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Apparently becoming an Enfant Terrible makes you harder to hit.

There are a lot of characters who can change their shape. Some have fewer options than others, and a lot are limited to only a handful of forms. One common set includes an aged pair: the same general appearance, in a childlike and an adolescent or adult form. Often, one will be the natural form for the character, with the other being invoked by some external trigger. But most of the time, the child form will be used only to make the character look more innocuous or relatable.

See also Older Alter Ego for a child who gets powers in adult form, and Sleep-Mode Size for a powerful adult Mode Locked into a child form. If the character just ages from childhood to adulthood by normal means, it's a Plot-Relevant Age-Up or Time Skip. If a child is forcibly transformed into an adult, it's Overnight Age-Up; the inverse is Fountain of Youth. Subtrope to Humanshifting.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Signal in the manga/anime Twin Signal has two forms: An adult Bishōnen form, and a childlike Super-Deformed mode with an insane love for chocolate.
  • Mosquito from Soul Eater can change his form back into several younger states of himself, each of which excelled in a certain ability.
  • In the final arc of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Nurarihyon is able to temporarily revert his body to its youthful state from 500 years ago in order to defeat the Orochi. However he nearly dies as a result.
  • In Rave Master Sword Saint Shiba's final test for Haru Glory is to defeat him after he drinks a potion that reverts him to his youth while retaining all his experience. What he doesn't tell Haru is that the process used up his remaining lifespan.
  • Walter C. Dornez from Hellsing, after siding with Millenium and being a patient of the Doctor, is able to revert to the form and strength of his younger day.
  • Ranma ½:
    • Miss Hinako has the default form of a girl of about eleven years, and turns into a curvaceous twenty-something by absorbing Life Energy, Battle Auras and Ki Attacks. Although it's never addressed in the source material, it seems likely that her adult form is her true age, and her child form is the result of slowed aging due to Happosai giving her Energy Absorption powers via altering her metabolism with Pressure Points to cure a childhood illness.
    • Happosai's old friend Rakkyosai is cursed to change into a small child after falling into the Spring of Drowned Boy. The thing is, he's exactly the same (toddler-like) size in both forms, so he has no advantages or disadvantages from one body to the other, but his real body is more... wrinkly. A lot more.
  • In YuYu Hakusho, Koenma sometimes appears as a toddler and sometimes as a young man.
    • There's also Genkai, who is, by default, an old lady who's also a martial arts master, but rejuvenates to a young adult when using her Reiha (because it's a technique that, by spreading out the user's spiritual energy, changes them to how they looked when they were at the peak of their powers).
  • Princess Sparkle from Spider Riders assumes this form by using her Manacle due to her small size.
  • Juugo from Naruto turns into a child when he gives Sasuke some of his flesh to heal him; he turns back into an adult after absorbing a samurai's corpse.
  • In Tenchi Muyo!, Ryo-Ohki is a shapeshifter with four forms: a spaceship, a "cabbit" (cat rabbit creature), and child and teenage humanoid forms- the last of which is hard for Ryo-Ohki to control or maintain. note 
    • Also Washuu, who can take any form she pleases, but spends most of her time as a little girl.
  • Vivio and Einhart of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid both have their normal, elementary school forms, and their teenage forms they use in combat.
    • Use of adult mode has become standard by the time of ViVid Strike!.
    • Curren Huckebein shows this ability in Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force.
    • Familiars such as Arf also have the ability to become either a child or an adult, in either their human or animal forms.
  • Age misrepresentation pills in Negima! Magister Negi Magi, and whatever magic Eva uses. Mainly used for disguise, the only combat effect is the change in reach.
  • Maya Natsume from Tenjho Tenge can appear as an 8 year old or a 17 year old.
  • Space Pirate Mito is an alien that looks like a third grader, despite being over ten thousand years old, but has a mail suit that she uses for combat that looks like an adult human. She has similar suits for just masquerading as a human adult, and a good deal of the conflict in the first half of the series comes from trying to get her half-human son to accept her actual, childlike, form, when for most of his life he's only seen her in mail-suit form.
  • In Ah! My Goddess, Belldandy mentions that the three goddesses are each a representation of time. Belldandy represents the Present, so when she uses too much of her power, she just needs to sleep. However, when her sisters use too much power, Urd, representing the Past, reverts into a child form, while Skuld, representing the Future, grows up into a teenage form.
