A Child Shall Lead Them / Anime & Manga

• Manaphy probably has a more complex variant of this trope than you think in Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, Despite the popular belief, Manaphy isn't technically royalty at all. Many humans in the Pokemon world called Manaphy "Prince of the Sea", because it was a rare Pokemon.
• Bleach:
  • By Soul Reaper standards, Toshiro Hitsugaya is a young teenager and looks like it. This did not stop him from becoming a very competent captain of the Tenth Division.
  • Yachiru Kusajishi is a literal kid who somehow ends up with the office of lieutenant of the Eleventh Division. This is because the division adheres to Asskicking Leads to Leadership and no one except for Kenpachi Zaraki is stronger than her. She is later revealed to be the true form of Kenpachi's zanpakuto, however, which makes this a subversion.
• By the end of Code Geass the world's power is wielded by three teenage girls:
  • Tianzi, godhead-empress of China. She's just 13 years old and starts out as a mix of a puppet empress and a Lonely Rich Kid, therefore her bodyguard Li Xingke's ultimate goal is to give her the influence and power she needs to truly rule. He succeeds with help of Lelouch.
  • Kaguya Sumeragi, head of the influential Sumeragi House, High Chairman of the UFN and Japan's representative on said council despite being vaguely 14 or thereabout.
  • Nunnally vi Britannia, who rules Britannia as its 100th Empress.
    • And in the Code Geass: Nightmare of Nunnally manga, Euphemia li Britannia takes over the Empire at age 16.
  • Apparently the Europeans didn't want to be left out, because post-series supplemental material shows that they're also ruled by a teenage girl.
  • Lelouch vi Britannia himself becomes this. Before he turned 19, he already had started the world's largest revolution and took over half of the world. After he lost that half due to Schneizel turning his subordinates against him, he then proceeded to take over the other half, then went back, defeated Schneizel, and re-conquered the first half. As an eighteen year old, he was the first man to ever rule the entire world. He then proceeded to bring about the first era of true world peace after pretending to be a heartless, maniacal overlord; he did this by ordering his own death at the hands of his equally young Dragon under the mask of his alter-ego Zero, thus leaving the path clear for Nunners to become the Empress and be left with said dragon as a prospect Mysterious Protector.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, being born with silver hair and rainbow colored pupils inspired Doma's parents to groom him as a cult leader from childhood, his natural unique appearance made others believe he was divine, this idea perpetuated by Doma's parents allowed them to feed the notion that people would lead happy resourceful lives by just worshipping Doma, in their Eternal Paradise Cult.
  • By the end of the series, Kiriya Ubuyashiki succeed his father as the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps after he died in a gambit to kill Muzan.
• Played with inDaimos. Richter is 19, but the vast majority of the Baam he commands are middle-aged men that appear to be in their 30s. Combined with his lack of experience in commanding militia, it's not surprising that most of his attempts at destroying Daimos end up with the loss of his men.
• Trinity Blood features two examples: His Holiness Alessandro XVIII, 399th Pope of Rome; and Seth Nightroad, Eternal Empress of the Methuselah Race. The former is respected by his citizens despite being a highly indecisive young boy; the latter is Really 700 Years Old but rules through a proxy so as to hide her child-like appearance.
• Queen Mashiro of My-Otome is a Royal Brat at first, but becomes this after learning her lesson at the tender age of 14.
• Integra in Hellsing started running the agency when she was still a young child. It helped that she also awakened Alucard.
• The Dark King Ixpellia from StrikerS Sound Stage X. The fierce, tyrant king of the Garea empire during the time of Ancient Belka. Oh, and she's a little girl in both appearance and personality, if not actual age.
• Naruto:
  • Gaara was elected as Kazekage of his village at some point during the time skip and by Part II, he is still 15 years old. In fact, he is criticized (and even ridiculed) by some of the other kages for his age, inexperience, and idealism. It's even mentioned that because of this, other leaders may refuse to take him seriously. Though in this case, Gaara is currently proving himself Wise Beyond His Years as well as giving the other kages an armor-busting inquiry and he's getting more respect now.
