Apparently becoming an Enfant Terrible makes you harder to hit.
There are a lot of characters who can change their shape. Some have fewer options than others, and a lot are limited to only a handful of forms. One common set includes an aged pair: the same general appearance, in a childlike and an adolescent or adult form. Often, one will be the natural form for the character, with the other being invoked by some external trigger. But most of the time, the child form will be used only to make the character look more innocuous or relatable.
See also Older Alter Ego for a child who gets powers in adult form, and Sleep-Mode Size for a powerful adult Mode Locked into a child form. If the character just ages from childhood to adulthood by normal means, it's a Plot-Relevant Age-Up or Time Skip. If a child is forcibly transformed into an adult, it's Overnight Age-Up; the inverse is Fountain of Youth. Sub-Trope of Humanshifting.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: 18 year old Kusuri took a failed immortality drug that turned her into a child; by drinking a neutralization drug, she can return to her original age for 10-20 minutes. Her parents also took the immortality drug, putting them in a similar situation.
- In 1001 Knights it is shown that genies tend to have an "unstable" form in this world and therefore switch between having a more younger appearance and a more adolescent one. However most of the time they look stable.
- The slightly obscure manga 1520 has an interesting version of the trope. The two main characters, a 15 year old prince and a maid from opposing kingdoms, eat a magical cake by accident that transforms them into ten year old children. Whenever the maid laughs or the prince sheds a tear, that individual will return to their proper age, at the cost of de-aging the other down to about five.
- In Ah! My Goddess, Belldandy mentions that the three goddesses are each a representation of time. Belldandy represents the Present, so when she uses too much of her power, she just needs to sleep. However, when her sisters use too much power, Urd, representing the Past, reverts into a child form, while Skuld, representing the Future, grows up into a teenage form.
- In Apocalypse Hotel, the android Yachiyo's default form is that of a teenager or young woman. Drinking alcohol triggers an Easter Egg which gives her a more adult appearance, with an hourglass figure and plump lips.
- In Dance in the Vampire Bund, Mina Tepes's true vampire form is that of a woman who is the spitting image of her mother. She does everything she can to hide this, because that form is theoretically capable of producing an heir, and the heads of the other three vampire clans are old men who she despises and would see nothing wrong in forcing her to produce that heir with one of them. Her child form allows her to claim that she isn't ready to reproduce, buying her time to find a way to neutralize them before they can force her into marriage.
- Nezuko from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Though not really commented on in-universe, her physical age changes depending on how much she gives into her demonic nature, with her body maturing to that of a young woman when in her full demon form. This is first shown at the very start of the series when her body began growing as she tried to devour Tanjiro, before regaining her senses and maintaining her familiar young appearance. She is also capable of transforming into an infant-like state, as seen during the beginning of the Swordsmith Village arc.
- In Doki Doki! Pretty Cure, Madoka Aguri/Cure Ace shifts between her normal ten-year-old self and her older teenage Cure self when she transforms.
- Dragon Ball GT does this with Goku: in the very first episode he's accidentally wished back to 11 years old from the start of the series. Later on he attains Super Saiyan 4, a form so powerful that it breaks the wish's spell, so he's in his adult body as long as he maintains it. As soon as he powers down, he's back to being a child.
- Bal Dragon, Gao's Buddy Monster in the third season of Future Card Buddyfight, is a hatchling that fights in a second form that appears fully-grown, though his voice doesn't change when in said form.
- In Hayate the Combat Butler, Isumi's great-grandmother can take child form by drinking other people's blood; when the effect wears off, she reverts to her true form. Like Rakkyosai above, there's not much difference between her two forms, apart from her true form being really, really wrinkly.
- Walter C. Dornez from Hellsing, after siding with Millennium and being a patient of the Doctor, is able to revert to the form and strength of his younger day.
- In Hell Teacher Nube, both Nube and Tamamo (extremely experienced spiritualists) can use astral projection to generate child-like bodies for themselves while their real ones lie in a sleep-like trance. Nobody ever seems to recognize them despite looking nearly identical to their adult forms (although Yukime thought child-Nube was exceedingly cute.)
