Basic Trope: Character reunites with a childhood friend to discover that they're now really pretty.
- Straight:
- Bob meets up with Alice again after ten years and is surprised at how beautiful she is now.
- Alice meets up with Bob again after ten years and is surprised at how handsome he is now.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice used to be utterly hideous, but now she's grown up so hot that Even the Girls Want Her.
- Bob used to be utterly hideous, but now he's grown up so hot that Even the Guys Want Him.
- Downplayed:
- Alice was a short Shrinking Violet 14-year girl before, but after a year later, she developed nicely.
- Alice has a nicer hairstyle and a more womanly figure, but she's not radically different.
- Justified:
- Alice got some plastic surgery.
- Alice grew up, and puberty was very generous to her.
- Alice used to live a very unhealthy lifestyle which caused her to look unattractive, but after she quit that.
- Alice was a tomboy when she was 10, and had shorter wild hair on top of being generally dirty and scraped from playing with the boys. She eventually began to take more pride in her appearance, resulting in better groomed hair and overall cleanliness.
- Inverted:
- I Was Quite a Looker.
- Alice used to be a cute kid, but when she and Bob meet again ten years later, she's ugly or disfigured, or just plain-looking.
- Alternately, Alice was a beautiful woman but was hit with some age-regression device/Phlebotinum that made her ten years old by the time Bob sees her again.
- Bob an Immortal meets Alice, an old lover of his, and finds outs that she has aged into an old woman.
- Subverted:
- Bob meets up with Alice after ten years, expecting that she will have grown up to be beautiful. Instead, she's kind of ugly.
- Alice was a beautiful little girl who grew up into a beautiful young woman. Bob has had a crush on her since kindergarten. However, when they were little, Bob was kind of a dork, and Alice though little of him. However, now he has grown up attractive and now Alice notices.
- Double Subverted:
- Instead of growing up to be beautiful, Alice is still plain and unnoticeable... Oh wait, that's Alicia. Alice grew up smoking hot.
- Bob meets Alice again after many years, but she doesn't look particularly attractive... except it turns out that she's stunningly gorgeous, and was simply disguising her appearance to make sure Bob liked her for more than her body.
- Parodied:
- Alice's features are exaggerated past attractiveness and into the Uncanny Valley, but everyone in-universe thinks she's still hot.
- Alternately: Alice grew up to be hideous, and most of the characters can tell... except Bob, who has some sort of ugliness fetish.
- Zig Zagged: Bob expected Alice to be beautiful, but she's plain and unnoticeable... but wait! Who's that hot girl Bob just ran into? Is it really Alice? Yes... but she's wearing a lot of makeup. She stops doing so, and she's back to being plain and unnoticeable... but then Bob takes a closer look at her and realizes she's rather cute after all. (And just to seal the deal, a school dance comes along and She Cleans Up Nicely.)
- Averted: Alice didn't change much in terms of looks.
- Enforced:
- "We need to make Alice and Bob's reunion a bit more dramatic. Maybe Bob finds her really attractive now?"
- "Bob knew Alice before she was pretty, so that the viewers know that he's not shallow, but we don't want anyone ugly in the role.
- Alice's actor from The Original Series is herself All Grown Up.
- Lampshaded: Bob meets up with the now beautiful Alice after ten years and says, "You know, I always knew you were going to grow up hot."
- Invoked: When Alice's friends learn that she's about to meet her old friend Bob, get her a makeover so she'll be smoking hot.
- Exploited:
- Alice, a very plain young girl, decides to wait until she's older and hopefully more attractive to woo her crush.
- Bob, wanting a date, calls up his old childhood friend. They had fun as children, and he's sure she'll be hot by now.
- Defied: Alice uses clothing and makeup to downplay her looks.
- Discussed:
- "Maybe this blind date with Alice won't be so bad after all. She probably grew up really hot."
- "I know we remember Alice as a dorky girl, but that was ten years ago. There's a good chance she'll be much prettier when we see her again."
- Conversed: "Is this gonna be another anime where he meets a hot girl, then finds out it was his childhood friend?"
- Implied: Bob says that he is waiting for "some kid" he knows and makes a Spit Take when Alice enters the room and identifies herself.
- Deconstructed:
- We see that Alice spent years of her life on plastic surgery and other measures to become pretty for her "return", but the experience leaves her hollow and unfulfilled after all.
- Bob pushed Alice down a lot and teased her when they were kids, leading Alice to think that Bob only cares about her now because she's pretty.
- Reconstructed:
- We see that Alice spent years of her life on plastic surgery and other measures to become pretty for her "return", but the experience leaves her hollow and unfulfilled after all. However, Bob falls in love with the person behind all that plastic surgery, which helps Alice recover and feel better about who she is now.
- However, Bob had a crush on Alice and couldn't properly express it at the age of 9. Bob has matured since then and can better express his emotions, and his former crush on Alice is still there.
- We see that Alice spent years of her life being fit and healthy as well as undergoing Character Development. She also had friends and loved ones to support her, and she learns tips on becoming pretty the safe, yet efficient way. By the time Bob returns, he finds Alice dazzling, even when she forgot to put makeup on that day.
- Played For Laughs: Bob is comically speechless after seeing the new stunning Alice.
- Played For Drama: Bob is Alice's Disappeared Dad and missed most of her life while he was away.
Well, that's a nice looking trope, and... wait, was that She Is All Grown Up? I haven't seen her since grade school! Wow...
