not-so-surprisingly, they are the [[Fan -Preferred Couple]] of the fandom.

* ''[[Stray (Fanfic)|Stray]]'' is either a May/December or May/September romance, depending on whether you look at birth date or years of lived experience (there's [[Time Travel]] involved.) Adamska was born in 1944 and is twenty, Hal was born in the early to mid 1970s and is in his thirties.

* The most popular pairing in the '' [[Beyond Good and& Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' fandom is Jade/Double H, which would be an age difference of about 15-1615–16 years. However, some people also like paring Jade with Pey'j--which has hints of [[Parental Incest]] to go with its ''much'' larger age gap.

* Razputin from ''[[Psychonauts (Video Game)|Psychonauts]]'' has been paired with both of his camp counselors, Sasha and Milla--sometimesMilla—sometimes [[Plot -Relevant Age -Up|aged-up]], but [[Shotacon|sometimes not.]] He's ten years old to start with; Sasha and Milla's ages are not stated, but given the amount of history they have, they could easily be in their early to mid 30's.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]'' has the pairing of Yuffie and Vincent. They have no official ages, but she's a teenager, and he's been asleep in that coffin for some time.

* In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'', considering that [[Moe Anthropomorphism|America and England]] are countries, England has been around a lot longer than America, even raising America as [[Parental Substitute|an older brother.]] (SonewhatSomewhat softened by how their ''human'' ages of sorts are relatively close: America is the equivalent of a 19-year-old, while England is the equivalent of a man in his early-to-mid 20's)

** In fact, plenty of pairings involving [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|China and Turkey]], both seen interacting with their potential [[Love Interest|love interests]], Japan and Greece, who are a lot younger than them. Keep in mind there were strips where they were ''children'' while neither China or Turkey aged a day since then. Heck, even Japan and Greece might fall under this, considering that Japan is probably at least two thousand years old and Greece is shown as a child during Ottoman rule (sometime in the 1500s, probably hitting his growth spurt around the Greek Independence Wars), although most Greece/Japan fanworksfan works depict Greece as [[Wise Beyond Their Years|more mature than many other nations older than him]]. (And Greece also grew ''very'' fast by nation-tan standards, considering that he's said to look like he's in his late 20's now -- prettynow—pretty impressive, considering that he's still a kid around the Chibitalia years, but Italy looks ''much'' younger than Greece now.)

* This appears to be the case in warcraftthe ''[[Warcraft]]'' story ''[[Children of the Stars (Fanfic)|Children of the Stars]]'' -- the two leads are Night Elves, Ayuri (May) has been stated as just over 300, while Keleria (December) has lived since the War of the Ancients, which happened ''ten thousand years ago.'' Granted, they ''are'' Elves, so they both look of indeterminable age.

* The ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' fanfic ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110817024939/http://www.kataangforever.com/index.php?topic=14512.0 Comedy of Errors]'' pairs up Toph (18 as of this fic) and Iroh (70 as of this fic). The [[Tear Jerker|incredibly sad]] fic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6200018/1/Slumber_My_Darling Slumber My Darling] has the same pairing, but is entirely platonic, despite being a romantic relationship. And just when you thought this fandom couldn't imagine romantic love without sexuality!

* Most Doctor/Companion pairings for ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' are [[Mayfly-December Romance]], but during Rose Tyler's time on the show, Mickey Smith (early 20s)/Jackie Tyler (around 40) was a popular [[Ship Mates|Ship Mate]] to Ninth or Tenth Doctor/Rose in fanfiction. Less common now that {{spoiler|Mickey/Martha, Jackie/alternate Pete, and Rose/alternate Doctor}} are canon.

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2469698/1/The_Roots_of_the_Ivy_Extended_Edition The Roots of the Ivy]'', which features Merry/Eowyn pairing (he is much older than her, even for a hobbit). Though their main problem definitely [[Interspecies Romance|is not his age]]. Mostly canon up to the end of the books, then not so much. Though age difference becomes a huge problem later for {{spoiler|Ivy and Pippin}}.

* In ''[[Hunting the Unicorn (Fanfic)|Hunting the Unicorn]]'', [[Glee|Blaine]] has a very distinct pattern of pursuing (or being [[All Love Is Unrequited|pursued by]]) someone at least a couple of years older than him.

* In the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' [[Fanfic]] ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6026743/1/Requiem_for_Methuselah Requiem for Methuselah]'' Garfield Logan (Beast Boy) is immortal instead of a shape shifter and has a Romance with Raven who is 20, but is very depressed that he couldn't have a May-DecemberMay–December Romance with any of his previous wives because they would leave him once they discovered he was immortal.

* The ''[http://archiveofourown.org/series/12971 Nothing But Time]'' series of ''[[Homestuck]]'' fanfics focuses on the relationship between {{spoiler|alpha!}}John and {{spoiler|alpha!}}Dave. Considering John's own son in the fic is slightly ''older'' than Dave, the age gap between the two is pretty large.

* ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'': Some of the pairings involving [[Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!|the Medic]] can be this, such as pairing him with [[Bratty Half -Pint|the Scout]] or [[Sexy Secretary|Miss Pauling]].

* ''[[Labyrinth (Film)|Labyrinth]]'' has the goblin king, Jareth, fall in love with teenager Sarah Williams. It becomes even weirder when you realize that he's fey and thus could be centuries old.

** LetsLet's not forget that David Bowie, the actor who playsplayed Jareth, was in his late thirties, early forties; while Jennifer Connelly, Sarah, was fifteen going on sixteen.