  • Subverted with the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, who looks like a young teenager and is mistaken by Naruto to have died young. He is actually baby faced.
• Tsunayoshi Sawada from Reborn! (2004) is chosen to be Boss of the most powerful Mafia family in Italy at only 14 years old. Likewise, his fellow boss Uni, who is even younger.
• Shangri-La has Kuniko Hojo become the Rebel Leader of the Metal Age group, at eighteen, while she still has the body of a child. She might have done it earlier had she not been in jail for two years before the series due to being a domestic terrorist.
• Kyo Kara Maoh!:
  • The protagonist, Yuuri Shibuya becomes the ruler of the Great Demon Kingdom at the age of fifteen.
  • And lets not forget Small Shimaron's illustrious boy king, Saralegui.
• Emperor Hotohori or Saihitei of Fushigi Yuugi is 17 years old at the time the series begins and the ruler of the Konan empire.
  • Don't forget his son Reizeitei or Boushin, whom we see ruling when he's as much 10-12 years old.
• One episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex featured an improbable 12-year-old leader of a terrorist group, who went missing years ago after being captured by the same terrorists and seemingly hasn't aged a day. And then it turns out that she's not the original kidnapped girl, she's her daughter and the real girl has aged far more than she should have and now looks like her grandmother.
• Kimba the White Lion has the title character inherit his father's kingdom while still a cub after his parents died.
• Gundam has a couple of these:
  • In Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ, the official leader of Axis/Neo-Zeon is Mineva Lao Zabi, seven year old sole survivor of the Zabi family, although it's pretty clear to everyone that her regent Haman Karn is the one with all the real power. In Gundam Unicorn, Mineva is re-introduced to the story as a civilian teenager under the name of Audrey Burne, and it's still unknown if she'll fully take over her heritage.
  • Haman herself was put in charge of Axis at the tender age of 16, apparently because they thought she'd be easy to control. They were wrong.
  • In Gundam Wing, Relena Peacecraft first becomes the sovereign of the Sanc Kingdom at age 15, then later Queen of the World. Though she doesn't hold the latter position for very long, Relena wields very real power while she has it. And by the end of the story she's still working in politics, having become Vice Foreign Minister of the Earth Sphere United/Unified Nation (her father's former position).
    • Endless Waltz has Mariemaia Khushrenada, supposed daughter of Treize Khushrenada, leading her own army to conquer Earth in her preteens, although Dekim Barton is very clearly manipulating her actions and thoughts.
  • In Gundam SEED, Lacus Clyne (16) becomes the leader of her father's resistance movement following his death. By the end of Gundam SEED Destiny, two years later, she's the Chairwoman of the PLANT Supreme Council (same position as her late father). Cagalli Yula Athha (same age) is also the chief representative of the nation of Orb following her father's death.
• Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund was no older than the twelve year old she looks like when the last of the great clan lords murdered her mother and left her the de jure queen of the vampires. Comparatively speaking, even at 400 or so Mina remains quite young compared to the blood-soaked ancients she has to play politics with.
• The World is Still Beautiful has 12-year-old Livius the Sun King, much to fiancee and female protagonist Nike's shock.
• In AKIRA, after his awakening from cryogenic stasis levels the city of Tokyo in an apocalyptic explosion, the titular Akira, a six or seven-year-old mutant psychic with powers beyond the world's comprehension, becomes the centerpiece of a fanatical cult empire. Of course, Akira doesn't actually lead them; it's his fifteen-year-old self-declared "prime minister" Tetsuo who calls the shots for him, Akira being essentially mute.
• Castle Town Dandelion: According to Chapter 23, King Souichirou himself was crowned at 14. As for the main Elective Monarchy premise, since all of the Sakurada siblings are under the age of twenty, this will be the case regardless of who wins the election. This is also mostly true in manga, where the election takes place at Akane's graduation; only Aoi would likely to be above 20, the Japanese age of majority.
