Is Frieren a "Loli-Babaa"? — Rethinking the Term and Its Boundaries

Note: #co-laborAItion is a collaborative series where Re:Context provides idea notes, AI drafts the prose, and both refine the article together.
Unlike #dAIa-log, which presents raw dialogue, #co-laborAItion produces an edited article shaped through shared authorship and experiment.

Notes on Terminology and Scope

This article examines the term “loli” as it has been used within Japanese anime and manga culture, focusing on its semantic structure and the boundaries of its usage.

In international contexts—particularly in the English-speaking world—this term is often understood in direct association with serious crimes and issues that are subject to strong ethical condemnation. The author is fully aware of the gravity of the ethical and social problems surrounding this background, as reflected in news coverage such as the Epstein case [1]. For this reason, the author is keenly conscious that the term should not be used lightly, nor treated as a casual joke or consumable “meme.”

Nevertheless, this article proceeds by carefully and narrowly examining how this term has been used within Japanese anime and manga culture. Here, “loli” refers primarily to fictional character representations, especially as a term describing design conventions and attributed traits. At the same time, it cannot be denied that, in tracing the formation and historical usage of the term, one is inevitably required to touch upon “Lolita” and related contexts. Such references are made only to the extent necessary for an accurate understanding of the term’s current usage. There is no intention whatsoever to downplay or dismiss the ethical and social problems associated with those backgrounds. The purpose of this article is not to re-evaluate or justify those contexts, but rather to examine how the term “loli” has been read and has functioned within Japanese character culture.

It should also be noted that this article is written through collaboration with AI (co-laborAItion), specifically using ChatGPT (GPT-5.2). By treating the ethical and safety constraints embedded in the AI as a reference framework, the article adopts as cautious an approach as possible regarding both terminology and the boundaries of description.

This article contains no intent to promote, encourage, or endorse any particular sexual preference. It is written solely as an exercise in cultural criticism and analysis of character representation.

1. Framing the Question: “Is Frieren a Loli-babaa?”

While talking about Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End with people I know, a question once came up in casual conversation.

Is Frieren a loli-babaa?

It was half a joke, the sort of remark that surfaces in informal talk.
And yet, on closer inspection, it turns out to be a question that is surprisingly hard to simply brush aside.
It is not merely that the phrase has a strong ring to it.
Rather, it seems to contain several different layers folded into a single utterance.

To begin with, there is the term loli [2].
Next, there is the term babaa [3].
And finally, there is the compound formed by combining the two: loli-babaa [4].

Taken seriously, the question “Is Frieren a loli-babaa?” appears to presuppose at least three distinct stages of understanding:

What does loli refer to?
In what sense is babaa being used?
And when these two are combined, what kind of word does the compound function as?

This article does not aim to decide whether this term should or should not be used.
Instead, it seeks to sort out, step by step, the premises required in order to even approach such a question—particularly how the terms loli, babaa, and loli-babaa have each been read and used.

Only after laying out those premises will we return to the original question.
Does Frieren really need to be read through that label?
And if so, under what conditions would such a reading make sense?

2. Where to Draw the Line on “Loli”: Age Boundaries and Attribute-Based Boundaries

Before considering the compound term “loli-baba(a),” it is first necessary to clarify the component “loli” itself.
This is because, within the context of Japanese anime and manga culture, the term does not appear to be operated according to a single, uniform criterion.

At least within the range that can be observed, usages of the term “loli” seem to overlap across two qualitatively different layers:

A layer in which chronological age itself functions as the primary criterion, and
A layer in which age is detached from judgment, and evaluation is instead based on representation—such as appearance or behavior.

2.1 “Loli” as a Term Not Fully Captured by Dictionaries

Here, it is worth pausing to consider the linguistic status of the term itself.

Although “loli” circulates widely in Japanese usage, its position as a dictionary-defined word appears somewhat unstable.

