Token Mini-Moe

The red-haired one.

During the development phase, it was said that "Caster turns into a loli with hyper power", but we only need one loli!

—Taiga, Fate/stay night: Taiga dojo #22

The Token Mini-Moe is a young or young-looking member of the cast designed to appeal to one of two predominant demographics. The first is those who simply find the character absolutely adorable and/or endearing and feel protective towards him or her. The second are the Lolicons/Shotacons, who take an erotic or romantic interest in them. These groups can overlap, but just as often result in a Broken Base.

What defines a Token Mini-Moe is a number of factors. First, they appear prepubescent, regardless of whether they are actually children or not. Why someone so much younger appearing is mixed in with a group of older looking people may be addressed, but it's just as likely that it will be noted and then the story will move on. In a harem series where they are used as a love interest, they will almost never be the main one and are frequently overshadowed. Since they are the Token Mini-Moe, if there are other similarly young looking characters in the cast then it is probably not this trope.

Compare Tagalong Kid and Kid Appeal Character, who are kids designed to act as Audience Surrogates for younger viewers.

In anime fandom this trope is referred to as "token loli" or "token shota" depending on gender; because of how language evolves, the words "loli" and "shota" are relatively neutral terms in anime, originally meaning "uncomfortably sexualized little girl/boy" but now relating to any child aged 12 and under. The words still have Unfortunate Implications elsewhere which we want to avoid—so please don't use them in this website—and hence this page being renamed from "Token Loli" (that and the fact that, because of the definition shift, female examples of Kid Appeal Character and Tagalong Kid are also referred to as token lolis).

Examples of Token Mini-Moe include:

Anime and Manga

• Dragon Ball GT gives us one in the form of Pan, a 10 year old who is likely stronger than Frieza.
  • Unfortunately for her, this still makes her weak in comparison to Trunks, and especially Goku.
• Seth Nightroad of Trinity Blood. Though she enjoys running around town doing odd jobs, she is eventually revealed to be both a Krusnik who is Really Seven Hundred Years Old, and Empress Augusta Vradica of the Methuselah Empire. The latter is not common knowledge because all of her public appearances are delegated to a more-mature-looking proxy.
• Sasami, from Tenchi Muyo!. Naturally enough, she tends to behave more maturely than her elders....
  • In Magical Project S, the villain team (known variously as the Lovely Madams, Team Sexy Mrs, or Hitozuma-tai [Married Woman Squad]) has one member, Chisato or Mrs. Roku (literally "Mrs. Sixth", as the sixth member recruited), who is somewhere between kindergarten and junior high. She is the only unmarried member of the villain team, although she has an arranged marriage. One of the soldiers confronting the villains was heard to exclaim "She's supposed to be a wife?!"
• Divergence Eve has Kotoko-01, a support android that looks like a little girl for no appreciable reason.
• Please Teacher has Ichigo Morino, although the fact she actually looks like one and is probably a draw to someone is only pointed out in the second season.
• Mahou Sensei Negima has too many to count for this trope in the present no matter how you divide the cast up but in the past, Asuna played this role for Ala Rubra.
• Shinobu serves as this in Love Hina. A second, even younger character later joins the cast, but she's neither a main character nor a haremette.
• Merrill in Rune Soldier Louie is not actually appreciably younger than the other females in the cast. But she is shorter, less developed, and acts younger, making her the Token Mini Moe. She also qualifies as a Shorttank.
• Mikan in Rental Magica
• Pia in Dragon Half. It should be noted she's completely androgynous, at least until the epilogue.
• In Bleach Nanao Ise used to be the Token Mini Moe of the 8th Squad, having been there since she was a child.
  • Amongst the Zanpakutou Spirits in the recent filler arc: Momo Hinamori's Zanpakutou Tobiume is the closest to being this trope among the normal sized ones. Suzumebachi comes a bit closer, but she's a fairy.
• Amy from Burst Angel.
• Caro and Vivio in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S. Kind of odd, as the first two seasons were full of Mini Moe girls. On the villain we have Lutecia and Cinque, the latter ironically one of the oldest members of the Numbers group.
  • Nanoha herself was the Token Mini Moe of Triangle Heart 3 ～sweet songs forever～.
  • Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force adds the also-villainous Stella Irvine.
• Anita in Read or Dream and R.O.D the TV.
• Sendou Yukari in Rosario + Vampire, of the kid genius type. She's the Token Mini Moe of the harem, though Moka's little sister also happens to be one.
• Rimone in Simoun, who is also not exempt from performing the kissing ritual to start the titular aircraft.
  • Although she does it in a subdued way that fits her age.
• Vandread's team nurse Paiway Underberg. Why an eleven-year-old works as a ship's nurse is Hand Waved by a statement in the first episode that they were understaffed and had to take on a bunch of rookies in various positions. When Duero takes over as Doctor, there are surprisingly few complaints (other than him being male).
• Chika from Ai Yori Aoshi. She's had more exposure to the male lead than any other character, although he thankfully disinterested, and thus it's played for comedy. She's still nonetheless very popular despite having the fewest appearances.
• Kusano from Sekirei.
• Tiki from Geneshaft.
• It seems like the mangaka of Chrono Crusade was trying to appeal to pretty much any demographic he could, so of course the show has a Token Mini Moe in Azmaria. A joke in one of the Omakes actually shows what Chrono would have been like if he'd been one of these, as well.
• Athena from Cosplay Complex, who seems to function mostly as a device to let Lolicon Jenny have massive nosebleeds over her.
• Sora from Doujin Work.
• Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh is a Preteen Genius who starts 10th grade at 10 years old while all her classmates are 15 or 16. Really more of a parodic deconstruction—the series is all too quick to point out the problems with such a small girl in a much older group, and then plays it up for laughs.
• Klan Klang from Macross Frontier. Actually, she's a Meltrandi, and in her normal form is anything but little—but a quirk in her micronization process means that, when she shrinks down to human size, she looks like a little girl.
• Hinako Ninomiya from Ranma ½ should be in her twenties at least, but a severe illness when she was four (and an unorthodox "treatment" from Happosai) has slowed her aging to the point where she has the body of a ten year-old girl. She can only regain her (extremely buxom) adult form by absorbing the Battle Aura of people and animals, but it goes away after a while.