* In Louis Malle's ''[[Pretty Baby]]'', a 12-year-old girl, Violet, is growing up in a New Orleans brothel at the turn of the 20th century. She has her virginity auctioned off to a rich man. Then a young photographer comes to the brothel to photograph the women. Violet crushes on him, he falls in love with her, and they marry, {{spoiler|though Violet's mother takes her away to school and a life of respectability at the end.}}

* ''[[Broken Blossoms (Film)|Broken Blossoms]]'', in which a man falls in love with a 15-year-old girl in need of his protection, but refrains even from kissing her, since she doesn't seem keen on the idea.

* ''L'Effrontée''. A girl of 13, going on 14, meets a young man in the Merchant Marine. He initially thinks she is 14; she tells him she's 15. She's fine with a peck on the lips and a movie date, but things turn very nasty: he tries to rape her and she has to smash a glass globe over his head to escape.

* Two in the 1972 sexploitation flick ''Night Child'' /(AKA ''Night Hair Child'' /and ''What the Peeper Saw''). A rich 42-year-old man, his wife only two years dead, marries a 22-year-old woman. They have plenty of sex but don't seem to love each other. The man's 12-year-old son turns out to be a murderer. He also turns out to be a voyeur. And to top everything off there is a certain sexual charge between the son and the new wife. No sooner has he met her than he grabs her breasts. At one point he makes her strip for him in exchange for information she wants. While sedated {{spoiler|in a mental hospital}}, she dreams that they are kissing naked in bed while the husband/father looks on smiling. At another, they actually do kiss and he suggests they kill off the husband/father and become lovers, but a plot twist nixes that suggestion.

* ''[[Lost in Translation (Filmfilm)|Lost in Translation]]''. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is in her 20s. Bob (Bill Murray) is in his is mid-to-late 50s. Made even more crazy when you consider that Johansson was only 18 during filming. Completely justified in the story, as Bob is suffering a midlife crisis, and Charlotte is having trouble in her recent marriage. One of the more heartwarming examples out there.

* All the "''[[Poison Ivy]]"'' films are made of this.

* A large number of [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]] films; ''[[Goldfinger (Film)|Goldfinger]]'' and ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Film)|On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'' are the only films when the [[Girl of the Week|Bond Girl]] is older than 007 himself.

** During the filming of ''[[A View to A Kill (Film)|A View to Aa Kill]]'', Roger Moore discovered that he was older than Tanya Roberts' mother.

* [[Quentin Tarantino]]'s ''[[Kill Bill]]'': Bill with the Bride, Elle Driver, and most likely Sophie as well.

* ''[[Back to Thethe Future (Filmfilm)|Back to the Future III]]'' is a fine example, though it's never said exactly how old Doc and Clara really are. Even so, it's clear to the naked eye alone that Clara is somewhere between 30 and 40, while Doc is at least in his mid-60's or older. (The script for the original film sets his age at 65, which would make him 66 or 67 in ''Part III''; The [[Telltale Games]] sequel puts his age at 71-72 during ''Part III''.)

* Trixie Lorraine (who's in her early 30s) and Faneul H. Peabody (who's in his 50s but ''looks'' a lot older) from ''[[Gold Diggers of 1933]]''. These two lampshade the trope a bit in dialogue, and actually end up ''married after one date''. (Although, [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|given the film's title]], this really isn't much of a surprise.)

* Aragorn and Arwen, in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|The Lord of the Rings]]''. By milleniamillennia. It causes some tension {{spoiler|with her dad, Elrond}}. Also, Aragorn and Eowyn, but only by a few decades. Less tension, which is {{spoiler|quickly defused when Eomer comes on the scene}}.

** They are also very distant cousins, due to Aragon being a direct descendant of Elendill, who was himself a descendant of Elros. Elros was the brother of Elrond and also halfelvenhalf-elven. he was given the choice to live as an Elf or a Man and chose the latter,

* In ''[[Leonard Part Six6]]'', Leonard's daughter dates her theater director. Leonard says he's old enough to be ''his'' father.

* In ''Les Demoiselles de RocherfortRochefort'' (''Young Girls Ofof Rochefort''), Solange falls in love with Andy. Just to underline the age gap, Andy's childhood friend Simon gets married with Delphine's mother. Then again Andy is played by [[Gene Kelly]] so it's [[Even the Guys Want Him|understandable]].

* Tom Greer ([[Bruce Willis (Creator)]]) and Maggie Greer (Rosamund Pike) in ''[[Surrogates (Filmfilm)|Surrogates]]''.

* ''[[The Rebound (Film)|The Rebound]]'' has divorcee Sandy and her nanny Aram falling for each other. He's 15 years younger than her. A rare gender-swapped version of this trope.

* In ''[[Wild Target (Film)|Wild Target]]'', the 55-year-old Victor ends up with the 27ish-year-old Rose.

* While this appears to be the case in ''[[RedRED (Filmfilm)|RedRED]]'', the actors playing them are much closer in age than their characters.

* ''[[The Canterbury Tales (Literature)|The Canterbury Tales]]'': The wife's name is ''actually'' May, while the husband's is [[Up to Eleven|''January'']]. Chaucer explicitly says it's a bad idea, though, and this type of pairing is frequently satirized in medieval literature (in particular, the jealous old husband with a hot young wife is a common butt of jokes, in Chaucer and elsewhere).

* ''[[Little Dorrit]]''. Arthur Clennam and Amy Dorrit {{spoiler|end up [[Happily Married]]}}. Arthur is about twenty years older than Amy.

* As the protagonist of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s novel ''[[I Will Fear No Evil]]'' has the brain of a 90-year-old man and the body of a 20-year-old woman, most of his/her relationships are arguably [[May-December Romance|May December Romances]] ''in both directions''.

** Also many relationships among Howard Families members, where spouses can differ in age by centuries. One of the most heartwarming ''and'' tear-jerking is the [[Mayfly-December Romance]] between Lazarus Long and Dora, in ''[[Time Enough for Love]]''.