For example, even when searching for “loli” as a standalone entry on Kotobank, a major cross-dictionary portal in Japan, the meaning addressed in this article—namely, its use as a term for character representation within anime and manga contexts—does not clearly appear, at least at the time of writing [5].
This could be taken to suggest that “loli” functions less as a generally defined institutional term and more as a word shared within particular cultural contexts.

A similar structure can be observed in English-language dictionaries.
Major English dictionaries do not list “loli” itself as a headword, while “Lolita” is included. However, the definitions of “Lolita” tend to foreground sexual connotations rather than literary or cultural contexts [6–11].

What matters here is not to claim that “loli” is incorrect simply because it does not appear in dictionaries.
Rather, the harder a term is to pin down in dictionaries, the more one is left with the impression that its meaning has been adjusted through context, proximity, and shared sensibilities, operating largely at the level of linguistic feel rather than formal definition.

This very elusiveness at the dictionary level is not unrelated to a problem addressed later: namely, the tendency for the term “loli,” as used within Japanese character culture, to be subject to what might be described as a form of linguistic short-circuiting—being directly mapped onto preexisting English vocabulary, most notably “Lolita,” without sufficient attention to its culturally specific usage.

In that sense, the ambiguity of the term’s lexicographic status itself can be regarded as an important premise worth keeping in view.

2.2 “Prepubescent” as an External Reference Point

As seen above, “loli” appears to be a term whose meaning is operated within specific cultural contexts rather than fixed by strict dictionary definition.
Setting aside such cultural usage for a moment, it is useful to confirm an external reference point drawn from medicine and developmental psychology.

Generally, adolescence is defined as roughly ages 10–19 [12], and within diagnostic frameworks such as the DSM, it is common to treat ages 13 and below as “prepubescent” [13].

This classification is not a cultural label, but a descriptive division of developmental stages.
While individual variation is naturally assumed, it is worth noting that the distinction between pre- and post-pubescence is shared across multiple disciplines.

What is important here is that this division is not intended to directly determine whether something is “loli.”
Rather, it serves as a reference point when later considering where age ceases to function as a decisive criterion.

2.3 A Boundary Felt in Japan: “Elementary School / Middle School”

How, then, does the boundary appear to be drawn within Japanese anime and manga contexts?

Interestingly, rather than specific ages—such as 12 or 13—the distinction of “elementary school student versus middle school student” seems to function more intuitively as a judgment criterion.
It should be noted that this observation reflects a social sense perceived by someone living in Japan and engaging with Japanese anime and manga culture.

This distinction is both institutional and social. Within Japanese society, there appears to be a widely shared difference in image between:

Elementary school students: clearly treated as “children,” and
Middle school students: treated as individuals entering puberty and beginning to be seen as “growing.”

At least in part due to this distinction [14,15], a corresponding shift can be observed in how the term “loli” is applied:

Up to the elementary-school-equivalent range: chronological age itself tends to be used directly as a basis for labeling something as “loli.” If age is explicitly stated, additional conditions regarding appearance or behavior are often unnecessary.
From the middle-school-equivalent range onward: chronological age alone no longer determines whether something is read as “loli.” Instead, the focus shifts toward representational markers (attributes) such as body proportions, physique, facial design, clothing, speech patterns, and gestures.

In other words:

Up to elementary school, chronological age is likely to be read automatically as “loli,”
From middle school onward, “loli-ness” is read primarily through representation rather than age.

2.4 Why This Boundary Matters

This shift is not merely a matter of convenience.

When compared with the developmental distinction of “prepubescent,” it appears that the onset of puberty functions as a transition point from reading youth directly through age to reading it through representation.

This point is not unrelated to the issues addressed in the original novel Lolita [16], which also focused precisely on the peculiar position of the prepubescent stage.

Of course, the “loli” of Japanese anime and manga does not inherit the same problem setting as Lolita as a literary work.
However, the fact that a similar boundary is referenced—namely, where age-based judgment ends and another mode of reading begins—is difficult to ignore.

2.5 What Happens When Abbreviations Become Independent Words

At this point, it is helpful to step back slightly from the term “loli” itself and consider, more generally, how abbreviated forms behave when they become established as independent words in Japanese.