• Liechtenstein from Axis Powers Hetalia.
  • Seconded later by the Principality of Wy.
• Murasaki in Kure-nai is a seven year old girl who is being body-guarded by the title character.
• Tsugumi in the first season of Hell Girl, and Kikuri thereafter.
• Minawa in Mahoromatic is borderline.
• Asami in Mezzo DSA. Being specialists in danger, the DSA don't actually encourage her to hang around, but they can't shake her.
• Ar from Iono the Fanatics, who also happens to be one of Iono's bodyguards.
• Grenadier has Mikan.
• Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ had Elpeo Puru,^[1] whose name was even a play on words based on the Lolicon magazine Lemon People.
• Lola and Laila from Venus Versus Virus.
• Ai from Aria, who very typically was introduced in the anime before the manga.
• Kokoro from School Days is Katsura Kotonoha's younger sister that hangs out with Kotonoha and Makoto, and is the only person in the show under a certain age. In the Summer Days spinoff, she's a viable option. This was considered too far.
• Shizuku from Omamori Himari—the only Mini Moe girl in the Harem. There are two others, but neither is actually a major character as of yet.
• Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto has Runa, who for some unexplained reason like to hang out in the salsa club owned by Yume's magic instructor.
• Lirio from El Cazador de la Bruja, who is also a Cute Mute.
• Tomoka in Girls Bravo.
• Asami-chan from Mahoraba.
• Lampshaded endlessly in Student Council's Discretion with Kurimu.
• Kamen no Maid Guy has Liz.
• Martian Successor Nadesico has one of anime's most beloved Deadpan Snarker characters as its Token Mini Moe, Ruri Hoshino.
• Viola from Kiddy Grade, who pilots her battle spaceship while hugging a plushie.
• Wendy from Fairy Tail, and it's almost Lampshaded when she's included in Fan Service covers that only otherwise use Fairy Tail members. Then she joins them, and those covers turn into spoileriffic foreshadowing.
• May Chang from Fullmetal Alchemist.
• Dia from Kiddy Girl-AND, with the added twist that she regularly kisses the main characters. Okay, it's mainly to turbo-charge their powers and it's treated more as something between sisters, but she seems to enjoy it very much.
• Minamo from Sketchbook, who only appears in the anime version as Daichi's little sister.
• Miyako from Melty Blood. At first glance, she doesn't appear to even be wearing pants. (Though she really is wearing very short cut-off jeans.) The other little girl in the cast, Len, actually has plot relevance. Miyako on the other hand seems to have been added to fill out a quota.
• The Third the Girl With The Blue Eye: Millie
• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Rossiu lampshades this about Nia in the manga, before the timeskip.
  • "Does this mean..... that in this day and age, flat-chested lolitas tend to be more universally popular among the consumers?"
• Road Kamelot from D.Gray-man is this to the Noah Family.
• Patty Lowell from Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.
• Chibiusa Tsukino, A.K.A. Sailor Chibi-Moon and Hotaru Tomoe, A.K.A. Sailor Saturn in Sailor Moon. The former spends most of her first arc being chased by the bad guys only to be Mind Raped by the arc's Big Bad and turned into an evil adult version of herself; in the manga version she also qualifies for Older Than They Look. The latter spends most of her initial arc as a carrying case for the Big Bad's final lieutenant, who in the end bodyjack's her to fight the heroes until Hotaru herself destroys the Eldritch Abomination from within, then winds up turned back into a baby as a result of using her most powerful move against aforementioned Big Bad in order to destroy him.
  • In the Stars season Hotaru's age seems somewhere between baby and teen (due to rapid aging at the start). There's also ChibiChibi.
• Although she rarely appears in the show itself, Kyon's Little Sister from Suzumiya Haruhi is treated like that in some of its advertising. More notably in that picture.
• Rumy from Gall Force. It's a little disconcerting to see her wielding firearms.
• Yuma is this for Oriko Magica, and, by extension, Madoka Magica. Maybe Kazumi Magica as well, though that one is more seperate.
• Alice from Kamisama no Memochou.
• Ouran High School Host Club: Honey is a little cutie who looks about six and plays up his childishness and cuteness to appeal to the patrons of the titular Host Club. In fact, he's 18 and a senior, older than most of the rest of the gang.
• Nymph and Chaos from Sora no Otoshimono fits the role quite nicely, however the latter is a little special case.
• Kid Appeal Character and/or Bratty Half-Pint Mint Labule/Annie LaBelle from Genesis Climber Mospeada is thirteen (making her the youngest member of the main cast to begin with) and looks half that.
• Katyusha from Girls und Panzer looks and in a number of ways acts as if she's somewhere around 10 to 12, but she's attending high school and it's never said or even implied that she's anything but a very petite mid-to-late teenager.