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind:
- Prosciutto is a 20-something young man, but at one point in the series he appears as an old man. This is done using his Stand's power "Grateful Dead", which ages everyone within its radius, and he aged and later de-aged himself to set up an ambush where he disguises himself as one of Grateful Dead's victims.
- Doppio looks like a 17 year old boy, but he's actually the younger-looking Split Personality of Diavolo, The Don of Passione, who is 33 years old.
- Vivio and Einhart of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid both have their normal, elementary school forms, and their teenage forms they use in combat.
- Use of adult mode has become standard by the time of ViVid Strike!.
- Curren Huckebein shows this ability in Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force.
- Familiars such as Arf also have the ability to become either a child or an adult, in either their human or animal forms.
- Macross Frontier has Klan Klan, a Meltran who has a physical defect that causes her to regress in age when micronized to human size. When giant-sized, she's mature and... developed. When human-sized, she appears as (and acts like) a preteen.
- In Millennium Snow, Yamimaru (the vampire's bat companion) can take on human form as either a strong young man or an adorable little boy.
- Juugo from Naruto turns into a child when he gives Sasuke some of his flesh to heal him; he turns back into an adult after absorbing a samurai's corpse.
- Age misrepresentation pills in Negima! Magister Negi Magi, and whatever magic Eva uses. Mainly used for disguise, the only combat effect is the change in reach.
- Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan: In the final arc, Nurarihyon is able to temporarily revert his body to its youthful state from 500 years ago in order to defeat the Orochi. However, he nearly dies as a result.
- Jewelry Bonney of One Piece has a Devil Fruit that lets her change her age, as well as that of others, which she's used to temporarily change from her young adult Shapeshifter Default Form to a child or elderly form. She and her crew even wear clothes that are elastic so they can fit in any form. It turns out Bonney can control how she ages, including making herself (or one body part) incredibly muscular, but this is limited by how she believes she can become by that age. Bonney's usual form is not her true age, as she was actually only ten when we first met her.
- In Rave Master Sword Saint Shiba's final test for Haru Glory is to defeat him after he drinks a potion that reverts him to his youth while retaining all his experience. What he doesn't tell Haru is that the process used up his remaining lifespan.
- Ranma ½:
- Miss Hinako has the default form of a girl of about eleven years, and turns into a curvaceous twenty-something by absorbing Life Energy, Battle Auras and Ki Attacks. Although it's never addressed in the source material, it seems likely that her adult form is her true age, and her child form is the result of slowed aging due to Happosai giving her Energy Absorption powers via altering her metabolism with Pressure Points to cure a childhood illness.
- Happosai's old friend Rakkyosai is cursed to change into a small child after falling into the Spring of Drowned Boy. The thing is, he's exactly the same (toddler-like) size in both forms, so he has no advantages or disadvantages from one body to the other, but his real body is more... wrinkly. A lot more.
- Reborn! (2004) has the 10-Year-Bazooka, a weapon that, when fired, switches out the wielder with the version of themself 10 years in the future. Lambo whips it out anytime he throws a tantrum to become 15-year-old Lambo, a marginally more mature version of himself with admittedly improved fighting skills. Becomes a major plot point during the Future arc.
- Mosquito from Soul Eater can change his form back into several younger states of himself, each of which excelled in a certain ability.
- Space Pirate Mito is an alien that looks like a third grader, despite being over ten thousand years old, but has a mail suit that she uses for combat that looks like an adult human. She has similar suits for just masquerading as a human adult, and a good deal of the conflict in the first half of the series comes from trying to get her half-human son to accept her actual, childlike, form, when for most of his life he's only seen her in mail-suit form.
- Princess Sparkle from Spider Riders assumes this form by using her Manacle due to her small size.