Abbreviations are not merely shortened expressions. Once they acquire sufficient frequency and contextual grounding, they may begin to function as words distinct from their originals.
In this process, the original term’s weight or normative force may recede, while everyday usability, intimacy, or symbolic convenience comes to the fore [17,18].

For example, when the medical term “influenza” comes to be referred to as “infuru” (インフル), some speakers seem to feel that its gravity or institutional resonance recedes, making it easier to handle in everyday conversation [19].
This shift may not be unrelated to changes in medical treatment or increasing public familiarity, but at the very least, it is plausible that the shortening of the word itself plays some role in altering the perceived distance of the term.

Internet language offers even clearer examples.
The expression “(笑)” (laugh) underwent successive abbreviation and symbolization—into “ワラ” (pronounced “wara”), and eventually “ｗ” or “w”—during which its function shifted from conveying semantic content to modulating conversational atmosphere. (Incidentally, “ワラ” was sometimes jokingly written with the kanji for straw, 藁.)
The symbol “ｗ” (or “w”) allows easy adjustment of intensity by repetition and has become a practical expressive marker [20–22].

On the other hand, expressions such as “スイーツ（笑）” (means “sweets (lol)”) demonstrate that abbreviated or symbolized forms do not always become lighter; in some cases, they acquire strong mocking or evaluative nuances over time [23–25]. Thus, rather than uniformly “lightening” meaning, it may be closer to the actual usage to think of abbreviations as redistributing which semantic components come to the foreground.

Even when an abbreviated form becomes established, the social or ethical implications carried by the original term do not disappear entirely.
They often recede into the background while alternative readings—such as intimacy, symbolism, or attribute-based interpretation—come forward.
This misalignment gives rise to the sense that “the same term is being understood differently.”

Seen in this light, it becomes easier to understand why the term “loli” appears to occupy a position distinct from “Lolita” or “lolicon.”

2.6 The Point at Which “Loli” Begins to Function as an Attribute Expression

Taking these general behaviors of abbreviations into account, what appears to occur from the middle-school–equivalent range onward is a shift in which “loli” is no longer operated primarily as an age term, but rather as a form of attribute expression—or, in the context of this discussion, what may be called an attribute term [26,27].

Here, “attribute” does not refer to numerical age within a character’s setting.
Instead, it points to a constellation of representational attributes: bodily proportions, modes of stylization, youthful speech patterns, or immature gestures—elements that, taken together, may be read as “loli-like” [28,29].

At this stage, “how a character is depicted” tends to take precedence over “how old the character is said to be.”
This helps explain why characters with identical stated ages may be labeled “loli” in some contexts and not in others.

Another point worth noting is that while “loli” is etymologically connected to terms such as “Lolita” and “lolicon,” there are contexts in which it does not appear to be received with the same normative or ethical weight as those terms [30].

As discussed earlier, abbreviation does more than shorten linguistic form; it can subtly redistribute emphasis, allowing certain connotations to recede while others come to the foreground.
In this sense, an abbreviated term may come to function as if it were a different word altogether.

At the level of lived perception, the shorter form “loli” often appears to foreground its role as a means of reading representational attributes, rather than fully activating the social and ethical implications associated with “Lolita” or “lolicon.”
(This does not, of course, imply that those background issues disappear.)

From this perspective, the issue is less whether “loli” is a “light” or “heavy” term, and more which semantic layer is foregrounded—whether it is operating as a term of norms and ethics, or as a term for reading representation.

Here it is useful to recall a distinction often noted in Japanese anime and manga discourse between “キャラクター” (character) and “キャラ” (chara) [31]:

キャラクター: read with narrative depth, encompassing personality, history, and relationships.
キャラ: read as a bundle of signs, including appearance, speech patterns, gestures, and role language.