Video Games

• The observational Realians and Kirschwassers in Xenosaga, which like Divergence Eve, are androids that look like little girls (with MOMO being the actual Token Mini Moe since she's a regular castmember).
• Iris from Sakura Taisen.
  • Not to mention Coquelicot in the third and fourth games and Rikaritta/Rosarita in the fifth.
• Carol in Wild ARMs 5.
• Shinatama, the Simulated Living Doll (Almost-human Android) from Oni, as a rare Western video game example. An heavily anime-inspired Western example, though.
• Sakura in Da Capo. She's really the same age as the main character, though.
• Momo from Project Justice. She's well aware of her size and uses it to get under the skin of her Huge Schoolgirl classmate Natsu for the affections of Shoma.
• The Tales (series) seems to love these things a bit too much, in both male and female versions.
  • Suzu, Tales of Phantasia
  • Chelsea, Tales of Destiny
  • Chat, Tales of Eternia
  • Presea, Tales of Symphonia (which also had male version Genis)
  • Male version: Mao "Tales of Rebirth"
  • Harriet, Tales of Legendia (she is not playable, but is a major character, and fits the bill)
  • Anise, alongside a male version, Ion, Tales of the Abyss, and her PsychoRanger counterpart Arietta the Wild. Arietta's teammate Sync might also qualify as a male version, especially when he has his mask off, since he's a clone of Ion.
  • Hermana, who gets ToyShipped with Chien, Tales of Innocence
  • Beryl, Tales of Hearts
  • Karol (male version), as well as Gauche and Droite, Tales of Vesperia. And with the Play Station 3 port, the player-character Pirate Patty Fleur.
  • Sophie, Tales of Graces. Also, though not playable, Lambda count as a male version.
  • Elise, Tales of Xillia
• Similarly, the Star Ocean games (the second also has a male version) have one as well: Perisie in the first, Precis in the second, and Peppita in the third (amusingly, their names all begin with the letter P).
  • The remakes add Erys to the original Star Ocean, and Welch to both the original and second. Officially, Erys and Perisie are 17 and 16 respectively, but don't really look it.
  • Star Ocean: The Last Hope proudly continues the token mini moe tradition with Lymle Lemuri Phi, who is actually around 15, but appears and generally acts about 6. Lymle's actual age is only mentioned in the manual and in-game dictionary, and why she looks so young only in the latter.. If you haven't happened to read that, the UST between her and Faize looks a hell of a lot creepier.
• Kooh from Pangya. She's a ten-year-old captain of a pirate ship.
• May from Guilty Gear, also the (junior) captain of a pirate ship, with a crew comprised of almost all girls to boot.
  • But not Bridget, of course.
• And another game from Arc System Works, BlazBlue, has Rachel Alucard. When Mori Toshimichi was asked in an interview about the designs of the characters in the game, his first comment on Rachel was "Well, every Japanese anime and/or game is required to have the obligatory gothic-loli character". And then there's Platinum the Trinity.
• Maria in the Castlevania series. For some reason, her chibi version has appeared far more often than the grown-up incarnation in Symphony of the Night.
• Carrie from the N64 Castlevania/Legacy of Darkness games.
• Mii in Popotan.
• In Luminous Arc (for DS), we've got Mel, the precocious little Witch girl (she's a Water-elemental character). NPC versions are Alice and Therese... I think.
  • In Luminous Arc 2 (also for DS), there's Pop (full name: Potpourri), who fills in for Mel. She's a bratty Nature-elemental Witch, who has a love of crab. Her twin brother, Pip (a.k.a. Phillip) joins the party earlier, as the Token Shota. Remember Alice and Therese from the first game? They join your party in this one, and they make adorable comments (such as "You're gonna be a pie!" or "You're going to be toast with butter!").
  • Luminous Arc 3 got Sara.
• Misha in Ar tonelico. At least at first. Cocona fills this role in the second game.
• Saki from The Oneechanbara series. She's the little sister implicit in the title (it roughly translates to "The Big Sister Swordsman"). She's 16, but—like some real-life Asian teens—has a more childlike appearance. She's also the first of the series' Big Bads, before pulling a Heel Face Turn.
• In Shin Megami Tensei series.
  • Maiko is the female Token Mini Moe Social Link in Persona 3. Ken Amada is the male version.
  • Persona 4 has Nanako Dojima. Also Ayane, one of the two choices for the Sun social link. She might be a better example given the player can eventually date and sleep with her
  • Among the demons, there is Alice the recurring Cute Ghost Girl. Although she's mostly potrayed as Creepy Child rather than Moe. Another example is Moh Shuvuu, who even has minor character with Lolicon crush on her and try to justified it with Really Seven Hundred Years Old trope.
• The Witch mercenary in Atlantica Online.
• Luste Teuber and Schwer-Muta Casasola Merkle in Rosenkreuzstilette. Luste wears very little and worries about even less. Schwer-Muta wears a full-body catsuit and does double duty as the resident Creepy Child.
