Discussion Main / AdorablyPrecociousChild

Not everything can be accurately renamed in English. There are concepts that just don't have a convenient one-word equivalent in English.

That said, even if it did, why change it? The wiki's already annoyingly edit-happy with its page titles.

What'd be wrong with just Cute Kid?

Cute Kid doesn't really have the same connotation. This trope is basically the male version of Token Loli. "Cute Little Girl" wouldn't work for that one either.

I am kind of disappointed with the new name. I mean, even though I know where it comes from, I get that it might have been wise to change the name, but using the unisex word "child" could confuse tropers and trope readers. Heck, even I'm confused. Wasn't this a boys only trope?

Edited by Skulljoker There aren't any tropers. Only one person with a freakishly large amount of free time and a passion for everything.

It was originally written as a boys-only trope. It isn't anymore. If you have a female example, please list it; we need more of those.

Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.

Yes, it does. It is not the Spear Counterpart to Token Mini-Moe, they are both gender-neutral tropes.

Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.

The trope can refer to both sexes. That's why a gender-neutral name was chosen.

Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.

If the trope can refer to both sexes, yet the vast majority of examples are male, then is it okay if I change the uses of "she/her" in the description back to "he/him"?

I'd prefer not. The examples are mostly male because the trope was originally written as male-specific, we're trying to make it clear that it can also apply to female characters so that people will start adding female examples.

Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.

But if for little girls is Token Mini-Moe (or whatever the new name is) and boys are Cute Shotaro Boy, I don't see the point of making a gender neutral name when they were two separate tropes to begin with.

But Token Mini-Moe is unisex now and a different trope. It's when qoute the trope's article "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."

Edited by Oreochan "Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."

Cute Shotaro Boy is not and never was the Spear Counterpart of Token Loli. They are different tropes (although they may overlap). They are both unisex, and they both now have unisex names so that people will use them both for both sexes, as they should. One of the reasons for renaming Token Loli was so that people would stop insisting it was Always Female.

Edited by lebrel Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.

You do know that there is no "they", TRS discussions are open to everyone, right?

Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.

The difference, as hashed out in the TRS thread, is that the Adorably Precocious Child is considered cute because they try to be mature and responsible, and often is not taken seriously by the other characters. Typically the APC is also less effective at being mature / responsible and is more likely to lapse back into kid behavior. If the overall effect is "aww, how cute, he's trying so hard", the character is more likely to be a Adorably Precocious Child, whereas if the overall effect is "this kid is as mature and competent as the adults" it's more likely to be Wise Beyond Their Years.

If you want to make an audience reaction trope that would cover the things Cute Shotaro Boy was misused for, take it to YKTTW. Currently, Cute Shotaro Boy is a redirect to Adorably Precocious Child and should be used only for the definition given there.

Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.

Alright, point taken. Thanks =)

Not sure if I'm gonna make a YKTTW for that for the time being, though.

MAX POWER KILL JEEEEEEEEWWWWW

Film stuff:

• Midshipman Blakeney in Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World. Being a midshipman in the Napoleonic-era British navy, he also counts as a Child Soldier.
• Chekov in the reboot Star Trek film manages this, and young!Spock plays it completely straight.
• The Artful Dodger in the 1968 musical movie Oliver!. (He was specifically described as being a rather ugly child in the book, but movie adaptations always use cute kids.)
• The younger kid, Alexandre Motier (Didier Haudepin's acting would be scary-good at any age) in Les amitiés particulières usually released in English as This Special Friendship. If there's already a trope for European boys' boarding-school romances (another example Another Country, albeit with a mid-twenties actor as half the couple) then I've yet to encounter it, but feel free to contradict/enlighten me.
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids has nerdy little Nick Szalinski. In Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, which takes place 3 years after the events of the first movie, he is a Keet.

Literature:

• While on the subject of Diana Wynne Jones' books, Ceri in Power of Three.
• And Eric Chant in Charmed Life. Especially the latching-on-to-older-sister part, poor boy.

