History YoungerThanTheyLook / AnimeAndManga

* Toge Sohei from ''Manga/{{Adolf}}'' is 28, but looks like he's in his sixties. He even has grey hair in the colour illustrations.
* ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'' (which used the same animation studio as ''Wing'') has Roabea and Witz, the ''Freeden's'' standing mercenary contractors. Both of them are a good foot taller than 15-year-old protagonist Garrod, frequently call him an impetuous youth, and Roabea particularly has a world-wise attitude and a tragic LostLenore. From all this plus their facial features, you'd guess them to be in their late twenties, but they're both ''eighteen.''

* Mr. Mustachio from ''Manga/AstroBoy'' appears to be around 60-years-old with his white hair and mustache, but on one occasion a villain calls him an old man and he tells him he's only 42 and that he looks older because he went bald early.
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' has [[spoiler:Zeke Yeager]]'s official age being listed as 27, although he looks much older. [[spoiler:This seems to happen to Titan shifters, as Reiner also arguably looks older than 21. Uri Reiss suffered from this as well, and although we don't know how old he was, in flashbacks he looked a lot older than his brother Rod does in the current story. The very extreme ageing could be a side effect of being a member of the royal family who's a shifter, but the exact nature of it has not yet been explained. The fact that Titan Shifters only live for thirteen years after gaining their powers may also have something to do with it]].
* ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'' features a strip where high schooler Tomo expresses jealousy at how her classmate Yomi gets mistaken for a college student or secretary by passersby, while she herself [[OlderThanTheyLook often gets mistaken for a middle schooler]]. Likewise, fellow classmate Sakaki looks around as old as her teachers-- who are in their 20's-- thanks to being a HugeSchoolgirl.

* ''Literature/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' features the VampireHunter Episode, who looks and (mostly) acts like he's in his late teens. However, he ages unnaturally due to his nature as a half-vampire. In reality, he is only 6-years-old.

** Mitsuko Souma has a very mature figure for her age and wears thicker make-up than the other girls, both of which she uses to her advantage in The Program,[[spoiler: like Kawada, her appearance is also probably justified by her childhood trauma as a victim of sexual abuse]].

** Guts could be mistaken for a guy in his 40s because of the physical and mental stress he's endured, but as of the Fantasia Arc he is only 24-years-old, Casca is the same age as Guts but she looks almost a [[OlderThanTheyLook decade younger]].

* Pinoko of ''Manga/BlackJack'' depends on how you count it. She started life as a teratoma (a form of tumor) that had grown everything but a body while attached to an 18-year-old woman. If you count her life starting with her "sister", she's eighteen and OlderThanTheyLook; if, like Black Jack, you count her life from when she was removed, she's less than a year. Either way, her artificial body looks about six.

* Downplayed in ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'': given how long ago sexaroids were labeled as illegal by the series start, we get the implication that while Sylvie and Anri may not be as old as they look (Sylvie appears in her mid-twenties while Anri looks to be the loli model), they're not single digit ages.

** Hiroshi Agasa of has fallen victim to this. He dislikes being called "ojisan" since he's only 53-years-old.

* While Satella of ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' looks somewhere around her late twenties or early thirties, she turns out to only be 19-years-old much to the surprise of Rosette.
* Jet of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' looks like he could be in his forties or fifties, but is only thirty-six. This is lampshaded in the preview for "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession8WaltzForVenus Waltz for Venus]]" when he tells us this, and says you shouldn't judge people by how they look, or how much hair they have.

* In ''Manga/DailyLivesOfHighSchoolBoys'', Sanada North High's Student Council Vice-President's case of FaceOfAThug may make him look like in the thirties, but he's aged like any SecondYearProtagonist in the series. [[TheDitz Ringo]] even once thought he was 28.

* Yukio Oikawa of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' would be in his early thirties, but you'd never know that by looking at his grey skin and sunken eyes.

** You would never, ever know it by looking at him or hearing him talk, but Piccolo at the beginning is chronologically only 8-years-old. Nobody remembers this, for good reason. When he was born he [[RetCon was supposed to be a demon]]. He actually takes much longer to reach maturity than Piccolo Daimaou's other "offspring", who are full-grown when they hatch. Especially amusing in retrospect when he's teaching Gohan who is only a couple years younger than him at 4-years-old.
** [[LegoGenetics Cell]] is much, much younger than you'd expect -- even with all the time-traveling he had to do to reach a timeline where he could absorb the Androids, he's still only in his early twenties.