  • In Hell Teacher Nube, both Nube and Tamamo (extremely experienced spiritualists) can use astral projection to generate child-like bodies for themselves while their real ones lie in a sleep-like trance. Nobody ever seems to recognize them despite looking nearly identical to their adult forms (although Yukime thought child-Nube was exceedingly cute.)
  • In Hayate the Combat Butler, Isumi's great-grandmother can take child form by drinking other people's blood; when the effect wears off, she reverts to her true form. Like Rakkyosai above, there's not much difference between her two forms, apart from her true form being really, really wrinkly.
  • In 1001 Knights it is shown that genies tend to have an "unstable" form in this world and therefore switch between having a more younger appearance and a more adolescent one. However most of the time they look stable.
  • Jewelry Bonney of One Piece has a Devil Fruit that lets her change her age, as well as that of others, which she's used to temporarily change from her young adult Shapeshifter Default Form to a child or elderly form. She and her crew even wear clothes that are elastic so they can fit in any form.
  • The slightly obscure manga(?) 1520 has an interesting version of the trope. The two main characters, a 15 year old prince and a maid from opposing kingdoms, eat a magical cake by accident that transforms them into ten year old children. Whenever the maid laughs or the prince sheds a tear, that individual will return to their proper age, at the cost of de-aging the other down to about five.
  • In Millennium Snow, Yamimaru (the vampire's bat companion) can take on human form as either a strong young man or an adorable little boy.
  • Macross Frontier has Klan Klan, a Meltran who has a physical defect that causes her to regress in age when micronized to human size. When giant-sized, she's mature and... developed. When human-sized, she appears as (and acts like) a preteen.
  • In Dance in the Vampire Bund, Mina Tepes's true vampire form is that of a woman who is the spitting image of her mother. She does everything she can to hide this, because that form is theoretically capable of producing an heir, and the heads of the other three vampire clans are old men who she despises and would see nothing wrong in forcing her to produce that heir with one of them. Her child form allows her to claim that she isn't ready to reproduce, buying her time to find a way to neutralize them before they can force her into marriage.
  • In Doki Doki Pretty Cure, Madoka Aguri/Cure Ace shifts between her normal ten-year-old self and her older teenage Cure self when she transforms.
  • Bal Dragon, Gao's Buddy Monster in the third season of Future Card Buddyfight, is a hatchling that fights in a second form that appears fully-grown, though his voice doesn't change when in said form.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind:
    • Prosciutto is a 20-something young man, but at one point in the series he appears as an old man. This is done using his Stand's power "Grateful Dead", which ages everyone within its radius, and he aged and later de-aged himself to set up an ambush where he disguises himself as one of Grateful Dead's victims.
    • Doppio looks like a 17 year old boy, but he's actually the younger-looking Split Personality of Diavolo, The Don of Passione, who is 33 years old.
  • In UFO Princess Valkyrie, both Valkyrie and Hydra are adult women who get transformed into children, though by different means. Valkyrie gets de-aged due to giving Kazuto half of her soul, while Hydra gets her powers sealed by Akina. Valkyrie can temporarily turn back into her adult form after kissing Kazuto, while Akina can turn Hydra back into her adult form. Hydra also retains her adult mind while in child form, while Valkyrie does not.
  • Nezuko from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Though not really commented on in-universe, her physical age changes depending on how much she gives into her demonic nature, with her body maturing to that of a young woman when in her full demon form. This is first shown at the very start of the series when her body began growing as she tried to devour Tanjiro, before regaining her senses and maintaining her familiar young appearance. She is also capable of transforming into an infant-like state, as seen during the beginning of the Swordsmith Village arc.
  • Dragon Ball GT does this with Goku: in the very first episode he's accidentally wished back to 11 years old from the start of the series. Later on he attains Super Saiyan 4, a form so powerful that it breaks the wish's spell, so he's in his adult body as long as he maintains it. As soon as he powers down, he's back to being a child.
  • Katekyo! Hitman Reborn has the 10-Year-Bazooka, a weapon that, when fired, switches out the wielder with the version of themself 10 years in the future. Lambo whips it out anytime he throws a tantrum to become 15-year-old Lambo, a marginally more mature version of himself with admittedly improved fighting skills. Becomes a major plot point during the Future arc.
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: 18 year old Kusuri took a failed immortality drug that turned her into a child; by drinking a neutralization drug, she can return to her original age for 10-20 minutes. Her parents also took the immortality drug, putting them in a similar situation.

