One of the most fun tropes in anime is fora character to be much older than they look.A character who may look like they’re in their mid 20s can actually be hundreds, or even thousands of years old, creating an entirely new dynamic for the cast to deal with. Older characters that look young are usually the wisest, most powerful people around. They’ve lived long enough to learn a thing or two and usually aren’t too concerned with what’s going around them.
While some characters are fun in their youth, other characters remain young for more sinister reasons. Characters like Muzan Kibutsuji fromDemon Slayerdon’t stay alive to help people out. Instead, they’re sticking around to live the best lives possible, andthey don’t care who they need to sacrifice to achieve it.
10Milim Nava - That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
The Daughter of the World’s Creator Is Thousands of Years Old
Milim Nava is a breath of fresh air inThat Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.She’s a powerhouse of a Demon Lord, and she always has a smile on her face. As the daughter of Veldanava, the world’s creator, there aren’t many characters older than Milim, but nobody could tell by looking at her. She looks like a teenage girl, but she’s actually a few thousand years old. Her personality reflects her appearance more than it reflects her actual age, however, as Milim doesn’t take much seriously.
She doesn’t have to, as she’s one of thestrongest females in isekai anime. She’s so strong that she uses an entirely different type of magic inSlime.While other characters are focused on creating the most powerful spells with magicules possible,Milim is using Star magic to blow entire mountain ranges to smithereens.
9Alucard - Hellsing Ultimate
The Strongest Character in Hellsing
Alucard is a hilariously powerful character inHellsingand much older than his suave appearance puts on. He stands at a staggering 6' 6" tall and is well over 500 years old during the events ofHellsing: Ultimate.As the most powerful weapon available to Integra Hellsing, Alucard is the trump card of her entire organization. Alucard has a couple of different appearances/forms inHellsing,and none of them give the slightest indication that he’s hundreds of years old.
For most of the series, Alucard is in his Count form, where he looks like a normal, albeit fairly tall, man in his 30s. In his two other forms, either when he is imprisoned or when he goes to Level 1,he doesn’t look older than a man in his 20s.No matter what he looks like, he’s a cruel beast of a vampire who relishes a good battle more than most characters should.
8All For One - My Hero Academia
A Villain That Spans Generations
All For One is a villain who has been around for generations.He’s been around so long, the Quirk built to oppose him, All For One, is on its ninth wielder. All For One doesn’t care though, as he’ll be around for as long as it takes to get the Quirk he’s always been after. All For One has had a lot of different appearances inMy Hero Academia.He started the series hidden behind a large helmet, rarely showing his disfigured face. Even at his worst, nobody would have guessed that All For One was well over 300 years old.
10 Most Tragic My Hero Academia Backstories
Many of the My Hero Academia character’s backstories are beyond devastating, and these are ten of the series' most tragic origin stories.
Towards the end ofMy Hero Academia,All For One has a couple of different forms he appears in. He uses the Rewind drug on himself and gets progressively younger in an attempt to survive,never looking his real age.He first looked like a normal, older man before eventually looking like a teenager.
7Kars - JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
The Leader of the Pillar Men
Kars is one of the best villains inJoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.He’s the leader of the Pillar Men and the main antagonist of part two:Battle Tendency.He’s a vampire with insane muscles that would put most bodybuilders to shame. While he looks like a man in his early 30s,Kars is well over 100,000 years old.He’s immortal and only needs the Red Eye of Aja to conquer to sun, allowing him to fully enjoy his life and dominate the world.
15 Strongest JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Anime Characters
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is filled with some of the strongest anime characters ever, making fans wonder who is the most powerful among them?
Kars is one of the strongest and smartest characters any of the Joestars have had to face.As the Ultmate Lifeform, Kars has access to every lifeform on Earth’s DNA in his body, allowing him to transform into different animals whenever he wants. He can even transform his back into bird wings, allowing the Pillar Man to fly at astonishing speeds.
One of the Strongest Princesses of Zahad
Yuri Ha Zahad is one of the Princesses of Zahad and a High Ranker from the Ha family inTower of God.She’s one of the most popular characters in the seriesand one of the strongest too. While she looks like a normal girl in her early 20s, creator SIU revealed that she’s actually well over 500 years old in an online interview. Her attitude is much closer to her appearance than her real age as well, as she’s usually pretty impatient and just acts off of her desires.
