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Why are there so many instances of younger female characters falling in love with older male adult characters? Is it a cultural thing?

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  • Can you give any examples?
    – kuwaly
    Aug 30, 2013 at 4:36
  • @kuwaly in Card Captor Sakura one of Sakura's classmates (that one that becomes possessed by The Sword) ends up being engaged to her teacher but it's never shown in the anime, only in the manga, that could be one
    – Memor-X
    Aug 30, 2013 at 4:37
  • darker than black: hei and yin
    – rtr
    Aug 30, 2013 at 4:38
  • @rtr i think their the same age actually infact i think she was a child before the False Stars appeared
    – Memor-X
    Aug 30, 2013 at 4:40
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    @JonLin Although there maybe some connections here and there, I don't think this link is directly related to the tropes that appear in certain anime (e.g., Zettai Karen Children)
    – кяαzєя
    Aug 30, 2013 at 14:15

1 Answer 1

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It is something that occurs everywhere and in all media. Just look at Lolita, which was published in 1955 and features a relationship as you describe it.

I think need to be a bit clearer in your definition of "younger female" and "older male" though. A 16 year old girl falling in love with a 18 year old boy would fit your criteria too.

I take it you mean something more along the line of CardCaptor Sakura's Yoshiyuki Terada and Rika Sasaki, where she is a primary school student and he her teacher?

Things like this actually happen in real life too. Though most people in that kind of situation wouldn't want their relationship to be know for legal and social reasons.

The difference between Japanese and American (as an example) media coverage of topics like this is that in Japan, as long as no real child is harmed it's a-okay (at least as far as I know), and if there were problems they could just as well say it's a 800 year old god just looking like a child. But in America a lot of people see it as catering to pedophiles and forbid it. Just look at all the interesting discussions about the freshly licensed and heavily censored "Monster Monpiece".

So even if it is an innocent relationship with no intimate contact it would be highly frowned upon in the US, while in Japan they'd just shrug their shoulders because no harm was done to anyone.

More generally speaking though: some people just like a more mature partner. Just look at Hugh Hefner and his girls (let's just all innocently assume they're not all after his money).

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  • I like the last point that you made. It was common practice in Western society for parents to encourage their daughters to marry a man at least ten years her senior, even if they didn't pick him out for her. She would be reaching child-bearing age and he should already be self-sufficient and potentially prepared to provide for a family. American culture and its effect globally has changed that.
    – Paul Rowe
    Apr 20, 2015 at 15:43

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