History Main / BirthdayBeginning

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' starts on Olivia's birthday when her single father gets kidnapped and she seeks out the titular character to find him.

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** The ''Ruby/Sapphire'' saga of ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' begins on Ruby's 11th birthday, when he and his mother move to join his father in Hoenn and he runs away from home. Also inverted: the same saga ends 80 days later, on Sapphire's 11th birthday.
* ''Manga/NurseAngelRirikaSOS'' begins on the heroine's 10th birthday - which is also the beginning of her career as a MagicalGirlWarrior. It's a good day for her.
* While she isn't the main character and there's a six-month TimeSkip immediately afterwards, the events of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'' are set in motion on Hayate's ninth birthday at the stroke of midnight when she becomes master of the [[ArtifactOfDoom Book of Darkness]].
* ''Manga/DNAngel'' opens on Daisuke's 14th birthday, when he inherits the legendary phantom thief Dark as his alter ego.

* ''ComicBook/{{Allergic}}'' starts on Maggie's tenth birthday, where she's finally getting the puppy she always wanted. [[PlotAllergy Until she learns she's allergic.]]

* ComicBook/{{Scion}} kicks off with [[TheHero Ethan]]'s eighteenth birthday wherein he is thrust into combat against [[TheRival Bron]].

* Rankin/Bass's ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfTheKing'' opens with an elderly Bilbo's birthday party, where a minstrel relates the story with the ballad "Frodo of the Nine Fingers."

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' begins on Kirk's birthday.
%%** The same is true of ''Film/StarTrekBeyond''.

* ''Film/The6thDay'' begins on Adam Gibson's birthday, which is also when Adam Gibson's clone was "born".

* ''Film/TheMortalStorm'' opens with Viktor's 60th birthday party. This is a pretty dark instance of the trope, as Viktor is a Jewish professor in Germany, and his birthday is January 30, 1933, the day that ThoseWackyNazis came to power.
* ''Film/SixteenCandles'' starts on Samantha's sixteenth birthday, which is [[ForgottenBirthday forgotten by her family]].

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' begins slightly before a very significant birthday - Frodo is turning 33, while Bilbo is turning 111. The Birthday Party is the first significant event in the story. Since hobbits are long-lived, 33 is their coming-of-age year. (Although, Bilbo was still very old for a hobbit and showing his age well; he would eventually live to be the oldest hobbit in history, a side effect of owning the One Ring.)
%%* In the YA novel ''Literature/TheSilverCrown'', the heroine gets the titular crown for her birthday.

* Jeramey Kraatz's ''Literature/TheCloakSociety'' trilogy opens on Alex's twelfth birthday. As a treat, he gets to help rob a bank.

* ''Literature/RiddleyWalker'' opens on its eponymous hero's twelfth birthday, which is the age of majority in his society.
* In the second part of The Forests of Silence, the first book in the first of the three ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' series by Emily Rodda, we are informed that it is the sixteenth birthday of Lief, one of the three main protagonists of all three series. It is also the day on which his parents send him on his grand quest to find the seven gems of the magical Belt of Deltora to vanquish the evil Shadow Lord from the land. For his birthday, Lief is given the finest sword that his father, a blacksmith, has made, and a special cloak from his mother [[spoiler:that magically changes colour depending on the surroundings so the wearer may hide]]. While this birthday does not happen until the second part of the book, the first half is a prologue and the rest of the books only follow Lief and his two companions as main characters and not the characters of the first half.
* Light novel ''Literature/FelineTherapy'' begins on focal character Izzy's birthday, having received a gift from their friend that's expected to be a weekend of FuzzTherapy, but turns out to be {{Animorphism}}. [[spoiler:The climax occurs on their next birthday, after having spent an entire year as a cat.]]
* ''Literature/WasteOfSpace'': The book starts and spends quite some time on Dash's thirteenth birthday.

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' learned of her powers on her Dangerous16thBirthday.
* After a brief opening scene set decades earlier where people on a news program talk about the danger of fungi, the first thing we see in ''Series/TheLastOfUs2023'' is protagonist Joel celebrating his birthday.

* ''VideoGame/AnotherCode'': Subverted in ''Two Memories''. While Ashley coming to Blood Edward Island to begin with is thanks to receiving a letter from her father ([[FakingTheDead who she was told was dead]]) with a request spend her 14th birthday together, the entire game actually takes place the day ''before'' said birthday.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' starts with the hero's ''birth'', and continues through several more birthdays before it really gets going.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' begins on the hero/heroine's [[Dangerous16thBirthday sixteenth birthday]], and their being summoned for an audience with the King. The King basically tells them "Okay, [[Dangerous16thBirthday you're old enough now]] to pick up where your father left off and SaveTheWorld."
* Played with in ''VideoGame/Portal2'' - [=GLaDOS=] claims the day Chell woke up was her birthday, but this may just be a lie made up to hurt Chell, and give [=GLaDOS=] an excuse to give her a "surprise".
-->'''[[ManipulativeBastard GLaDOS:]]''' [[spoiler:I made it all up...surprise!]]

