History NotAllowedToGrowUp / AnimeAndManga

* While ''Manga/DragonBall'' is notably renowned for averting this trope (and pioneering its aversion in other series), it comes into play in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' with the various kid characters. According to the timeline placement, Goten and Trunks should be in their mid-teens by the second arc and older later,[[note]]Pan is said to be four years old at the end of the series, which is set ten years after the Buu arc, and she's at least a few months as of ''Resurrection F''. Thus that movie/arc takes place six years after Buu. Goten and Trunks were respectively 7 and 8 during the Buu arc, so by ''Resurrection F'' they'd be 13 and 14. ''Six'' more arcs have passed since then (Champa arc, Zamasu arc, Universal Survival arc, Broly arc/movie, Moro arc, and Granola arc), and their designs haven't changed.[[/note]] but still look and act as they did in the Buu Saga of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. Krillin's daughter Marron, while a more minor character is an even more egregious example, still looking and acting like a toddler despite being around ten years old at this point. She also is fully human, whereas Goten and Trunks at least have the excuse of being half-Saiyan. It was established long ago via Goku's childhood that Saiyans stay child-like into their early teens and then have a ''massive'' growth spurt to adulthood. However, this explanation is not widely accepted since Gohan did not have this issue and grew normally throughout the series.

* ''Anime/PrettyCure'' initially averted this -- the [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure first season]] ended with several recurring characters graduating from middle school, and the second shows Nagisa and Honoka dealing with the new stresses from becoming upperclassmen. Then the series entered ComicBookTime, and when Nagisa and Honoka returned for the CrisisCrossover after being offscreen for three years, they were still the same age. They try to avert this for some of the {{Distant Finale}}s in the later seasons, but their continuing appearances in the ''All-Stars'' films renders it all naught since they still retained their initial ages as if nothing happened. This is what ends up making ''Anime/KibouNoChikaraOtonaPrettyCure23'' all the more surprising amongst long-standing fans, since it's the first ''full Pretty Cure season'' to break out of this trend and show [[KidHeroAllGrownUp the Cures all grown up]], specifically the ''Yes! 5'' and ''Splash Star'' teams... only to end up Zig-Zagging this when Nozomi re-awakening her transformation to Cure Dream de-ages her back to how she was at the end of ''[=GoGo=]'', creating a weird hodgepodge situation where it's the actual Cure transformations itself that's not allowed to grow up.

* None of the characters in ''KocchiMuiteMiiko'' has aged despite the serialization in ''Ciao'' magazine has been running since 1995. Eventually averted in the 29th volume promoting the main cast to sixth grade, although it takes five volumes to show them graduating.

* ''Anime/PrettyCure'' initially averted this -- the [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure first season]] ended with several recurring characters graduating from middle school, and the second shows Nagisa and Honoka dealing with the new stresses from becoming upperclassmen. Then the series entered ComicBookTime, and when Nagisa and Honoka returned for the CrisisCrossover after being offscreen for three years, they were still the same age. They try to avert this for some of the {{Distant Finale}}s in the later seasons, but their continuing appearances in the ''All-Stars'' films renders it all naught since they still retained their initial ages as if nothing happened. This is what ends up making ''Anime/KibouNoChikaraOtonaPrettyCure23'' all the more surprising amongst long-standing fans, since it's the first ''full Pretty Cure season'' to break out of this trend and show [[KidHeroAllGrownUp the Cures all grown up]], specifically the ''Yes! 5'' and ''Splash Star'' teams.

* ''Anime/PrettyCure'' initially averted this -- the [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure first season]] ended with several recurring characters graduating from middle school, and the second shows Nagisa and Honoka dealing with the new stresses from becoming upperclassmen. Then the series entered ComicBookTime, and when Nagisa and Honoka returned for the CrisisCrossover after being offscreen for three years, they were still the same age.

* ''Manga/DailyLivesOfHighSchoolBoys'' flat-out [[BreakingTheFourthWall Breaks The Fourth Wall]] to {{lampshade|Hanging}} this concept. During a conversation about what the kids plan to do when they graduate, Hidenori states that it's irrelevant since they'll be stuck in their [[SecondYearProtagonist second year of high school]] ''forever''. The SeriesFinale seemingly [[AvertedTrope averts this]] at first by showing the kids graduating after a TimeSkip...[[AllJustADream but then it turns out to just be a dream]].

** Averted in ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', in which each new game adaptation adds a few years to the length of the story. Older characters, like Red and Green, return in later arcs as people in their early to late teens, with new designs each time.

* Red from ''Manga/PocketMonsters'' hasn't aged much in twenty years. The manga is even older than the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime, but he still seems like a kid.
** And speaking of the anime, Ash Ketchum has been 10 years old from day 1 up until now. Many jokes were made when he finally won the Pokemon League in the vein of "It's the culmination of a 20-year journey for 10-year-old Ash Ketchum." It's iconic enough that he is now this trope's image.

* In the anime version of ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'', the main character is stated to be seven when the series starts, and when she finally makes her first book she says that it's been two years since she started trying. Neither she nor any of the other child characters have changed at all in appearance in that time.

* ''Manga/DeroDero'' has a chapter that lampshades this.

* The original ''Manga/AstroBoy'' had this in spades. Though the title character is a robot and is thus justified in not growing up over the course of several decades, his human classmates have no such excuse. What makes this especially odd, is that Astro's "little sister" Uran, also a robot, ''actually did grow up!'' She went from being a short, chubby preschooler in her first appearance, to being able to impersonate Astro with a simple costume change, to the point where she looked more grown-up than her "big brother", as a slender young woman in the later stories, complete with superfluous (though modest) artificial breasts(!). Tezuka also experimented with drawing Astro looking more like the teenage adventure heroes that were popular at the time, but apparently, his readers didn't go for it. They didn't complain about Uran nearly as much, though. Then there's the ''Astro's Been Stolen'' story, where an attempt is made to give Astro an adult body, but it turns out to be a piece of junk that only has the same power level as his original despite being much bigger. The story ends with him musing that GrowingUpSucks and if you can avoid it you probably should.

