The Token Mini Moe is a young or young-looking member of the cast designed to appeal to one of two predominant demographics. The first is those who simply find the character absolutely adorable and/or endearing and feel protective towards him or her. The second are the Lolicons/Shotacons, who take an erotic or romantic interest in them. These groups can overlap, but just as often result in a Broken Base.
What defines a Token Mini Moe is a number of factors. First, they appear prepubescent, regardless of whether they are actually children or not. Why someone so much younger appearing is mixed in with a group of older looking people may be addressed, but it's just as likely that it will be noted and then the story will move on. In a harem series where they are used as a love interest, they will almost never be the main one and are frequently overshadowed. Since they are the Token Mini Moe, if there are other similarly young looking characters in the cast then it is probably not this trope.
Compare Tag Along Kid and Kid Appeal Character, who are kids designed to act as Audience Surrogates for younger viewers.
In anime fandom this trope is referred to as "token loli" or "token shota" depending on gender; because of how language evolves, the words "loli" and "shota" are relatively neutral terms in anime, originally meaning "uncomfortably sexualized little girl/boy" but now relating to any child aged 12 and under. The words still have Unfortunate Implications elsewhere which we want to avoid — so please don't use them in this website — and hence this page being renamed from Token Loli (that and the fact that, because of the definition shift, female examples of Kid Appeal Character and Tagalong Kid are also referred to as token lolis).
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Dragon Ball GT gives us one in the form of Pan, a 10 year old who is likely stronger than Frieza.
Unfortunately for her, this still makes her weak in comparison to Trunks, and especially Goku.
Seth Nightroad of Trinity Blood. Though she enjoys running around town doing odd jobs, she is eventually revealed to be both a Krusnik who is Really 700 Years Old, and Empress Augusta Vradica of the Methuselah Empire. The latter is not common knowledge because all of her public appearances are delegated to a more-mature-looking proxy.
Sasami, from Tenchi Muyo!. Naturally enough, she tends to behave more maturely than her elders....
In Magical Project S, the villain team (known variously as the Lovely Madams, Team Sexy Mrs, or Hitozuma-tai [Married Woman Squad]) has one member, Chisato or Mrs. Roku (literally "Mrs. Sixth", as the sixth member recruited), who is somewhere between kindergarten and junior high. She is the only unmarried member of the villain team, although she has an arranged marriage. One of the soldiers confronting the villains was heard to exclaim "She's supposed to be a wife?!"
Divergence Eve has Kotoko-01, a support android that looks like a little girl for no appreciable reason.
Please Teacher! has Ichigo Morino, although the fact she actually looks like one and is probably a draw to someone is only pointed out in the second season.
Mahou Sensei Negima! has too many to count for this trope in the present no matter how you divide the cast up but in the past, Asuna played this role for Ala Rubra.
Shinobu serves as this in Love Hina. A second, even younger character later joins the cast, but she's neither a main character nor a haremette.
Merrill in Rune Soldier Louie is not actually appreciably younger than the other females in the cast. But she is shorter, less developed, and acts younger, making her the Token Mini Moe. She also qualifies as a Shorttank.
Pia in Dragon Half. It should be noted she's completely androgynous, at least until the epilogue.
In BleachNanao Iseused to be the Token Mini Moe of the 8th Squad, having been there since she was a child.
Amongst the Zanpakutou Spirits in the recent filler arc: Momo Hinamori's Zanpakutou Tobiume is the closest to being this trope among the normal sized ones. Suzumebachi comes a bit closer, but she's a fairy.
Caro and Vivio in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. Kind of odd, as the first two seasons were full of Mini Moe girls. On the villain we have Lutecia and Cinque, the latter ironically one of the oldest members of the Numbers group.
Sendou Yukari in Rosario + Vampire, of the kid genius type. She's the Token Mini Moe of the harem, though Moka's little sister also happens to be one.
Rimone in Simoun, who is also not exempt from performing the kissing ritual to start the titular aircraft.
Although she does it in a subdued way that fits her age.
Vandread's team nurse Paiway Underberg. Why an eleven-year-old works as a ship's nurse is Hand Waved by a statement in the first episode that they were understaffed and had to take on a bunch of rookies in various positions. When Duero takes over as Doctor, there are surprisingly few complaints (other than him being male).
Chika from Ai Yori Aoshi. She's had more exposure to the male lead than any other character, although he thankfully disinterested, and thus it's played for comedy. She's still nonetheless very popular despite having the fewest appearances.
