History Main / ArtisticAge

** Rather {{squick}}y in the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 version of ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife'', where the 14-year-old girl (Lumina) in the [=GameCube=] version is now apparently 18 and available to marry... without changing her appearance at all, though post-marriage she instantly has her adult design after a small timeskip. In the JPN version she was sixteen in ''SE''. Many fans don't even realize Lumina was 14, thinking she was 10 or 11. ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonDS'' avoids this by using her adult design from the start.

* ''WesternAnimation/FireAndIce1983'': Teegra is rather tall, busty and curvy giving the impression she is her late-teens/early-twenties, but she is supposed to be 15 years old.

* The characters of ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' can lean into this. Sometimes they look more like college kids than high schoolers. Even the DawsonCasting-prone cast of ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' look younger (Cole Sprouse looks like an actual teenager, unlike his Fonz-ish comic book counterpart).
* Common trope with comics in the 60s, e.g [[Franchise/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRmmGM2X25b_XbLAf93uaDuWzx6OhbzWhLrF2wIW1ksg6-6VFOw didn’t look like he was only 15]] under Ditko’s pen.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Manga/BlackCat'', Woodney, Train's imposter, is revealed to only be 20 years old. [[http://onemanga.com/Black_Cat/44/10/ He doesn't look 20]].

* Show of hands: who here could tell ''Anime/DragonBallZ'''s Son Gohan was no older than ten/eleven in the Cell Saga, just by looking at him? And who here thought he was ''at the very least'' thirteen to fourteen? No wonder video games call this form '''Teen''' Gohan, instead of giving that monicker to...well, teenaged Gohan from the Buu Saga (who is just "Gohan"). The manga makes this worse. While he looks relatively shorter, his well-defined muscles still makes him look like a teenager, and he's ''nine!''

For whatever reason, the artist has taken ArtisticLicense in how they depict the character's age. They might be drawn as younger or older than they really are, or in vague enough strokes that allows us to superimpose whatever age we want on the characters, with their actual age in canon often [[AllThereInTheManual only stated in supplemental material]]. This is often a creative way of averting or subverting TeensAreShort (much like real life).

*** [[TeensAreShort Until you see one of the Gundam pilots standing next to an adult]].

** ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'' keeps up with the tradition. Garrod and Tiffa do actually look close to 15, though they also have a severe case of TeensAreShort. Roabea and Witz, the series' experienced adult pilots, look like they're in their late twenties. On top of that, their continuous treatment of Garrod as a "kid" and Roabea's world-wise attitude in particular enforce this impression--but they are both just three years older than him at age 18.

* The Inklings in ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' are at minimum fourteen but their designs and [[TeensAreShort builds]] make them seem younger. However, they all look a fair bit older in official art, suggesting that their in-game depiction is a stylistic choice.
* This is part of the [[ArtStyleDissonance appeal]] of ''VisualNovel/LiarLiar''. All the characters are drawn in a soft, {{animesque}} PuniPlush style and are all [[TeensAreShort underdeveloped looking]], while the content itself is a playfully dark tale about an AxCrazy girl trying to kill her boyfriend.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* The characters in ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' look older than their [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog main continuity]] counterparts but WordOfGod is that they aren't. Amy is still twelve, Tails is still eight, and both Sonic and Knuckles are still sixteen, but they seem a few years older.

* In the classic ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games, Sonic and Amy look the same age. They're almost the same height and there's no noticeable difference between the two. However, Sonic was [[VagueAge between 16 and 18]] while Amy was ''8''. The ''Adventure'' redesigns make their age difference (which is only 3 years now) more clear.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' there's [[OppositeSexClone Danielle]] who (at least her human half) looks like an 8-year-old...despite being 12 [[CloningBlues (sorta).]]

* Show of hands: who here could tell ''Anime/DragonBallZ'''s Son Gohan was no older than ten/elevene in the Cell Saga, just by looking at him? And who here thought he was ''at the very least'' thirteen to fourteen? No wonder videogames call this form TEEN Gohan, instead of giving that monicker to...well, teenaged Gohan from the Buu saga (who is just "Gohan"). The manga makes this worse. While he looks relatively shorter, his well defined muscles still makes him look like a teenager, and he's ''nine!''