* ''[[The Reader (Literature)|The Reader]]'' (''Der Vorleser'') has a 16 year old boy hook up with a mid thirties to 40 year old woman.

* In Florence Barclay's novel ''[[Through the Postern Gate]]'', Guy of Chelsea aka Boy Blue [[Likes Older Women]] and is a [[Keet]] who pursues [[Hot Librarian]] [[Ojou]] Christobel Charteris, who is ten years older than he is and has known him since he was a child and she was a teenager. In fact, one of the reasons why Christobel hesitates to accept Boy's advances is ''because'' of their age difference, as well as a possible marriage proposal from [[The Professor|the local Professor]]. Paraphrased:

{{quote| '''Boy Blue''': Oh, I see. Six-year-old little girls aren't likely to look at three-year-old little boys that way, aren't they?<br />

* In the O. Henry short story ''"October and June",'' 28-year-old Theodora tells The Captain they can't be together because of their age difference. {{spoiler|The Captain is 19.}}

* In the ''[[KushielsKushiel's Legacy]]'' series, Father figure Delaunay in his late thirties at this point is put into a romantic relationship with his adoptive son/student Alcuin a boy around 16 tops at this point. (admittedlyAdmittedly it was Alcuin thatwho started it.)

* Dr. Strong and his much, much younger wife Anne in [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|Charles Dickens]]' ''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]].''

** Although the age difference doesn't seem to be as pronounced, Mr. Dombey's second marriage in ''[[Dombey and Son.]]''.

** On the horizon in ''[[Bleak House,]]'', in which Mr. Jarndyce proposes to Esther; {{spoiler|the trope is ultimately averted when Jarndyce realizes that Esther loves Allan Woodcourt.}}

* The ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] marries Spock off to the much younger {{spoiler|Saavik}}.

* All over the place in ''[[HonorverseHonor (Literature)Harrington|Honorverse]]'', due to Prolong treatments that extend human life to 250-300250–300 years range and significantly slow or even stop the aging process, depending on the technology generation. Honor herself, third and latest generation recipient, is 62 as of the latest novel, and just barely stopped looking like a teenager. Her husband, {{spoiler|Hamish Alexander}}, is 100 (yep, that's one hundred years old), and being the first-gen prolong recipient looks barely 40.

* A few [[PGP. Wodehouse (Creator)|PGG. Wodehouse]] stories have done this, where a woman previously engaged to a man winds up marrying his uncle (or, in the case of one Reggie Pepper story, ''widowed father'').

* [[David Eddings]] married the 18-year-old [[The Elenium|Queen Ehlana]] to her fiftysomething-year-old knight-protector Sparhawk. Genuine love match on both sides. And then Sparhawk's boyhood friend (late 50's) marries the maid (18). And his daughter {{spoiler|who happens to be the incarnation of a goddess}} chooses a teenager to marry when she is six. Also the case with Polgara and Durnik in the ''[[Belgariad]]/Mallorean'' series, although {{spoiler|Durnik being made a sorcerer, with the extended lifespan that comes with it}} keeps it from being a [[Mayfly-December Romance]].

* The ''[[Mary Russell]]'' mysteries by Laurie R. King feature a young woman who marries [[Sherlock Holmes]] -- who—who is well over the age of sixty.

* Played with in ''[[The Time TravelersTraveler's Wife]]''. Henry and Clare have a bit of a May-SeptemberMay–September Romance in the 'normal' timeline with him being about seven years older than her, but during his involuntary time-travel trips to her youth, she falls in love with him gradually over the ages of six to eighteen while his age varies at random but is generally in the late twenties or early thirties. This, fortunately, avoids any sex until Clare's eighteenth birthday, though she demands kisses from him in her teens.

* In ''[[The Paladin (Literaturenovel)|The Paladin]]'' by [[CJ Cherryh|C. J. Cherryh]], exiled [[Samurai]]-type [[Master Swordsman]] Shoka, about 40, and his peasant girl student Taizu, in her late teens, grow to love each other.

* In ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'', Claire and Quil. Quil is in his teens and Claire is a toddler. The actual difference is something like fourteen years, but she's a freaking child!

** Forget that. Jacob, seventeen, is paired up with Renesmee when she's an ''infant''. At least she has [[Plot -Relevant Age -Up]].

* Amara and Bernard in the ''[[Codex Alera]]''. How it manages to be cute instead of [[Squick|squickysquick]]y is unknown, but it works.

** There's also the relationship between Aldrick ex Gladius and Odiana; when they met, he was roughly in his late twenties/early thirties, while she was in her middle teens. To add to the uncomfortablitydiscomfort of it all, Odiana had recently been freed from being a sexual slave for a group of slavers ''by'' Aldrick and his fellows, and she'd been deeply disturbed and near-insane until Aldrick, erm, [[Intimate Healing|calmed her down.]]

* ''[[Xanth (Literature)|Xanth]]'' has many relationships formed over the course of its [[Long Runner|more than 30 books]]), and some of these include May December Romances, such as the case the prince Naldo Naga and Mela Merwoman, the latter being 11 years his senior. Some relationships, however, involve demons, nearly all of which have arbitrarily long life-spans and are never clearly defined. What truly clenches a May December Romance here however, and may extend into more a Hadean-one-minute-ago Romance are when the capital-D Demons get involved, the Demons that existed since the dawn of time and embody universal forces. At least three of these of formed with mortals over its run, 2 of which in book #33.

