| Because nippon is supportive of single moms everywhere and wants to raise awareness Jk I have no idea why |
 'On-Hold' is another way for a completionist to say 'Dropped' |
| Maybe the divorce rate in Japan is so high so they want to potray it Not sure how accurate this is. |
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| To build sympathy I guess, I mean a lot of anime with single-parent characters actually address it and we're spose to feel bad when they do which makes the character more "nuanced". Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. |
  Don't worry about being lame now, you were always lame anyway!  |
| To create drama and add more "depth" to make the MC interesting, I believe. Though these types of anime can be done well at times. |
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| Because in most anime MC is a teenager and the situations they find themselves in is usually not approved by any protective parent. So for plot convenience the parents are "removed". |
| Because, as parents are usually unimportant to the plot, then they don't have to think about two character designs, if I had to guess. |
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| Parents are normally added to make the protagonist life seems complete, even if it's just a single parent. Most of the time, it can add more 'taste' into the anime itself ( such as Anthem of the Heart ) which serves as a trigger to the plot development. Takagi, in Bakuman, as another example, doesn't live with his parents as well because of his dark past, which actually helps him to chase his dream as a mangaka with Mashiro. There are many possibilities to it, all of those are vague but most of them centers around the words ' to make the story better ' which either will increase the overall enjoyment, enchanting the sympathy element or to start/end the story. Yes, it also saves budget, I think. To answer your question, no, it's not purely coincidental, there's always a reason for it, depending on the genre and story of the anime, whatever the reason might be. The only thing that differentiate them might only be if the divorce is impactful enough to influence the story. |
faha said: Probably because they don't want to waste their budget in unnecessary characters There are other approaches to not having the parents appear. One that's pretty common is to have the child living in an apartment or condo away from their parents. My take on it is that having a deceased parent gives a character an element of having a tragic past. |
A møøse once bit my sister... |
| It maybe helpful for older adults to relate with the teenage character, assuming the adult also watches anime/reads manga. Vicariously feeling the loss of a parent varies from person to person and/or personal experiences. I don't expect a person who hasn't lost a parent to be able to relate well with such themes but idk for sure. |
| mcs need to have one/no parents to qualify as a mary sue |
AnimeFreak-San said: is this a male gender issure...human issue...mental illness perhaps? |
| its easier to draw out/script for one background character than 2 |
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| I have noticed this or sometimes the MC will still be in highschool and get he lives alone. I guess it is just easier to not have to write them into the story. |
| My guess is it's for the story. Or they don't want to spend their time animating the dad or mom. |
  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo So many anime, So little time! |
| To make the character stand out from the norm and be unconventional. Not necessarily in universe but in its correspondence to reality. And of course plot relevant reasons if there's any. |
| to evoke emotions I guess single parenting indicates hardships so yea and single parenting isn't common so having them would automatically portray the main characters as tougher individuals both mentally and socially(in asia, if people know you have single parents they would sympathsize with you and they would think you have a tougher childhood than others, and may be different from other kids); so in a way it embellishes characters with uniqueness and if you are talking about a certain genre of anime, I guess its self explanatory ( ͡o ͜ʖ ͡o) |
| Because anime/manga creators don’t like their parents |
| Very few Anime have actual in-depth reason for removing one or both parents. But a majority of them do it for an easy writing ploy to give the MC (who is usually a teenager) individualism so he isn't hindered by the likes of actual "parenting". |
MAYOISM said: this unfortunately.... and the lack of need of these chars having parents.... its rarely for plot, like gon freecs daddy issues.to evoke emotions I guess single parenting indicates hardships so yea and single parenting isn't common so having them would automatically portray the main characters as tougher individuals both mentally and socially(in asia, if people know you have single parents they would sympathsize with you and they would think you have a tougher childhood than others, and may be different from other kids); so in a way it embellishes characters with uniqueness and if you are talking about a certain genre of anime, I guess its self explanatory ( ͡o ͜ʖ ͡o) speaking of HXH, guesss who HAS a full family? killue. such a loving family yeh |
| To make things easier to the author... that also the reason why there are many animes without parents at all (at least not shown... but most of the time, they're just dead. And who cares is highschooler? -_-) |
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