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Azumanga-cast 6977

The red-haired one.

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

Cquote2


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.
  • 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[]


Visual Novels[]


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