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A story featuring an adolescent making the mental leap from child to adult. In real life, this happens over the course of several years. Literature and some television are media that have the space to show the story at a slow pace. But for a movie, things have to be compressed to several months at the most, so expect some really accelerated character development. Tends to happen to a character anywhere from 13 to 20 years of age.
Usually includes some combination of the following:
An increasingly popular comedy subversion is the Delayed Coming of Age Story, in which the person has remained mentally a child his entire life and only finally experiences these things sometime between his late 20s and mid-40s.
Mainstream film coming-of-age stories tend toward dramedy. Independent film or novel stories lean toward drama, sometimes jumping headlong into Wangst.
The word bildungsroman (Ger. "educational novel") or bildungsgeschichte (Ger. "educational story") are sometimes used to describe these kinds of stories. A note on the translation: the terms originated in the Age of Enlightenment, when "Bildung" meant not only "education" but also "self-improvement" (cf. English "building"). In other words, it's not a "novel to educate the readers" but a "novel about the hero becoming someone".
See also Age Progression Song.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- The entire subplot of Dragon Ball Z is essentially Gohan growing up with adventures similar to Goku's, his father, albeit far more violent. Like its predecessor, Dragon Ball, the series ends when Gohan is married and has a family of his own.
- Candy Candy covers Candy's whole life since she was taken in by Miss Pony and Sister Maria as a baby, until she's at least in her twenties.
- The main premise of Hidamari Sketch centers on Yuno's desire to be seen as mature. Lampshaded, as she becomes overjoyed every time someone compliments her on her supposed maturity.
- Hitohira: Shy school girl—check. Situation that forces change—check. Affectionate friends to help her—check. It's still very well done, though.
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, when it boils down to it. It's really mostly about Tsuna being shaped and trained by Reborn into becoming a real man fit for being the 10th Generation Vongola boss.
- Ashita No Nadja: It starts when Nadja has to leave the only home she has known, travelling with the Dandelion Troupe to find her origins and grow up...
- Chrono Crusade seems to be a coming-of-age story for Rosette, particularly in the manga. It might be one for Chrono as well, although he'd be a "late bloomer" example as he's Really 700 Years Old.
- Real heartbreakingly deals with teenagers forced to grow up because of the disabilities that they've suddenly had to accept in order to deal with the world around them.
- Full Moon o Sagashite deals with the protagonist, Mitsuki, having to grow up while dealing with the fact that she doesn't have much time to live.
- Fushigi Yuugi is a coming-of-age story, among other things, for just about all the good guys—especially Miaka. While it takes somewhere between a few weeks to a few months for them to finish their journey in the book, it's only two days in the real world.
- Megazone 23, at least the first part. It contains elements of most of the examples from the top of this page and ends on a decidely negative note.
- Wandering Son has this, but the anime and manga portray it in a different way. The anime seems to be more so about kids learning to be comfortable with their bodies and growing up, apparently changing the protagonists from Transsexual to simple Wholesome Crossdressers. The manga isn't nearly as obvious as the anime, but it's still apparent. The manga began in late elementary, and follows the protagonists to early high school.
- Eyeshield 21 boils down to the main character growing out of his wimpy kid mold and becoming a man (albeit a rather wimpy man).
- Mobile Suit Gundam AGE features this in the first two generations with their protagonists, Flit and Asemu Asuno, respectively, though their development differs wildly (Flit develops from The Messiah into a Dark Messiah, whereas Asemu develops from a “Well Done Son” Guy into his own person).
- A Cruel God Reigns is very much a coming of age story for not only Jeremy and Ian, but also for many of the supporting characters, like Vivi, Nadia, William, Cass, and Marjorie. However, the story focuses mainly on how Jeremy and Ian break into adulthood after the trauma of Jeremy's Rape as Backstory and Ian dealing with the fact that Jeremy killed his father.
- 3-gatsu no Lion is essentially one for the protagonist Rei Kiriyama, as many of the story arcs build upon his Character Development with the events that transpire in both the world of shogi and his home life, as well as with the life lessons he learns from them.
Comic Books
- The Flash: Barry Allen died just when Wally West was transitioning into adulthood. Wally's Character Development as the the new Flash thus played out like this.
Fan Fiction
Film
- Super8 is the tale of a young boy and the girl he likes coming to grips with a shared family tragedy... while a scary escaped alien runs amok in their town.
Literature
- Harry Potter: The seven books each cover a year of the eponymous Harry Potter's life, primarily showing ages 11 through 17. Although the series is ostensibly about Harry's struggle against the evil wizard Voldemort, his growth from a child through adolescence into adulthood is a major theme, and the bulk of each book is about his time as a student at the strange but wonderful Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
- Fever Pitch: The book, not the movies. Describes the author's own coming of age through his relationship with football and his favourite club.
- The Belgariad is this in a Sword and Sorcery setting. Garion is a teenager through most of the story, but the first book covers his childhood from the beginning. As Garion is painfully Ignorant of the Call, the series deals largely with his coming to terms with being special. Love Interest Ce'Nedra is also forced to grow up, maturing from spoiled princess to responsible queen.
Live-Action TV
- Smallville depicts Superman's teenage years, and deals with both his and his friends' maturation into adults. Along the way, many a monster is defeated.
- Doctor Who uses this as a common theme. Most of the companions go through a coming of age brought about by their travels with the Doctor.
- My Mad Fat Diary chronicles the life of Rae, a 16-year old girl suffering from both mental health problems and obesity.