* All the main cast of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' (despite some episodes show them grow-up in the future).

* While ''Manga/DragonBall'' is notably renowned for averting this trope (and pioneering its aversion in other series), it comes into play in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' with the various kid characters. According to the timeline placement, Goten and Trunks should be in their mid-teens but still look and act as they did in the Buu Saga of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. Krillin's daughter Marron, while a more minor character is an even more egregious example, still looking and acting like a toddler despite being around ten years old at this point. She also is fully human, whereas Goten and Trunks at least have the excuse of being half-Saiyan. It was established long ago via Goku's childhood that Saiyans stay child-like into their early teens and then have a ''massive'' growth spurt to adulthood. However, this explanation is not widely accepted since Gohan did not have this issue and grew normally throughout the series.

** And speaking of the anime, Ash Ketchum has been 10 years old from day 1 up until now. Many jokes were made when he finally won the Pokemon League in the vein of "It's the culmination of a 20-year journey for 10-year-old Ash Ketchum."

* Red from ''Manga/PocketMonsters'' hasn't aged much in twenty years. The manga is even older than the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime but he still seems like a kid.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Ash and Pikachu seem to have fallen foul of this a lot:
** Ash has been declared as still being 10 years old at the start of ''Best Wishes!'' (''Black and White'', Season 14 outside Japan). This was said in the original Japanese as well. ''Anime/PokemonVolcanionAndTheMechanicalMarvel'' also confirmed he's still 10.
** Former storyboard artist Masamitsu Hidaka [[WordOfGod explicitly said]] [[http://pokebeach.com/2008/07/second-pokemon-interview-with-masamitsu-hidaka-many-interesting-points in this interview]] that Ash and his friends remain their respective ages for as ''long as the show is on'', however many years that may be!
** To make things [[MindScrew more confusing]], Ash (in the dub only) noted the one-year anniversary of him and Pikachu meeting. And even ''more'' confusing in both the English and Japanese versions, where Ash's voice has deepened a lot in later seasons. It has happened in many other versions as well, which cast kids to play Ash's role back in 1998/99, but said kids have since aged and remained doing his voice.
** The dub also makes direct reference to a year's time passing between Ash's first two visits to Viridian City. However, anything added in the dub that is not mentioned in the Japanese version is not considered canon.
** In Ash's talk with Drew (in the dub at least), one of his lines was something like "- all the friends I met throughout the ''years''".
** [[LampshadeHanging Meowth pointed this out in one episode]], telling Dawn that Team Rocket had been chasing after Pikachu since Dawn has been ''alive'', which puts that at [[LongRunners over 10 years]] (how long the show had been running at that point). This could be viewed however as BreakingTheFourthWall (something the Team Rocket trio and Meowth in particular are famous for) and not indicate the age of any characters.
** Apparently time passes in the Japanese version too, as in the Kalos saga Jessie mentions [[AgelessBirthdayEpisode she recently had a birthday]] (however her Gourgeist was the only one who remembered).
** This trope applies to many Pokémon and their evolution. Certain Pokémon simply don't evolve, some for specific reasons, like Pikachu doesn't want to become different or Meowth, who is clearly either in adolescence or adulthood, hates his evolved form. Other Pokémon who fulfill mascot roles like Dawn's Piplup, Iris's Axew, and Ash's Rowlet don't evolve to keep them cute forever -- Piplup even holds an Everstone for that purpose, Axew simply shows no sign of evolving despite ''wishing'' to reach his final stage [[spoiler:until ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries'' that is]], and Ash's Rowlet casually ''ate'' an Everstone whilst looking for pebbles to practice Bullet Seed. Surprisingly, Misty's Togepi ''does'' evolve...[[PutOnABus and leaves her]].
** It was basically tradition that none of Ash's Water-Type Pokémon he has caught since Totodile would ever evolve, and even before that, his Squirtle might have even started this trend before Totodile. Unlike Pikachu and Bulbasaur, none of his Water-Types are shown to refuse to evolve; they simply don't. Until Froakie, only Krabby has evolved, and Froakie is the first to finally break the curse. Not only that, Froakie even evolves twice and gets an exclusive SuperMode on top of that. [[spoiler:And then he was released following the [[StatusQuoIsGod ill-fated Kalos League]]]].
** The fact characters have not been allowed to grow up actually has caused trouble with adapting games as time goes on. Several games either make it clear that timeskips are going on or they outright feature cameos from previous games that depict the characters as noticeably older than they were before (''Sun and Moon'' even features the original protagonist, Red, [[KidHeroAllGrownUp as an adult]]). The anime usually ignores the references and glosses over characters aging. This, however, has caused inconsistencies. For example, Bianca is shown to have her original ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' design however her childhood friend Cheren uses his ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' design that is two years older (the anime doesn't reference them knowing each other either).
** In ''Pokémon Sun and Moon'', the game says Island Challenges can only be taken when a child reaches age 11. Yet Ash is still confirmed as 10 in that series, along with showing his classmates as pre-teens [[AgeLift in spite of them being teenagers in the games]].
** A Hoenn interview confirmed that Ash was always ten. Later, an interview for ''Anime/PokemonIChooseYou'' stated that Ash will eternally be 10 years old as time does not flow since his journey started, making the world [[ComicBookTime another trope]].
** When Ash returns to Alola in ''Pokémon Journeys'', we learn that Professor Burnet has already given birth to Professor Kukui's child. And Ash is ''still 10 years old''.