I Figured Out Tower of God’s Localization Issue So You Don’t Have To
Tower of God is a manhwa adapted into an anime, creating a couple of localization problems for English sub enjoyers
While most of Yuri’s story hasn’t been revealed inTower of Godyet,she’s been an incredibly helpful character to Baam.When he first got to the Tower, he didn’t really know what was going on. He was tasked with defeating an incredibly powerful beast and didn’t really have any means of doing so. Thanks to Princess Yuri, Baam was given the Black March, defeating the monster and formally entering the Tower.
5Biscuit Krueger - Hunter x Hunter
Gon and Killua’s Trainer is Older Than She Looks
Biscuit Krueger is one of the funnier-looking characters inHunter x Hunter.She’s a small girl in the series, looking no older than 12 or 13 in her childlike dress.In reality, Bisky is in her late 50s, closer to retirement than middle school. In her true form, Bisky is a hulking mass of muscles at least three times bigger than the size she normally appears. In her muscular form, she can bat enemies away like flies and dominate the battlefield with hand-to-hand combat.
Biscuit Krueger is a huge help to Gon and Killuaduring the Greed Island Arc of the series. She teaches the boys a lot about both Nen and the island they find themselves on. Her Nen ability Cookie is the perfect ability for a teacher to have as well, as it can massage someone and reduce their fatigue significantly, allowing them to continue training right away.
4Van Hohenheim - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Immortality Isn’t Always as Good as It Seems
Van Hohenheim is a rare example of a character who didn’t like living forever.While most other characters seek out immortality and are willing to sacrifice anything for it, Hohenheim received his gift unknowingly. He didn’t know what the Homunculus known as “Father” had in mind before he sacrificed an entire country to gain a living body. While Hohenheim looks like a normal man either in his 30s or 40s, he’s actually well over 400 years old by the time the events of the story roll around.
Hohenheim’s main goal once he achieves immortality isto once again become mortal. He doesn’t like the fact that he won’t be able to die with the people he loves, and he wants to change that. Luckily, towards the end of the series, Hohenheim can end his immortality and be a normal man once again.
3Muzan Kibutsuji - Demon Slayer
Muzan’s Been Alive for at Least 1,000 Years
Muzan Kibutsuji is the most powerful demon in all ofDemon Slayer.He’s another character that has a couple of forms, but neither would give away the fact that he’s actually thousands of years old.Muzan has been alive for well over 1,000 years,so he knows how to blend into human society. Throughout the series, Muzan takes the form of an attractive woman, a small boy, and a man in his mid-20s. No matter what he looks like, however, he’s one of the most menacing and vicious characters in anime.
All the Hashira, plus Tanjiro, took on Muzan at once, and it still wasn’t enough.He took all the Demon Slayer Corps with him to his Infinity Castle where Muzan decided he’d end their battle once and for all. Muzan Kibutsuji is a mysterious villain who’s been the archnemesis of the Demon Slayers for over a thousand years, and in the Infinity Castle, it finally comes to an end.
2Majin Buu - Dragon Ball Z
Majin Buu Has Existed Since Time Immemorial
Majin Buu is one of the oldest characters in all ofDragon Ball.He’s been around since time immemorial,according to creator Akira Toriyama. Buu has a couple of appearances, but none of them look like he’s been around before the Earth itself. He has four main forms he’s seen in: Kid Buu, Super Buu, Evil Buu, and Good Buu. Kid Buu is his most natural state, where he looks like a small child. While his other forms make him look a bit older, they certainly don’t make him look millions of years old.
Majin Buu is one of the most dangerous characters in the series,and the creature responsible for one of thebiggest events of mass destruction in anime. When he was evil, he was a threat to everyone around him. Now that he’s docile, all he wants to do is hang out with his friend Hercule and eat sweet treats.
1Frieren -Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
The Mage of the Hero’s Party
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s Endtook the world by storm, and its main character is a big reason why. Frieren is one of the best protagonists of the last decade: she’s a great mother figure to Fern, a solid mage who can take anyone in battle, andone of the best anime elves around.While Frieren looks like she could be in her 20s, she’s actually over a thousand years old. Her calm demeanor and relative aloofness definitely give her the aura of a much older woman than she appears to be, however.
The premise behindFrierenis that Frieren herself wants to understand people better. As someone who lives for so long, it’s hard for Frieren to understand her more mortal companions. It’s a great premise that feels fresh the entire time, andFrieren herself is a big reason why the series is so excellent.