It seems like the mangaka of Chrono Crusade was trying to appeal to pretty much any demographic he could, so of course the show has a Token Mini Moe in Azmaria. A joke in one of the Omakes actually shows what Chrono would have been like if he'd been one of these, as well.
Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh is a Preteen Genius who starts 10th grade at 10 years old while all her classmates are 15 or 16. Really more of a parodic deconstruction — the series is all too quick to point out the problems with such a small girl in a much older group, and then plays it up for laughs.
Klan Klang from Macross Frontier. Actually, she's a Meltrandi, and in her normal form is anything but little — but a quirk in her micronization process means that, when she shrinks down to human size, she looks like a little girl.
Hinako Ninomiya from Ranma 1/2 should be in her twenties at least, but a severe illness when she was four (and an unorthodox "treatment" from Happosai) has slowed her aging to the point where she has the body of a ten year-old girl. She can only regain her (extremely buxom) adult form by absorbing the Battle Aura of people and animals, but it goes away after a while.
Kokoro from School Days is Katsura Kotonoha's younger sister that hangs out with Kotonoha and Makoto, and is the only person in the show under a certain age. In the Summer Days spinoff, she's a viable option. This was considered too far.
Dia from Kiddy Girl-and, with the added twist that she regularly kisses the main characters. Okay, it's mainly to turbo-charge their powers and it's treated more as something between sisters, but she seems to enjoy it very much.
Miyako from Melty Blood. At first glance, she doesn't appear to even be wearing pants. (Though she really is wearing very short cut-off jeans.) The other little girl in the cast, Len, actually has plot relevance. Miyako on the other hand seems to have been added to fill out a quota.
Chibiusa Tsukino, A.K.A. Sailor Chibi-Moon and Hotaru Tomoe, A.K.A. Sailor Saturn in Sailor Moon. The former spends most of her first arc being chased by the bad guys only to be Mind Raped by the arc's Big Bad and turned into an evil adult version of herself; in the manga version she also qualifies for Older than They Look. The latter spends most of her initial arc as a carrying case for the Big Bad's final lieutenant, who in the end bodyjack's her to fight the heroes until Hotaru herself destroys the Eldritch Abomination from within, then winds up turned back into a baby as a result of using her most powerful move against aforementioned big bad in order to destroy him.
In the Stars season Hotaru's age seems somwhere between baby and teen (due to rapid aging at the start). There's also ChibiChibi.
Ouran High School Host Club: Honey is a little cutie who looks about six and plays up his childishness and cuteness to appeal to the patrons of the titular Host Club. In fact, he's 18 and a senior, older than most of the rest of the gang.
The observational Realians and Kirschwassers in Xenosaga, which like Divergence Eve, are androids that look like little girls (with MOMO being the actual Token Mini Moe since she's a regular castmember).
Shinatama, the Simulated Living Doll (Almost-human Android) from Oni, as a rare Western video game example. An heavily anime-inspired Western example, though.
Momo from Project Justice. She's well aware of her size and uses it to get under the skin of her Huge Schoolgirl classmate Natsu for the affections of Shoma.
The Tales series seems to love these things a bit too much, in both male and female versions.
Harriet, Tales Of Legendia (she is not playable, but is a major character, and fits the bill)
Anise, alongside a male version, Ion, Tales Of The Abyss, and her PsychoRanger counterpart Arietta the Wild. Arietta's teammate Sync might also qualify as a male version, especially when he has his mask off, since he's a clone of Ion.
Similarly, the Star Ocean games (the second also has a male version) have one as well: Perisie in the first, Precis in the second, and Peppita in the third (amusingly, their names all begin with the letter P).
The remakes add Erys to the original Star Ocean, and Welch to both the original and second. Officially, Erys and Perisie are 17 and 16 respectively, but don't really look it.
Maria in the Castlevania series. For some reason, her chibi version has appeared far more often than the grown-up incarnation in Symphony of the Night.
Carrie from the N64 Castlevania/Legacy of Darkness games.
In Luminous Arc (for DS), we've got Mel, the precocious little Witch girl (she's a Water-elemental character). NPC versions are Alice and Therese... I think.
In Luminous Arc 2 (also for DS), there's Pop (full name: Potpourri), who fills in for Mel. She's a bratty Nature-elemental Witch, who has a love of crab. Her twin brother, Pip (a.k.a. Phillip) joins the party earlier, as the Token Shota. Remember Alice and Therese from the first game? They join your party in this one, and they make adorable comments (such as "You're gonna be a pie!" or "You're going to be toast with butter!").
