LaBrava is not and was never intended to be a “Loli”
Recently on TikTok people have been talking about Gentle Criminal and LaBrava. Specifically about LaBrava’s height and personality and as a day one Gentle and LaBrava lover I have to defend them.
The main argument for people claiming LB is a child or at least a loli is because of her height. Which is fucked up and stupid.
Yes, she’s short. She’s 3’7. Gentle has to literally get on his knees to make equal eye contact with her
But a gentle is also quite tall. He’s 5’11. Only a few inches away from six feet. His height exaggerates how short LB is.
Lots of people have claimed it’s canon that LB has dwarfism and while I LOVE that as a headcanon, I can’t find proof that it’s canon other than Google AI Overview which we know has major flaws and always spits out inaccurate slop.
We have a lot of solid and CANON evidence that LB is fully an adult.
1. Her character page literally says she’s 21.
2. When she was arrested, they made no mention that she was underage and they needed to find her parents. They treated her as an adult, because she is one.
3. We’ve SEEN what she looked like as a literal child.
This is during her flashback where her middle school crush is making fun of her. She looks INCREDIBLY different than when she’s with Gentle.
Notice how much younger she looks? Her chest is also flat.
Now compare this to her current appearance.
Despite still being youthful as a young adult, she clearly looks older. Also notice how developed and full her chest is. The corset helps exaggerate it and I theorize that she wears it to EMPHASIZE her chest because I’m sure she’s been mistaken as a child many times and is tired of it.
You can’t even argue that “yeah of course she wouldn’t have a big chest in middle school. She’s a child.” But we see Mina and Tsu in middle school. They have visible chests. LB was going through puberty just like all the other girls but because of her height (and possible dwarfism if it’s canon) it just took longer. Plus, some folks are late bloomers.
Not to mention, Horikoshi has a very distinct way of drawing young children that it’s impossible to assume they’re adults, or even teens like the students.
They all look extremely youthful. If you didn’t tell me Eri was a child I would still be able to tell she is one.
Also, MHA isn’t the type of story to add a loli. That’s never been a focus and it’s never even really been joked about. The closest we’ve gotten is when Mineta said Eri would “be a looker” when she’s older. But that’s a pretty standard thing to say to a child. Many irl people say children will grow up to be pretty and don’t mean it in a weird way. It makes no sense for Horikoshi to randomly throw in a character meant to be underage and have her be in love with a grown man. If anything, Mineta could be argued to be a shota (male opposite of a loli…not Aizawa lol) But that’s a whole other post.
Another argument I’ve seen people make is that she acts like a child and dresses childish.
But people like to conveniently forget that quirks effect a users personality. Her quirk is Love. The deeper she loves someone, the more powerful they become. And if it’s reciprocated, it’s even more powerful. It’s clear her quirk causes her to fall in love easily and DEEPLY. And so of course she acts like a young girl in love. She IS one. 21 is still young. Coming from a 24 year old which is also still young lmao.
Plus, we see her personality when she first meets Gentle by showing up to his house. She’s very respectful and subdued and mature and only allows herself to be fully comfortable around Gentle when he shows that he respects her and sees her as an equal. Gentle makes her feel safe and loved. So of course she allows her true personality to shine with him.
Her personal style just also happens to be cute. It’s a classic Lolita style. And no, Lolita style has NOTHING to do with lolis. I’ll get more into that later. You can get that her casual clothes has frills and is very feminine and flattering of her curves.
Again, putting emphasis on her chest. None of the young children in MHA dress this way. Not even the UA students. Hagakure shares a similar style but we’ve still never seen her in something like this.
Just because she likes to wear cute clothing and frills and bows and wear her hair in twin tails doesn’t mean she’s a child. Adults are ALLOWED to like cute things and fashion and have a cute personality.
Furthermore, we later see her as a company president for her and Gentle’s company GeL. Inc. What fucking child is president of a whole company? Also, look at this.
She’s dressed more professionally for a job that requires it but still keeps the cuteness factor. Also, RING!!! RING ON HER FINGER!!! ALONG WITH GENTLE!!! They are MARRIED!!!!
I don’t care how different society is in MHA. You can’t tell me that a grown man would be allowed to marry a CHILD.
Also, their age gap isn’t even that big. Gentle is canonically 32 when we first meet him. He just has white hair and his personality and manor of speaking makes him seem much older.
Now. What exactly IS a loli?
A loli is something that started with manga and anime and it describes an archetype of character.
A loli is a female character that is depicted as a child. Usually a small stature, childish features, high pitched voice, and more importantly…a FLAT chest. That’s always a big part of a lolis character design. They’re practically indistinguishable from other child characters from the same canon.
Sometimes a loli character is quite literally, a child. Some people call Eri a loli. And sometimes (more commonly) is a character that is actually an adult but with the appearance of a child. This is usually done by having the character look human but actual be a 300 year old demon or something. Kanna from Dragon Maid is the most popular example. She’s hundreds of years old but is still regarded as a child by fellow dragons but also humans because her human appearance is that if a child. She even attended elementary school and is friends with a human child. She is a classic “actually a lot older than you” loli.
There are SOME characters that are considered loli’s even in their own canon but are actually fully grown adults. But again, the whole point is that they look like a child and are hard to distinguish from actual child characters.
There’s a lot of debate on loli characters and the ethics of them but that’s not what this post is about, that’s a whole other can of worms that I don’t want to open rn cause I don’t give a shit.
The point of this is that LaBrava was never meant to be seen as a loli. That woman is a full grown adult that has always been depicted as an adult and looks nothing like the child characters of MHA.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk. I love LB and GC and will always defend them.
tangentwithtanner
vaporwave
prguitarman
pixelskylines
turnnoffyourmind
