History Main / NeverGrewUp

* And Kaori Yuki's ''CainSaga'' manga series features an extremely sympathetically-presented member of the EvilOrganization, Cassian, a middle-aged man in the body of a prepubescent boy, formerly employed as a knife-thrower in a circus. He joined the organization because they have weird, futuristic occult-medical hybrid technology in development which might give him some way to get an adult body. He's assigned to be the primary minion of a high-up member of the organization, Jizabel Disraeli, who's around twenty and [[spoiler: as we get his backstory, increasingly pitiful.]] Dealt with well in that Cassian, even though all visual cues are against it, sees Disraeli as a kid. [[spoiler: Cassian is fatally wounded about as soon as his pseudo-paternal attachment to Disraeli is properly developed, and Jizabel transplants his brain into the head of a fellow villain they both hate who was recently thwarted by hubris and idiocy. And the hero, in one of the hero's few success stories. He goes on the lam, and reappears as a handy plot device toward the end of the series climax. Disraeli eventually dies in his arms, lamenting the fact that he spent all this time trying to please the wrong father, Alexis, the twisted ManBehindTheMan, when he should have been looking up to Cassian.]] Cassian has many levels in awesome.

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* The first episode of ''EerieIndiana'' involves two identical twins called Bert and Ernie who never got older than twelve and had to repeat seventh grade for thirty years because their mother locked them inside age-retarding Tupperware each night. As they state in unison, "It's a living hell". [[spoiler:The main character pops their Tupperware open at the end of the episode, and they in turn do it to their mother, who used the same trick to stay youthful; [[NoImmortalInertia the next morning, the twins are happily in their forties, and their mother is now an old woman]].]]

* The ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Miri" revolves around a planet where an anti-aging drug led to a society of 300-year-old children, and no adults. (Although technically the children ''are'' growing up, just incredibly slowly.)

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* One episode of ''CowboyBebop'' features a CreepyChild. Supposedly, whatever stopped his aging also made him bullet- and explosion-proof.

Compare NotAllowedToGrowUp and ReallySevenHundredYearsOld. Not to be confused with AdultChild. When the same effect causes hardship and angst for the eternal child, it's NotGrowingUpSucks.

** Ditto with the imaginary friends in ''DropDeadFred''. It is implied that those who do not grow out of needing their imaginary friends are ultimately prescribed pills that hurt or kill the imaginary friends.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Greenberg Brooke Greenberg]], who has a mysterious medical condition that has caused her mind and body to remain in infancy for 17 years and counting (with some anomalies, such as her bone age being around that of a ten-year-old). There's [[ThisIsReality no obvious supernatural involvement]], although her first five years or so of life were full of medical catastrophes that spontaneously resolved without leaving any damage (for example, a brain tumor that spontaneously disappeared).

* The Kokiri from ''TheLegendOfZelda'' are given life by the Great Deku Tree and automatically stop aging at around 10.
** But as seen in Wind Waker, they can have their form changed by the Deku Tree in order to protect them (in this case, [[spoiler:the great flood]]) so the tree may have given them this attribute.

* [[spoiler:Eriol Hiiragizawa]] in ''CardCaptorSakura'' is mostly this with a bit of NotGrowingUpSucks. He specifically chose to halt his aging, but while he looks like a child, he's mentally an adult. He doesn't have any angst over his age dissonance shown, but [[spoiler:since he only stopped his aging so he could blend in with Sakura's classmates better, it would probably make his life after the series more complicated and restricted if he can't restart his aging]].

* Static encephalopathy causes the brain to stop developing past a certain age. For example, Ashley X, aka "pillow angel", failed to develop past the mental age of three months, and thus is unable to move or talk and must be tube-fed. In a very controversial treatment, she was given a hysterectomy and hormones to stunt her growth and keep her in a child-like body.

[[quoteright:305:[[PeterPan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Peter_Pan.gif]]]]

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* The TropeNamer is ''Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Never Grew Up'', which has the Lost Boys as well as Peter Pan himself.

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* ''XenoSaga'': [[spoiler:Rubedo, who's an artificially created human with the power to slow down cellular growth, stopped his own aging at around age 12 (the game mentions why but it's escaped my mind). This means while he's technically older than Guignan, he presents himself as Guignan's son, Guignan Jr. or just plain Jr.]]

* Oskar, the protagonist of Günter Grass's novel ''TheTinDrum'', deliberately stunts his growth at age three, by hurling himself down the stairs, so that he can avoid being part of the [[SickSadWorld horrific adult world]] around him. He attempts to shield himself further from adult horrors by [[HeadphonesEqualIsolation drowining them out with his titular drum]]. In the end, however, [[spoiler: a blow to the head ages him instantly]].

[[caption-width-right:305:[[TropeNamer Well, obviously.]]]]

** It's heavily implied, [[NightmareFuel creepily]], that this is because they all died and Neverland is the afterlife (at least for boys).
** Except that all the Lost Boys come back to England and mature into boring grown-ups, leaving Peter temporarily alone in Neverland. But he still won't let Mrs. Darling catch him, even if he is lonely outside the window. And it's okay, because his memory is so bad. He forgets both Hook and Tink ever existed within a couple of years after they're dead. Peter's actually a lot more logically constructed than most of his imitators.
** [[spoiler:[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Hook#Peter_Pan_in_Scarlet Who says Hook is dead?]]]]

[[PeterPan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Peter_Pan.gif]]
[[caption-width:305:[[TropeNamer Well, obviously.]]]]

[[PeterPan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Peter_Pan.gif]]
[[caption-width:305:[[TropeNamer Well, obviously.]]]]

* Static encephalopathy causes the brain to stop developing past a certain age.

* Brooke Greenberg, who has a mysterious medical condition that has caused her mind and body to remain in infancy for 16 years and counting (with some anomalies, such as her bone age being around that of a ten-year-old). There's [[ThisIsReality no obvious supernatural involvement]], although her first five years or so of life were full of medical catastrophes that spontaneously resolved without leaving any damage (for example, a brain tumor that spontaneously disappeared).

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