Scope of Child Soldier trope

Does the Child Soldier trope only apply to children/teenagers who are in an actual military, or does it extend to any organized group of fighters that includes children/teenagers? I personally think that applying it to most Magical Girl Warrior teams, for example, would be too broad since they usually have very different lifestyles compared to people who are in the military, with the fighting being more like a part-time job. The same would go for other similar "team of young superheroes" stories.

I’ve always assumed it meant “people under 18 being made into military soldiers by adults”. A group of magical girls or teen superheroes wouldn’t count in my ehes, unless it’s a Deconstruction that depicts such a group as tantamount to real child soldiers (ex. Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Animorphs).

To explain what prompted the creation of this thread, I had just deleted Sailor Moon as an example from the Child Soldier Anime and Manga page, and also deleted the trope from Cure Milky's character trope list (from Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure). Then I wondered if it was correct for me to make those deletions, which is why I started this thread. I also saw stories like Naruto listed on the Anime and Manga page and while I'm not familiar with that series (I mainly know that it's a battle shounen anime about ninja), I don't know if it's accurate there either.

I'm not even sure if the Madoka Magica characters count, unless there's a Word of God intention for them to actually represent Child Soldiers, since while that story has there being many magical girls throughout history, they aren't necessarily all part of an organized military-like squad or team. I do remember reading that there was some comments from the creator about comparing magical girls to al-Qaeda, so that might count.

I noticed that there are two categories, Precocious and Tragic. Does that mean any fighting minors played for tragedy/drama count under the Tragic category, or, once again, do they have to specifically be portrayed as being in a military setting?

Edited by Rainbow on Dec 29th 2023 at 5:13:33 AM

Yeah I think the only magical girls that count are ones from Decontrustions or if there's parodies which have them in sort of magical military. I think child soldiers in mercenary groups would count as they do in real life. But then there's also the fuzzy room where the person is a cadet but not deployed, like the Army Cadets (which you can join from 12) or the Sea Cadets (from 10 for their junior arm, 12 for their general arm), and Air Cadets (12-13 depending on some differing rules) in the UK but you aren't going to be deployed anywhere and it's just a more a military associated version of the Scouts or the Girl Guides. Like I wouldn't count depictions of those as child soldiers either... not getting to the fact you can join the UK armed forces (for example) at 16 but can't be frontline deployed till your are 18.

Yeah, I don't think Magical Girls or other superhero-adjacent figures really count for this trope, except where the work itself likens them to child soldiers (c.f. Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka).

Thanks for the clarifications. I didn't think that most magical girls and similar superhero teams counted either, but I wanted to ask just in case since I didn't know how broadly "soldiers" was being defined.

I consider the likes of magical girls and superhero teams to fall more in the Kid Hero category than Child Soldier as they are not formally part of a military or paramilitary organization or are military or paramilitary organizations themselves.

Exceptions can be made in deconstructions though where the distinction between Kid Hero and Child Soldier is blurred.

Edited by Nen_desharu on Dec 29th 2023 at 9:29:40 AM

Basically, when it comes to Soldier vs. Warrior, most Magical Girls and Kid Heroes are firmly on the Warrior side rather than the Soldier side.

I honestly really dislike the equation of kids being heroes in fantastical settings with realistic depictions of child soldiers. Always feels like its minimizing the real tragedy to compare children forced to kill and die to kids on a quest to save the world.

Well, it works until the work starts to actually present what they're doing as a war, c.f. some of the questions about the fundamental morality of the Republic and the Jedi in the Star Wars prequels.

And part of the deconstruction and horror of Madoka is that teen girls being empowered to save the world by fighting reality-warping monsters = teen girls killed en masse by said monsters, and the resulting trauma that the characters have to deal with, much like forcing children to fight and die in a war in the real world. Whether one finds that reductionary or just thinks of it as allegorical is besides the point that the comparison is being made. Now, the examples where ordinary Kid Heroes are being called Child Soldiers where there is no such connection in the work is definitely iffy.