- Tenchi Muyo!:
- Ryo-Ohki is a shapeshifter with four forms: a spaceship, a "cabbit" (cat rabbit creature), and child and teenage humanoid forms- the last of which is hard for Ryo-Ohki to control or maintain. note
- Also Washuu, who can take any form she pleases, but spends most of her time as a little girl.
- Maya Natsume from Tenjho Tenge can appear as an 8 year old or a 17 year old.
- Signal in the manga/anime Twin Signal has two forms: An adult Bishōnen form, and a childlike Super-Deformed mode with an insane love for chocolate.
- In UFO Princess Valkyrie, both Valkyrie and Hydra are adult women who get transformed into children, though by different means. Valkyrie gets de-aged due to giving Kazuto half of her soul, while Hydra gets her powers sealed by Akina. Valkyrie can temporarily turn back into her adult form after kissing Kazuto, while Akina can turn Hydra back into her adult form. Hydra also retains her adult mind while in child form, while Valkyrie does not.
- YuYu Hakusho:
- Koenma sometimes appears as a toddler and sometimes as a young man.
- There's also Genkai, who is, by default, an old lady who's also a martial arts master, but rejuvenates to a young adult when using her Reiha (because it's a technique that, by spreading out the user's spiritual energy, changes them to how they looked when they were at the peak of their powers).
Comic Books
- Subverted in the canon Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics with Dracula, who appears to be a 30-something-year-old able to take the form of a very old man form at will. But in reality he is always in his old form and simply uses his hypnotic abilities to make everyone around him see him as his younger self.
- The Boys' take on Captain Marvel is a teenaged boy who uses the Super-Strength of his alter-ego form to molest and rape women. Butcher deals with him by cutting out his tongue so he can't speak his magic word and transform, leaving him crying Berserker Tears as he hatefully tries to spit the word out.
- One of the Heroes tie-in comics had The Russian, a Special who posed as an entire crime family with his ability to physically age and de-age himself at will.
- Hound: Morrigan can change between the form of a dark-haired young woman and the form of a Fomorian hag called Calatin.
- The Incredible Hulk: Skaar, one of the Hulk's sons, can change between a small gray child-like form, and a bigger Hulk-like form.
- Supergirl: Supergirl's enemy Blackstarr, who made her first appearance in the Bronze Age comics, can change her looks at will in order to look younger.
Fan Works
- Beyond the Outer Gate Lies...:
- Serafall has a "beer-buying" appearance she shifts into when she needs to be treated like an adult in the human world. She also has a yet-unseen "adult mode" that is actually her real form. She keeps it hidden with Glamour because it's So Beautiful, It's a Curse.
- There's an In-Universe example in Miracle Levi-tan with the Wandering Wizard, whose Nice Hat is a magical item that makes him look older than he really is.
Film—Live-Action
- The Shining. The ghost in Room 237 lures Jack inside by appearing as a young, naked woman taking a bath. Jack enthusiastically kisses her until he looks in the mirror, whereupon she turns into a cackling crone with rotting flesh.
Literature
- The original Dracula appeared as an old man most of the time, but turned young if he had recently fed.
- Aphrael in The Elenium and The Tamuli. Being a goddess, she can look however she wants, but generally takes child form because it makes her easier to adore.
- Feruchemists in Mistborn can store their age in the metal atium]. This allows them to temporarily make themselves older, retreiving the stored youth at a later time to return to normal. It's noted that this is only really useful for disguise purposes. [[spoiler: [[GodEmperor The Lord Ruler, however, can use both Feruchemy and Allomancy, and by combining the two systems he can get more youth out of his stockpile than he put in, making him immortal as long as he regularly renews his stockpile of youth. As his true age increases however, he needs more and more youth to keep up his ageless appearance. After 1000 years, he needs to spend a few hours every three days stockpiling youth in a private chamber.]]
- Post-Self : Motes in Motes Played chooses to interact with the world as a child most of the time due to her obsession with play, though some days are dedicated to "Big Motes", where she appears as an adult. She leans hard into this, treating her cocladists A Finger Pointing and Beholden as her parents.