* George of ''Literature/DragonCrisis'', despite looking about thirty, actually turns out to be 19.

* The silpelits from ''Manga/ElfenLied'' age at about double the rate of normal humans. Nana looks 14-15 and is really around 7-years-old. Similarly, Mariko is really somewhere around 3-years-old.
* ''Manga/TheElusiveSamurai'': Ayako is a head taller than Tokiyuki, so she can easily pass for a teenager and is often mistaken for one by several characters in the series. However, she is the same age as Tokiyuki and everyone else in his squad. Keep in mind when they are first introduced they are ''eight-years-old''.

** The one that takes the cake is Rikiya Gaoh: He's two meters tall (6'7"), square-jawed, musclebound, capable of bench-pressing over 200 kg (over 440 lb)...and we're supposed to believe that he's a high school freshman. Some of the other characters [[LampshadeHanging don't believe it either]] ("There oughta be a law against players like him!").
** Atsushi Munakata of the Amino Cyborgs, whose tremendous musculature and broad, dashingly handsome face make him look over ''30'', a fact that is actually commented upon. One Omake chapter shows that he actually looks exactly like his father... ''and'' his mother.

** Mr. Don, Gaoh's opponent in the American game, is supposed to be 18, but looks closer to sixty with his white hair, massive stature, and heavily-wrinkled face.

** Yuki Nagato and her associates appear to be about fifteen, but [[spoiler:as constructs of the Data Overmind, their physical bodies at least are only up to 3]]-years-old. It's somewhat debatable since it isn't known how the whole system works, but with [[spoiler:Nagato getting trapped in a time loop for hundreds of years (and mentally aging, as she alone retains full memories of the repetitions)]] the fifth novel [[spoiler:inverts this and makes her ReallySevenHundredYearsOld]]. An alternate theory mentioned in the show is that [[spoiler:the whole universe was recreated three years earlier, so ''everyone'' who thinks they're older than three is actually ''Younger Than They Look'']].
** Kyon's sister's friend Miyoko is this. [[spoiler: She is the same age as his elementary school aged sister but appears to be within a year of Kyon's age.]]
* It is revealed that Maria in ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' is only 17, but she is incredibly mature and everybody mistakes her for a beautiful woman in her mid-to-late-20s, leading Hayate to believe that he LikesOlderWomen. It also becomes a RunningGag that Maria is irritated when people mention "young girls" as if she doesn't fit into that group. Specifically, she keeps saying "I'm 17-years-old" with increasing irritation. It's also a ShoutOut to Creator/KikukoInoue.
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'': Despite looking like she's in her mid-thirties due to her toughness and no-nonsense behaviour, Integra is a young woman of 22.

* Leorio of ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' looks like a businessman in his thirties or early forties. He's nineteen. It was even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d when he tells Gon and Killua, who are more than shocked.

** Harumi appears to be in her mid-twenties, but viewers who have a quick enough eye to catch her character stats just before the commercial breaks will be surprised to realize that she's only ''3-years-old''. [[spoiler:It turns out that she's an android, so don't worry too much about it.]]
** A more mundane example in the same show would be Dr. Kitaguchi, a 33-year-old doctor who looks like he's somewhere in his 50s. If his self-proclaimed thirty-year drinking habit isn't an exaggeration, you can probably figure out why.

** From Part 3, Avdol looks like a middle-aged man, but while he is the second oldest of the main group after Joseph, he's only in his late twenties.

** Lucy Steel from Part 7, despite her height and figure, is only 14-years-old.
* Gareki from ''Manga/{{Karneval}}'' looks to be in his early twenties but is actually only 15. He often acts more mature than 21-years-old [[SunnySunflowerDisposition Yogi]] and is also a guardian/big brother to [[CheerfulChild Nai]], all of which only strengthen this impression. The implication is that his very harsh childhood forced him to either grow up fast or perish.

* In ''Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess2016'', Link starts off looking every bit the teenager he is, but the weight of his journey ages him quite noticeably. By the time he enters the Twilight Realm to battle Zant, he looks to be in his mid-twenties rather than his late teens, which Darpa teases him for when they reunite.