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* ''Fanfic/RuinValue'' conceals Luna, Celestia's, and Discord's ages in service to concealing the story's true nature as a [[spoiler:StealthPrequel]].

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus'' where Dib within an ImagineSpot is drawn in a [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure JoJo-like]] art style and loudly states that he is 12 years old.

** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' everybody in the central cast looks older than they should. For reference, here are the protagonist [[http://aboutgundamwing.com/GlossaryImages/ep46_Heero.jpg Heero]] (age 15; looks about 18) and TheRival [[http://aboutgundamwing.com/GlossaryImages/ep45_ZechsSm.jpg Zechs]] (age 19; looks about 23), except for Quatre (also 15) who looks ''younger''.
*** [[TeensAreShort Until you see one of the Gundam pilots standing next to an adult.]]

** Zoro and Sanji are a lot younger than they look, sound and act. Neither of them were 20 before the TimeSkip, but looking at them, you'd expect them to be in their mid-20s at least, hilariously Zoro and Sanji in RealLife wouldn't have been allowed to [[TheAlcoholic drink]] and [[SmokingIsCool smoke]] like they do at that age. There's some justification in that both characters went through TrainingFromHell and experienced events (especially Sanji) that have likely matured them greatly.

* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' has flashbacks in which characters look far younger then their actual age. When Akane is thinking about her past with Dr. Tofu, she resembles 6-year-old while her elder sister towers over Akane and wears a high school uniform. There is actually only a three year difference between them, meaning Akane was actually 12 or 13 around that time. Similarly a flashback to Tatewaki Kuno's HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood depicted the very tall LordErrorProne as an extremely short kid who looked around 6. Kuno is 17 and the flashback was 4 years ago, making him 13 in the flashback.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': Mario and Luigi's mustaches tend to make them look like they're in their late 30s or 40s, but they're actually in their mid-twenties, according to Miyamoto.

*** when Cloud first shows up in the game he's only 14 years old...but, Cloud doesn't look any different than usual, and is [[VocalDissonance voiced]] by Creator/TakahiroSakurai and Steve Burton, like always. The only reason you buy that he's a kid is his ''attitude''.

* ''Videogame/DeadOrAlive'' is a WorldOfBuxom [[WorldOfActionGirls Action Girls]], and thus the localization declined to tell the ages of three of those (plus one of the boys) as they were canonically 16-17, minors in the West, but [[ValuesDissonance deemed by Japan as fair game for a]] MsFanservice. Thankfully, ''Videogame/DeadOrAlive5'' is explicitly set two years after its predecessor and thus makes official that everyone, even ElegantGothicLolita Marie Rose, is at least 18. Though it still makes many of them who also have mature personalities along with their looks not seem like women in their early twenties (professional assassin Christie is one of the oldest, and she's 26!).

* Teegra in ''WesternAnimation/FireAndIce'' is rather tall, busty and curvy giving the impression she is her late-teens/early-twenties, but she is supposed to be 15 years old.

* Many forget Claire Redfield in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' was only a 19-year-old college student, yet she [[https://www.xboxachievements.com/images/news/resident-evil-2.jpg looks the same age]] as Leon S. Kennedy who was 21 and even as [[MsFanservice physically mature]] as Ada Wong who was 24. The [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake remake]] of [=RE2=] fixes this up a bit, Claire has got more a baby face and is slightly less mature than Ada or Annette. It also helps remake Claire was modeled after a 18-year-old fashion model.
** Similarly Rebecca Chambers in the HD ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' remake looks as mature as Jill Valentine who is 23, but Rebecca was actually 18 at the time. She does looks her age in the artwork however.

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' has a case where three major characters (Firo, Luck, and Claire) were all roughly the same age (19, give or take a year), but don't look like they could be. Firo's Type 2 status [[OlderThanTheyLook has been pointed out in the books]], but few would ever pick up on the fact that Luck is physically ([[{{Immortality}} and chronologically]]) ''younger'' than Claire unless they looked at their family photos.