The fifteen-year olds are usually not so farfetched as fifteen-year olds (except when it comes to having power fifteen year old pilots always beat the middle-aged pilots!). (Okay, I’m probably being a bit harsh on Renton, but Sora, at least, doesn’t really change.) It isn’t like Eureka seveN or Kingdom Hearts would change dramatically if their protagonists were declared ten-year olds instead of fourteen-year olds. Fourteen is a rebellious age - you go out and do things rather than throw fits, and you are more open to knowingly doing “bad things” rather than maintaining a wholehearted “goodness.” There is little fluctuation in either of those characters’ personalities to indicate that they have even a few of the traditional qualities of teenagers. In both cases, the target audience is the actual age of the characters (and older) rather than the acting age of the characters, so why are they aged down so much? Why does Renton throw so many temper tantrums? Why does Sora have such an untainted, innocent quality to him? I have difficulty imagining any real fourteen-year old boy acting as either of them do.
The fourteen-year olds bother me a lot more than the fifteen-year olds because they often seem much younger than they claim to be. I don’t remember changing so much in a year. Puberty is supposed to be an awkward time of gradual transition - things shouldn’t change so much in just a year. Meanwhile, Riku has rather some rather muscular arms and Ichigo is very angular. Their faces are round, their eyes are large, their limbs look fragile. The art depicting all of these characters is also very indicative - Sora, Kairi, and Renton are all drawn with much more child-like proportions (seriously, Sora looks like he’s maybe ten in the above picture). He is still naive to some extent, but more mature, quicker to act, slower to whine about things. He is naive, immature, and is easily confused by things I wouldn’t expect a fourteen-year old to be confused by. Sora and Kairi are innocent, completely good-hearted, and faithful to “the light.” Riku is insecure and jealous and “opens himself to darkness.” It’s true that it’s in Riku’s personality that his insecurities should leave him vulerable to negative influence, but why specify that he’s fifteen while his friends are fourteen? Why is that one year difference so significant? In Eureka seveN, Renton is fourteen. In the first game, Sora and Kairi are fourteen.
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