This distinction is not claimed to be universally or rigidly applied.
However, the naturalness of expressions such as “ロリ体型” (loli-body-type), “ロリ属性” (loli-attributes), or “ロリキャラ” (loli-chara) suggests that “loli” frequently operates not as a descriptor of narrative personality, but as a label for representational attributes on the ‘キャラ’ side.

Seen in this light, it seems reasonable to understand “loli,” within Japanese anime and manga contexts, as a term that—while etymologically connected to heavier implications—operates across two overlapping layers:

a layer in which it functions as an age-related term, and
a layer in which it functions as a form of attribute expression (that is, vocabulary for reading representational attributes).

2.7 “Lolita” in a Different Context: On Confusion with Lolita Fashion

Thus far, “loli” has been examined primarily as vocabulary for reading character representation. However, it is also necessary to note that words sharing the same root are used in other domains (though not entirely unrelated).

For example, “Lolita fashion” (ロリータファッション／ロリィタ／ロリータ) is not a term referring to fictional character attributes, but one that developed within contexts of clothing, aesthetics, and self-expression [32].
Nevertheless, it has been pointed out that external perspectives often impose associations drawn from the novel Lolita onto this fashion, reinterpreting it through a sexualized lens [33].

The point here is not to adjudicate which interpretation is correct.
Rather, it is that conflating distinct domains of usage solely on the basis of shared linguistic roots can lead to misreadings.

This article does not aim to analyze Lolita fashion itself.
Here, the issue is noted only to caution that when terms cross domains, confusion and projection can occur. The focus therefore remains on how “loli” is read within Japanese character culture.

2.8 Slippage in International Contexts: On Linguistic Short-Circuiting and Secondary Risks to Expression Practices

The foregoing discussion has mapped how the term “loli” has been operated within Japanese anime and manga culture, particularly through its dual structure as an age-related term and what has here been described as an attribute term.

Once placed in an international context, however, the term may be read within a different coordinate system.
In English-speaking contexts in particular, where terms such as “child pornography” and “sexual exploitation of children” carry extremely heavy ethical and criminal weight, there is a sense in which the abbreviated form “loli” can be perceived as being directly linked to crime-related vocabulary, sometimes without sufficient explanation of its cultural usage as a representational term.

The issue here is not which interpretation is “correct.”
What matters is the failure of connection itself—where the same word may be treated as identical across different normative systems.

For example, some international treaties and policy documents are designed such that even images not involving real children may, under certain conditions, fall under the category of “child pornography.”
By contrast, Japanese legal interpretation has historically centered its scope on real or identifiable children, and imaginary or non-specific childlike character depictions (often referred to as “lolicon” expressions) have not been processed under the same framework—at least as reflected in legislative history and textual interpretation [34–36].

This misalignment in scope generates risk on two levels:

First, the risk of argumentative short-circuiting. This occurs when the term “loli” is processed purely as crime-related vocabulary, effectively bypassing any explanation of its function as a cultural or representational term, and allowing disparate domains—real child exploitation, fictional depiction, fashion culture—to be indiscriminately collapsed.
Second, the secondary risk to freedom of expression. Even when domestic deliberations approach regulation cautiously, international misreadings, online backlash, or the cross-border enforcement of platform policies, payment systems, and distribution rules may lead to excessive chilling effects on cultural criticism and creative activity.

This article does not seek to exploit such slippage to justify anything. Rather, its aim is to make the existence of these discrepancies explicit, and to clarify the conditions under which discussion might avoid collapse through short-circuiting or conflation.

Accordingly, throughout what follows, the term “loli” will continue to be used strictly as vocabulary for representation (design styles and attribute descriptions) within Japanese character culture, and will be analytically distinguished from terms that directly invoke real-world child exploitation or criminal conduct.

3. What the Term “Babaa” Is Doing

The next component to be examined in loli-babaa is the term babaa itself.
This, too, is a word that requires careful handling.

To state this plainly at the outset: in general Japanese usage, babaa is widely perceived as one of the rougher and more readily aggressive-sounding terms used to refer to an older woman. It is not a word that most speakers would consider appropriate for active use in everyday conversation, and this sense is likely shared by many.

