Not Allowed to Grow Old

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    Ah the Time Skip. Some fans' favorite moment of the series. Everyone is stronger, smarter, more attractive. The kids are teens, the teens are adults and the adults are... um, still adults.

    This is somewhat Truth in Television; if only a few years have gone by, the difference between how much an adult changes and how much an adolescent does can be drastic. There's a much more visible difference aging from 10 to 15 than there is aging from 35 to 40.

    However, this gets particularly noticeable when after reaching a certain age, adults in a series stop showing signs of aging at all. No wrinkles, no gray hairs, no change in build, and often no costume changes or new hairstyles, either.

    Not to be confused with Not Allowed to Grow Up; may overlap with Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome.

    Examples of Not Allowed to Grow Old include:

    Anime and Manga

    • Acknowledged and lampshaded in Naruto Shippuden: All the kids are older but most of the adults don't even get new costumes. In one post-show explanation, they note how Kakashi's only difference between then and now is that he's reading a different book.
    • In Clannad, none of the characters seems to age after the Time Skip. Nagisa's Absurdly Youthful Mother still looks as young as she was back when was able to pass as a Highschool girl[1].
    • After the two Time Skips in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Leeron still looks the way he was in early episodes, even when the other older characters during the early episodes are already geezers and grandmas.

    Western Animation

    • The Lion King - Most noticeable in the timeskip sequence when Simba Timon and Pumbaa are walking across the log, Simba goes from lion cub to adolescent to adult. Timon and Pumbaa don't change at all.
      • The most triumphant example is probably Zazu, from Simba's presentation ceremony as a newborn at the beginning of the first movie, to his full-grown daughter finding a mate and inheriting the kingdom at the end of the second (two full generations later). He hasn't aged a day.
    • Also happens in Sleeping Beauty
    • And Disney's Tarzan.
    • In Batman Beyond, Bruce Wayne is allowed to grow old, but not to die. This leads, in the Distant Finale, for an incredibly ancient-looking Bruce Wayne, who must be at least over a hundred, to still be kicking around the Batcave.

    Video Games

    • The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time - After the seven-year skip. only the kids are shown to have changed to adults. Only exceptions are Ganondorf, and to a small extent Ingo who received a new costume
    • Between the third and fourth generations of Record of Agarest War, Alberti grows from a teen to middle age. Between the fourth and fifth generations? No change, even though there was a nearly 20-year Time Skip both times.
    1. ↑ her daughter was also at high school at that time.
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