** Arf is another example. She looks to be in her mid-twenties or so, but in reality is probably only 3- or 4-years-old tops considering Fate created her, and Fate herself is another example as a clone with a copy of the memories from the girl she was cloned from.

* Mikumo Guynemer from ''Anime/MacrossDelta'' appears to be the most mature member of [[GirlGroup Walkure]]. However, [[spoiler: she is actually only three years old, being an ArtificialHuman engineered from the Star Singer's remains]].
* ''Manga/{{Mahoromatic}}'', being about [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots androids]], has an alien android who poses as a school teacher. When asked over the course of the series about age-related issues, such as if he would go drinking with a group of other teachers, he always replies, " That would be illegal, as I am only 3-years-old." [[WeirdnessCensor For some reason, nobody bothers to question him on this]].
* Noguchi from the ''Manga/MarchComesInLikeALion'', who is a highschooler despite sporting a thick mustache. Lampshaded in the first chapter he appears in with notes constantly pointing out that he's a 2nd-year.
* ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' has Seira, a baby that looks and acts about ten.

** Kōran guesses Shiki to be 21, seeing as he is mature in both appearance and personality. His actual age? [[spoiler: ''17''. Yes, he's ''younger'' than [[OlderThanTheyLook her]].]]
** [[spoiler: Which naturally makes his younger brother [[TheEvilPrince Rinshō]] qualify. It becomes real scary considering all the [[TeensAreMonsters horrible things]] he's done...]]
* In ''Manga/MissionYozakuraFamily'', Nanao Yozakura is a first-year high school student, but his genetics make him look like a hulking, three-meter tall man. It's actually PlayedForDrama when it's pointed out that a three-meter tall high schooler would draw heads, forcing him to develop a drug to shrink himself down to a normal size. And when that drug stops working, it will mean that he won't be able to attend school or college the way he always wanted to.
* Marida Cruz from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' looks to be 18-years-old, but should technically be around 7 since she's revealed to be [[spoiler: a clone of Elpeo Ple from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'']].

* In ''Literature/ModernMagicMadeSimple'', Yumiko easely look like she is in her 20s, so [[OlderThanTheyLook Koyomi]] is surprised to learn that she is the same age as her, 15-years-old.

** Tsunade manages to be both this ''and'' OlderThanTheyLook: in calendar years, she's about fifty or sixty, the same as ChivalrousPervert Jiraiya. However, she uses a powerful genjutsu round the clock to [[VainSorceress make herself look like a 20-year-old]] (or however old she needs to be to escape her creditors.) ''However'', her most powerful jutsu of her own invention heals any wound she may receive, but at the cost of aging her far faster than her contemporaries. So without the genjutsu, she ''is'' younger than she looks. (whew!)

** Two of the {{Huge Schoolgirl}}s are forced to pay full price for movie tickets, even though they're only 14- to 15-years-old (while two of their classmates who are a couple months older but look younger get away with claiming to be ''elementary school'' students for a larger discount). One of them gets so mad, she uses magic age-reducing pills to turn herself into a small child, until she realizes (too late) that the cost of the pills combined with the ticket come out to more than she would have had to pay normally. The other, being a {{Ninja}}, just ''Henges'' herself younger for free.

* Mireille Bouquet from ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' looks to be somewhere in her mid to late 20s, but the timeline of the series suggests she's actually only around 19-years-old. Given that she seems to have been working as a professional assassin for some time before this it leads to some FridgeHorror.

** Kalifa is drawn looking more mature and older than Nami, though she's only 6 years older (at 25-years-old) and is younger than Robin (who was 28 [[OlderThanTheyLook at the time]]).

* ''Manga/OtakuNoMusumeSan'': Taeko, a high school student who also happens to be a landlady, often is assumed to be a lady cosplaying as a high school student (mostly because the tenants are generally otakus themselves, so it's not a big leap). Amusingly, her mother actually ''works'' at a CosplayCafe and was mistaken for Taeko's friend when she turned up in her work uniform. '''The combination of the two tropes lead to Taeko looking older than her mother.'''

* In ''Manga/{{Planetes}}'', a minor character is 12-years-old, but since she grew up on the Moon with it's lower gravity, her growth rate was accelerated and her size makes her look like she's in her early twenties. This causes the twenty-something main character to be ''really'' uncomfortable when he discovers her true age... especially since it appeared he'd been developing something of a crush on her.

