Coming-of-age is a big theme in not just anime, but many forms of storytelling. However, the unique thing that can be done with anime, since it isn’t utilizing living actors, is that you can physically see a character grow up as the series goes on. Sometimes a series goes on long enough that it is a natural progression, sometimes a quick and tidy time skip is employed to skip to more interesting parts of their overall story. Regardless, if you are looking to watch characters grow from children to adults with all that entails, check out these anime recommendations.
Best Anime Where The Characters Grow Up
Naruto
In shounen anime, growing up is often a pretty big theme, but while growing in power is shown well, physical age often is not. Naruto is quite different. You really get the sense of characters aging as the series goes on. It helps that it gives a tidy little time skip to make everyone older, but it even goes so far as to have a spin-off series following the children of what become beloved adult characters.
Major
Although it languishes in the world of sports anime, a genre many fans shun, Major is actually a really interesting beast. It is a generational baseball show that follows a kid who admires his pro baseball player father, and follows his journey through the sport from little league to the majors. It even goes on to follow his own son in the newest series. There isn’t a single series that better follows a character growing up than this bad boy.
From the New World
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. One of the most charming things about From the New World is watching the characters grow up because as they grow up, your view of the world as the audience expands as well. You very much see the world as a child sees it when they are young, and by the time they are adults, you fully understand the terrible truths of their society.
Kemono no Souja Erin
Much in the same vein as From the New World, Kemono no Souja Erin presents a well-crafted world and explores that through the view of a girl growing up in it. Of course, this makes the more terrible realities hit a little bit harder, but it provides a great scope to gradually build out the world.
Dragon Ball Z
Throughout the entire Dragonball series, you watch Goku go from literal baby to grandfather. While there are myriad time skips in between, you actually are shown a fair bit of Goku’s life as well as the lives of those around them. The series really set the standard for showing you the life and power growth of shounen protagonists.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan
There is nothing in Gurren Lagaan that is done on a small scale. Everything from the battles to the character’s journey is done on the extreme. As such, you watch Simon go from child living in an underground village to a full grown adult in space. There are a lot of battles to get there, and even more ahead.
A Lull in the Sea
A Lull in the Sea is a rather notorious drama that is most well-known for its hefty, complicated love polygon. In this group of friends, everyone loves someone else and very rarely is it a person that loves them back. Due to a particular event, you will watch a great deal of them grow up, but also two characters remain the same age. This adds yet another layer of complexity to the relationships.
Towards the Terra
Imagine waking up on your birthday and discovering you are part of a whole different race, one powerful but notoriously riddled with disabilities. Towards the Terra, while older now, is a pretty emotional struggle as you watch a character explore their true identity and destiny. You watch a kid’s whole world expand as he grows up and eventually comes to embrace the reality of the situation he is in, growing to be a leader among his race.
Bakuman
This series has a rather small skip, since it only follows the characters from late middle school to high school. However, schooling is not actually the focus on the series. The focus of Bakuman is about making manga on the professional scene. Watching them advance and struggle is very much the same as watching a person grow physically.
Gundam Age
Gundam Age features a story much like any other Gundam – the story of a long, long war. However, it tells the tale of a century long-conflict through the scope of one family. You follow a kid starting from when he is just a teenager through adulthood. Eventually, the main character becomes his own child. It’s told in three arcs and, while not the best Gundam, gives a good scope of how an ongoing conflict shifts and changes.
Clannad
Why simply grow up with characters when you can also grow sad with them? Clannad and its sequel do something you don’t get a lot of in high school drama romance series – it follows the characters after they graduate. You watch the group split up and go do adult things like travel abroad, get jobs, and have kids. Of course, nothing in Clannad can remain happy for long, though.
Capeta
In very much the same vein as Major, in Capeta you watch a character develop a love for a sport – in this series, it is racing – then grow up pursuing that passion. While the anime only covers a small bit of physical growth, you still get that same sense of growth in terms of his character and his skill.
Eureka Seven
A major theme in Eureka Seven is the coming-of-age of the main character, though that is often overshadowed by the mecha action and various intrigues. You watch him grow as a person over the course of the main series, and ultimately grow up enough to have a son in Eureka AO. The amusing thing is Renton dislikes his father for, among other reasons, abandoning him, but he ultimately does the same thing to his own son.
Inuyasha
This is a stretch, perhaps. In the main series, Kagome technically grows into a high school graduate, and titular Inuyasha – half-demon that he is – doesn’t age too visibly. However, he does mature as a person over the long run. The reason I include it even though it is perhaps reaching is that, like Naruto or Eureka Seven, its sequel series does focus on the children of the main characters and shows many members of the original cast as older adults.
Attack on Titan
While not as detailed as some of the other series, Attack on Titan does fit the bill as well. The interesting thing is that you not only watch the characters grow older, but you watch them grow more jaded. After all, what is more quintessentially adult than growing darker as you find out the fundamental truths of the world and realize that everything you know was a lie?
Do you have more anime recommendations where you watch the main character grow up? Let fans know in the comments section below.