That said, given that the compound loli-babaa is in fact in circulation, simply adopting a stance of “it is inappropriate, therefore we will not touch it” risks obscuring how the compound as a whole is actually constructing meaning.
Here, the concern is not endorsement, but rather to clarify what the word is doing as a word.

3.1 Basic Characteristics of the Term “Babaa”

Even at the level of dictionary-based description, babaa can be understood as a term that:

refers to an older woman, and
tends to carry a rough or disparaging nuance [37].

In Japanese internet slang, the phonetic rendering “BBA” is also sometimes used [38,39].
While this is, in form, merely an abbreviation, there are records in broadcasting ethics contexts where it has been explicitly mentioned as an unpleasant or offensive expression [40].

These points suggest that babaa functions not only by virtue of its referential meaning (“an older woman”), but also as a term that readily acquires strong evaluative force depending on how it is used.

3.2 How Is It Different from “Obasan” or “Obaasan”?

Attempting to explain why babaa sounds rude almost inevitably leads to a comparison with terms such as obasan (“aunt / middle-aged woman”) or obaasan (“grandmother / elderly woman”).

The key element here is the Japanese honorific system [41–44]:

Both obasan and obaasan include the suffix -san (さん).
This -san is often explained as a phonological variant derived from sama (様).

The presence of an honorific tends to make the term feel as though it maintains a certain distance or politeness.
Conversely, removing -san can be perceived not simply as closing distance, but as stripping away a layer of politeness altogether.

To be clear, this is not a claim about strict linguistic rules, but rather about felt usage as experienced by Japanese speakers.
Still, at least part of why babaa sounds harsher than obaasan seems unlikely to be unrelated to the absence of such an honorific.

As an aside, the explanation that -san derives from sama can be confirmed in dictionaries and etymological studies.
It is also well known that honorifics used for members of the imperial family are conventionally written in hiragana (さま), rather than with the kanji 様.
This practice is not explicitly codified in the Imperial Household Law, but is generally understood to have become established through accumulated usage in journalism and reporting [45–48].

Taken together, these observations may be taken to suggest that Japanese honorifics and word forms are shaped not solely by individual speaker intention, but through an interplay of institutional norms, convention, and media practice.

3.3 Even So: When “Babaa” Is Used Within “Loli-babaa”

From the discussion so far, it can be confirmed that babaa, when used on its own, is a term that warrants caution.

However, within the compound loli-babaa, it would be worth considering whether this component is functioning in exactly the same way as it does in isolation.

Ordinarily, babaa refers quite directly to an older woman and tends to operate by lowering evaluative regard toward a real-world referent.
Once combined with loli, however, its role as a straightforward indicator of real-world age becomes notably unstable.

An appearance coded as youthful, alongside speech or behavior coded as mature or aged.
When these two are simultaneously invoked, a reading that simply treats the term as an insult toward an actual elderly woman becomes difficult to sustain.

In this context, babaa appears less as a word pointing to a concrete real-world referent, and more as a sign indicating a sense of internal maturity or age-coded comportment.
Its function seems to shift.

This does not mean that the roughness of the term disappears entirely.
Still, within the compound loli-babaa, there is room to consider the possibility that babaa is operating in a position that differs from its use as a standalone term.
For now, approaching it with that degree of caution appears reasonable.

At this point, the respective properties of the two components—loli and babaa—can be provisionally set out.

In the next chapter, the focus will turn to what happens when these two elements are combined.
That is, how the term loli-babaa behaves as a compound, and what kind of reading it enables.

4. What Loli-babaa Is Doing: Its Behavior as a Compound Term

Up to this point, we have clarified the respective properties of the two components, loli and babaa, and how each tends to function when used on its own.

The next question to consider is how these elements appear to be read once they are combined.
In other words, how does the term loli-babaa behave as a compound?

4.1 At First Glance, the Term Appears to Contain a Contradiction

When the terms loli and babaa are placed side by side, they produce an immediate sense of dissonance.