** A lot of the 10-year-old characters, such as Gary and Misty, look more like they're in their early teens. Some unofficial sources even listed Misty's age as 13, probably since she's taller than Ash. Even Ash looks a bit older than ten in the earlier seasons.

** Aguri Madoka/Cure Ace and Regina from ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure''. Aguri is 9-years-old, ages up to about 14 as Cure Ace and Regina's about the same age as the Cure Ace form. [[spoiler:They're only ''less than a year old''. It's a long story.]]
** Asumi Fuurin/Cure Earth, a spirit of the earth, is born in the middle of the show to protect Latte, and despite being chronologically a newborn, she takes on the appearance of a 20 year old woman.
* Occurs with the all young girls in Junko Mizuno's ''Manga/PureTrance'' manga; they appear to be about three when they're born, and one quickly ages about 16 years in a matter of months due to her ability to ''shed her skin like a snake''.

* Pretty much all the characters of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' fall into this, due to their willowy NoodlePeople designs, refined uniforms, and [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior the kind of things they get into]]. Utena and Anthy are fourteen, while Nanami and Miki are thirteen, but they all look like they're at least sixteen or seventeen, the ages of Juri and Saionji.
* Aria from ''Manga/RisingXRydeen'' looks like she's in her mid-twenties and compared to the rest of the mostly teenage cast she's significantly taller, bustier and more composed despite being eighteen, only three to four years older than most of them. Takara is shocked when she reveals her true age.
* In ''Franchise/SailorMoon'', when [=ChibiUsa=] and Hotaru are possessed, they take the forms of adult women, though they both are children younger than any of the other characters. Averted in Chibiusa's case as, at least in the manga; she is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld really 900-years-old]].

* Yagi Yuria in ''Manga/{{Shibatora}}'' works at a maid cafe, passing as over eighteen, but is really only 12-years-old. The fact that her mental maturity is normal for her real age, not her appearance, results in her being exploited by a number of other characters.

* Zelgadis the chimera of ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'' is 20 at the start of the {{Light Novel|s}} series, and his appearance appropriately matches his age. In the anime though, his age is bumped down to sixteen (a WordOfGod statement in a film book), making him fall under this trope. It doesn't help that his voice is noticeably deep, especially in [[Creator/CrispinFreeman the English version.]] More often than not, Gourry (who's older and taller than Zelgadiss is; in the anime, he's the only protagonist who starts out in his twenties) is referred to as a ''boy.''
* Bill Watkins from ''Manga/SpyXFamily'' is only six years old, but he's also very tall and muscular, and the anime gives him the deep voice of Creator/HirokiYasumoto. It's stated that he developed very early, and it's also likely to be genetic since the anime shows that his father is similarly huge (with Bill only coming up to his father's waist). This is lampshaded by Becky, who disbelievingly says there's no way he can be the same age as her and the other students in their grade.

* ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': Rimuru is both this and OlderThanTheyLook: in his human form, he looks about 16/17 at the very oldest, but at the end of the series he is only about 3-years-old. His mental age is around 40, having died as a human at 37 at the start of the series, and being reincarnated with all of his memories.
* In ''Manga/Touch1981'', Sohei Harada is a high-schooler, but he looks ten years older and towers over all of his classmates.

** [[spoiler:Wolfwood]] in the manga ''does'' have a {{lampshade|Hanging}}d case; [[spoiler:The experimental treatments his EvilMentor used to give him superhuman capabilities and HealingFactor also caused him to age faster;]] while he looks in his mid-to-late 20s, he's probably sixteen or so when we meet him. [[spoiler:His former guardian at the orphanage doesn't recognize him until Livio's about to kill him.]]

* PlayedForLaughs with Mirei Shikishima from ''Anime/ValkyrieDriveMermaid'' She looks like she's in her 20's but she's actually ''15'' and is younger than her partner, [[OlderThanTheyLook Mamori]]
* Ame from ''Anime/WolfChildren'' by the time he decides to leave civilization and live out his life in the wild as a wolf he looks and [[VocalDissonance sounds like]] he's in his mid-teens, but his mother Hana states that he's 10-years-old.

* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' has an early joke about this -- a creepy one-shot youth gangster who kidnaps Keiko in the manga, who has an oversized head with overdeveloped bone structure and a load of stubble. In an early panel where he's perving on Keiko his face is labelled, '14-years-old.' I.e., in his last year of middle school.

** The same applies to a lesser extent to Josuke Higashikata and Okuyasu Nijimura in Part 4, who look significantly older than teenagers who are just starting high scool.

* Anna Yamada of ''Manga/TheDangersInMyHeart'' is physically more developed than girls her age, [[HugeSchoolgirl is at the height of the average Japanese adult male at 171.1 cm]], and works part-time as a model/actresses, and gets type-casted as a high-school girl. She ''looks'' like a young adult (especially when dressed out of her school uniform), but she's a second-year middle schooler (13-14).

* Halflings in general in ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon''. They lack the stout proportions of dwarves and gnomes, which, paired with their short stature and baby-faced features, makes most of them look like human tweens at the oldest. The only exception seems to be a few older or unhealthier individuals, who tend to take on sort of a gaunt, Smeagol-ish appearance. This gets used as a joke when Chilchuck, whom the group had previously assumed to be very young, reveals that he's actually in his late-twenties, long married, and has children old enough to leave the house.

* Anna Yamada of ''Manga/TheDangersInMyHeart'' is physically more developed than girls her age, [[HugeSchoolgirl is at the height of the average Japanese adult male at 171.1 cm]], aworks part-time as a model/actresses, and gets type-casted as a high-school girl. She ''looks'' like a young adult (especially when dressed out of her school uniform), but she's a second-year middle schooler (13-14).

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[[quoteright:237:[[Manga/{{Bleach}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bleach_15_year_old_mister.png]]]]

** Also Mitsuko Souma has a very mature figure for her age and wears thicker make-up than the other girls, both of which she uses to her advantage in The Program,[[spoiler: like Kawada, her appearance is also probably justified by her childhood trauma as a victim of sexual abuse]].
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'':
** Guts could be mistaken for a guy in his 40s because of the physical and mental stress he's endured, but as of the Fantasia Arc he is only 24-years-old, Casca is the same age as Guts but she looks almost a [[OlderThanTheyLook decade younger]].
** Pippin is a even better example, the TheBigGuy of Band of Falcon [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/berserk/images/e/e4/Pippin_Manga.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150810011043 looks]] like he's in his late 20s to early 30s, but at the time of the Golden Age his actual age was ''19''. For contrast Corkus is a year older than Pippin despite looking [[https://www.nautiljon.com/images/perso/00/83/corkus_4738.jpg younger,]] though the movie adaptions make Corkus look closer to his age.

* Hiroshi Agasa of ''Manga/CaseClosed'' has fallen victim to this. He dislikes being called "ojisan" since he's only 53-years-old.
** Hyoue Kuroda from the same series is three years younger than Agasa, but looks even older. This is mostly because (like Agasa) he's fully grey, and also has very weathered skin, both a direct result of a severe accident that left him comatose for a decade.

** You would never, ever know it by looking at him or hearing him talk, but Piccolo at the beginning is chronologically only 8-years-old. Nobody remembers this, for good reason. When he was born he [[RetCon was supposed to be a demon]]. He actually takes much longer to reach maturity than Piccolo Daimaou's other "offspring", who are full-grown when they hatch.
*** Especially amusing in retrospect when he's teaching Gohan who is only a couple years younger than him at 4-years-old.
** In a similar vein, [[LegoGenetics Cell]] is much, much younger than you'd expect -- even with all the time-traveling he had to do to reach a timeline where he could absorb the Androids, he's still only in his early twenties.
** In ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', there is an extreme case of this in the Shadow Dragons, who, though mature as any other ''Dragon Ball'' villains, are, by technicality, newborns, spawned from the Dragon Balls' misuse.
** ''GT'' also gives us Bra[=/=]Bulla, who's only 11 but [[AgeInappropriateDress wears revealing clothing]] and looks a few years older -- to the point where grown men hit on her. In front of her [[PapaWolf father]]. Who is [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Vegeta]]. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
** The antagonist androids of ''Anime/DragonBallSuperSuperHero'' Gamma 1 & Gamma 2 [[spoiler:and Cell Max]] despite looking like adults were only created shortly after the new Red Ribbon Army hired Dr. Hedo ([[ReallyWasBornYesterday a day at most]]), meaning even little Pan who’s 3 years of age, is older than them.

