Relationships and Age Differences

[ryuu_hime13]

His and Her Circumstances - wasn't Maho dating a 30 year old?

I remember in my Freshman year all these girls were bragging about the 20-something year old guys they were dating...can we say "pathetic?"

Of course, I shouldn't criticize since a good friend of mine won't date a guy unless he's 20+. But then, she's 17.

[Hikari88]

Personally i dont feel that age matters at all =/ but u do get alotta age differences in anime, maybe its considered normal there or something

[Arigatomina]

My mom was in her young teens, my dad in his middle-to-late thirties - that was 26 yrs ago and perfectly legal in Florida. I don't think US customs were much different when it comes to age gaps - at least not in the past (before the 'statutory rape' law was passed. And it's seen in most cultures for as long as people have been around - little girls reach maturity and are married out to the oldest fertile man available so he can have kids before it's too late for him. Natural selection - female breeders, get them as soon as they're 'of age.'

Current relationships in the US are more "same age group" oriented - but that's for the young people. When you get to be 30 you'll find that 10 years doesn't matter all that much. 20 years is a huge difference when you get to old age, but a 90yr old and an 80 yr old really don't look all that different, especially if it's someone you grew old with.

Anime relationships are an entirely different story. Let's talk about anime relationships where the couples almost *never* get old. Who cares if there's an age difference? Half of the people aren't going to age more than the few months the anime lasts through. It's fiction, they can do anything they want. And that's half the appeal of anime romances - they don't *have* to follow customs in real life, because it's not real.

[Karou_ken]

Okay, so...I was watching my Witch Hunter Robin DVDs and I was thinking 'Robin and Amon make a cute couple'. Then I remembered that she's 15 and he's 25. Anyway, then I remembered Ruruoni Kenshin and how Kenshin and Kaoru had a large age difference between them (or so I'm told). Then, of coruse, there's Cardcaptor Sakura and the relationship between one of Sakura's foruth grade friends and their teacher. I'm sorry, but that's kinda...wrong. Er, anyway...my point is, is this a popular thing in anime? The huge age differences between couples, I mean. Just curious.

Yes Kaoru is 18 and Kenshin 28. Thats a ten year gap.

[SarahtheBoring]

From what little I've read, it seems like it is less of a barrier in Japan, starting with the low age of consent and going on from there. There's a lot out there if you want to read up on that sort of thing, my guess is no though.

'Sides, you have to remember the target audience for most of this stuff.
Either 30-year-old otaku-in-the-original-sense who think 12-year-old girls are hot, or 14-year-old-boys who think 12-year-old girls are hot. They're just showing what people want to see.

[J-0080]

Natural selection - female breeders, get them as soon as they're 'of age.'

That sounds like it should be on a bumper sticker or something.

[sunandshadow]

It's perfectly traditional for English and American romance novels to have romances where the hero is 10 years older than the heroine, and the age spread between the actor and actress in modern romance movies is often greater. Folk wisdom in many countries holds that:
- A man shouldn't get married until he can economically support a wife and children
- A woman should be married when she's about 18 so as not to risk out-of-wedlock pregnancies or lose her period of strongest fertility and greatest attrativeness
- Men mature emotionally more slowly than women, and so an older man an younger woman are more equally matched that way

So when you add all that up, you get a traditional pattern of women in romances with older men.

[Arigatomina]

And never forget the 12yr old brides - married before they hit puberty so the husband has first rights to the children she can bear. That's history in most cultures from English to native Americans (though their form of 'marriage' was different, naturally). All it means is that women could rule the world at 15 while men have to be half dead to do it. ^_^

[ryuu_hime13]

My parents have always been very gung-ho "GO TO SCHOOL FIRST!" type people....

But it's amazing how many girls I know whose parents want them to get married and start having babies as soon as they're done with highschool. But then again, those are the annoying little rich girls who don't do crap in class because they're going to inherit daddy's business so their hubbies can run it. ::gags:: People like that make hispanic culture look like crap....

[Yukina_Raven]

Natural selection - female breeders, get them as soon as they're 'of age.'

That sounds like it should be on a bumper sticker or something.