• Petya Rostov from War And Peace is a mild version of this. He joins the Russian army because of a mix of responsibility over his family's sad state and patriotism.
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff gives us a Adorably Precocious Child Jesus Christ. Yes, really.
• How about Good Omens? Cute shota Antichrist.
  • That's Anti-Anti-Christ, which somehow only makes it cuter.
• Greg Heffley of Diary Of A Wimpy Kid can be one sometimes.
• The Codex Alera's Tavi starts out as one, by virtue of not looking his age. Evolves into Tall, Dark, and Handsome when he belatedly hits his growth spurt.
• Jake Chambers from The Dark Tower of Stephen King.

Live Action TV:

• Max Russo of Wizards Of Waverly Place is this at the beginning of the series, but later he enters Justin's and Alex's world.
• Wesley Crusher of Star Trek: The Next Generation is a failed attempt at this, in that he tends to elicit no audience sympathy whatsoever.
• Ravi of Jessie towards everyone in the main cast.
• In Kamen Rider Skull: Message for Double, Shotaro is one of these, along with his loli friend Marina. He grows up to be the manly half of the future Double and Marina becomes the villain of the first two episodes.
  • Some of the clients count as well, especially Akira from the epilogue. His innocence and ignorance contrasts very well with the jaded, depressed Shotaro.
• Manny on Modern Family.

Video games:

• Sora, Roxas, and Ventus from Kingdom Hearts, are teenaged versions, while Ienzo and young Riku are more typical ones.
• Roan in Grandia 2.
• Bridget from the Guilty Gear series not only falls into this category, but, as he is a convincing crossdresser, also appears to be custom-made for yaoi fandom.
  • Also his Spiritual Successor from Blaz Blue, Carl Clover. Though Carl is certainly missing a certain something only Bridget has.
• Shiva from the Galaxy Angel gameverse... or so the player thinks.
• Link from The Legend Of Zelda, in games where he's not old enough to qualify as Bishōnen. He even has some adult women acting... questionably... toward him, though it could be all in fans' heads.
• All three of the Mother series' main Kid Heroes are Cute Shotaro Boys (Ninten, Ness, and Lucas, respectively). However, they're all Older Than They Look.
  • Their ages are actually between 12 and 13, so it's not much of a surprise. But still...
• Larsa of Final Fantasy XII probably fits this trope.
• Fire Emblem:

Earlier examples include Nils from Rekka no Ken, Rei and Lugh from Fuuin no Tsurugi, Corple from Seisen no Keifu, Asvel from Thracia 776, and Ewan from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.

• Oifey also from Seisen no Keifu fits this. In a subversion, rather then growing up into a Bishōnen, he becomes a manly fellow as an adult with a Badass Mustache.

• Tales:

  • Though in Mithos's case, he's really 4,000+ years old and looks more like an adult when he isn't manipulating his appearance to look more like his 12-13 year old self.