** That's not even getting into Atsushi Munakata of the Amino Cyborgs, whose tremendous musculature and broad, dashingly handsome face make him look over ''30'', a fact that is actually commented upon. One Omake chapter shows that he actually looks exactly like his father... ''and'' his mother.

* Azumane Asahi in ''Manga/{{Haikyuu}}''. He is tall, broad and has a stubble which makes him look older and more intimidating than he is. There are even rumours going around in Miyagi high school volleyball teams that he had been hold back five years in high school. He's been mistaken as a teacher and more than one occasion, as a 30-year-old man.

** Also from Part 3, Avdol looks like a middle-aged man, but while he is the second oldest of the main group after Joseph, he's only in his late twenties.

** There's also Lucy Steel from Part 7, who, despite her height and figure, is only 14-years-old.

** It's implied Kakashi was 6 when he became a genin but he looked indistinguishable from even the current cast, who were 12 when they became genin, Kakashi keeps this trope going as an adult as he looks like he's in 30s with his [[MysticalWhiteHair white hair]] but was only 26 when Naruto was genin.
*** Lampshaded as Kakashi was quite upset when a little boy and girl (Naruto and Sakura in disguise) called him “old man” after rescuing their cat.
** Asuma with his beard [[https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-5faa3346e4e287b049702327fc24df62 looks]] much older than his actually age of 27 at the start of ''Naruto''. Amusingly his spouse Kurenai was 28 at the time making her a year older than her husband and two years older than Kakashi despite [[OlderThanTheyLook looking]] like a teenager [[https://pm1.narvii.com/6447/114aaf8a0bc33e9358bbb0a4ae99ca7ce76958fb_hq.jpg compared]] to them.
** Can't forget Might Guy who is the same age as Kakashi (26) despite looking 40-something, it's not until ''Anime/{{Boruto}}'' that any of the Jonin look their age.

** There is also Naba Chizuru, who is explicitly the youngest girl in the class aside from the android but is maternal enough (in [[ApronMatron multiple senses]] of the word) to pass for at least 20.

*** Ditto for Kalifa: she's drawn looking more mature and older than Nami, though she's only 6 years older (at 25-years-old) and is younger than Robin (who was 28 [[OlderThanTheyLook at the time]]).

** On the other end of the spectrum, there's Aguri Madoka/Cure Ace and Regina from ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure''. Aguri is 9-years-old, ages up to about 14 as Cure Ace and Regina's about the same age as the Cure Ace form. [[spoiler:They're only ''less than a year old''. It's a long story.]]

** However, [[spoiler:Wolfwood]] in the manga ''does'' have a {{lampshade|Hanging}}d case; [[spoiler:The experimental treatments his EvilMentor used to give him superhuman capabilities and HealingFactor also caused him to age faster;]] while he looks in his mid-to-late 20s, he's probably sixteen or so when we meet him. [[spoiler:His former guardian at the orphanage doesn't recognize him until Livio's about to kill him.]]

** Otabek Altin is also 18, but what makes him look older than that is his stern-looking and angular face.

* In ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn'', it's astonishingly easy to forget that Hak is actually ''seven years'' younger than 25-year-old Jaeha, given how well they get along and how much their maturity level seems to match up. Jaeha too seems to deem him as the second adult in the manga's main cast, as he's the only character Jaeha doesn't use the "-kun" honorific to address him with -- and that includes [[OlderThanTheyLook Kija]], who's a good 2 years older than Hak is. 15-year-old Yun {{Lampshades}} it at one point, admitting that he honestly forgot Hak was younger than Kija. Kija gleefully asks Hak to address him as "older brother" in response.

** "Glutton" Jewelry Bonney is introduced looking like a woman in her early- to mid-20s, but Oda specifically gave her a VagueAge to hide that [[spoiler: she's actually ''12'', and uses her FountainOfYouth powers to appear older than she actually is and thus hide from the World Government. Her ShapeshifterDefaultForm is a conventionally small and cute preteen, which is revealed when the Straw Hats fish her out of the ocean and her Devil Fruit powers are disrupted]].