• Various Original Generation characters from the Super Robot Wars series. Classic timeline has Presia Zenosakis and Mio Sasuga. Alpha timeline has Irui Guneden. While Compact 2 is lacking of Mini Moe characers, Impact added Einst Alfimi. Original Generation timeline has Princess Shine Hausen, Latooni Subota and Shoko Azuma (Mai Koyabayashi is sometimes counted, but she's actually sixteen (just really petite).); its spin-off Endless Frontier also has Kyon Feulion. A stand-alone titles Super Robot Wars W has Mihiro Ardygun and R has Tiz and Despinis (no Laria is not). Most of them can be consider as Little Miss Badass, for they're pilots of Humongous Mecha.
• Sailor outfit-sporting Sherry Birkin in, of all things, Resident Evil.
• Aruruw in Utawarerumono. One of only three girls not to be sexualized in the game, and also one of only two who doesn't love the lead. Romantically, anyway. Yeah.
• Dear lord, Ernula from Wartech: Senko No Ronde. She acts in an exaggerated, hyper-Moe "childish" manner, her mecha actually has bunnies painted on it, and her costumes are split between Moe appeal and full-out Lolicon Fetish Fuel.
• Ojou, the final heroine in Suika looks to be about ten years old. She's also incredibly naive.
• Fire Emblem is another series that's chock full of them, usually with at least one regular young girl per game and sometimes a Really Seven Hundred Years Old Cute Monster Girl as well. So far:
  • Maria and Est from The Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light, Mystery of the Emblem, and Shadow Dragon, joined by Norne in the last. Also Chiki/Tiki, for the Cute Monster Girl.
  • Tina in Thracia 776.
  • Sword of Seals has Cute Monster Girl Fa, as well as shotas Ray and Lugh.
  • Nino in Blazing Blade.
  • Myrrh (another ancient dragon in little human girl form) in Sacred Stones.
  • Mist in Path of Radiance (along with a few more male versions in Rolf, Sothe, and Tormod).
  • Nono in Fire Emblem: Awakening. She's yet another dragon with the appearance of a pre-teen girl. She's also a valid marriage candidate for almost all of the male characters.
• Lilith from Darkstalkers. Younger version of Morrigan and still full of Fetish Fuel.
• Infinite Space has the Garner twins, who are Valley Girl Idol Singers, who are some of the most useful crew members you can get.
• Most Square Enix / Final Fantasy games (and some related Squaresoft games) have one Token Mini Moe, although they've aged up in recent games. In chronological order:
  • Final Fantasy IV: Rydia and Porom
  • Final Fantasy V: Krile
  • Final Fantasy VI: Relm
  • Bahamut Lagoon: Melodia
  • Final Fantasy VII: Yuffie (a young teenager, but Pettanko enough to count)
  • Final Fantasy VIII: Selphie (compare Yuffie, and energetic to boot)
  • Final Fantasy IX: Eiko (back to form: she's 6)
  • Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII averted the trope: Both Rikku and Penelo fit the character type, but they're definitely too old and mature to count.
    • Actually Rikku is two years younger than both Yuffie and Selphie, but you wouldn't think so from playing the games.
  • Final Fantasy XIII: Vanille could look like one and might act like one, but she's physically 19. 519, counting the time spent as a crystal.
• Mitsumete Knight has the (at the start of the game) 12-year old Laury Callwell as the Token Mini Moe and youngest character in the whole cast, girls and boys included. And considering this game's setting is a Crap Saccharine World, she's stalked by a creepy Lolicon foreigner who eventually kidnaps her, and, if the player doesn't save her, kills her by strangulation.
• Annie from League of Legends, 'thou she's less cute and more crazy.
• Hagino in Canvas 2.
• Himi in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, nonromantically.
• Touhou has a few. Not nearly as many as the memes would have you think, particularly considering the size of the rest of the cast. It should be mentioned all of them are Really Seven Hundred Years Old... though some of them don't act like it.
  • Rumia, Cirno, Remilia, and Flandre in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Yeah, this the game that got Touhou its reputation as being loli-heavy.
  • Chen in Perfect Cherry Blossom.
  • Suika in Immaterial and Missing Power.
  • Tewi in Imperishable Night, who more than once is regulated to dwarf sized in fan art.
  • Arguably, Shikieiki in Phantasmagoria of Flower View.
  • Suwako in Mountain of Faith.
  • Kisume in Subterranenean Animism.
  • Nazrin in Undefined Fantastic Object.
  • Kyouko in Ten Desires.
  • ZUN's art style tends to make everyone look a bit young, though, which is another source of its reputation.
• The Disgaea series has Hanako and Yukimaru (the latter happens to be 20 years old with a much younger appearance) in the second game, Raspberyl in the third, and Desco in the fourth.
• Luna from Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility embodies this trope well. Despite being old enough to be considered an eligible bachelorette, her diminuitive stature when compared to other adult characters in the game, extremely youthful appearance, and love of plushies makes her seem half her actual age.
  • Similarly, Dirk is the token shota in Grand Bazaar, being a bachelor despite looking like he should be in middle school at the highest. Interestingly, he was easily the most popular bachelor of that game.
• Lina from Riviera: The Promised Land is the youngest looking of the team, and also the resident Genki Girl and Bratty Half-Pint. Despite appearances, she claims to be older than her best friend, the Only Sane Man in the party.
• Rhyme from The World Ends With You