  • Also see Karol from Tales of Vesperia. Given how anime trope-heavy the Tales Series is, more will doubtless follow.
    • You forgot Mao from Tales of Rebirth.
    • What, no Ion?
    • How could we forget the shotaro who happens to be the main character of his respective game, Luca Milda from Tales of Innocence ? Really people.
  • Amusingly enough, Tales of Graces starts out with 3 of the main characters as shotas in the prologue.
• Machi Tobaye from the 4th game in the Ace Attorney series. It doesn't help either that he was originally meant to be designed as a girl.
  • Lil' Edgeworth also counts, if the flashbacks from case 1-4 are to be believed.
  • Yumihiko Ichiyanagi Ace Attorney Investigations 2 may be a teenager but his shortness and attitude qualifies...and then there's the fact no one takes him seriously and thinks he's an idiot.
• Laliar in Super Robot Wars R and Original Generation, being the only boy in Duminuss' creations. The rest are lolis.
  • Elma, Selena's assistant from Alpha 3, would fit this trope to a T if he were human (or at least human-shaped).
• Beat from Eternal Sonata is the poster boy for this trope.
• Pop N Music has countless examples; the best are Timer and Hugh.
  • Kevin. There's also Natsubou from 15, and arguably Syo from 14.
• Brian of Quest 64.
• Nasir of Lagoon is somewhat older, unlike his brother Thor.
• Flower Sun And Rain has a character actually named Shoutaro. He fits the aesthetic visually, but is closer to a Bratty Half-Pint in personality — although everyone except the main character and player seems to think he fits this trope, instead. He's also an egregious Fourth Wall Breaker in a game already full of Breaking the Fourth Wall.
• Edward in Clock Tower 2 (known as just Clock Tower outside Japan).
• Tails of the Sonic The Hedgehog games qualifies as a notable furry version with a sizable fanbase to match. Charmy Bee also counts, being one of the two youngest characters in the entire series (the other one being Cream, who can qualify as a Token Mini-Moe).
  • Charmy is actually a subversion of sorts. He was originally 16 in Knuckles Chaotix, but as a part of his Retcon (as well as Espio's and Vector's) for Sonic Heroes, he was de-aged to 6. Combine that with his Keet personality in the game, and you have this trope.
• Bugsy from Pokémon Gold and Silver. Yes, he's a boy. Look at him, he's◊ so◊..Cute◊.
  • Possibly Gold Hibiki Ethan, Lucas, and Pearl among other trainers.
    • Red is this in all his incarnations, even when he's entered puberty generation 2 wise.
  • Don't forget Wally. D'aww.◊
• Harvest Moon:
  • Your son as a kid in A Wonderful Life, and most of your sons actually. Almost every game has a Cute Shotaro Boy from the get-go too, Tim and Hugh being most well-known.
• Seere in Drakengard, who sacrificed his "Time" (his ability to age) in order to form a pact with a Golem. He also has the incredible luck of being in a party with a pedophile and a Baby Eater.
  • And Caim. Of course, in this regard he's just as lucky as the rest of the party, since Caim hates them all equally.
• The titular Little King(whose default name is Corobo) from Little Kings Story. He can grow a Badass Beard despite his age in the hardest difficulty however.
• Caillou in Recettear.
• Emil from Nier. At least until the second half of the game...
• The Onion Knight in Dissidia Final Fantasy, the best way to describe his personality is "know-it-all brat"

Western Animation:

• Mac from Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends.
• Boomer of the Rowdyruff Boys, Evil Counterparts of The Powerpuff Girls. It really helps that he is the male counterpart of Bubbles.
• Tobey from WordGirl fits most of this trope... except for the relationship with an older girl (not that he doesn't WANT one with a certain superheroine...).
• Aang The Hero from Avatar: The Last Airbender who even falls head over heels with two years older Team Mom.
• Beast Boy from Teen Titans. Simultaneously The Bumblebee. So cute, he's huggable! Comes with optional cute animal-forms.
• Phineas from Phineas And Ferb.
  • Baljeet too, especially when he's◊ all punked up◊ in "The Baljeatles".◊
• Jake from Taz Mania.
• Russell in Up.
• Chowder.
• Flapjack from The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack is the very definition of Cute Shotaro Boy for western animation. He was even mistaken for a girl in one episode. (then again, he is shown with long eyelashes in several epiodes)
• Ding-A-Ling Wolf from Hokey Wolf cartoons.
• Both Thomas and Percy from Thomas the Tank Engine.
• Bumblebee is a robot version of this in virtually all continuities save for the movie, but is particularly so in Transformers Animated, especially when he's turned into an adorable preteen when the 'bots get humanized.
• The face under Kenny's hoodie, despite his personality. Stan is also a Cute Shotaro Boy as much as or more so than the Face under Kenny's hoodie
  • ...but Kenny and Stan have the same face. As do all the South Park children.
  • Likewise Butters and Ike, or really most of the male children in the series.
• Huey and Riley Freeman from The Boondocks. Played for laughs in the comics.
• Henry in Ka Blam!, more so in earlier episodes.
  • Same can go for Larry.
• Yakko of Animaniacs.
  • Moreso Skippy Squirrel.
• Harvey of Sabrina The Animated Series.
  • Don't forget his best friend Pi.
• Cody from Total Drama Island, even though he's sixteen (he looks about twelve).
• One episode of the Justice League had a spell that changed Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman into kids. Despite maintaining their powers, each of them have a more childish personality. Superman is much more naive and Green Lantern has a short attention span. Wonder Woman is the bossy big sister with (still) a crush on Batman, who changed the least out of the four, though more bratty and impatient.