    Comic Books 
  • Shazam!: Ten year old Billy Batson can transform into adult hero Captain Marvel by saying a magical word.
  • Supergirl's enemy Blackstarr, who made her first appearance in the Bronze Age comics, can change her looks at will in order to look younger.
  • Skaar, one of the Hulk's sons, can change between a small gray child-like form, and a bigger Hulk-like form.
  • One of the Heroes tie-in comics had The Russian, a Special who posed as an entire crime family with his ability to physically age and de-age himself at will.
  • Subverted in the canon Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics with Dracula, who appears to be a 30-something-year-old able to take the form of a very old man form at will. But in reality he is always in his old form and simply uses his hypnotic abilities to make everyone around him see him as his younger self.
  • Hound: Morrigan can change between the form of a dark-haired young woman and the form of a Fomorian hag called Calatin.

    Fan Works 
  • Beyond the Outer Gate Lies...:
    • Serafall has a "beer-buying" appearance she shifts into when she needs to be treated like an adult in the human world. She also has a yet-unseen "adult mode" that is actually her real form. She keeps it hidden with Glamour because it's So Beautiful, It's a Curse.
    • There's an In-Universe example in Miracle Levi-tan with the Wandering Wizard, whose Nice Hat is a magical item that makes him look older than he really is.
  • In Here There Be Monsters, fifteen-year-old Billy Batson'' becomes an adult when he says the magic word. Inverted with Mary Bromfield and Freddy Freeman, who are in their twenties, but they look like teenagers when they transform.

    Literature 
  • Aphrael in The Elenium and The Tamuli. Being a goddess, she can look however she wants, but generally takes child form because it makes her easier to adore.
  • Foster from Keith Laumer's A Trace of Memory goes from an old man to a youth in the space of an evening... but loses his memory in the process. It turns out this happens to him indeed, his entire species on a regular basis. The plot is motivated by his friend's quest to restore Foster's memory, and The Reveal has to be seen to be believed: it's one of the cheekiest twist endings in all of literature - cleverly foreshadowed, but still quite shocking in its chutzpah.
  • Hecate from The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel goes from being a maiden in the morning, a mother during the day, and a crone by the evening. It should be noted that she does not have control over the process, however.
  • The original Dracula appeared as an old man most of the time, but turned young if he had recently fed.
  • In The Power of Six in the Lorien Legacies series, 7 meets up with 10, whose first Legacy is to be either a 7-year old, her actual age, or a 17-year old.
  • Feruchemists in Mistborn can store their age in the metal atium, allowing them to shift to be as young or old as they want- but since Feruchemy is based on Equivalent Exchange, they can't make themselves young without spending the same amount of time old, and vice versa, meaning this power is normally considered fairly worthless except for disguise purposes. The Lord Ruler, however, can do both Feruchemy and Allomancy, and by combining the two systems can get a lot more power from his Feruchemy, meaning that he essentially has eternal youth so long as he spends a few hours every few days as an old man.
  • Motes in the Post-Self book Motes Played chooses to interact with the world as a child most of the time due to her obsession with play, though some days are dedicated to "Big Motes", where she appears as an adult. She leans hard into this, treating her cocladists A Finger Pointing and Beholden as her parents.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Big John, Little John has his two forms as a side effect of a sip from the Fountain of Youth.
  • Power Rangers Turbo: Justin, who is a kid, appears adult-sized when transformed into the Blue Ranger. Sometimes averted, when he doesn't wear his helmet. Justified because of the series uses the footage of Carranger, where all the Rangers are adults.
    • In Power Rangers S.P.D., there's Mora, a villain general who starts the series as a child, then partway through is transformed into an adult named Morgana as a punishment (this is actually her natural form, but she prefers to be a child), before being turned back into Mora near the end.
  • Kibaranger in Gosei Sentai Dairanger does things the same way as Justin. However, he still has his child voice, so while he's keeping his identity secret he has his talking sword pretend to be his voice.

