Ask John: Is Family Becoming a More Prominent Theme in Anime?

Question:
Has there been a gradual trend toward anime with familial themes? I’ve been seeing many shows lately that prominently feature parents/guardians or highlight the struggle to define & maintain an (often unconventional) family. Usagi Drop is an overt example, but other series like Mawaru Penguindrum (esp. later episodes), Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, OreImo and Hanasaku Iroha seem to revolve around family issues as well. One could look a little further back to shows like Toradora and Clannad.

My stereotype of anime has always involved eerily non-existent parents — teenagers living alone for whatever convenient reason to exclude guardians from their idyllic anime worlds. I remember being shocked by Jubei-chan’s inclusion of a believable and compelling parental protagonist in a (1999) magical girl anime. Is anime with a greater family focus coming into prominence, or has it been around all along?

Answer:
Broadly speaking, anime focused on families or familial relationships have long been an anime staple. 1970s anime including Dame Oyaji, Jarinko Chie, Moeretsu Ataru, Tensai Bakabon, and Sazae-san all prominently revolve around family relationships. Family relationships within anime, however, receded into the background in the 80’s golden era. Possibly due to the OVA and home video boom, animators had free reign to indulge in both wildly fantastic anime and anime targeted specifically at young adult consumers. So anime accessible to children or families became less vital. Although 80’s anime like Musashi no Ken, Hai Step Jun, and Hotaru no Haka do illustrate strong familial ties, they’re rare exceptions in a decade of anime that didn’t emphasize family relationships. The focus on family returned full force in the 90s with anime series including Chibi Maruko-chan, Crayon Shin-chan, Mama wa Poyopoyosaurus ga Osuki, Aka-chan to Boku, Mama wa Shogaku Yonensei, and Ai no Wakakusa Yama Monogatari. The thematic focus of these anime has progressed into 2000’s anime titles including Nono-chan, Atashi’n chi, Mainichi Kaasan, and Fujilog, that compliment family-centric anime like Chikyu Bouei Kazoku and Kamisama Kazoku. However, 2000’s anime has introduced a new theme within the concept of family relationship anime. While the anime about families of the 70s and 90s largely illustrated typical conflicts and support roles between family members, contemporary anime has focused on constructing and defining family.

The emerging focus on creating and defining family may have roots in two different, concurrent circumstances. Many of the anime adaptations of today are based on works by creators that grew up during the 1980s. Coincidentally, many of the anime that these present day creators were exposed to during their childhood may not have prominently depicted families. Furthermore, in their real lives, many of today’s creators are now starting and raising their own children and families, so concerns about family ties may be prominent in their minds and surface in their creative works. A conscious focus on family raising is also more vital in Japan now than ever before. Japan’s population of elderly and young began to inverse in the 1980s and became startlingly worrisome in the mid-90s. An anime like 2004’s Final Approach, specifically about trying to reverse Japan’s declining birth rate, was practically inconceivable prior to the late 90s because the extinction of the Japanese family unit wasn’t a pressing threat prior to the 90s.

Strictly speaking, 80s anime including Ginga Hyoryu Vifam and Uchu Kazoku Carlvinson did implement a theme of defining family as psychological rather than heredity and genetic relationships, but the theme has become much more prevelant, and much more relevant to contemporary Japanese citizens, in contemporary anime. Shows including Jungle wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu (2001), Rizelmine (2002), Tsukuyomi -Moon Phase- (2004), Chocoto Sister (2006), and Seirei no Moribito (2007) revolve around the concept of adopting someone into a family unit. 2002’s Happy Lesson espouses the idea that family is defined by bonds rather than blood. Onegai Teacher (2002), Futari Ecchi (2002), and Okusama wa Joshikosei (2005) are about getting married and starting a family unit. Aishiteruze, Baby (2004) and the current Usagi Drop illustrate an older man becoming an surrogate father to a girl child. The upcoming Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai! revolves around a similar concept. 2006’s Binbou Shimai Monogatari was about struggling to keep a family together. This year’s Astalotte no Omocha and Baby Love had a prominent theme of reuniting a family.

Evidently, the nature and importance of family is conscious, or at least influential, in the minds of today’s animators, manga-ka, and Japanese creators. Family has long been a prominent concept in anime, but the way the family unit is being depicted and analyzed in contemporary anime is different from the way the concept has been approached previously. The explanation for the change may lie in the real-life circumstances of creators themselves and the pressing social awareness of the decline of the family unit within Japanese society. Fewer Japanese are getting married, and fewer Japanese are having children. So anime is beginning to notice and address this worrying trend.