* In the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'', Vanyel falls in love with his classmate, Tylendel. They are both in their late teens, and eventually realize that they have a rare [[Mindlink Mates|lifebond]]. Tylendel dies. Vanyel is heartbroken. Fast forward, and now the forty-year-old Vanyel meets the twenty-year-old Stefen. Stefen has a huge crush on Vanyel and eventually persuades him to ignore public opinion and give their relationship a chance. Then they have a lifebond with each other, supposedly a once-in-a-lifetime occuranceoccurrence. Eventually it turns out that {{spoiler|Stefen is Tylendel's [[Reincarnation Romance|reincarnation]], making the May/December romance a second chance for the first romance to turn out right.}}

** Lackey likes this trope: Dirk (mid-thirties) marries Talia (just barely twenty). Same age difference for Keren and Sherrill. {{spoiler|It's also hinted that had Ylsa, Keren's deceased lifemate, survived, Sherrill (who was head over heels for Keren even before Ylsa's death) would have ended up in an [[OT 3OT3]] with them via [[Tenchi Solution]], as apparently both Keren and Ylsa "had wondered..." about having something with her, meaning it would have been a three-way lifebond as opposed to a [[Love Triangle]].}}

* [[Jane Austen (Creator)|Jane Austen]]'s ''[[Sense and Sensibility (Literaturenovel)|Sense and Sensibility]]'': Colonel Brandon is 19 years older than Marianne Dashwood. This was not considered at all squicky at the time, however, and is treated as more of a [[Beast and Beauty]] obstacle in the novel, with Marianne needing to look past the surface and see that the regard of a selfless, honest man is more valuable than attraction to a dashing, young but unreliable [[Casanova]]. [[Hidden Depths]] are a running theme in Jane Austen novels.

* Richelle Mead's ''[[Vampire Academy]]'' series has several May/September examples. Dimitri Belikov is seven years older than 17-year-old lead Rose Hathaway -- whichHathaway—which is a big deal because she's his student. Dimitri's other love interest, Tasha Ozera, is said to be about seven years older than he is, too. There's also a significant age gap between Rose's biological parents -- herparents—her mom was twenty when she was born, and her father is implied to have been a decade or more older.

* In ''[[Girl Overboard]]'' by Justina Chen Headley, the main character Syrah's parents are very far apart in age; her mother is in her 40s and her dad is 70.

* In [[Vernor Vinge]]'s ''[[AZones Deepnessof in The Sky (Literature)Thought|A Deepness in The Sky]]'', the [[Big Bad]] has a [[Human Popsicle]] as his girlfriend. The hero has the [[Human Popsicle]] as his little sister like childhood friend, separates from his own girlfriend and marries the [[Human Popsicle]] instead.

* Nick Charles in [[Dashiell Hammett]]'s ''[[The Thin Man (Literaturenovel)|The Thin Man]]'' is forty-one; his wife Nora is twenty-six. Oh, and based on one comment Nick makes, he married her seven years ago -- whenago—when she was nineteen.

* [[1632|Sharon Nichols]] and [[Badass Spaniard|]] Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz in ''[[1632]]''. Sharon is in her early to mid-twenties, while Ruy is somewhere around his mid-fifties.

* In [[James H. Schmitz]]'s ''[[The Witches of Karres]]'', young witch Goth (nine or ten) informs Captain Pausert (twenty-eight) she's going to marry him when she grows up. The Captain later explains to Goth's father that while he's fond of her, he has no intention of taking her seriously. Goth's father indulgently replies that he didn't take ''his'' wife seriously, either.

* One short story, name forgotten,{{context}} involves a female college student telling her father that she's planning on marrying her professor, who is older than her father and has children from a previous marriage older than she is. The father makes jokes about his daughter collecting Social Security benefits before he does.

* In Hilary McKay's ''[[Casson Family Series]]'' as of Rose's blog at her official site, the popular fandom ship of Tom Levin and Permanent Rose Casson has established that Rose is now fourteen and Tom eighteen,and Rose has wrote the blog as a result of her brother, Indigo, trying to dissuade her from loving Tom, who is five years older than her, which makes her extremely unhappy, and so she later writes the blog to help her get over it - though Rose has never really gotten over Tom Levin. Indigo/Sarah to lesser extent, though in this case Sarah is the older one by two years.

* In [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''[[Tower and The Hive (Literature)|Damia]]'', the title character winds up with a man who was at least 20 years old when she was born (And he's known her since birth too!).

* Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling from the ''[[Silence of the Lambs]]'' series. He's 30thirty years older than her.

* A favorite trope of [[Danielle Steel]], and one where she frequently displays a blatant [[Double Standard]]. However, the [[Double Standard]] is not based on gender, but rather the type of character--acharacter—a hero/heroine can easily date or marry someone 20-25 older/younger--oryounger—or in two extreme cases, ''40-something years older''. Even a virtual case of ephebophilia was presented as a romance--aromance—a 40-something year old man and a 16 year old girl (she was his daughter's best friend) fell in love and planned to marry as soon as she turned 18. Meanwhile, a villain is said to look ridiculous dating someone a mere 15 years younger than him.

* This happens in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' booksbook ''Small Favor''. When Harry Dresden, who at this point is in his early thirties, begins a relationship with Anastasia Luccio, who grew up during Victorian times. One book later in ''Turn Coat'' Harry mentions that they have "wild monkey sex."

* Deconstructed with Altisidora and [[Don Quixote (Literature)|Don Quixote]] in the second part: [[Bratty Teenage Daughter|Altisidora, a 14 year old maiden at the Duke’s palace]], pretends to be in love with Don Quixote, a 50 year old man. He stoically supports her [[Clingy Jealous Girl|teasing and mean pranks]] because he believes [[Smitten Teenage Girl|she’s in love with him]] [[Chick Magnet|because he is a knight]], but he never attempts anything because he wants to be loyal to his (imaginary) lover Dulcinea and is very happy when he abandons her and the palace. Being an honest man, he confesses to Sancho that Altisidora’s feelings caused him ''more confusion than pity'', showing us how awkward and foolish would be this kind of relationship in [[Real Life]].