• In episode 2 of Dream Star Button Nose, the king falls ill, naming Button Nose as a temporary replacement. By the end of episode 3, the king has left the kingdom on a trip around the galaxy, making Button Nose's position permanent for the rest of the series.
• Altair: A Record of Battles: Kemal is only 10 when he becomes Sultan of Balta, and his teenage sister acts as regent until he is old enough to rule by himself.
• In Aruosumente, Emperor Artian was very young when his father died and when he inherited the throne. In the present time of the story, he is still little more than a teenager.
• Helena from Nurse Angel Ririka SOS is ruler of the planet Queen Earth however doesn't seem much older than the ten year old Ririka. Considering we never see any relatives besides her sister, it's likely Helena's parents are deceased.
• Dragon Ball Super goes to the ultimate extreme: Zen'O (literally, "king of everything") is the absolute ruler of the entire multiverse, with enough power to unmake all of reality at a whim, and has the personality (and stature) of a small child. All he really wants to do is play, and he befriends Goku because he's the only known being who isn't painfully polite to him all the time. Then the Universe Survival Arc happens and proceeds to tear the trope to little bitty pieces by showing what happens when the power to obliterate anything is in the hands of someone like that. Zen'o is a little kid: Kids are Innocent, Kids are Dumb, and above all else, Kids Are Cruel.
• Subverted in The Saga of Tanya the Evil, at the tender age of eleven, Tanya Degurechaff is the leader of a battalion of Mage Marksmen and one of the most respected (and feared) members of the Fatherland's military. Little does anyone know, she is actually the reincarnation of a Jerkass Salaryman who is in her current predicament as a result of dissing God, whose intact memories of his previous life and willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve his own ends makes him/her a force to be reckoned within the military.
• Episode 10 of the 1980s Astro Boy anime features a variation. A country elects a Robot Kid as their president, largely due to robots wanting to see a fellow robot as president. Being a robot though, he can't physically age.
• In Tokyo Ghoul, it's revealed that Aogiri Tree was established around thirteen years ago with Eto Yoshimura (One-Eyed Owl) and her small band of ghouls that grew considerably enough to impose a threat to the CCG and V. Calculating her revelation to her associates about her true identity as The Leader instead of being an executive during the sequel, Eto was around 14 years old when she established her organization at the same time she became a novelist under the pen name Sen Takatsuki.
• The first Guildmaster of Fairy Tail was Mavis Vermilion, a thirteen-year old prodigy during the year X686. She proves her worth as both a skilled illusionist and a master tactian, which proved valuable during the Second Guild War and the war between Fairy Tail and the Alvarez Empire.
• This is deconstructed brutally in Akame ga Kill!. Emperor Makoto, who is not even in his teens, is nothing more than a easily fooled child being manipulated by Prime Minister Honest, his evil and hedonistic uncle. Even though he has no clue what Honest's machinations are doing to his kingdom, he's still blamed — and eventually executed by the Revolution — because of this. Painfully, Makoto is a genuinely kind kid who's too naive to see how evil Honest truly was.
• Voltes V: A variant. Heinel's age isn't specified in the anime^note Supplementary material states he's 18, but it is mentioned that he graduated from a military academy, and he's old enough to be a commander. This puts him at odds with Zuhl, who thinks that Heinel is too young to lead the invasion. He plots for the death of Heinel in the hopes of replacing him, but is caught in the act and then put through a Humiliation Conga that ends with Heinel executing him.
• Zoids: Chaotic Century: Prince Rudolph is crowned Emperor of Guylos at the end of the first season, succeeding his late grandfather after the usurper Proitzen is finally defeated. Despite his young age he proves to be Wise Beyond His Years and by the time of Guardian Force he's a Reasonable Authority Figure.

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