* ''Anime/OnePiece'':

* Anna Yamada of ''Manga/TheDangersInMyHeart'' is [[HugeSchoolgirl taller than the average Japanese adult male]] and works part-time as a model. Despite all of this, she's a second year middle schooler.

* In ''Anime/ExcelSaga'', a paedophile takes a 9-year-old to a love hotel, only to learn that she's, er, "prodigious."[[labelnote:*]]She was able to completely hide away her triple-g cup breasts.[[/labelnote]] The episode in question was making as many jokes that couldn't be aired on TV as possible (it didn't, which was what the creators wanted), but everything was still played for laughs (all [[BlackComedy black laughs]]), which meant the paedophile ''left'' the underaged girl broken-hearted when he saw what she looked like, before anything awful happened. [[WidgetSeries Yep.]]

* Anna Yamada of ''Manga/TheDangersInMyHeart'' is [[HugeSchoolgirl taller than the average Japanese adult]] and works as a model. Despite all of this, she's a second year middle schooler.

* In ''Literature/BludgeoningAngelDokurochan'', the title character has a 9-year-old sister that looks about nine years older than her.

* ''Manga/DungeonNoOsananajimi'': When Sylvia offers Golde comfort after fighting Van, the Board of Directors get up in arms about how Golde can get a young girl like Sylvia giving him such affection. They're shocked when Sylvia explains that not only are they married, they're both the same age.

** Vivi as Miss Wednesday looks like [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRGWz993GooqcBNgQl5wgUeKG5o8s9XMIdRqQ&usqp=CAU she's in her 20s]], so may come as a shock to learn she was only ''16'' at the time. This may be part of her ReallyRoyaltyReveal as she even has a different voice actor when disguised. After dropping the disguise, she is drawn looking more closer to her actual age; though she's still as bosomy as Nami so this trope is still in effect.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Guts could be mistaken for a guy in his 40s because of the physical and mental stress he's endured, but as of the Fantasia Arc he is only 24-years-old, Casca is the same age as Guts but she looks almost a [[OlderThanTheyLook decade younger]].

* Anna Yamada of ''Manga/TheDangersInMyHeart'' is [[HugeSchoolgirl taller than the average Japanese adult]] and works as a model. Despite this, she's a second year middle schooler.

* Honey Kisaragi passes for 16, but since she's actually the transforming android Anime/CuteyHoney, she was probably built more recently than that.

* ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' features the VampireHunter Episode, who looks and (mostly) acts like he's in his late teens. However, he ages unnaturally due to his nature as a half-vampire. In reality, he is only 6-years-old.

* In ''LightNovel/BludgeoningAngelDokurochan'', the title character has a 9-year-old sister that looks about nine years older than her.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

* George of ''LightNovel/DragonCrisis'', despite looking about thirty, actually turns out to be 19.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':

* In ''LightNovel/ModernMagicMadeSimple'', Yumiko easely look like she is in her 20s, so [[OlderThanTheyLook Koyomi]] is surprised to learn that she is the same age as her, 15-years-old.

* Technically the case for all the [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] in ''LightNovel/{{Overlord}}''; while their physical ages vary widely, they were all created as player-created [=NPCs=] in an MMO that had a twelve year run. Since it would have taken a few years before any of their creators were able to make them all of them actually have single figure ages.

* Zelgadis the chimera of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' is 20 at the start of the {{Light Novel|s}} series, and his appearance appropriately matches his age. In the anime though, his age is bumped down to sixteen (a WordOfGod statement in a film book), making him fall under this trope. It doesn't help that his voice is noticeably deep, especially in [[Creator/CrispinFreeman the English version.]] More often than not, Gourry (who's older and taller than Zelgadiss is; in the anime, he's the only protagonist who starts out in his twenties) is referred to as a ''boy.''

* ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': Rimuru is both this and OlderThanTheyLook: in his human form, he looks about 16/17 at the very oldest, but at the end of the series he is only about 3-years-old. His mental age is around 40, having died as a human at 37 at the start of the series, and being reincarnated with all of his memories.

** Also from Part 3, Avdol looks like a middle-aged man, but while he is the second oldest of the main group after Joseph, he's only in his early twenties.

* Shinobu from ''Manga/KiniroMosaic'', due to her YamatoNadeshiko demeanour. This is one of her few BerserkButton as well.