* [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Poltava_:Poltava (poem) |The poem "Poltava"]] by Alexander Pushkin offers a particularly twisted example.

* In [[Devon Monk]]'s ''[[Allie Beckstrom (Literature)|Allie Beckstrom]]'' novel ''Magic to the Bone'', Allie is shocked to see that her last stepmother is at most a year older than she is. Violet admits that she would be shocked, too, if her father married someone her age, but assures her it was a love match.

* ''[[All in The Family]]''/''[[Archie BunkersBunker's Place]]'': A Season 9 episode of "Family" saw Archie's brother, Fred (who is in his mid-50s), marry an 18-year-old girl. During the last two seasons of "''Archie Bunker's Place''," Archie's 18-year-old niece Billie (Denise Miller) begins an on-again/off-again relationship with Archie's business partner, 33-year-old Gary Raboneaux (Barry Gordon).

* ''[[Friends]]'' had a May-SeptemberMay–September version, where Phoebe's 18-year-old brother married a 44-year-old woman. (His Home Ec teacher, in fact.)

{{quote| '''Monica''':"You're not a senior?"<br />

* In ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor and Rose definitely qualify. The difference is about 882 years, as Rose is approximately 18 in the first season of the new series.

{{quote| '''Rose''': You're 900 years old?<br />

'''The Doctor''': Yep.<br />

** Also a "hell of an age gap" is Amy Pond and her husband, Rory, since {{spoiler|Rory is now, mentally, more than 2,000 years old. Although there was some doubt cast at the end of Series 5 whether his 2,000 years as a wax Roman really happened, since then several episodes such as ''The Doctor's Wife'' have confirmed that he remembers this.}}

* An episode of ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' featured Sam leaping in a man who is 25, and dating a woman who is 50, and has a 30 thirty-year -old son.

** Al and his girlfriend Tina are also an example. The one time she is shown she appears to be in her twenties or thirties, whereas Al is in his sixties.

* British [[Sit ComSitcom]] ''[[May to December]]'' has a late-middle-aged man marrying a woman about the age of his children by his late first wife.

{{quote| '''Geoffrey''': Oh, you have a son. Not mine, I hope.<br />

...<br />

* Grissom and Sara on ''[[CSI]]''. To make things potentially [[Squick|squickiersquick]]ier, he was also [[Hot for Student|her supervisor.]]

* ''[[All the Small Things (TV)|All the Small Things]]'': middle-aged musical director Michael and young soprano Layla.

* ''[[Dark Angel|]]'': Max and Logan]] had a twelve -year age difference, though you really wouldn't notice without doing the math. Also a real life example, as the actors were engaged.

* In the made-for-HBO movie ''The Girl in the Coffee Shop,'', the eponymous girl (early 20's) falls in love with a 46-year-old diplomat. They are in denial of this until they very end, even though he invites her to a conference in Iceland with him. They pull a bit of [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]] until they admit their feelings.

{{quote| "Well, now I know two things about Iceland. It's where [[Bjork]] comes from, and it's somewhere it's possible to fall in something very like love..."}}

* Darla turned [[Angel (TV)|Angel]] into a vampire and began a long, bloody relationship with him when she was about two hundred years older than him. Even when they meet again during the series, she is still almost twice his age.

* An episode of the ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' had a 53-year old colleague of Cliff's introducing him and Clair to his early-to-mid twenties new girlfriend. Although initially shocked at the age difference, the two were relieved to see the young woman was not an airhead and that the couple appeared to be genuinely happy together.

* In an episode of ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]'', Joe (in his mid-30's) dates Courtney, a 19-year-old. At the end of the episode, she dumps him for another guy. Joe at first takes it in stride, realizing that it would make sense for her to want to be with someone closer to her own age. When he finds out her guy is 45, however, Joe becomes furious. "Isn't that a little old for you?"

* ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'': In the episode "Wild Horses", Dylan enters into a brief affair with a woman at least 20 years his senior.

* In ''[[Fast Track]]'', fortysomething Richard Beckett has a serious relationship with 24-year-old Mimi Chandler. At one point, she accuses him of being more interested in her mother.

* Almost every Immortal in ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]''. With Methos it borders on ludicrous as literally any relationship he may get into would by definition be a May/December romance, on account of being him the oldest Immortal.

* The short lived tvTV series ''Three Moons Over Milford'' featured a romance between a woman who was 29, and the main character's son who ''just'' turned 16 in the first episode. Though to be fair, he told her he was 20, and when she finds out that he is still in high school, she immediately leaves him and refuses to call him back.

* The ''[[Masterpiece Theater]]'' miniseries "''Reckless"'', which featured a young doctor beginning an affair with his boss' wife, who is at least 10-1510–15 years older than him. Ironically, the affair is started when she learns of her husband's affair with a younger woman.

* The old Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson standard "September Song" is sung from the viewpoint of the "December" half of one of these. In its original context, in the musical ''[[Knickerbocker Holiday]]'', it's also something of a [[Villain Love Song]].

** For a Japanese song referring to this trope, look no further than Chihiro Yonekura's ''"Ten yearsYears after''After", the ending of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]] The 8th Platoon''. Its lyrics talk about a young girl crushing on an older man and hoping she can hook up with him in 10 years.

* ''[[Warhorses of Letters]]'' - Which is far from the oddest thing about this series of letters between two gay horses on opposing sides in the Napoleonic war.

* Jokingly invoked in ''[[Gilbert and Sullivan|Princess Ida]]'' by [[Gilbert and Sullivan]], where Hilarion mentions being married to Ida at a time when he was twice her age -- thatage—that is, when he was two years old.