* ''VideoGame/CarBattlerJoe'' starts on Joe's sixteenth birthday.
* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'' starts on DK's birthday. Meta-wise, it also signifies [[MilestoneCelebration the 20th anniversary]] of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1''.
* ''VideoGame/CrusaderOfCenty'' starts on the PlayerCharacter's fourteenth birthday. He is given his [[TakeUpMySword dead father's]] [[AncestralWeapon sword and shield]], as fourteen is the age children are expected to begin training as warriors.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'' starts on Brandt's fifteenth birthday, the day when he is old enough to be called a man and must present himself to the king as such. The king promptly gives him the task of [[SaveThePrincess rescuing his younger daughter]].
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' has an example if you play on your own birthday. Returning to Mother Base will trigger a special cutscene where the Diamond Dogs throw a birthday party for Snake.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/PacManParty'': the story ''ends'' with the revelation that it's Pac-Man's birthday.
* The plot of the ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' series kicks off when Ryo's father is murdered in front of him by a mysterious assassin on November 29, 1986, which happens to Ryo's 18th birthday.

* ''VideoGame/MyChildLebensborn'': One of the first things the player will discover on the first evening of gameplay is that the next day is the child's birthday. The friend the child was just playing with has given them a birthday present and it's up to the player whether they get to open it early or not.

** The Trolls' session started on Karkat's birthday – or rather, "Wriggling Day". The date of John's birthday, 4/13, is also [[ArcNumber plot-relevant.]]
** This makes it surprising when [[spoiler:the Alpha session]] '' doesn't'' start on a hero's birthday. [[spoiler: It actually starts on the villain's birthday. Caliborn's predomination through the murder of his sister marks his emergence into the world as an individual, which he refers to as a birthday of sorts for himself.]]
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', the Before The Party arc starts with the announcement that Grace's birthday is coming up which is followed by the Grace's Birthday Party arc.

* ''WebVideo/LiamKyleSullivan'': The original video for "Shoes" begins with a skit that shows Kelly and Chris's parents celebrating the twins' birthday. The fact that Chris is so obviously favored by their parents (he gets a new computer and car while she gets a stuffed animal) is the catalyst for Kelly leaving the house to buy herself a pair of shoes.

* ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'': James celebrates his eighth birthday with his parents in the beginning of the film. They surprise him to a trip to New York City. Unfortunately the rhino came along to spoil the fun.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': InUniverse. Although the first episode opens ''after'' Anne and her two human friends have been transported into the titular DeathWorld, it's subsequently revealed that they got zapped there when Anne opened the Calamity Box on her thirteenth birthday. Seasons 2 and 3 reveal that this in turn has ultimately instigates the overarching {{Big Bad}}'s evil plan and a prophecy meant to counter it.

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' learned of her powers on her DangerousSixteenthBirthday.

** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' takes place on his [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday sixteenth birthday]], when the [[AllThereInTheManual mark of the Triforce suddenly appears on his hand]].

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' begins on the hero/heroine's [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday sixteenth birthday]], and their being summoned for an audience with the King. The King basically tells them "Okay, [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday you're old enough now]] to pick up where your father left off and SaveTheWorld."

* ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'': The start of Version 1 is [[MadeOfIron Jacob Starr]]'s [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday sixteenth birthday]], though he counts more as a villain than a hero. Also, [[AllThereInTheManual according to her profile]] the day of the Version 4 abductions was [[PerkyGoth Anna Chase]]'s eighteenth birthday. And finally, played with in regards to [[PsychopathicManchild Cillian Crowe]], who after being taken out of the asylum assumes that they're letting him out because it's his birthday, and [[IronicNurseryTune sings Happy Birthday to himself]]. Again, he qualifies more as a villain than a hero, seeing as he slaughters the next character he sees after cheerfully telling him that it's his birthday.

Tends to overlap with some of the other BirthdayTropes, especially DangerousSixteenthBirthday. A subtrope of LiminalTime. Doubles as EasingIntoTheAdventure. Compare ABirthdayNotABreak where bad things happen on a character's birthday. For the literal day of the hero's birth, see AHeroIsBorn.