Visual Novels

• Michiru from AIR is a spirit, but still doesn't have her own route in the Visual Novel, probably for squick reasons.
• Fuuko in Clannad is the Token Mini Moe astral projection who has her own route. While there is another little girl in the cast (Sunohara Mei) she isn't part of the main cast.
• Angie in Shikkoku no Sharnoth should be about 20 or so, but looks and acts like a little girl.
• Ilya in Fate Stay Night. She doesn't get her own path even though it is that kind of game, (it was cut out before the game was released, though some of its backstory was eventually adapted into Fate/Zero) and she's revealed to be slightly older than Shirou. One Tiger Dojo has Ilya mention those bad end HCGs where she rapes Shirou were also left on the cutting room floor due to time constraints.
• In ONE: To The Radiant Season Shiina fills this role.
• Len, from the Tsukihime sequel Kagetsu Tohya. Unlike Ilya though, Len does get her own HCGs. Despite her young form she's actually a Really 700 Years Old succubus.
• In Umineko no Naku Koro ni, we have nine-year-old Maria Ushiromiya. Thing is, the younger member here is very creepy (to hilarious extremes, sometimes).
• Primula from SHUFFLE!.
• Suzushiro in the Ero-game Princess Waltz is the same age as the main character, but her height and build let her fill out this position, so to speak.
• Of course, there's Mint from Galaxy Angel, who is supposed to be a teen but looks younger than ten. She does have her own route in the game, but it's not that kind of game.
• Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro na, with a route for the Really Seven Hundred Years Old alien Wreathlit and the "she's fourteen, and not your blood sister, honest!" Mai.
• Gakuen Heaven": Biology teacher Satoshi Umino, who looks and acts cute and childlike despite being the oldest member of the main cast.
• Katawa Shoujo features high school aged characters in the main cast, so the closest to this trope is Shizune's little brother Hideaki. Though Hisao does mistake him for a girl for his girlish looks and wardrobe.
  • Emi had a much younger appearance before some art updates, making her the Token Mini Moe of the main cast.
• Kokoro from School Days. She doesn't get a route in the original game, but does have it in the Summer Days "sequel"... including two (very rape-like) sex scenes. The Japanese media was NOT amused.
• Mana in Sharin no Kuni, where she acts as a Morality Pet for Sachi.
• Coco in Ever 17 is 15 years old (technically 32 in the True End), looks 10, and acts 5. Most of the time, at least.
• Hisui from Jewel Knights Crusaders. She's stated to be 18, but neither her looks nor behaviour support that.
• Tsuzura from Akai Ito, she looks like a little boy and generally acts like a little boy, but she's actually the most experienced (human) member of the cast.

Webcomics

• Jacquline from Samurai Princess is so much of a mini moe, the site named a the Jacquline themed skin off of this fact.

1. ↑ now officially translated as Elpeo Pull