Older Than They Look / Visual Novels

aka: Visual Novel

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• Ace Attorney:
  • Maya Fey qualifies. While 17-19 isn't old, you wouldn't guess she's that old based on her looks and actions; especially her actions.
  • Her cousin, Pearl Fey also qualifies after the seven-year Time Skip. Despite being 17 years old, she is often mistaken for a young child. It doesn't help that the person who mistakes her for a child actually knew her when she was a child, and also that she hardly grew during the time gap^note According to the official guidebooks, she was only 125 cm (4'1") tall when she was 8, and 140 cm (4'6") tall when she was 17.
  • Apollo Justice is 22 years old. However, in the second case of the game, the police seem to be under the impression that he's the same age as Trucy (who's 15), shooing him away from the crime scene telling him to "go play somewhere else." Lampshaded in a playable flashback seven years before that, where you can get a picture of Apollo...who looks exactly the same at age 15 as he does at 22.
  • Likewise, Lamiroir's age is 40 years old according to her profile in the Court Record, despite her looking like a woman in her mid-twenties. Most likely a side-effect of being Apollo's mom.
  • Shimon Aizawa/John Marsh in Gyakuten Kenji 2 is a short 13-year-old child actor who's often mistaken for an elementary school student, much to his dismay.
  • Phoenix Wright himself in Dual Destinies is 34 years old, but the game recycles his old design when he was in his twenties. Which is amusing because he did look his age in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney; shaving and an attorney suit seem to make someone look a lot younger.
  • This is a plot point in Case 3 of Dual Destinies. Hugh O'Conner can pass for the same age as the rest of the Themis Legal Academy students, but is actually 25 due to being Held Back in School. Apollo is mortified to find out this character is older than him.
• CLANNAD: Sanae and Akio, who look to be in their early to mid twenties yet have a daughter (Nagisa) who is presumably eighteen or nineteen in season one. In addition, Fuko, who looks (and acts) about ten, is the same age as Tomoya, Kotomi, Ryou, and Kyou.
• Da Capo II has Sakura, and also Aisia in the Updated Re-release, both of whom were in the first game (or introduced in the anime adaptation, in the latter's case) and have not aged a day since then despite fifty years having passed in-universe.
• In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Chihiro Fujisaki, having a small stature, a petite appearence, and a very sensitive personality, could easily pass as a middle school student. He had just turned 17 when he first entered Hope's Peak Academy, and with the two years of memories Monokuma took from him and his classmates, that means that he is 19 years old.
• In Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Hiyoko Saionji is around 17 to 18 years old like the rest of the cast, but can easily be mistaken for an elementary school student at first glance. It doesn't help that she acts like one from time to time too. This is all deliberate though as her innocent appearance is meant to contrast with her really bratty, sadistic, and overall nasty personality. During the final chapter of the game, a newspaper clipping reveals that Hiyoko went through a growth sprout during her time at Hope's Peak Academy, and the only reason why she still looks like a child is because the simulation in which the game takes place in kept Hiyoko's avatar with the same appearance she had when she first started attending Hope's Peak, just like everyone else.
• Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony:
  • Ryoma Hoshi. His dwarfism and extremely cartoony face makes him look even younger than Hiyoko. However, his status as a Death Row inmate means he would have to be at least 18, most likely in his early twenties, and therefore one of the oldest students in the class. His voice reflects his real age, speaking in a deep baritone that further contrasts his childlike appearance. As with Chihiro and Hiyoko above, late-game reveals throw his apparent age into question, namely that he might not have been on death row at all, but he's still at least 17 years old.
  • Himiko Yumeno deserves mention as well, especially as, unlike Ryoma, she has a very immature personality to go with her looks. She loves sweets and stuffed animals, frequently tells people when she's going to the bathroom, and childishly insists magic is real even when admitting how she performed a trick is crucial to a murder investigation, but she is 17-18 like the rest of the cast. In fact, the Gentle Giant Gonta is actually younger than her!
  • Kokichi Oma appears on the younger side like Himiko, and uses his looks to his advantage. He plays up his appearance by speaking in a cutesy manner, using the honorific "-chan" on everyone in the Japanese version, and going out of his way to act like a kid. He often displays a child-like excitement over things like the Exisals and the morphing Trial Grounds.
• Natsuki from Doki Doki Literature Club! is short, petite, and looks barely like a middle school student, but she's in high school and 18 years old just like the rest of the cast. It is implied that the reason she looks like this is due to malnutrition.
• The protagonist's mother looks younger than he does in Dra+Koi apart from her slouch and chain smoking.
• In eden*: They were only two, on the planet., felixes normally stop aging by age 20, even though their actual ages can reach 100, as a result of genetic engineering. In the case of Sion, she stopped aging at an earlier age due to a genetic anomaly.
• Ever17:
  • The Cure-infectees; their bodies keep aging for five more years until the cells in their bodies have been replaced with infected cells, and then their Healing Factor prevents any aging whatsoever. This is why Tsugumi looks no older than 17 in either time period.
  • Coco manages this naturally. You wouldn't think she was 14 just by looking at her.
• Fate/stay night:
  • Saber is about 25 years old (i.e., not counting the centuries since King Arthur's death), but fifteen in appearance (when she stopped physically aging).
  • Ilya looks about 10 years old but is actually older than the 17-year-old Shirou. The Einzberns modifications to her body made her the perfect Master but also halted her physical growth.