    Video Games 
  • Dragalia Lost: Yoshitsune, introduced during the "Cursed Connections" event, is an immortal old woman who has learn technique that allows her to temporarily take on a much younger form of when she was at her best fighting condition for combat. When she finishes her fight, she reverts back to her elderly body.
  • Link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, by way of Mental Time Travel into his younger body.
  • Mithos/Yggdrasil from the game Tales of Symphonia.
  • The titular Space Ace in the laserdisc video game is turned into a child as a result of the Big Bad Borf's "Infanto Ray". During certain parts of the game, the player has the chance to "energize" Ace and turn him back to his adult form for a short time; adult Ace sequences tended to be more about fighting villains while child Ace spent most of his time trying to avoid or escape enemy attack.
  • Misha of Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia became a child when she lost the Chronicle Key. You can later change her age at will by adding or removing Chronicle Key
  • Pollin, the Magical Girl parody from Tech Romancer has her standard "little girl" mode and occasional older version.
  • Kliff Undersn in Guilty Gear turns into his younger self during certain attacks.
  • Zeku, Guy's master who originally appeared as an NPC in Street Fighter Alpha 2, has gained this ability in Street Fighter V, being able to switch between his current self and his younger self at will. He plays differently depending on which mode he's in, with his old form being slower but with a greater damage output and attack range, and his younger self being faster and more combo oriented.
  • In God of War: Ascension, Castor and Pollux are normally elderly conjoined twins. By using the Amulet of Ouroboros' ability to reverse the flow of time, they can revert to their youthful prime for battle.
  • The true form of Flowey/Asriel during the Final Battle in Undertale has him appear to you as a child to trick you into letting your guard down. He then changes to his teenager/young adult form which has him appearing older with a somewhat scary face and attacks you.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Poppi, an Artifical Blade, has Triple Age Modes. Her default shield bearing child form in Alpha, her Power Fist wielding teenager form in a Meido outfit in QT, and her powerful blade wielding adult form in QTπ. It's even more present in Japanese as the codenames for each forms are actually abreviations for the Japanese words for elementary school, high school, and college girl (JS, JK, and JD), respectively.
  • In Ring Fit Adventure, minor character Dashley can turn into a young woman when she runs with perfect form. If she stops or takes a break, she reverts to her elderly true age.

    Webcomics 
  • 21 year old Evan Onymous of The Wotch can transform into a 4-year old girl called Lily ("Lil E"). (Also a fully-grown female version, Missy ("Miss E").)
  • Pandora from El Goonish Shive appears in her child form when she reveals herself to mortals, and assumes her adult form when dealing with her son and during her later appearances in the ephemeral universe parallel to the physical plane of existence called the spiritual plane. These are not her only forms however; as a shapeshifter she can appear as anything between a monstrous "cloud" and a clone of any other character.
    • Mr. Raven can alternate between a sixtyish form and a twentysomething one.
  • Kill Six Billion Demons: The demiurge Mottom, ruler of one-seventh of creation, looks like a withered old woman when meeting with other demiurges. In her own palace, she looks like a shapely young woman.
  • In Wilde Life, Raven is a raven animal person who can also perform Human Shifting. While dialogue seems to indicate that he can look however he wants, he only ever shows one basic human form, shifting from a child, teen and adult version. At one point he also makes the teen version female.
  • In No Future, the ability to freely change their age is shared by the (competent) time gods. Other gods have to ask Chronos for help if they need to look younger or older than they usually do.
  • In Arthur, King of Time and Space, in the version of the scene in Le Morte D Arthur in which Arthur is approached when hunting by a prophetic youth who turns out to actually be Merlin, he asks why Merlin was disguised like that. Merlin replies that it wasn't a disguise; he's not going to chase Arthur across the countryside at his regular age.

    Western Animation 
  • Clockwork from Danny Phantom constantly shifts between different ages due to his time-related powers.
  • Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Adrian Toomes, AKA the Vulture, designs a suit that lets him drain the life force from people, turning them old and making him young, though this is usually only temporary. When he absorbs Spider-Man's life force, he also sucks out Spidey's spider mutation. He goes to Doctor Conners for help and he agrees, but Conners double-crosses Vulture, giving Spider-Man his youth back, but leaving Vulture with the mutation. The next time we see him two season later, Toomes is trapped switching back and forth between his old self and his young self at random, with no explanation what happened to the spider mutation.
  • Steven Universe: Steven can change age as well as form, though he normally can't hold a different age/form for too long before involuntarily reverting to his natural state, and may get stuck in the wrong age/form for a while for psychological reasons.

 
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Video Example(s):

Alternative Title(s): Multi Age Modes

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Justin Morphs

Whenever Justin morphs into the Blue Turbo Ranger, he spontaneously grows into an adult body while retaining his child voice.

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