** Also in ''[[Gilbert and Sullivan|HMSH.M.S. Pinafore]]'', in which Captain Corcoran marries Buttercup, his nurse when he was a baby. Oh, and since Ralph Rackstraw is Corcoran's age and Corcoran is Josephine's father, ''Ralph'' is marrying a woman young enough to be his daughter.

** [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] seem to like this one; a much, much older lady trying to make sure her twentyish charge doesn't go for someone remotely his own age is a plot point in both ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'' and ''[[The Mikado]]''. Both cases are also very one-sided.

** There's also Sothe and Micaiah in [[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Fire Emblem Tellius]]. She's Branded and way older than him despite [[Older Than They Look|looking young]]; she met him when he was just a boy. At the end of the game, if you get A support for them, they get married.

*** Not to mention the two [[Dragon Rider|Dragon Riders]]s [[Eyepatch of Power|Haar]] and [[Action Girl|Jill]]. There's a visible age gap between them, an not to mention he worked with her ''father'' Shiharam, but they'll still get married if they have an A support.

* A lesbian example can be found in ''[[Heileen (Visual Novel)|Heileen]]'', as one of the endings pairs up the protagonist Heileen (age 18) with Lora (age 36). Mind you, Lora [[Older Than They Look|doesn't look that much older than Heileen]].

* ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' manages to combine this with [[Mayfly-December Romance]] in one of the endings. Raine is a member of a species whose lifespan is around a millennium or so, and Lloyd is her teenage student. At the same time, she's only 23.

*** The animated adaptation clears everything up. Presea was chosen sixteen years prior to the story's beginning after their ''father'' died rather than {{spoiler|when Alicia did}}. This means that Regal, who is thirty-three in the present time, was nineteen when {{spoiler|Alicia died}}. Now, consider that Regal's butler mistakes Presea for being the "younger sister" in-game. This implies that Alicia was {{spoiler|physically}} a few years older than her when {{spoiler|she died}}. Therefore, Regal and Alicia must have gotten together in their late and early-mid teens respectively, which is considerably less [[Squick|Squicky]]y than a twentysomethingtwenty-something running around with a pre-teen. The only [[Mind Screw]] remaining is how Regal was the president of the the world's biggest "Do Everything Company" at ''[[Improbable Age|ninteennineteen]]''.

*** This trope is actually debated in one of the skits - before Lloyd and co. find out why Regal seemed so interested in Presea (it was because she {{spoiler|looked like Alicia, and at the time he only suspected the fact that they were sisters}}), Lloyd, Genis and Zelos debate why he seems so interested, with this trope being the main reason they come up with. Genis and Lloyd both brush off the idea, since he's much too old for her...only for Zelos to say that the idea's not actually that farfetchedfar-fetched, and that he once knew a noblewoman who married a man thirty years her junior. Lloyd seems quite horrified, while Genis is just angry since he likes Presea himself (obviously, Regal doesn't like her in that way - doesn't stop this from [[Crowning Moment of Funny|being a hilarious skit]]).

* This is often not noted, but ''[[Star Fox (Video Gameseries)|Star FoxFOX]]'' has Fox himself with Krystal; by ''Assault'', he's 27 and she's 20.

* Comes up in ''[[Clannad (Visualvisual Novelnovel)|Clannad]]'' where in Sagara Misae's route, the 17 year old Tomoya falls for mid-twenties Misae. Also, Kouko Ibuki and Yoshino Yuusuke, though they both look very young.

* There are trainers in ''[[Pokémon Stadium|Pokémon Battle Revolution]]'' with the trainer title 'May-DecemberMay–December Couple'. And yes, you do get to battle against them. The "Mays" are all cute girls while the "Decembers" are huge, burly guys.

* The first incarnation of Fei and Elly in ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]''. She's probably in her early 20s (at least physically) and he's probably no older than 13 when they first meet.

{{quote| {{spoiler|''I'll look after you now.''}}}}

* Commander Shepard and Liara T'Soni from ''[[Mass Effect]]''. Shepard is 29, Liara is 106. Justified in that she's a [[Space Elf]] that ages differently -- bydifferently—by human standards, Liara is only in her mid twenties.

** In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', Shepard (now 31) has the opportunity to engage in a bit of light romance with two asari -- Samaraasari—Samara, nearly a thousand years old, and {{spoiler|Morinth}}, in her 400s. Neither ends well; while Samara is attracted to Shepard if s/he is [[Karma Meter|mostly Paragon]], she is too committed to [[Warrior Monk|her Code]] to start a relationship. Shepard ''can'' sleep with {{spoiler|Morinth, [[Death Byby Sex|but it instantly kills him/her.]]}}

** The May/September version also applies to some of the other pairings. For Male!Shepard, there is seven years between him and Jack/Tali; [[Gender FlippedFlip]]ped with Miranda, who is four years older than Shepard. For Fem!Shep, there is seven years between her and Thane (he's 38, she's 31); the only one spared is Garrus, who's supposedly the same age than Shepard and have the same life expectancy. Add/subtract two years if you want to include the time Shepard was unconscious.

* Gordon and Alyx in ''[[Half Life|Half-Life 2]]''... maybe. While they were born nearly 20 years apart, Gordon's time spent in stasis erased that age gap.

* Ezio Auditore (52) and Sofia Sartor (35) at the end of ''[[Assassin's Creed Revelations (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]''. The ''Embers'' animated short reveals that they marry and end up having 2 children. Then {{spoiler|Ezio sits down and dies}}.

** Although Junko--untilJunko—until recently a relatively minor background character--hascharacter—has admittedly made a practice of [[Enjo Kosai|dating older men]], there has been no indication in the comic that these relationships are anything other than financial.

