A world without parents, without adults, without the man (and frequently, woman) telling you what to do and how to live. An ideal paradise for many disgruntled, rebellious teenagers, tired with being forced around and shoved into a pigeonhole they don’t want to be in. Little do they do how close their nirvana can be to them…

Step 1: anime.

Strangely enough Japan, at least in animation form, is a land populated most by magical little kids, girl-(or-guy)-magnet teenagers, and talking mascot animals, with the odd parent or adult figure being the rarity rather than the norm. It’s to the extent where one wonders how these people live day-to-day on their own, or, in the longer term, reproduce, since once you hit 25 you’re tossed out like an old Christmas cake (or, possibly, Nanako).

On the other hand, with the attractiveness of the few women who survive past age 30 (but frequently don’t look past 18), I could see why there would be people lining up by the dozen to crank the child machine. It must be some equation where the amount of cuteness/hotness of characters remains constant, so with less characters, there is more I’d-hit-it-ability per capita. Have you started coughing awkwardly yet?

In all seriousness there is a surprising lack of middle-aged people in anime, whether as a parent or as a more general authority figure, perhaps not so surprising when you take some other factors into account, but still something that merits a bit of thought…

The obligatory disclaimer here is that my observations are likely incredibly skewed by the genres which I watch. I think romance and the harem genre are especially susceptible to Vanishing Parent Syndrome for a majority of reasons; this critique is most valid for those specific types of anime, probably moreso than other types.

Still, I think a large reason why this phenomenon is so common probably lies with an aspect that all anime share, and that is target audience. Quite simply, the perhaps rebellious, perhaps escapist teenager, or of the youth in general, is the main target audience for masses upon masses of anime, even the ones marketed on Wikipedia as ’seinen’. Just a look at the main characters of most shows will confirm this.

Nearly every love story features the teenager, lost in the throes of first (or second) love. Slice-of-life comedies revolve around the exciting life of a bunch of high school friends. When there’s a mysterious situation to be uncovered or a giant robot to be commanded, frequently we turn to the youth right out of high school. Magical wand needs wielding? 80’s driftmobile needs piloting? Futuristic gondola needs rowing? Yep, you guessed it. Teenagers.

Perhaps my criticism is a bit unfair because the actual age of these characters are in question; the gap between physical, mental, and actual age widens with every elementary schooler and every housewife…both of which that don’t look a day past 18. But still the majority of characters in a lot of stories have that one in the tens column of their age, and honestly, it might be for good reason.

Quite simply, there aren’t a lot of people who wouldn’t watch people of teenage age in a show, in one way or another. Little children aspire to be like the cool kids, teenagers want to see people just like themselves (that understand them, natch), and adults want to relieve their glory days. Not to mention the creepy old men.

Truly, the young adolescent years, just like your parents have been saying all along, are the best - or at least most interesting - time of one’s life, because everything is being experienced for the first time. Unlike childhood there is a modicum of understanding involved, so it’s not all bright-eyed optomism, yet, there is still a sizeable amount of enthusiasm and wonder of falling in love, or seeing the world, maybe saving the world, and the like.

On the flip side there’s the side of disillusionment, (familiar in heavy forms to most as angst) experiencing a painful rejection, the oppression of the real world, or the death / serious injury of a loved one for the first time. In balance the two extremes of teenage life can make for, admittedly, quite intriguing story-telling, with intense roller-coaster emotional waves, a lot of twists and turns, and, usually, a lot of yelling at the screen. (Personally, I don’t mind getting involved with an anime like that.)

So having the main character or characters be of middle or adult age in anime is a relatively tricky thing to do well, considering how well the opposite formula works…not to mention the fact that everybody and their brother is a hardworking businessman that really has no time for a life.

Sometimes I feel though that adults get the shaft as side characters as well, however. Quite frequently, as mothers in anime tend to be, they are rather undeveloped, exhibiting the Aoi & Miyuki Memorial physical-to-character development ratio: a well-rounded character or a well-rounded chest, pick one. Even those who may get off a bit better tend to function more as catalysts for the plots of other characters, not doing much directly for the story, but rather doing more indirectly, by, say, being pancaked by a passing car. Guys aren’t much better off either, slotting into perhaps a bumbling idiot or perverted guy role.

Quite simply adults in anime tend to have more effect on others than others tend to have effect on them. And overall this isn’t entirely horrible in comparison to utterly irrelevant or nonexistent characters: it is true that in real life parents are there to give advice and guide other people among life rather than dramatically change their own course.

But what is an annoyance is that other anime have done better than that, in perhaps a cliched but still a good way. They give their adults backstory as well, maybe just in a short flashback, as part of a ‘I was in your situation too’ scenario, but still, it’s backstory. Myself;Yourself’s Yuzuki-sensei, ef’s Himura, yes, a majority of the adults in Cardcaptor Sakura … all respectable types. Even a flimsy story, a motivation, a meaning, gives a sense of robustness to them, as opposed to the feeling that they’re there just to satisfy the people who like older women (or, uh, guys, I suppose).

There have been occasions of actual, serious parent and child conflict and drama in anime, something that would sound good on paper, but something that ends up in a rather dull - or at least frustrating - way most of the time. I understand that teenagers are rebellious and like to think different but so many of the family conflicts, such as the Wakatsukis in Myself;Yourself, Tomoya’s in Clannad, and Hiromi / Shinichiro’s in True Tears, just rub too much of “GOD I HATE YOU GUYS” to be taken seriously, or, at least without a facepalm. I find this kind of stereotyping of parents as oppressive and mean mean people to be just as cliched and pandering as the worst of harem anime.

I think I find the most enjoyable, as always, is the mix of both worlds. I want my adults in anime to be like a lot of the better characters in having two distinct sides to them, in the same visual novel formula that I enjoy so passionately. Not just the humor, not just the seriousness, but a bit of both, constructing a character that may fool you into being innocent and irrelevant, but really hides a secret, a motive, a feeling (do not confuse with A Dark Past) that makes them more, more entertaining, more empathetic, more three-dimensional.

-CCY

(The Furukawas in Clannad are what inspired this post the most, so in the end, it does come down to raw Clannad fanboying. Akio and Sanae really do make a brilliant tag-team comedy duo worthy of most harem-reject combos such as Itsuki and Mayumi, and they can really dish out the seriousness and advice when they come down to it. All-around awesome.)

If you liked this post, try...

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• June 25, 2008 -- Eating Your Cake Too: Shippers Anonymous and the curiosity of desire
• June 15, 2008 -- [Rapidfire] Shuffle! returns, selling out, Howl’s Moving Castle and emotional connection
• June 8, 2008 -- Otaku Paranoia: Ressentiment and the NHK Conspiracy

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