History Main / NotAllowedToGrowOld

** Bulma's youthful appearance is at least partially justified, as it's revealed she has been using the Eternal Dragon periodically for [[MundaneWish cosmetic touch ups]].

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' plays the trope both ways. The game takes place five years after the era of the Calamity (basically the original 1.0 version of the game before the reboot that became 2.0), but everyone, including the player character if you had a character back then, more or less looks the same all around. The exceptions to the trope are Cid and Minfilia; Cid grows a beard while Minfilia looks a bit older and has more developed breasts.
* The ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' games has a seven-year time skip between ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations Trials and Tribulations]]'' and ''VisualNovel/{{Apollo Justice|Ace Attorney}}''. The recurring Judge, who is elderly, looks no older than he did before the time skip. Likewise, Larry Butz, who was in his mid-twenties when he appeared in the original trilogy, doesn't look any older when returns in the DLC case of ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice Spirit of Justice]]'', nine years after his previous appearance.

* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'', over twenty-five years have passed since the events of the original trilogy. While the human male characters have visibly aged during that time, Sonya looks the same as she always has, and ''not'' like a 50-year-old Army general. Her design was particularly criticized in ''MK 11'', where she looks almost exactly like her 28-year-old daughter Cassie. Maybe Johnny's vanity rubbed off on her and she had some work done?

* The events of ''Series/{{Rome}}'' span from roughly 52 BC through 30 BC. Main characters Pullo and Vorenus remain in peak physical condition the entire time, and none of the other characters appear to have aged two decades either. The series does nod to time passing by recasting some young characters (notably Octavian) with older actors later in the series, but even these characters don't appear to be as old at they should be by the end.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' does this backwards.

* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}:'' By the end of the prologue (just before their deaths) Elsa and Anna's parents still look like they're in their early twenties, despite their daughters now being 18 and 15. The mother in particular just looks like a [[TeensAreShort taller]], [[BlondeBrunetteRedhead brunette version]] of her teenage daughters.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIReturnToTheSea'': Ariel, Eric, Grimsby and other human characters don't show any signs of aging between the 12-year TimeSkip. Somewhat {{justified}} for Ariel, given that she's a mermaid and her father has used the trident on her, but everyone else has no excuse.

* Also happens in ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'': None of the characters who were adults during Aurora's baby shower look any older sixteen years later. This is possibly {{justified}} for Flora, Fauna, Merryweather, and Maleficent since they're fairies, but there's no excuse for King Stephen, [[NoNameGiven his queen]], or King Hubert.

* By the time of ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', the forty or fifty something characters are played by actors in their thirties who had played them as twentysomethings in ''Film/XMenFirstClass''. The only one that has an in-universe justification is Creator/JenniferLawrence (also the youngest at ''twenty-five'') as Raven, since she's a shapeshifter and can look as young or old as she pleases. This could be hand waved for the Mutants, who may age slower than humans. But Moira still looks like a young woman who apparently just has really good genes. ''Film/DarkPhoenix'' is set nine years later with the same actors ... even weirder when you consider that (alternate timelines nonewithstanding) it's a mere eight years before ''Film/XMen'', where they ''are'' all played by older actors.

* By the time of ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', the forty or fifty something characters are played by actors in their thirties who had played them as twentysomethings in ''Film/XMenFirstClass''. The only one that has an in-universe justification is Creator/JenniferLawrence (also the youngest at ''twenty-five'') as Raven, since she's a shapeshifter and can look as young or old as she pleases. This could be hand waved for the Mutants, who may age slower than humans. But Moira still looks like a young woman who apparently just has really good genes.

* Averted in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' spin-off ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' which takes place ten years after the original series, all the adults have wrinkles, greying hair, and thinning hairlines, even Grandpa Lou looks a little older.

* Pretty much ANYBODY in ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' doesn't show a single sign of aging. Forty years in between the time of Radiator Springs' heyday and the time it vanished from the map, not one of the residents ever seem to age, although Mater was originally baby blue before he became rusted, but is still the same. Lightning [=McQueen=] himself also shows no signs of aging across the whole franchise, not even by ''3'' when he is teased of being old despite looking the same as he did when he was a rookie. Even Doc Hudson looks the same as he did back when he used to race for the Piston Cup in the '50s.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' specials that take place when Pebbles and Bam-Bam are teenagers and adults, their parents Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty look exactly the same as they did in the original series when they were babies.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIReturnToTheSea'': Ariel, Eric, Grimsby and other human characters don't show any signs of aging between the 12-year TimeSkip.

** Most noticeable in the timeskip sequence when Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa are walking across the log, Simba goes from lion cub to adolescent to adult. Timon and Pumbaa don't change at all. It takes around 2-5 years for a lion's mane to grow. Nor do they visibly age at all from Kiara's birth to her adulthood in the sequel.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' does this backwards. Doc Brown is a gray-haired man with EinsteinHair in the main timeline. In the timeline 30 years earlier... he looks exactly the same.

* Jotaro Kujo from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''. Started 17 in Part 3, ended 45 in Part 6. Throughout all of this, Jotaro doesn't look ''any less different'' since Part 3, aside from the obvious outfit changes.

* In [[https://www.deviantart.com/slifofinadragon SilfofinaDragon]]'s ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' fanfics, while UsefulNotes/DateMasamune and [[UsefulNotes/SanadaYukimura Sanada]] [[MisterSeahorse Yukimura]]'s two children Yuki and Masa grow from infants to 20 years of age, the rest of the SB cast remain their appearance in spite of years passing. Though it may be ironically thanks to [[VainSorceress Kyogoku Maria]] casting a non-aging spell that not only affects her but also half of Japan.

JustForFun/NotToBeConfusedWith NotAllowedToGrowUp. May overlap with SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome and PermaShave for adult, male characters who are clean-shaven.

* In ''Franchise/DragonBallSuper'', Bulma does not seem to age visibly, despite being almost as old as she was in the original manga's epilogue, and her older sister also looks very young.

** The aging of characters between the Daimao and 23rd Tournament Arcs was a big deal at the time: Toriyama had to fight hard to age up main character Goku alongside Krillin, as part of the appeal was that they were kids. Outside of this, human characters like Krillin, Chi-chi and Bulma visibly get older over time, with Bulma in particular managing to dress well no matter her age. The final 10 year timeskip at the end of the manga aged up practically every character.
** On the flipside, many characters like Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chiaotzu, Puar, Bulma's mother and Piccolo don't visibly change at all, despite having a difference of 40 years between the start and end of the series. This is justified with the [[HumanAliens Saiyans]], who do grow old but stay in their fighting prime for far longer than humans do.
** Special mention goes to Trunks and Goten in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': they appeared as kids when introduced in the Boo Arc, but in ''Super'' they look exactly the same despite it taking place between 4-9 years after Boo (the latter of which would be only one year before "End of Z", where they look like teenagers).

* In ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'', many adult characters do not look very different from what they looked like in ''[[Manga/{{Naruto}} Naruto Shipuuden]]''. The events of ''Boruto'' happen 15 or 16 years after the end of ''Shipuuden'' (not counting the epilogue).