- In The Power of Six in the Lorien Legacies series, 7 meets up with 10, whose first Legacy is to be either a 7-year old, her actual age, or a 17-year old.
- Hecate from The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel goes from being a maiden in the morning, a mother during the day, and a crone by the evening. It should be noted that she does not have control over the process, however.
- Foster from Keith Laumer's A Trace of Memory
goes from an old man to a youth in the space of an evening... but loses his memory in the process. It turns out this happens to him indeed, his entire species on a regular basis. The plot is motivated by his friend's quest to restore Foster's memory, and The Reveal has to be seen to be believed: it's one of the cheekiest twist endings in all of literature - cleverly foreshadowed, but still quite shocking in its chutzpah.
Live-Action TV
- Big John, Little John has his two forms as a side effect of a sip from the Fountain of Youth.
- Super Sentai and its adaptation Power Rangers have several children taking on the role of rangers. All of them grow to adult size whenever they transform to ranger form.:
- Kibaranger in Gosei Sentai Dairanger is a young boy named Kou. He initially wanted to hide that he was a Ranger, but since his voice remained the same, he let his Talking Weapon do the talking for him. After his secret is discovered, he uses his own voice.
- Power Rangers Turbo: Justin, the blue ranger of this season, is a 12 year old child. Whenever he morphs, grows into the size of an adult. But whenever he takes off his helmet, he reverts back to his regular size.
- Tenkai in Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: 10 YEARS AFTER becomes the becomes the new Shurikenger, grows to adult size when transforming.
Video Games
- Misha of Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia became a child when she lost the Chronicle Key. You can later change her age at will by adding or removing Chronicle Key
- Dragalia Lost: Yoshitsune, introduced during the "Cursed Connections" event, is an immortal old woman who has learn technique that allows her to temporarily take on a much younger form of when she was at her best fighting condition for combat. When she finishes her fight, she reverts back to her elderly body.
- Due to the way ascension works in Fate/Grand Order, a handful of summonable servants appear as multiple ages in the same summoning, either changing as they grow stronger or able to swap between them:
- The first servant to have multiple explicit ages in the same summoning was Lord El-Melloi II AKA Waver Velvet, who appears as a Psudo-Servant of Zhuge Liang, though the latter largely takes the back-seat, letting Waver use his knowledge and power. For his first two forms, he appears as the adult Lord El-Melloi II but upon reaching third ascension, he inexplicably turns into his younger self seen in Fate/Zero, much to his frustration.
- Ptolemaîos appears in his first two as the young man he was while journeying with Iskander, while his third Ascension appears as the old man he was during his reign as a pharaoh of Egypt and founder of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. This is explained as he could be considered two have two periods of life where he could be considered in his prime. His third Skill allows him to swap between his first and third forms in combat, changing his Noble Phantasm from a single target attack in the former, to an AOE in the latter.
- Reversing the previous two, Nagakura Shinpachi appears as an old man in his first form, before becoming the young man he was during his days with the Shinsengumi. Shinpachi was one major members of the Shinsengumi to actully live long enough to become an old man, and much of what we know of the Shinsengumi's history was due to his writings as an old man. This along with his own "Self-controdictions" are what allow him to manifest in either form, even swapping between them in story.
- When summoned, Marie Antoinette (Alter) appears in the form of a teenager, similar to her Rider counterpart, representing her days as the Princess of Austria and idol of France, though dressed in modern clothing. Upon ascending, she ages up to how she appeared as the Queen of France in her final days. Her third form is notably mostly identical to the fake Dark Marie that appeared in the Fate/Requiem cross over event. As an Alter and an Avenger, she's a manifestation of Marie's dark side and distain for the nation that turned on her and put her to death.
