Absentee parents as a theme in Japanese media

My Dad and I were talking this morning and he brought up something I never thought of before. I'm only using anime as an example but this might be a theme else where in Japanese media.

He noticed that often times in Anime familes aren't usually in tact and not through divorce as in western media but usually from Death.

So I got to thinking and here are a few shows/movies where...there are not parents in the picture

Grave of the fireflies- obviously

Whispers of the heart- My dad recalled something there but I can't remember.

School Rumble- Tenma and Yakumo's (Not our Yakumo THIS YAKUMO) are out of the picture and I think the father had passed away.

Full Metal Panic- Chidori's mother died from Cancer, father is often away on business so she's on her own.

Fruits Basket- Torhu's mother died from cancer, father is lord knows where, and she's living in a tent.

Tekkonkinkreet- Follows 2 orphin boys around being chased by Yakuza

Afro Samurai- Yeah this one is heavily westernized and made for a western audience but still...the theme of parental death is important to the plot.

Evangelion- parental fuck ups are the whole reason all this crazy shit is going on to begin with

And so on and so fourth.

So why is this such a prominent theme in at least anime. Is there a cultural reason for this that I'm not aware of I know family linage is very important to the Japanese that might be part of it but I'm intrigued.

Can anyone elaborate on this?

 

Akira: no parents to be found anywhere, in fact, the only adults, other than Kei's brother the resistance fighter, shown in the entire movie are the "bad guys".

 

In spirited away the parents go off to eat instead of looking after the kid

 

Initial D:

General

Bunta is Takumi's father and is a very skilled racer, probably the best in Japan. 19 years ago, he married and quit racing, opening a tofu shop instead. He's always seen either with a cigarette or drunk.
Personality

When Bunta's wife left him, he began drinking heavily. He's often so drunk that he cannot even get on his feet. Because of that, he also abusive sometimes and beats Takumi, leaving scars and bruises. Bunta doesn't seem to care about things a lot but mentioning his wife will easily anger him. Around young women, he becomes a bit of a pervert.


...


This cartoon is against the establishment... :lol:

 

So no real cultural significance?

 

Yeah. Common in any culture. Children + adventure.

 

Besides select European literature (Dickens) I don't see that large a volume of dead parents anywhere.

It's always dead parents in anime too never abandoned.

 

I always figured it meant not having to open up background and characters for parents.

 

Exaggerated and often fantastical explanations for why parents aren't around is what they are. Anyone who lives in a major metropolitan area will have parents who won't be around much unless they are financially independent or unemployed.

 

There's also Pokemon and yu-gi-oh
Pokemon it's just his mum, come to think of it, in most of the games there's only one parent too.
Yu-Gi-Oh he is looked after by his grandfather

I don't remember any mention of the missing parents in either, but then maybe it got lost in translation?
*shrug*

I always assumed it was because it would make a good story if they ran out of card games or something.

 

Symbolic of the family unit. Fathers are generally absent from their families until the weekend, and even then sometimes they are only there in body. True, sometimes they are, but to illustrate, I held my son on a flight from Hawaii to Japansas. My wife did more work but I still did a fair share. The flight attendants about gave me a blow job "for being so nice to my kid".

 

You should have probably put "dead" somewhere in the subject of the thread, then, if that's what you meant.

anyway:

Lion King - dead dad, separated from mother. (Insert Hamlet)
James and the Giant Peach - parents eaten by rhino cloud thing, in front of protagonist.
Bambi - mother shot in the opening scenes
A Series of Unfortunate Events - dead parents.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I don't watch/read much.

 

Isn't this about the hero's journey, and the coming of age - tropes in literature and other works of fiction?

Joseph Campbell's work about these common tropes, "hero with a thousand faces", does deal with the symbolism in some of these situations. George Lucas used theory from this book to come up with some Star Wars ideas, I think.

You have something here. Read up on Campbell's theories. These tropes are fundamental to a lot of fiction.

 

Evangelion -
Shinji's father seems to have pawned him off onto other people to pursue his career.
Ayanami - don't believe they really go into depth on her "parents" until much later in the show.
Asuka - mother dead, has step parents from what I can recall. Not sure about biological father (of course she isn't Japanese either)

Most instances of this just leave me wondering how it is financial feasible for the "orphan" to continue to pay rent, bills, etc without some form of employment. Some have jobs but when you're still going through High School it seems a bit illogical that the government would just let allow for transfer of property/assets to a 16 year old without so much as a cursory inspection.

Then again I don't believe most entertainment aims to close every possible plothole or inconsistency.

 

If only that was true. I took my son to the UK (3 planes!!) and back again on my own and got fuck all. well, I did get a nice 25" HD display for my PC but that's only because I wouldn't shut up moaning to my wife.

Yakumo