Ask John: Why are so Many Anime Characters “Motherless?”

Question:
There are so many shows where the main character’s mother died while they were an infant/young child. Is there a reason for this?

Answer:
Naturally, at the most basic level, the loss of a parent makes a character sympathetic, but there may be more to this than the superficial answer. It could be said that, in a broad generalization, the Japanese mother represents the home while the Japanese father is a representation of the external. Traditionally the Japanese mother remains home to raise the family and take care of the home while the father is a salaryman who works long hours and is away from home often. While there are, of course, it may be possible to attribute these stereotypes to the construction of anime. Often times, series that feature a motherless protagonist have a protagonist that’s either emotionally conflicted because of the lack of parental guidance, or intrinsically connected to the home. On the contrary, it could be theorized that series which feature a fatherless hero focus on extroversion and a journey away from the home.

Shinji of Evangelion, Hameln of Violinist of Hameln, Tenchi of Tenchi Muyo, Ranma of Ranma Nibunnoichi and Kyosuke of Orange Road all live without their mother and suffer from an inability to make decisions or commitment. Shinji is afraid of everything. Tenchi, Kyosuke and Ranma can’t commit to a single woman, and Hameln can’t decide on his identity. In the cases of a female protagonist missing a mother, such as Sakura Kinomoto of Card Captor Sakura, Relena Peacecraft of Gundam W, and Nausicaa, these girls value and protect the peace of their home and country.

In the case of a character who’s missing a father, the focus of the show is often on the external or worldly. Gon of Hunter x Hunter leaves home to search for his father and Ukiya of Gatekeepers is home so little that his younger sister misses him. Yawara Inokuma of Yawara has an absent father and seeks to travel overseas (albeit somewhat unwillingly) to participate in the Olympics. Arjuna of Chikyu Shoujo Arjuna also has an absent father figure and focuses her attention on protecting and rescuing the world, but not necessarily her own home.

No better show illustrates the polarity between the missing mother and missing father than Kodomo no Omocha, which establishes both character types in opposition to each another. Sana Kurata has an ever present mother but no father. She obviously represents the external and extroverted through both her personality and her national celebrity status. Hayama is missing a mother and thus represents the exact opposite of Sana. Totally introverted, Hayama’s story is rooted in his home and his relationship to his sister and father.

These examples suggest that the decision to absent a parental figure, and which parent to remove, is not an arbitrary decision but often a calculated, subtle form of character and theme development.