Misha in Ar tonelico. At least at first. Cocona fills this role in the second game.
Saki from The Oneechanbara series. She's the little sister implicit in the title (it roughly translates to "The Big Sister Swordsman"). She's 16, but — like some real-life Asian teens — has a more childlike appearance. She's also the first of the series' Big Bads, before pulling a Heel Face Turn.
Maiko is the female Token Mini Moe Social Link in Persona 3. Ken Amada is the male version.
Persona 4 has Nanako Dojima. Also Ayane, one of the two choices for the Sun social link. She might be a better example given the player can eventually date and sleep with her
Luste Teuber and Schwer-Muta Casasola Merkle in Rosenkreuzstilette. Luste wears very little and worries about even less. Schwer-Muta wears a full-body catsuit and does double duty as the resident Creepy Child.
Sailor outfit-sporting Sherry Birkin in, of all things, Resident Evil.
Aruruw in Utawarerumono. One of only three girls not to be sexualized in the game, and also one of only two who doesn't love the lead. Romantically, anyway. Yeah.
Dear lord, Ernula from Wartech: Senko No Ronde. She acts in an exaggerated, hyper-moe "childish" manner, her mecha actually has bunnies painted on it, and her costumes are split between Moe appeal and full-out LoliconFetish Fuel.
Ojou, the final heroine in Suika looks to be about ten years old. She's also incredibly naive.
Most Square Enix / Final Fantasy games (and some related Squaresoft games) have one Token Mini Moe, although they've aged up in recent games. In chronological order:
Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII averted the trope: Both Rikku and Penelo fit the character type, but they're definitely too old and mature to count.
Actually Rikku is two years younger than both Yuffie and Selphie, but you wouldn't think so from playing the games.
Final Fantasy XIII: Vanille could look like one and might act like one, but she's physically 19. 519, counting the time spent as a crystal.
Mitsumete Knight has the (at the start of the game) 12-year old Laury Callwell as the Token Mini Moe and youngest character in the whole cast, girls and boys included. And considering this game's setting is a Crapsaccharine World, she's stalked by a creepy Lolicon foreigner who eventually kidnaps her, and, if the playerdoesn't save her, kills her by strangulation.
Touhou has a few. Not nearly as many as the memes would have you think, particularly considering the size of the rest of the cast. It should be mentioned all of them are Really 700 Years Old... though some of them don't act like it.
Rumia, Cirno, Remilia, and Flandre in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Yeah, this the game that got Touhou its reputation as being loli-heavy.
Luna from Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility embodies this trope well. Despite being old enough to be considered an eligible bachelorette, her diminuitive stature when compared to other adult characters in the game, extremely youthful appearance, and love of plushies makes her seem half her actual age.
Similarly, Dirk is the token shota in Grand Bazaar, being a bachelor despite looking like he should be in middle school at the highest. Interestingly, he was easily the most popular bachelor of that game.
Michiru from AIRis a spirit, but still doesn't have her own route in the Visual Novel, probably for squick reasons.
Fuuko in Clannad is the Token Mini Moe love interest. While there is another little girl in the cast (Sunohara Mei) she isn't part of the main cast.
Angie in Shikkoku No Sharnoth should be about 20 or so, but looks and acts like a little girl.
Ilya in Fate Stay Night. She doesn't get her own path even though it is that kind of game, (it was cut out before the game was released, though some of its backstory was eventually adapted into Fate/zero) and she's revealed to be slightly older than Shirou. One Tiger Dojo has Ilya mention those bad end HCGs where she rapes Shirou were also left on the cutting room floor due to time constraints.
In ONE: To The Radiant Season Shiina fills this role as being the only one not in highschool that you can get HCG with.
Len, from the Tsukihime sequel Kagetsu Tohya. Unlike Ilya though, Len does get her own HCGs. Despite her young form she's actually a Really 700 Years Old succubus.
''Gakuen Heaven": Biology teacher Satoshi Umino, who looks and acts cute and childlike despite being the oldest member of the main cast.
Katawa Shoujo features high school aged characters in the main cast, so the closest to this trope is Shizune's little brother Hideaki. Though Hisao does mistake him for a girl for his girlish looks and wardrobe.
Emi had a much younger appearance before some art updates, making her the Token Mini Moe of the main cast.
Kokoro from School Days. She doesn't get a route in the original game, but does have it in the Summer Days "sequel"... including two (very rape-like) sex scenes. The Japanese media was NOT amused.
