You have to remember it’s a fantasy novel and takes place in medieval times. People are also considered “older” in those times. It’s just pretty common at this point in the story that an older woman falls for Bell (Aisha, Eina, Freya, Hestia, Ryuu, and etc). I can’t remember, someone can correct me on this, but I’m pretty sure Ais was offered alcohol at the age of 9 or 10 I think? But yeah, medieval times + fantasy novel, doesn’t really correlate with the times we live in or our own moral compasses.

@AbigailWilliams2020 Ais would have been between 7 & 8 because it was sometime after she joined Loki familia, but before she leveled up about a year later since she joined Loki familia.

I personally don't like the age gap myself and I would even prefer that Bell be older than 14 years old since it would be a non-issue then. Astrea familia jokingly gave Ryuu crap about it in the what-if (they did congratulate her though) and I do find it a bit weird given that Ryuu was maturing physically as a woman while Ais was still a kid with Ais being 2 years older than even Bell.

@Jtg1111111 The age thing was never really weird for me in Danmachi until the flashback with Ryuu and Ais fighting during Astrea record. Ryuu was almost this adult woman (she looked like how Ais looks now {physical development wise}) and Ais was this 8 year old runt (and she looked like that age too). So if you put it into that perspective, it would be like the current Ais trying to date a 6 year old Bell for Ryuu. Again, it’s just a fantasy novel + medieval times, but it’s definitely hard to not let your own moral compass/irl laws get in the way when you do see that in a series like this one. I kind of wish Bell was like 16 or 17 in the current timeline but I do understand why the author wanted him to be this particular age (especially connecting with Ais and the hero thing with her).

@AbigailWilliams2020 Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking of. I assumed that Ryuu didn't mature physically until later because she was an elf until I saw her in Astrea Record, which made the age thing more weird for me. Honestly it doesn't bother me that much, but it is a +1 in my book that Bell and Ais are close in age.

One thing that I really despise though is the Riveria x Bell stuff. The age being one of the prominent things there + all of the really bad implications of basically Bell getting together with Ais's surrogate mom. That is one ship that I think is, for lack of a better word, disgusting. I don't know if very many seriously ship Bell with Riveria, but I have seen enough fan art of it to make me think some people actually think that ship is realistic or appealing.

Our sense of morality cannot be projected in a world of fantasy, it simply will not work.

I hate to bring up a political topic in this but we are looking at this from a non-Japanese perspective. In Japan, up until recently, the age of consent was only 13. So, this was written by an author in a culture that until recently saw a pairing like this to be acceptable.

It is a matter of cultural differences that may have influenced the author to write it this way. Look at other sources of media that come from Japan and you start to see some worrisome things. Like characters that are supposedly 100's of years old looking like under-aged characters and being put in provocative situations.

I hate to bring up a political topic in this but we are looking at this from a non-Japanese perspective.

Not a question of looking at it from a non-japanese perspective or not, it's a question of looking at it with our modern standards or not, maturity and adulthood came much earlier in medieval times, in canon, majority was reached around 14 years old they were considered rational enough to consent to marriage, although legal majority was around 21 to deal with inheritance problems. You can also look at it further in cannon by what's still the norm in religion, Roman Church set the majority at 18, Islam is around 15 I think and in Judaism a boy is considered a man at 13.

In Japan, up until recently, the age of consent was only 13.

Both correct and incorrect, Federal age of consent was 13, most if not all prefectures had higher age of consent, and even with that 13 it only allowed consensual relations between two 13-14 years old.

What wasn't allowed was :

A -13yo having a relation with under 18 or under 20yo

-14 with someone under or over 20

-18 with someone under or over 20

Someone under or over 20 (but above 18) couldn't have a relation with someone under 18.

So, this was written by an author in a culture that until recently saw a pairing like this to be acceptable.

False, no matter the country there's bound to be weird people, the author did not lived in a culture that saw these pairings to be acceptable, otherwise the law wouldn't have been changed, there's many such cases but having a law written does not mean it is necessarily enforced and that people agree with it, legal age of consent in most European countries is 16 but even if it's legal (in certain situation if the oldest person does not hold any clear authority over the youngest one) a 20 years old going out with a 16 years old will be found shocking by most people and the 20yo will most likely be branded a pedo, usually these laws main reason for existing now is to protect couples with a one year difference that might have started going out when they were 15-16/16-17 and would be found illegal once one of them reached 18.

It is clear that Japan and some of its media has a huge problem with the oversexualization of women and especially younger looking ones, but as far as I know the vast majority of the people that enjoy this and are targeted by these medias are far from being accepted by society, they aren't celebrated, they are quite clearly despised by normal people.

@MrSuntastic You make some very good points. Thanks for the clarification.

@Jtg1111111 It's not weird at all that Ryu would be maturing while Ais was still a little kid. Ryu is five years older than Ais. She was 14 when Ais was 9. Girls typically enter puberty at what, 11-12?

The age gap is weird. Using "medieval fantasy" doesn't even account for it, because typically in medieval times 16 is considered the age of adulthood. That is, Bell is still a minor by medieval standards. And Ais would only just barely be considered a woman grown.

It's simply the tendency in Japanese media. 14 is/was the bare minimum age there, and so you'll find a lot of anime/manga/ln having the MC or the main love interest be that age because frankly that's as young as they can go while not being officially pedophiles.

Emilia in ReZero (mentally), Megumin in Konosuba, Bell here, the list goes on. I'm sure someone who's seen more of this stuff than me can add more examples.

TLDR Japan has issues.