Loli is readily read as indicating youthfulness, immaturity, and smallness.
Babaa is readily read as indicating age, maturity, and seniority.

When understood as age-related concepts, these two are difficult to sustain simultaneously.
In this sense, loli-babaa appears to be a term that contains contradictory elements within a single word.

From a rhetorical perspective, it would not be unreasonable to describe this structure as something like an oxymoron—an expression that juxtaposes opposing meanings [49–53].

What is important, however, is that this contradiction does not seem to result in the term being treated as meaningless.
Rather, it appears to function as a recognizable and intelligible pattern.

4.2 When Contradiction Itself Is Received as a “Type”

Within Japanese character culture, mismatches between appearance and inner state, setting and behavior, or age and bodily representation are not necessarily perceived as breakdowns.

On the contrary, such misalignments are sometimes deliberately designed as devices meant to be read.

Seen in this context, loli-babaa appears to function less as a term that resolves contradiction through explanation, and more as a label that directly points to the contradiction itself.

That is, it can be read as a term that collectively designates the state in which:

a youthful appearance (a loli-coded body),
and mature or aged speech, thought, or comportment (a babaa-coded sense of age), coexist simultaneously.

4.3 The Possibility That Meanings Are Being “Neutralized”

One particularly interesting point is that loli-babaa does not always appear to operate as a simple additive combination of its components.

Taken on its own, loli tends to foreground signs of youthfulness.
Taken on its own, babaa tends to foreground a negative evaluation of an older woman.

When the two are combined, however:

a literal age designation such as “young yet elderly” becomes difficult to sustain, and
a straightforward reading as an insult toward an older woman also becomes harder to apply as-is.

As a result, there are contexts in which both terms may be read as weakening their capacity to directly point to real-world referents.

What comes to the foreground instead appears to be the structure itself—namely, the misalignment between outward appearance and inner age or comportment.
At the very least, there seems to be a tendency for the term to be read in this way.

In this sense, loli-babaa may be understood not as a word whose meanings simply add together, but rather as one in which the referential force of each component partially cancels the other out, thereby bringing a different axis of interpretation into view.

This is not to suggest that the term has somehow become “safe.”
Rather, when considering how the word is formed and where its semantic center of gravity appears to shift, this seemingly “neutralizing” behavior would be worth keeping in view as an observable pattern.

4.4 Reading It as a Character Type

In the contexts of cultural anthropology and media studies, loli-babaa (sometimes rendered as “Lolita granny”) has been discussed as a character type [54].

In such accounts, the term is treated not as a label for real people, but as a design-oriented concept—one that concerns how particular elements are combined and made readable within fiction.

Appearance, setting, manner of speech, vocal tone: the term functions as vocabulary for reading these elements together.

From this perspective, it may be more natural to understand loli-babaa not as a word that fixes real age or personality, but as a shared sign for how a character is to be read.

4.5 Briefly Touching on Real-World Usage

It should be noted that the term is not used exclusively within fictional contexts.
There are also cases in which it is applied metaphorically and in highly limited contexts to real individuals.

For example, the voice actress Tomoko Kaneda is sometimes cited—carefully and within limited contexts—as an instance in which a performer whose chronological age and career might suggest one image is instead characterized, in fan discourse, by an exceptionally youthful appearance and voice quality, and is, in such discourse, occasionally discussed through this kind of labeling. Instances of such usage can sometimes be encountered in publicly available fan discussions.

What matters here is that this usage does not primarily function as an insult.
Rather, it appears in highly specific and context-sensitive situations, pointing to a perceived gap between youthful appearance and lived experience.

Such examples may cautiously be taken as supplementary evidence that the focus of interpretation lies less in the individual and more in a perceived misalignment or gap.

At this point, we can at least tentatively see that loli-babaa:

is not simply the sum of loli and babaa,
functions as a term that points to contradiction itself,
and may operate as a label for reading character representation.

With this in mind, it is finally time to return to the initial question.

So then—does Frieren fit this type?

