Miniature Senior Citizens: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Of course, I was much taller in those days... six foot three..."''|'''[[Dirty Old Man|Basil Makepeace]]''' ([[Blatant Lies|clearly fibbing]] to impress a new resident), ''[[Waiting for God]]''.}}

 

 

In real life, there is basis for shrinking in scientific lore. Except in cases of severe osteoporosis, however, most people will only lose a couple of inches from their tallest height over their lifetime. Note, however, that each generation has been, on average, taller than the last throughout the 20th century even in the west thanks to heartier diets rich in protein that their peasant ancestors could not enjoy, while Japan in particular (and Asia in general) is currently going through an accelerated version of this phenomenon since the end of World War II. Taller people tend to have shorter lifespans, which accounts for elder characters in general being shorter, but not individual height loss.

 

{{examples}}

** Cherry from ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]''.

** Yukari Godai from ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]''.

*** The anime lampshades this in a different way; one episode has them travel to the past when Happôsai and Cologne were teens themselves. Happôsai tries to claim to have been a tall, blond [[Bishonen]], but nobody believes him and, to nobody's surprise, the 18-year-old Happôsai turns out to be an ugly little dwarf. Cologne then claims that a beautiful, dark blue-haired girl sweeping in the village is ''her'' past self. Ranma outright tells her to make her lies more believable, and Cologne promptly proves that, yes, that really ''is'' her younger self. In the English dub, this nets a dumbfounded "Oh my god!" from all of the others present, even Shampoo herself.

**** In [[Hot Amazon|Shampoo]]'s case it's probably more like, "OH MY GOD I'M GOING TO END UP LOOKING LIKE A RAISIN!"

*** Lampshaded ''again'' when Happôsai explains why he can't hit the pressure points on Hinako to nullify her [[Energy Absorption]] power: it involves hitting points on her front and back simultaneously and his arms are too short to do that.

*** As well as Cologne and Happôsai, ''Ranma ½'' has other Miniature Senior Citizens as well. The manga has Happôsai's old partner/rival Lukkosai, who has managed to get himself a [[Fountain of Youth|Jusenkyô Spring of Drowned Child curse]]. The anime has Happôsai's old friend Chingensai, who basically looks like Happôsai with a massive head of brown hair that, coupled with his thick beard/moustach, covers his whole head, and a trio of unnamed others who show up in an early seventh season episode.

* ''[[The Slayers]]'' has, in at least Slayers NEXT (the second season of the anime), Auntie Aqua, a little old woman who's barely waist-high on Amelia. She turns out to be {{spoiler|the last remaining fragment of the soul of the Water Dragon King, one of the five gods who serve the Dragon God Ceiphied}}.

* Grandma Hina in ''[[Love Hina]]''.

* Sana's grandmother in ''[[Kodomo no Omocha]]''.

** It should be noted that in the manga, Pinako appears in a photograph with Hohenheim and really is a great deal taller.

*** This is also true in the ''Brotherhood''-exclusive [[Clip Show]] / [[Dream Sequence]] episode.

* Torogai in ''[[Seirei no Moribito]]''.

* Genkai in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' (Although like Yoda, she is seen in flashbacks to have always been that height.)

* Yugi's grandpa in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''. It should be noted, however, that Yugi's not much taller.

* The Tsuchikage from ''[[Naruto]]'' was recently revealed to be an old man so tiny that he's only about 1.5 times as tall as his [[Nice Hat|Kage head piece]] is long. It turns out that Onoki was always tiny, though.

* ''[[Black Butler]]'': Most of the time, Tanaka is this way, unless he's doing exposition.

* Master Makarov of the eponymous mage guild ''[[Fairy Tail]]''. Ironically, one of his more used magic abilities, Titan, lets him turn into a giant. A flashback in the anime show he was short even in his youth and another in the manga showed he was short by the time he was about forty, but neither was as short as he was in the present.

* Fuu's grandmother in ''[[Tamayura]]'' certainly counts.

* Touhou Fuhai from ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'' is {{spoiler|a subversion. He looks like one at first, but that's only his [[Sleep Mode Size]] body. He's actually a [[Really 700 Years Old]] [[Bishonen]]}}.

* Ueda's mother in ''[[Japan Inc]]''.

* Enya Geil from ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]''.

* [[Wicked Witch|Majorina]] in ''[[Smile Pretty Cure]]'' is an evil old lady who is less than half the size of her younger fellow villains.

 

* Inverted in Swedish children's comic ''[[Bamse]]''. Title character Bamse is a family man (OK, anthropomorphic bear) with four children. Three of them are half his height, very reasonable since they are supposed to be around eight years old, and the fourth is a toddler. Bamse's parents are one head taller than him, and his grandmother is again one head taller, meaning that Bamse just about reaches granny's waist, and Bamse's toddler daughter is shorter than granny's foot is long!

* Geriatrix in ''[[Asterix]]'' is even shorter than Asterix himself, and about half the height of his [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife|hot wife]].

* Ma Dalton in ''[[Lucky Luke]]''.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* In the sitcom ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'', newsman Les Nessman frequently voices concern over his (never seen) aged mother's chronic shrinking.

* Marie in ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]''.

* On ''[[ER]]'', the term "LOL" was shorthand for "little old lady." Presumably they didn't encounter many six-foot-tall elderly women.

 

== Video Games ==

* Kliff in ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' comes up to the waist of most of the younger cast; he's even a touch shorter than May, the second-youngest character in the game (Dizzy, the ''actual'' youngest character, is taller than either). Some of his special moves restore his youth, doubling his height in the process.

** Their respective sprites, however, are just as large as the sprites for the other characters. For Relm this is accomplished through a [[Nice Hat]], but Strago makes up for lack of height with an abundance of Mohawk.

* Most of the older characters in the first ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' game (such as the bird lady and Jak's uncle) are tiny and reach only to Jak's waist. Samos the Sage is significantly shorter than his daughter Keira, though apparently his younger self was short as well.

* Inverted in ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles]]'': ''[[Crystal Bearers]]'', for the Lilties. Typically small in their prime, the average never going taller than four feet (excepting the princess and those train conductors), Lilties grow ''much'' larger as they age; Cid is nearly as tall as Layle and quite wide to boot, and Jegran could easily pass for a basketball player. The ''elderly'' Lilties are large enough to [[Foe-Tossing Charge|toss bystanders aside]] as they run.

* The twin witches [[Playing with Fire|Koume]] and [[An Ice Person|Kotake]] in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time]]'' (where they are boss characters) and ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|Majora's Mask]]'' (where they are allies).

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[A Skewed Paradise]]'' has [http://aspcomics.net/archindex.php?strip_id=80 Nick's dad].

 

 

== Web Original ==

* Sensei Ito, in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', is the short, elderly [[Old Master]] who teaches aikido at the [[Super-Hero School]] even though he's a baseline. More than once, Phase has thought of him as an evil old midget.

 

 

* Subverted in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''. Granny Smith is shorter than Applejack, but in a series of flashbacks indicate that she was always small.

* While not as extreme as some of the other example on this page,Lo and Li from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' are still fairly short. A portrait of them painted in their youth, shown in the [[Beach Episode]], shows that they were not always that small. Nor that ugly.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tiny Tropes]]

[[Category:Anime Reality]]

[[Category:Elders]]