- HBO's Rome contains a few examples. Brutus goes from a half drunk socialite controlled by the whims of fate and his manipulative mother to a self possessed stoic cutting the straps from his armor as he walks alone against an entire platoon. Octavian meanwhile goes from a geeky wimp at the start of the series to a very, very, creepy Magnificent Bastard in the close.
Tabletop RPG
- Misspent Youth is a game where you play as a rebellious youth. Predictably, growing up is a central theme, and is even a central mechanic of the game. A player can Sell Out one of his or her Convictions to—amongst other choices—grow up, losing the Conviction permanently, but hopefully winning a conflict. The game ends when a player runs out of Convictions—potentially having grown up completely.
Theatre
- The musical A Chorus Line crams sixteen coming-of-age stories into the montage "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love".
- Theatre/Thirteen is the literal version of this since it is about the main character's Bar Mitzvah. Of course he is forced to grow up and figure out who his real friends are when he moves to a new town and tries to have the biggest party ever.
- Theatre/Vanities follows three women from high school in 1963 to college in 1968, and adulthood in 1974, and the musical version adds a fourth act set in the 1980's.
- Shakespeare's four plays, Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V either depict the wayward Prince Hal's coming of age and taking the throne as a triumphant warrior king, or it depicts Prince Hal tricking everyone into believing it's his coming of age story.
Video Games
- Mega Man Star Force seems to be one of these, as the main character (Geo) starts out by shutting out the world in the first game, then grows up through the second game, so that by the third he is able to step up and take charge of the gang when Luna Platz has been datafied.
- In Mass Effect 2 this is Grunt's loyalty mission. As a young member of his species, and a tank-bred clone for that matter, finding an identity is important to him. Being a Krogan, Grunt's coming-of-age ceremony relates to him learning to control his innate aggressions; on a more abstract level, he is often seeking the advice and approval of those around him, and interactions with him typically entail helping him sort out his identity and making him a valuable member of his current group.
- Both the A and B routes of Blaze Union, which deal with Gulcasa and Aegina respectively. The A route goes over more of the traditional story elements covered by this trope, whereas Aegina's path deals more with coming to terms with grief and the truth and finding one's place in the world.
- Some Pokémon games play with this. Ostensibly, a meek kid from a town in the middle of nowhere becomes powerful and confident, growing more mature over their journey and becoming a battle protégé. The first installment in the series even refers to the protagonists journey as this. From the player's perspective, the Player Character, who is largely featureless, is mostly a receptacle for other characters to speak into, with your rival(s) receiving the actual character development; the player is left to imagine the player character's maturation for himself.
- "Video Game/Fallout3" is often seen as one. After all your player character goes from a teenager in a fallout shelter to being the hardened survivor of the wasteland.
- Tales Of The Abyss for Luke. He starts out as a self-centered, sheltered brat, goes through phases of Jerkass, Heroic BSOD, The Atoner and various identity complexes, and ends up declaring his independence from the quasi-father-figure Big Bad and saving the world. Yay!
- Tales Of Graces is also technically a coming of age story, due to the prologue-maingame-future arc structure, but the development is spread across five characters - Asbel, Cheria, Hubert, Richard and Sophie - so it ends up a little less focused.
Visual Novels
- Little Busters is largely the story of how Riki, a rather meek and unconfident young man constantly following after his friends, manages to become stronger and more able to handle things on his own. To a slightly lesser extent, the same is also true for Rin.
- All three of Fate/stay night's routes, each corresponding to a different one of the Three Faces Of Adam. The first two (corresponding to the hunter and the lord) leave some of his future developments open. The last route, Heaven's Feel (corresponding to the prophet), follows it to its inevitable conclusion.
Western Animation
Examples of Late Bloomer Subversions:
Anime and Manga
- Like many shojo manga, Gokinjo Monogatari. Only, since it's Ai Yazawa, the characters' motivations for maturing and growing are mainly their dreams and aspirations of becoming graphic artists and fashion designers.
Comic Books
- Y The Last Man features a reasonably realistic delayed coming of age story amongst the Gendercide, war, cloning, cultists and conspiracies going on all over the place.
Film
- The Forty Year Old Virgin. It's in the title—the question is rather who the truly mature person is: Andy or his partying friends?
- Kicking And Screaming by Noah Baumbach is about a group of recent college graduates who completely refuse to move on with their lives.
- The Iron Man movie is basically about Tony Stark going from an extremely rich manchild to an extremely rich man. By building a robot suit and fighting crime.
Literature
- Cerberon features the coming of age of the eponymous unicorn. While already an adult at around twenty years old, he learns through the course of the novel what it takes to be a real unicorn and not just a pretty, well-educated horse with a pointy thing on his head.
Live-Action TV
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one enormous coming-of-age story (only, you know, with monsters and superpowers) for Buffy, Willow and Xander, and the run of the series is structured to follow specific stages of adolescence.
- Friends is a sitcom focusing on young adults growing into their 30s and settling down with families.
Music
- The Concept Album American Idiot tells the story of the Anti-Hero protagonist, Jesus of Suburbia, as he matures from a rebellious youth to a jaded adult. The musical version of the album expands on this story by also telling the coming of age stories of Jesus' best friends, Will and Tunny.
Web Video
Theatre
- Avenue Q. Princeton is a college grad, but he's still not ready for real adult life.
- The Musical version of American Idiot does this with its three protagonists, Johnny, Will, and Tunny, who are in their early to mid-twenties.
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