Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are All The Parents Dead?
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Moderator
 Posts: 18460 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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While I agree with you about everything else concerning this answer, I would point out that at least some of the ninja kids in Naruto do have intact parents, and those parents most definitely let their kids do that because it's all part of the "ninja lifestyle." |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Also, it's a literalization of what we children's-book writers say: "Kill the parents."
Ie., that if you have a parent, they'll have to have a personality, which means they'll need some actual role in the story, or some screen time in most of the episodes if it's a series, and who's the main character in this story, anyway? Which also explains the high number of transfer students living in their own solo apartments, apparently with money from home. It's not the question of what happened to all the mothers in 90's Disney films, or why so many widowed dads in 60's sitcoms. (And didn't ADV Kidz try to distribute the TV-syndicated version of Monster Rancher, or was that their anime line?) |
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vapwaazu
 Posts: 115 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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Oh god... Super Duper Sumos. Didn't think I'd ever be reminded of that show again.
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AtoMan
Posts: 161 |
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Ino-Shika-Cho trio(s) come to mind immediately. |
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7jaws7
 Posts: 705 Location: New York State |
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Interestingly enough, Junko was Madoka's biggest obstacle when she was trying to make her wish.
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Ushio
Posts: 636 |
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Sailor moon characters parents are all dead? only Jupiter is an orphan.
Mercury lives with her mother (a doctor) who is divorced from her father. Venus's parents are alive as seen in sailor V. Mars lives with her grandfather because she hates her father (a politician) her mother is deceased. . |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3672 |
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Good parenting ensures that a kid's life would not make an interesting anime show.
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falcon.punch
 Posts: 693 |
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Don't forget about the Protagonist, that has her parents and her little bro alive n_n |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2905 |
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IIRC, bodacious space pirates is famous for being one of the few animes that got all finished on schedule, whichever that actually means in context.
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John Thacker
Posts: 1009 |
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In general it's easier without good parenting (another option is the total buffoon parent), but there are some shows with pretty good parenting that are also interesting, like Hime-chan's Ribbon. The exception that proves the rule, since the problems, even with magic, are for the most part fairly mundane and not the crazy action of other shows.
A sentence that could probably fit in most of your column. They took yer jerb, Justin! Great show. Shirobako also features some very clear re-use of previous episodes' animation at time, down to shot for shot, but it works. Frankly with digital animation making it easier to fix it for home video (though that happened in the painted cel era too), there's really no reason to expect the on-air version to be perfect. For all the late night stuff, the home video sales are where they make their money. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1009 |
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Hmm, my impression is that there are a decent number of shows that the home video and streaming rights are announced at the same time, before it airs. Barakamon, for example, Funimation announced as having the home video and streaming (in N.A.) rights at the same time, and haven't listed a release date for the home video yet. I think that there's no hard and fast rule; it's generally safe to assume at this point that if Funimation has sole streaming rights (excusing Aniplex of America's habit of putting their shows on every streaming service) that they will have home video rights, especially if they do a dub. Yet if the home video market continues to dwindle (both in general and with anime), it wouldn't be entirely surprising to see dubs done for streaming-only shows that they never release on home video. |
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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Not really Joukamachi no Dandelion is one of the best of the Summer 2015 season so far and both parents are alive and well. I think parental abandonment or death makes for more drama like Papakiki, the only time it doesn't make a difference is for certain works like Sister Princess or Baby Princess where the one or both parents are unknown (btw the mom in Baby Princess is voiced by the same lady who voiced Karen in Sister Princess which makes for a good fan theory). |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Usagi Drop and Aishiteruze Baby both beg to differ (for the former, let's stick with the anime shall we?  )
That said, anime featuring adult parents are clearly the minority. It's very hard to weave in these sort of characters to anything more than secondary cast to be used as vehicles for the younger ones' character development. Doesn't help that genre conventions usually sideline them except perhaps in slice of life and drama. Parents, generally in storytelling, have their conflicts and development resolved therefore not much room to work with unless it concerns the mundane task of child rearing and paying the bills but who really wants to see that (unless they make it in a 4koma gag comedy satirizing said chores)? The audience that would like to see these characters take the spotlight are the minority and as this industry operates, majority rules. The hectic time in anime production is also because of the whole seasonal format that TV anime has been doing since the 2000's. Ever since the 12 and 24 episode style went vogue, studios have been in constant rush mode for the most part. That didn't seem to be the case during the OVA era where new episodes would come out months or even years at a time except for long running 50+ shows. These days, only hentai seems to follow that rule. Last edited by Paiprince on Fri Jul 03, 2015 1:16 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13621 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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My theory of a possible explanation for the absence of parental figures: At least in harem shows, the lack of the parent adds to the cliche of compromising positions and porno stashes that the MC tends to have. That is, if there were more parents present in those series, it might lesson the extreme fan service levels.
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2372 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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The dead parent issue is not strictly tied to just anime. There have been countless fictions, dramas, sitcoms, and even video games that have fallen into this trope. From Moses to Batman.
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