I Got Bigger

Puberty can do weird things to kids. Hair starts growing everywhere, attraction to other people starts popping up, and, well, you grow up. Some people don't just grow up, though; they get BIG.

This trope describes characters who are seen for the first time after an extended period or Time Skip, and have grown a few inches up (or out, or both, or a LOT). It usually happens to the guys, and is usually meant to accentuate the amount of time that has passed: the little kid you used to noogie is now big enough to knock you out with one punch. Sometimes, they replace The Big Guy of the last generation. Can be used as a gag if the smallest kid is the one who grew the most. Compare to She's All Grown Up.

Compare with Breast Expansion.

Examples of I Got Bigger include:

Anime and Manga

• Coby of One Piece is almost unrecognizable after training under Vice Admiral Garp.
• Simon of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ends up taller than his mentor and "big bro" Kamina after the mid-series time-skip.
• Dragon Ball: Goku starts out rather runty. Thanks to his appetite, that doesn't last long.
  • Aversion: Kuririn manages to stay the same height across 3 different series after his growth spurt.
• Bleach: Captain of the 7th Squad, Komamura Sajin, appears to be about the height of his friend, Tosen Kaname, when they first meet, if much wider. By the time the main storyline starts... Well, uh...
• Momiji from Fruits Basket?
• Anyone recall that runty, skinny, and generally useless kid Raki from Claymore? Guess who is still looking for Claire after the Time Skip.
• Sakura is a bit surprised to find out that Naruto has grown taller than her in the 2 1/2 years he was gone (he's actually the second-tallest of the Konoha 11 now as opposed to being the shortest).
• After a 3 month timeskip in Fullmetal Alchemist, Ed grew noticeably taller (he also did so in the first anime's movie). He still has his Berserk Button though, so tell him that at your own risk.
  • By the end of the manga he's noticeably taller than Winry, compared to the beginning where he was far shorter than her. In the first anime though he's still considerably short, barely being taller than his biologically fourteen year old brother.
• Shuuichi and Riku from Wandering Son are reaching this. Shuu has grown several inches, being taller than almost all the girls.
• Riku from Venus Versus Virus starts out a short elementary school boy at the start of the manga but by the last chapter he's almost as tall as his sixteen (or so) sister and taller than several high school freshman.
• Ayato Kamina undergoes a slight growth spurt over the course of RahXephon, starting just a smidge shorter than Haruka (166 vs 167 cm) and ending up several inches taller than her even in heels. Haruka brings attention to this near the end of the series just before confessing to him.

Haruka: You passed me.

Live Action TV

• All the Sutton kids in Lincoln Heights grow a little, but Tay is the most noticeable, and he becomes far less wimpy as a result.

Literature

• In TA Barron's The Lost Years Of Merlin, Shim, the very, very, very, small giant commits suicide by jumping into The Caldron Of Death, which breaks, comes back to life, and grows to be the largest giant.
• The protagonist of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Shadow, starts out as a nerdy runt, blows up over the summer, and decides to hide his intelligence after finding out that people expect someone of his size to be a dumb jock-type.
• Dune: When he's first introduced as a fifteen year old, Paul Atreides is described as looking small and young for his age. After the Time Skip, he's grown to be very tall and imposing.

Video Games

• An actual plot point in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, as Link time-skips seven years and grows up.
• Sothe between Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
  • Ike and Boyd both grew a lot taller between the games as well. Many other characters even comment on the radical height increases with all three characters throughout the second game. Tormod's comments to Ike is the most amusing of them all.
• In Sonic Generations, through the game's use of Timey-Wimey Ball, it turns out that the original tubby, black-eyed design for Sonic from the first 3 games and CD was a pre-pubescent version of the hedgehog, while the modern sleek, green-eyed design is him post-puberty.

Visual Novels

• Battler from Umineko no Naku Koro ni notes that he recently underwent a growth spurt that left him noticeably taller than just about everyone else in his extended family. He's a bit embarrassed that they all feel the need to comment on it.
• In the Unlimited Blade Works route of Fate/stay night, Shirou (5'6") complains a bit about being on the small side. As the reveal that the 6'2" and very muscular Archer is a Future Badass version of Shirou shows, he has one hell of a growth spurt to expect in the upcoming years.

Western Animation

• Clifford the Big Red Dog. Pretty much the epitome of this trope.
• An unlikely case, Dr. Zoidberg of Futurama. Upon returning to his home planet for mating season, he visits the tide pool where he grew up, and "meets" a small animal named Vinnie who apparently had bullied Zoidberg when they were younger. Zoidberg promptly eats him.
• Enzo from ReBoot got huge, post Time Skip. He went from half the size of Bob to a head taller and far more muscular than Bob. Bob even points out the size change when Enzo is about to run into Bob like Enzo did back in season 1.

Bob: Whoa! I think you're a little too big for that.

• In one episode of King of the Hill, Joseph comes back from summer camp having undergone a serious growth spurt, gaining a very deep voice, and having grown some facial hair. Bobby spent most of the episode envious despite having spent his summer doing grown-up things with his grandma at a retirement community. Joseph still ended up being incredibly immature either way, though.

Truth in Television

• It's not at all uncommon for adolescents and teenagers to go though dramatic growth spurts in a very short period of time. Over the course of a single year a kid can go from the shortest member in their family to as tall or even taller than their parents.
• Patrick Warburton, perhaps most famous for his voice acting roles like Brock Samson and Kronk has said that he was a runty weakling in high school. He sure isn't now!