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Take one improbably cute Amazon Brigade, add pint-sized girl with a plushie.
During the development phase, it was said that "Caster turns into a loli with hyper power", but we only need one loli!
—Taiga, Fate Stay Night (game): Taiga dojo #22

The Token Loli is an aged-twelve-and-under (at least in appearance) female character in an anime cast that is otherwise made up of adults, or at least teenagers. Her presence is often hand-waved in some manner to explain why someone that looks twelve is hanging out with a group of people old enough to be her parents: a younger sibling, Phlebotinum genetics , inherited a Plot Coupon like everybody else, a Preteen Genius who got her position early on the basis thereof, etc. Maybe she just has lots of free time. Again, note that the Token Loli doesn't have to actually be underage. She may be Really Seven Hundred Years Old, or a Robot Girl, or some other variant of the Magical Girlfriend, as long as she's still loli in appearance.

The Token Loli shows up in darn near every series, to the point that if she's not there at the start, it's more a matter of waiting until she does show up than a matter of if. In the case of ensemble casts, she might be included simply to round out the demographics of the show for younger viewers.

This means that a Token Loli can become a Cousin Oliver or The Scrappy without proper care. Note the trope term is unfortunately quite literal in certain series, where far from being a simple cute little kid, a character becomes actual Lolicon Fetish Fuel, her presence occasionally dividing the fandom for its Unfortunate Implications.

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