- Kama, like Zhuge Liang, appears as a Psudo-servant possessing the body of Sakura Matou but only the parts of her that make up Dark Sakura, with Parvati having manifested using the rest. As a god(dess) of love, Kama, in both her Assassin and Summer Avenger forms, is shown to be able to freely change her form, swapping between a child, teen or adult form, getting older as she ascends. She's also shown to be able to take the form of a man in those same ages, despite Sakura being a woman, possibly due to Kama originally being a male god.
- Oda Nobunaga (Avenger) is actually a collection of various possible Nobunagas sharing a spirit origin rather then the same individual at different ages, but the effect is the same. Her first ascension is basically the same Nobu players already know from her Archer incarnation, and largely replaces her in the story going forwards. The second ascension, named Kippoushi, is Nobu during their days as the Fool of Owari. This version is considered a Gender Unknown servant and may possibly be a male version. Her third form, Demon King Nobunaga, is an adult woman that fully leans into Nobunaga's reputation as the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, twisted by the Innocent Monster skill into something largely divorced from any reality.
- During her debut summer event, Sessyoin Kiara (Moon Cancer) is shown to be able to take the form a child, referred to as Sessyoin Lily. Sessyoin Lily is largely unaware of her older self's actions and transforms into her with a magic compact. Unlike the others, she's explicitly not playable
- Sodom's Beast/Draco appears in her first two forms as a child version of Nero with draconic features. This is her preferred form and how she usually appears, having a cold and disdainful personality. After the player character resolves her issues during the Arcade crossover event (or does an unlock quest if the player missed her event and it's rerun), she's able to take the form of her third Ascension, who appears as an older Nero, dressed as draconic knight. This version is closer in personality to the Saber Nero the player knows, being loud and loving, much to her embarrassment when she changes back.
- Okita Souji (Alter) (Saber) is the summer version of Okita Alter, but in the process, her sentient sword Rengoku accidently borrowed some of her spirit origin and manifested as a child version of her, de-aging Okita Alter a few years in the process. In their third ascension though, the two fuse back together, restoring Okita Alter tot he proper age. Alter notably appears to be older then the regular Okita, having benefited from a contract with the world itself to survive the illness that killed her regular self, but has to serve as a Counter Guardian after her death, with Summer Summer appearing around roughly the same age as regular Okita.
- Super Bunyan, a version of Paul Bunyon made from grail fragments and Udon Dough, appears as an older CEO type compared to her usual berserker incarnation. She then reverts in age to be the same as her Berserker counterpart, being aided in battle by the Assassin and Rider from her home series
- Taisui Xingjun can swap between an wide eyed cheerful child and an aloof adult form. As a welfare unit, he's mode locked to a single form in gameplay, namely the child form, not even having any alternate outfits, but he takes his older form during his Noble Phantasm and has a few My Room lines to himself, alongside appearances in cutscenes.
- Larva/Tiamat, a servant version of the Beast Tiamat, created by her to aid Chaldea after her defeat at their hands, can change her own age, appearing as petite young girl upon summoning, before changing into a buxom adult woman for her third form. Her summer version instead starts as an adult woman in her first form, changes into a school girl for her second form, before returning an adult form for her third.
- Tutankhamun appears as a young boy, much like his real life counterpart was at death, but becomes an adult for his third ascension. Explicitly called a What If form, this form was created by Theo van Gouh when he steals Tut's body. Tut keeps the ablity to turn into the adult form on his own, but doesn't like using it much out of fear of losing track of who he is.
- In God of War: Ascension, Castor and Pollux are normally elderly conjoined twins. By using the Amulet of Ouroboros' ability to reverse the flow of time, they can revert to their youthful prime for battle.
- Kliff Undersn in Guilty Gear turns into his younger self during certain attacks.
- Link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, by way of Mental Time Travel into his younger body.
- Puyo Puyo 7 incorporates this for the game-exclusive Transformation rules, where filling the Transformation gauge will turn your character into a younger incarnation for Mini Puyo Fever, or an older form for Mega Puyo Rush. Both are still capable of effortlessly making short work of the opponent.
