| I've been watching alot of anime recently and i've been running into a running theme. It might just be luck of the draw (i.e. random) but alot of these main and supporting characters have HORRIBLE parent's. I mean school rumble, Terra E, and now Major... all had a handfull of asshole parents. Eri Sawachika (School Rumble) - Father only visits every so often due to 'business abroad' Jomy Shin (Terra E) - after the adulthood exam Jomy's parents abandon him (don't spoil the rest morons) Toshiya Sato (Major) - his parent's abandoned him at 11. Weather it is their parent's incurred huge debts, or they gave up on their kids, or they give them up to their grandparents/relatives, or even just ignore them completely only to come home once or twice a year. Hell, even having both parent's die should be able to fit in this category. I'm sure Japanese parents are just as varied as any other country but it appears to me that most anime series tend to lean toward the bad parents formula for cheap empathy. ...and i must be stupid coz most of the time it works for me. |
  "What happens when we die?" I know that the ones who love us will miss us. |
| Come to think of it, I havent seen many an anime with GOOD parents at all. Well, that is to say, any good LIVING parents. Death Note is the only one I can think of where the character has living parents and they're actually present and benevolently involved in the story. Gankutsuo is somewhat the same way, but it's a lot more complicated than that. I suppose you're right, though, if parents are mentioned or present in the story at all, they're usually really lousy, often times even antagonists. |
| Well, just like everything else, nothing can be classified as totally bad or good. In Death Note for example, Light's dad and mum are shown. His dad is portrayed as someone with a strong sense of justice. |
| anime =/= real life. |
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| Do your parents act like the ones in your favorite sitcom? |
| This is a serious post. You're not allowed to delete it. |
| it's like that in American media too, there are tons of shows with awful parents |
| It doesn't think, it doesn't feel, it doesn't laugh or cry..... All it does from dusk till dawn is make the soldiers die. |
| in Kiss x Sis the parents encourage non-blood-related almost-incest.... but perhaps they're just very liberal. I'm expecting some kind of Fruedian postulating like maybe anime-obsessed kids with disapproving parents grow up to be anime-making producers/mangaka.... and they envision their characters to be the exciting parents they wish they had. Maybe that's partially true, but ridiculous abnormal characters are just more interesting, especially in a comedy series. Also, in a lot of this series the parents' incompetence are needed to support the series premise.... for example Hayate's parents in Hayate no Gotoku are used to explain many of his abilities and his need to repay a debt. In most of the ecchi or harem shows parents are conveniently on extended absences to leave their kids alone with the opposite sex. It's just a foil to allow other events to occur. |
 I am a banana. |
| This is a trope of fiction in general I believe. Bad parents is a common story element in young adult literature--an easy form of conflict. It's also fairly easy to relate to/understand for the teenage audience. On a similar note, there is a huge number of main characters in fiction that are orphans. It's not too realistic, but again, it's an easy form of conflict. Also keeps young main characters from being "tied down" so to speak. (eg How many good parents out there would seriously let their kid go out to save the world from a powerful empire, etc etc) There are a lot of anime with good parents, especially in kids' shows. Again, this relates more to audience. It gets a bit harder to find cruel/uncaring parents in shows and books geared to pre-teens. From what I understand, family structure is heavily emphasized in Japanese culture, so I don't believe cruel/uncaring parents will be as common as some television shows may imply. Similarly there aren't many families in America that act like the ones in prime time sitcoms... What a nightmare that would be if that were the norm. -_- |
| Parents aren't that bad when it comes to incest <_< |
CDRW said: Do your parents act like the ones in your favorite sitcom? that doesn't make any sense since you dont see any 'sitcoms' or many tv shows for that matter talking about how shitty their parents are or if they're missing from the picture... with the exception of those talk shows and news segments and when they do, its usually some joke or something. Hardly any of it is to create empathy |
| "What happens when we die?" I know that the ones who love us will miss us. |