* Played with in ''[[True Villains]]'', where ten year old Mia has a crush on Bayn. He's over eighty years old, {{spoiler|but has since been turned, physically, into a child.}}

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20140209162238/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2369 Monique dismisses an old man as seeking this to relive his youth.]

* Mac's crush on Frankie in ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', though that's more of a [[Precocious Crush]], really -- therereally—there's no sign of reciprocation.

* It's not a romance, but it's evident the mutual sexual tension between Jonesy and Yummy Mummy in ''[[Sixteen (Animation)|6teen]]''.

* ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' has Raven's crush on her teacher Malchior - she's about 15 years and his age is at least three digits. An easily overlooked example because he's {{spoiler|a [[Evil Mentor|dragon]] [[Mailer Daemon|posing]] as}} a [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|young-looking guy]] - a phenomenon often observed in [[Mayfly-December Romance|Mayfly December Romances]]. Also, he's made of pages from the book he's trapped in, which serves to distract. Whether or not that relationship would qualify as a [[Mayfly-December Romance]] is uncertain, due to the [[Half-Human Hybrid|natures]] [[Our Demons Are Different|of]] [[Our Dragons Are Different|the characters]].

* In ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'', Korra's Airbending teacher Tenzin is 51. He's [[Happily Married]] to [[Hot Mom]] Pema, who is 35 and pregnant with their fourth child. Their oldest child is 10, so when they met she was at most 25 to his 40.

* In Victorian times, the [[May-DecemberMay–December Romance]] was considered not just normal, but ''desirable''. Since all but the poorest women were not supposed to work outside the home after marriage (and were often not allowed to, through legal and other means), a man had to ensure he earned enough to support a family before he married, and that often meant delaying marriage for ten or more years until his income was high enough. On the other hand, women were expected to marry fairly early (earlier than in previous centuries) so they could have the large families that society expected. It was therefore considered somewhat shocking for a woman to marry a man her own age; women were encouraged to marry men ten or more years older than they were, and long engagements of over a year were considered - not shocking, really, but utterly stupid. Those who find May December Romances in Victorian literature shocking are in fact experiencing [[Values Dissonance]].

** Actually, it goes back far further than the Victorians. It was the norm throughout most of history. It let men get established well enough to support a family before starting one, but there was also the high female mortality rate in childbirth--thechildbirth—the older a man was, the fewer women his own age there were, married or not.

* [[Charles Dickens (Creator)|Charles Dickens]] was a married father of forty-five when he met actress Ellen 'Nelly' Ternan. She was eighteen. He fell in love with her and ended up leaving his wife for her.

* John Ruskin was a towering figure of [[Victorian Britain]]: art critic, social thinker, philanthropist, draughtsman, watercolourist, writer on a very wide range of subjects. He married Effie Gray, nine years younger; she was the child of family friends, and he had written a fantasy novel, ''The King of the Golden River'', for her when she was 12. However, Ruskin never consummated the marriage, and she was eventually able on these grounds to get an annulment and marry Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais, who was the same age as her. Ruskin was a benefactor to a progressive [[One-Gender School|girls']] [[Boarding School|boarding school]]; he played with the girls when he visited and corresponded with various individual girls. As he grew older he spent a lot of time with the children at another school. In a letter -- toletter—to his father! -- he described the beauty of a girl of 10 or 12, seen half-naked on the beach, whose breasts were only beginning to develop. Elsewhere he wrote in childish language about a crush on a 15-year-old girl. He admired the work of Kate Greenaway, a celebrated illustrator, best known for her drawings of children, and asked her to draw the children naked. His great love was undoubtedly Rose la Touche, 30 years younger than he, to whom he [[Teacher-Student Romance|taught drawing]]. He met her when she was 9 and seems to have fallen in love with her when she was about 11; he was friends with her mother as well. Ruskin and Rose kept up a long, affectionate correspondence. When she was 18, he proposed to her; she said no but told him he could ask again in three years, when she'd be of age. He did, and she refused again. This was because of their religious differences and also because Rose's parents were dead set against the match: Ruskin's first marriage had been annulled on the ground that he was incurably impotent, but he probably wasn't, and if he should have children with Rose, the annulment would become invalid and Rose's children would be illegitimate. Rose suffered from some sort of mental illness. She died in an asylum aged 27, and Ruskin was heartbroken.

** [[Crime and Punishment (Literature)|Some]] of Dostoevsky's writings indicate that he was probably drawn to girls in their early teens and even younger, but felt guilty about it.

* [[Lewis Carroll]], mathematician, logician, pioneering photographer, Anglican deacon and children's author, had a series of "child-friends", almost exclusively female ("I like all children -- except boys.") The most famous was Alice Liddell, namesake of ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'', but there were many more, including his other great love, Gertrude Chataway, for whom he wrote ''[[The Hunting of the Snark]]''. He met her at the seaside when she was 9 and, though his friendships with other little girls often ended when the girls got to be about 14, the age of pubescence in those days, Gertrude was still taking seaside holidays with him when she was in her late 20s, shortly before his death.

* Frederic Shields, an artist, art critic, illustrator and designer of [[Victorian Britain]], associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was brought up in extreme poverty. As an adult he met Matilda Booth, a little girl also from a poor family, and she modelled for some of his paintings. He [[Pygmalion Plot|gave her private lessons in reading, manners etc. for several years]], then [[Wife Husbandry|married her]] when he was 41 and she was 16 or 17. They adopted Matilda's toddler sister Jessie soon after their marriage, and sent her to school for several years. However, the marriage was not a success and Shields soon shipped Matilda off to a select [[Boarding School|boarding school]] for [[One-Gender School|'young ladies]].