- In Ring Fit Adventure, minor character Dashley can turn into a young woman when she runs with perfect form. If she stops or takes a break, she reverts to her elderly true age.
- The titular Space Ace in the laserdisc video game is turned into a child as a result of the Big Bad Borf's "Infanto Ray". During certain parts of the game, the player has the chance to "energize" Ace and turn him back to his adult form for a short time; adult Ace sequences tended to be more about fighting villains while child Ace spent most of his time trying to avoid or escape enemy attack.
- Zeku, Guy's master who originally appeared as an NPC in Street Fighter Alpha 2, has gained this ability in Street Fighter V, being able to switch between his current self and his younger self at will. He plays differently depending on which mode he's in, with his old form being slower but with a greater damage output and attack range, and his younger self being faster and more combo oriented.
- Pollin, the Magical Girl parody from Tech Romancer has her standard "little girl" mode and occasional older version.
- The true form of Flowey/Asriel during the Final Battle in Undertale has him appear to you as a child to trick you into letting your guard down. He then changes to his teenager/young adult form which has him appearing older with a somewhat scary face and attacks you.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Poppi, an Artifical Blade, has Triple Age Modes. Her default shield bearing child form in Alpha, her Power Fist wielding teenager form in a Meido outfit in QT, and her powerful blade wielding adult form in QTπ. It's even more present in Japanese as the codenames for each forms are actually abbreviations for the Japanese words for elementary school, high school, and college girl (JS, JK, and JD), respectively.
Webcomics
- In Arthur, King of Time and Space, in the version of the scene in Le Morte d'Arthur in which Arthur is approached when hunting by a prophetic youth who turns out to actually be Merlin, he asks why Merlin was disguised like that. Merlin replies that it wasn't a disguise; he's not going to chase Arthur across the countryside at his regular age.
- Pandora from El Goonish Shive appears in her child form when she reveals herself to mortals, and assumes her adult form when dealing with her son and during her later appearances in the ephemeral universe parallel to the physical plane of existence called the spiritual plane. These are not her only forms however; as a shapeshifter she can appear as anything between a monstrous "cloud" and a clone of any other character.
- Adrian Raven is the centuries-old son of a human and an immortal, and can alternate between a human form that looks sixtyish and an elf form that could pass for twentysomething.
- Kill Six Billion Demons: The demiurge Mottom, ruler of one-seventh of creation, looks like a withered old woman when meeting with other demiurges. In her own palace, she looks like a shapely young woman.
- In No Future, the ability to freely change their age is shared by the (competent) time gods. Other gods have to ask Chronos for help if they need to look younger or older than they usually do.
- In Wilde Life, Raven is a raven animal person who can also perform Human Shifting. While dialogue seems to indicate that he can look however he wants, he only ever shows one basic human form, shifting from a child, teen and adult version. At one point he also makes the teen version female.
- 21 year old Evan Onymous of The Wotch can transform into a 4-year old girl called Lily ("Lil E"). (Also a fully-grown female version, Missy ("Miss E").)
Western Animation
- Clockwork from Danny Phantom constantly shifts between different ages due to his time-related powers.
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Adrian Toomes, AKA the Vulture, designs a suit that lets him drain the life force from people, turning them old and making him young, though this is usually only temporary. When he absorbs Spider-Man's life force, he also sucks out Spidey's spider mutation. He goes to Doctor Conners for help and he agrees, but Conners double-crosses Vulture, giving Spider-Man his youth back, but leaving Vulture with the mutation. The next time we see him two season later, Toomes is trapped switching back and forth between his old self and his young self at random, with no explanation what happened to the spider mutation.
- Steven Universe: Steven can change age as well as form, though he normally can't hold a different age/form for too long before involuntarily reverting to his natural state, and may get stuck in the wrong age/form for a while for psychological reasons.
Real Life
- The Turritopsis dohmii, better known as the immortal jellyfish, can revert itself back into a younger stage, meaning that it can technically live forever. But, there are other factors that can result in an immortal jellyfish dying, such as predators and diseases.