5. So, Is Frieren a Loli-babaa?

Up to this point, we have unpacked the three terms loli, babaa, and loli-babaa step by step, organizing how each has been read and how it appears to function in usage.

At last, we can return to the original question.

Is Frieren a loli-babaa?

5.1 First, Does Frieren Fall Under “Loli”?

According to the criteria developed in this article, the first point to examine is whether Frieren can be read as loli.

As discussed earlier, intuitive judgments in Japanese anime and manga contexts can roughly be summarized as follows:

Up through the elementary-school range, perceived youthfulness is often read directly from chronological age.
From the middle-school range onward, judgments tend to rely less on age itself and more on representational markers such as appearance, bodily proportions, gestures, and manner of speech.

Which of these applies to Frieren?

Within the narrative setting, she is of course not an elementary-school-aged character.
Accordingly, whether she is read as loli would depend not on age, but on representational signs of youthfulness.

So how are Frieren’s appearance and behavior presented?

Her body proportions are not designed to emphasize extreme childishness.
Her gestures and mannerisms are not constructed around overt childlike innocence.
Her voice and speech patterns likewise do not strongly activate what might be called conventional “youthfulness markers.”

In other words, she does not appear to be designed in a way that actively invites a loli-coded reading.

At this point, the necessity of reading Frieren as loli already seems quite weak.

5.2 Next, Considering the “Babaa” Side

What, then, of the babaa component?

Frieren belongs to a long-lived race and has lived for an extraordinarily long span of time within the story world.
She possesses extensive experience and firsthand knowledge of historical events.
In this sense, readings such as “aged” or “long-lived” are certainly applicable.

However, an important distinction must be made here: whether this longevity is presented as a bodily or behavioral representation of old age.

Frieren does not bear visual markers of aging.
Nor does she behave as an overtly authoritative or domineering elder figure.
Although her knowledge and experience run deep, she is not constructed to assert them in ways that control or overshadow others.

Thus, even if she is “old” in terms of lifespan—particularly when measured against human standards—this does not strongly align with the bodily or pragmatic connotations typically carried by the term babaa.

5.3 Measuring Against the “Loli-babaa” Pattern

Here, it is useful to recall what the loli-babaa pattern itself entails.

As previously outlined, the term tends to refer to a structure in which:

Visual markers of youthfulness are strongly foregrounded,
While inner disposition or behavior is markedly aged or mature,
And the gap between these elements is itself designed to be read.

How does Frieren compare?

She is indeed long-lived, and her sense of time differs from that of humans.
However, this maturity is not presented in sharp contrast to an overtly youthful appearance.
Her outward design and her behavior maintain a certain consistency.

At least as far as representation is concerned, she does not appear to be constructed by colliding “youth” and “old age” to produce an oxymoronic bodily effect.

5.4 A Brief Comparison: Serie

For contrast, it is helpful to briefly mention Serie, another character within the same work.

Serie appears to exhibit:

Visual markers that can be read as distinctly youthful,
Coupled with behavior that is extremely mature, authoritative, and even imposing.

This disjunction between appearance and inner disposition closely matches the structural pattern that has been described here as loli-babaa.

From the standpoint of fan vocabulary, it is therefore understandable why this label might be more readily applied in that case.

Seen in this light, Frieren’s position becomes clearer by comparison.

5.5 Then How Should Frieren Be Read?

Taking all of the above into account, there seems little need—at least at the level of representational reading—to label Frieren as loli-babaa.

Rather, the way she refers to herself in the narrative—as an “older sister”— appears to align more closely with her appearance, her interpersonal distance, and the overall tone of her behavior.

Neither age alone, nor gap-based juxtaposition, nor excessive symbolic coding seems to define her character. Frieren appears to be situated elsewhere.

Let us place an answer to the initial question here, provisionally.

Frieren does not need to be read as loli-babaa, at least not in the sense developed throughout this article.

And it is precisely this absence of such a reading that helps bring into view a broader structural tendency within Japanese character culture—namely, that it is often representation, rather than age itself, that is being read.