| Nope, not really. Of course a parent's nationality doesn't determine their quality of parenting, but I do notice that Japanese parents and the majority of other Asian parents, pressure their kids to study a lot more than American parents. I have a Japanese friend and his parents are rather nice people. |
Ranivus said: I'm sure Japanese parents are just as varied as any other country but it appears to me that most anime series tend to lean toward the bad parents formula for cheap empathy. I believe you already answered your own question. If a plot has no conflict, it won't ignite the interest of the viewers. It just so happened that some anime used "bad parents" as an object of conflict. Sure, bad parents do exist in Japan in real life, but the same goes to the rest of the world. Generally, bad people exist in real life, be it parents, teachers, students, politicians, and whatnot. You don't need to watch a lot of anime/sitcoms/movies to know that. |
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| Its not as interesting if the parents are good. |
Score Criteria: |
| Who here thinks that Japan is some magical country where everyone is a damned good parent? Ranivus said: I'm sure Japanese parents are just as varied as any other country but it appears to me that most anime series tend to lean toward the bad parents formula for cheap empathy. Entertainment and Drama. |
| Click on this. I dare you. | MAL Fantasy Football League | Currently Watching List RWBY Club. RWBY is anime. Deal with it. |
| If there's a parent then they can't do ecchi things, right? ^^ (except kiss x sis) |
"Your taste is shit cause you like what I hate. Believe me I have 1000 cartoons that I rated with less than 5."  |
Cruel_Love said: Speaking of which, there is a fabulous example of a good parent! Gendo Ikari, anyone? I LOLed but yeah lots of times the reason the parents in anime are like is to act as a plot device of some kind, and there are a respectable amount of anime with decent parents too some of which have already been mentioned xD |
| I just think they should make more boring, every day parents and use other types of bad guys. Like co workers, bosses, peers, criminals, etc. Good example, Gunslinger Girl. |
| "What happens when we die?" I know that the ones who love us will miss us. |
| Usually all parents that belong to a story that has to have a certain ammount of tragedy or that has to have a specific prototype of character are bad. Anime =/= Reality |
 Waratte Oemashou Sore ha Chiisana Inori |
ladyxzeus said: Anime =/= Reality Unless it is based on a Reality TV show. Then we can be ASSURED that it is real! |
| Click on this. I dare you. | MAL Fantasy Football League | Currently Watching List RWBY Club. RWBY is anime. Deal with it. |
| Well, some series with parent's having major roles are from KEY. Clannad, Nagisa's parents have an extremely major role, and are great parents, and Tomoya's dad has a major role as well in his life. Kanon also had some parents involved as well. In Dance in the Vampire Bund, Akira's dad seems pretty cool, atleast in the manga he did, and his mom is cool as well. |
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| Yes life is like school rumble |
| It's not shocking though, seeing how most anime focus on kids, and if they had responsible parents, they wouldn't be piloting Gundams or fighting monsters, now would they? Since they are also mostly aimed at kids or teenagers, it likely wouldn't be cool enough if it featured realistic parents, which leaves the option of either killing them off early, sending them on business trips or otherwise shuffling them away somewhere, or making them lousy at what they do. And also, like OP says, for cheap empathy |
| The question is pretty dull. Parents are human, and everyone has different personalities and parents. Amway, in movies, manga and anime, they tend to remove parents, not introducing them at all, and if they already did, they usually make them with some complex (daughter complex, son complex), or they make them bad. Parents would be boring if they made them "normal", don't you agree? |
| The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of the ten thousand things. I do not recall, Jesus ever saying "build churches, temples, and kill those who doesn't follow christianity..." nor he said "christianity is religion". News for VN immigrants in EU: vietinfo.eu |
Brockemsockem said: Come to think of it, I havent seen many an anime with GOOD parents at all. Well, that is to say, any good LIVING parents. Death Note is the only one I can think of where the character has living parents and they're actually present and benevolently involved in the story. Gankutsuo is somewhat the same way, but it's a lot more complicated than that. I suppose you're right, though, if parents are mentioned or present in the story at all, they're usually really lousy, often times even antagonists. not true, nagisa's parents in Clannad were really great, but then again tomoya's dad sucked ha ah |
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