    • In Fate/Zero, when Ilya is actually around 8 years old, Kiritsugu is worried because her growth is so slow that she only weighs about twenty pounds! Even without modifications she wouldn't have matured normally.
  • And apart from these examples, Gilgamesh drank a youth potion in Fate/hollow ataraxia and is walking around in the form of an adorable elementary school aged version of himself.
• The Fruit of Grisaia: Makina Irusu looks like, talks like and in general acts like a little girl, even though she is the same age as Sachi. This seems to be genetic, since her mother, Kiyoka Irisu, also looks younger than she really is.
• Galaxy Angel: Mint Blancmanche is 16-17 during the first trilogy, but she's short enough to pass for a 10-year-old young girl (not helped by her childish habits of wearing costumes and eating sweets).
• Several examples in Gnosia where a character is much older than they look and are stated to be.
  • Remnan's profile lists his age as 19, but he has spent about 50 years in cryogenic sleep (although it felt like it was only four years to him).
  • Jonas' profile gives him an estimated age of 33, but it's eventually revealed that he was among the first humans to explore space over a thousand years ago. How he's lived this long isn't explained, but it's implied to be why he is the way he is.
  • Similarly, Stella's profile lists her age as 24 but she's been around for as long as Jonas has because she is an avatar of his ship's AI, LeVi.
• In Hatoful Boyfriend, Nageki Fujishiro has a zig-zagging example due to bird aging: his human-style portrait is a young-looking boy, which actually fits him as a first-year student, but his bird portrait has the iridescent throat markings and green eyelids of an adult male mourning dove. Further complicating the issue, he's been a first-year student for five years now, and his foster-brother grew up to be one of the teachers.
• Every single female in Kanon, Air, CLANNAD, etc. It's particularly jarring when we're supposed to believe that characters who look no older than sixteen are mothers and aunts of other characters. For example: In Clannad, Akio and Sanae Furukawa look barely older than their daughter, Nagisa. Sanae is often mistaken for Nagisa's older sister in the anime.
• Katawa Shoujo:
  • Emi is short and has the girliest looks of the main cast, but is one year older than Hisao and the rest of the girls, having taken a year off of school while relearning how to walk.
  • Shizune's younger brother Hideaki is only two years younger than her (making him sixteen) however the age gap looks even larger.
• In Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Tsukuyo Sonou is a 24-year-old teacher and the Token Adult of the cast, but her short stature and Girlish Pigtails make her look even younger than her students, resulting in many of them not taking her seriously and Kiri Tsurigimine finding her cute.
• In Last Chance in Xollywood, one of the playable characters, industry veteran Manxy Five, is this: her bio states she is 117 years old, but she just went through her third rejuvenation process.
• Yukari from Liar Liar looks young even compared to everyone else. She's short, wears Girlish Pigtails, and her school uniforms are oversized. However, she's a third year middle schooler in the first game and a high school freshman in the second.
• Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! has Token Mini-Moe Mayo, 2-F's Class Representative. Joined by Monshiro Kuki, Hideo's younger sister, in the sequel.
• Melody:
  • A common complaint about the story is that Melody and Sophia arguably look underage.
  • Discussed with Amy when the protagonist first meets her. When Amy mentions that her 31st birthday is coming up, he replies that she doesn’t look that old.
• Missing Stars: Erik's sister Beatrice looks and acts like she's his younger sister when she is in fact older than him by several years.
• In Narcissu, the female lead Setsumi is 22 years old, but the 20-year-old male lead often comments that she looks considerably younger than him. For Setsumi, whose life consists of a hopeless cycle of hospitalization and release, "time has stood still" ever since she was first hospitalized in middle school.
• Strongly implied in Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem: Jasper, the personal butler assigned to the Player Character for the duration of the Summit, mentions having taken care of many delegates in the past — despite the fact that the Summit takes place only once every seven years, and Jasper looks far from old. Lampshaded by his character description entry on the game's official website, which lists his age as ???
• Angie in Shikkoku no Sharnoth looks and acts like a little girl, but she's about the same age as the both Mary and Charlie and is the only one with an actual fiancee.
• Shining Song Starnova: Aki Kashiwagi looks twelve, but is actually eighteen at the start of the story. She’s evidently a late bloomer, as she goes through one hell of a growth spurt in several of the game’s Multiple Endings.
• Steins;Gate 0: Hiyajo Maho being constantly mistaken for a middle schooler despite being a 21-year-old university student is a major Running Gag. Daru came up with the infamous meme phrase "Legal Loli FTW" for her.
• In Superhuman, reaching a certain evolution level halts aging, so some H.E.R.O. agents look like they're in their twenties, thirties or forties, when they're actually decades older.
• Cosette Cosmos from Sunrider may look like an 11-year-old girl, but that’s only because constant exposure to toxic runoff has stunted her growth. Her real age is never specified, though she’s definitely an adult. Calling her “little” or mistaking her for a kid serves as her Berserk Button.
• Broken Bird Sylvie in Teaching Feeling is confirmed by Word of God to be a young adult, but had her growth stunted by abuse and malnutrition.
• Miyu from They Are My Noble Masters looks extremely young for someone in her early twenties — which actually causes her sister Shinra to be attracted to her.
• Arisa of True Love Junai Monogatari looks young enough to be in elementary school but is actually a teenager. The main character even worries that if he pursues her, people will think he's a lolicon.
• Saki Mugendo from Yumeutsutsu Re:Master, despite her young appearence is in fact 26 years old. Because of this she is often approached by other girls who find her cute, much to her dismay.

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