* [[Victorian Britain|Victorian]] Edward Burne-Jones, pre-Raphaelite painter and the best British designer of stained glass in his century, was married to Georgiana 'Georgie' [[Mac Donald]]MacDonald, the sister of a school friend of his. She fell for him when she was 12 and he was 19. They were largely separated while he was at Oxford, but began courting seriously when he was 22 or 23 and she was 15. He proposed shortly before her 16th birthday and, having obtained her parents' permission, they got engaged when she was 16 and married four years later. After they had been married for some years, Burne-Jones fell in love with Maria Cassavetti Zambaco, a slightly younger woman who had previously had a disastrous marriage to a much older man, a doctor. In later life, Burne-Jones had a series of chaste, decorous friendships with young women, and felt sad when they grew up and got married. One of his favourites married a man 15 years older than her. Then, when he was 58, Burne-Jones met and fell in love with a 35-year-old married woman. In his letters he apologised to her for being so much older and said he would understand if she looked for a younger suitor. Throughout all this, Georgie remained devoted to her husband.

* Peter Llewellyn Davies MC, one of the five adopted sons of J. M. Barrie ([[Peter Pan]]), was 20 when he had an affair with 47-year-old Hungarian-born professional artist Vera Willoughby, whose daughter was older than Peter. Barrie and Peter's former nurse, Mary Hodgson, were both scandalised. However, this was 1917, and Peter had lost both of his parents as a child, then lost his brother George, to whom he had been close, in the war, and then suffered from shell-shock -- soshock—so his violation of social norms is certainly understandable. The relationship continued for at least two years.

* Conservative politicanpolitician Baron Boothby was bisexual and had numerous affairs on both sides of the fence. He was married twice, and his second wife was thirty-three years younger than him.

* Advice columns, including (but not limited to) "Annie's Mailbox," "Dear Abby" and others frequently publish letters from readers seeking advice about May-DecemberMay–December romances. Frequently (but not always), the letter will be from a family member of the younger half of the couple who is concerned about the age difference; the situations vary widely. The take of the "Annie's Mailbox" editors has usually been that, so long as both sides are at least 18 and consent and are not married, there is little that can be done except to offer love and best wishes.

* [[Michael Douglas]] and [[Catherine Zeta-Jones]]. Douglas is exactly 25 years her senior.

* [[Harrison Ford]] and Calista[[Callista Flockhart]]. Ford is 22 years her senior.

* And Hugh Hefner. Specifically his now ex-fiance (who bailed five days before the wedding), Crystal Harris, is a full ''sixty'' years younger.

* Actor [[Jeff Goldblum]] (born 1952) is{{when}} dating actress Tania Raymonde (''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'', ''[[Lost]]'') (born 1988).

* 72-year-old [[Useful Notes/Italy|Italian]] Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, probably [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|the most unorthodox state leader on the planet]], has been paired with numerous women, most notably 18-year-old model Noemi Letizia. Naturally, this has caused something of a stir.

** It reached [[Memetic Mutation]] levels once photos from the party where Noemi looks like badly pasted in with Photoshop reached public domain. Here's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXIDHVjeY5c&feature=player_embedded a video] made from the thousands of pictures made for a particular blog, all starring VERY''very'' special guests. (Warning: many Italian personalities abound).

** In a new episode of this neverendingnever-ending, most shameful show, we are introduced to Karima El-Mahroug, aka Ruby Rubacuori (lit. "Ruby Heartthief"), a young Moroccan girl who's apparently been living as an escort for the last few years{{when}}. When she still was underage, she might have been repeatedly attending Berlusconi's sex parties at his place. He even admitted having given her money (around 7,000 Euros), [[Sarcasm Mode|of course not in exchange of any sexual favour]], but merely because she was "in need" and he's such a generous guy. So generous in fact, he intervened when she was arrested in Milan for petty crimes and managed to have her released against regular procedures, by telling the police she had been reported to him as then-Egyptian president Mubarak's niece. It is still not clear whether she'd had sex with him or merely attended to his sex parties to dance scantily-clad.

* The late Anna Nicole Smith (age 26 at the time) married oil magnate J. Howard Marshall when he was '''''89'''''. She claimed it was "real love", but everyone else knew [[Meal Ticket|what was going on]], of course - especially after she got involved in a protracted courtroom drama with his family over the heritageinheritance after he died.

* Keith Carradine (b. 1949) and Hayley DuMond (b. 1974) fell in love on the set of ''[[The Hunter's Moon]]'', in which their characters also had a May/December romance.

** Except... Nureyev was quite openly ''gay''. They were more [[ThePlatonic StraightLife Will and GracePartners]].

*** So it was a [[Intergenerational Friendship|May -December Friendship?]]

*** Or [[If ItsIt's You ItsIt's OKOkay]]?

* ''[[Nip Tuck]]'' star Julian McMahon is the product of one of these relationships. His father, Australia's 20th prime minister [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McMahon:William McMahon|William McMahon]], met an occupational therapist named Sonia Hopkins before he became prime minister. When the two got married, William was 57 and Sonia was 32. (Sonia McMahon would later create a scandal by wearing a revealing dress during a visit to the Nixon White House, FYI.)

* [[Kevin Kline]] started dating [[Phoebe Cates]] in 1983 and they've been married since 1989. She is 16 years his junior.

* Guitar legend [[Deep Purple|Ritchie Blackmore]] (born in 1945) and his wife, creative partner and co-founder of an [[Blackmores Night|eponymous]] [[Folk Rock]] band Candice Night (b. 1971). They've first met in 1989, when Ritchie was 44, and Candice 18, and basically've have been together ever since. Notably, Candice is seven years younger than Jurgen Blackmore, ''Ritchie's son'' from his first marriage (who's also a musician).

[[Category:May December Romance{{PAGENAME}}]]