  Wonder Woman: You gotta admit, it was sorta fun being a kid again, huh?

  Batman: I stopped being a kid when I was eight years old.

• Shifty Dingo from Blinky Bill.
• Zach from Adventures from the Book of Virtues.
• Robin in Young Justice, as the youngest member on the team (not counting Superboy) though the one with the most experience and a Badass Normal.
  • Also Billy Batson when he's not Captain Marvel.
• Spike from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a dragon equivalent of this trope.
  • Season 2 introduced a colt named Pipsqueak, who certainly fits this trope. His cute British accent helps, too.
• Timmy Turner of The Fairly Oddparents often wishes that he could do more things commonly associated with adults. In fact, he wishes to be an adult in the first episode. And despite his Jerkass tendencies, he's still very cute.
• Caillou is a preschool version of this.
• Chester from Beverly Hills Teens an Adorkable, Gadgeteer Genius who can build anything that can help everyone. it should be noted that he hangs out with guys and girls much older than him.
• T.J. Detweiler from Recess, the Badass Adorable leader of the main six.
  • Gus Griswald, the Adorkable and kindhearted new kid and Sixth Ranger to the main gang is this trope so very much. Actually, all the boys in the main six are adorable but T.J. and Gus stand out the most.
  • One of the kindergarteners, Hector, can be this at times.
• Leonard Helperman from Teacher's Pet, though as much as the crazy animation style will alow.

Edited by ccoa Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.

Questionable examples from the Anime/Manga section; if you think these fit, please explain in terms of the trope definition (which is not just "cute little boy"):

• Haré from Haré+Guu probably counts. He was mistaken for a girl once and even crossdressed (against his will) once.
• Miharu in Nabari No Ou who is very much aware of his own cuteness and is not above using it to his own advantage, or just to torment people. Shotazawa, later on.
• His Holiness Alessandro XVIII, 399th Pope of Rome, from Trinity Blood, is a Adorably Precocious Child constantly being scolded by his mean, aggressive big brother.
  • What about Ion Fortuna? Sure he's much older, but he's young as Methuselah go, and his awkwardness around Esther smacks of first love.
• Takumi, youngest of the few boys in Mai-HiME, fulfills most of the requirements. He's gentle, domestic, needs caring for, affectionate to his older sister, whose friends also enjoy him being in a pseudo-Ho Yay relationship with Akira.
• Parodied with lolishota type Mitsukuni "Hani" Haninozuka in Ouran High School Host Club, who, despite being the oldest member, uses his over-the-top childish looks and behavior (plus a stuffed bunny he always carries around) to get the club's customers to fawn over him. Later, Renge coaches a decidedly less cutesy Mouthy Kid into a rascal type she thinks will appeal to big sisters.
• The title character from Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo! has a slightly older, slightly taller girl demand that he go out with her due to his falling into this trope. thank god this was in the first episode...
• In a similar vein, Kanokon has its girls falling over this character type. His name (Kouta) even rhymes with shota.
• Simon, Rossiu or Gimmy in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are possible examples (and the first two both became Bishōnen after the Time Skip), but according to the last Parallel Works video when freaking Lordgenome of all people was a kid he was one of them. Hell, he practically looked like a somewhat masculine version of his daughter Nia.
• Train from Black Cat temporarily reverts back to being a child (due to being shot with a Lucifer bullet). He is so incredibly Moe Moe, it's not even funny◊. This is milked for what it's worth in the anime, where it's complete with his original clothes falling off of him because they're suddenly too big for him, he blinks innocently several times, and says "eh?" in a very cute, high voice. Later, he's even shown to be forced to wear Eve's dress temporarily, since no one else had clothes that were his size. It's an interesting thought as to what Creed would've done if he had seen Train like that...

Edited by lebrel Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.

Hare is very responsible in that he often has to take responsibility for his Young Drinking Mom. He also plays the straight man in the comedy.

Ah, now I get the PM! It was so out of the blue and non-sequitur-ish. Please do return the example to the page with the proper context. :)

Edited by ccoa Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.