This Week in Anime

Call Your Mother

Sylvia
That's right, Lucas. This one is for the moms. All of them. Granted, we probably won't be able to name them all in a single column, nor would that make for a very good column, but we're going to do our best with the time and space allotted. And hey, if we miss your favorite mom, sound off with her in the comments. This is a safe space for moms.

Look, if we're going to talk about anime moms, we might as well start with the anime mom whose entire personality and character motivation is that she's an anime mom. We can accuse Do You Love Your Mom of many things (and I have), but it is not a series that tells lies to its audience.

True! The series could have pushed that angle harder and into more interesting directions, for sure, but that potential counts for something. Even if it's mostly used to put the protagonist into situations like this one.

And Mamako's presence in the action of the plot certainly stands out from the crowd of anime moms who find themselves doomed to lesser side roles, which are typically off-screen and often in absentia. Because they're usually dead.

No knock on Fullmetal Alchemist, but for whatever reason, when I think Dead Anime Mom, the picture that pops into my mind's eye is Trisha Elric.

Plus, he gave her a great haircut. I crushed on her the minute she appeared in the manga. You don't see a lot of anime moms with...whatever you call this. A pseudo-mohawk? It kicks ass regardless.

By contrast, I guess Trisha Elric feels so archetypal because she's got the Anime Mom Hair. You know, the tied-off side ponytail that rests on her shoulder. It's a sure sign that things are terminal.

Now that's a good mom! And I'm not just saying that because she smokes and because I'm a degenerate.

But she's also great because ERASED is a story about parents and systems failing children when they need help the most. Sachiko, on the other hand, feels like a grounded portrait of a single mom struggling yet doing her best.

That's a very sweet and touching point, which is why I feel compelled to ruin the moment by mentioning the muscle mom from Heybot! right now.

Don't really have a deeper thematic point here. I just wanted to mention Heybot!.

You can't talk about Evangelion without talking about motherhood. And fatherhood. And a lot of other things. But the motherhood part in particular is as Freudian as it gets. Piloting the Eva means Shinji literally crawls back into his mother's womb, amniotic fluid and everything.

And Yui is far from the only mom in that series. Misato acts as a kind of surrogate mother to Shinji and Asuka. Asuka's mom looms over her like a ghost, similar to Yui over Shinji. And one of the more memorable episodes deals with Ritsuko's checkered relationship with her mom, who, like Yui, transcends humanity in her own way by putting together Nerv's supercomputer. Just a whole lot going on here.

Not to mention the whole "Rei is a clone of Shinji's mom" thing. That's also kinda relevant.

Many such cases. Although I am admittedly partial to stories like Evangelion that sublimate these themes into a high-concept and often prickly package, there's plenty of straightforwardly poignant art about being/having a mother. Anime in particular should be allowed to get weird with it once in a while. Like with Flip Flappers, which touches on the experience of marrying your girlfriend and fighting your mom in surreal magical girl combat. Also, your girlfriend knew your mom, got age-regressed, and then it's also heavily implied that she might have eaten your placenta. Just normal girl/mom stuff.

Buddy, Flip Flappers needs an entire column and then some if you want to know everything that's going on here (and maybe we should do that at some point; it does turn 10 this year). But trust me, it's good.

We don't have to keep things complicated here, though. Sometimes, a girl has a mom. Sometimes, that girl is a horse. And sometimes, that horse girl has two moms. This is normal and good, and we love to see it.

Look, you can't convince me this woman isn't a lesbian. They knew what they were doing.

Yeah, that all sounds about right for 100 Girlfriends. They're always innovating over there.

"Mom" can also be a state of mind, not just a consequence of a biological relation. Akari from March comes in like a lion fits that mold as the oldest of three sisters, who takes it upon herself to raise them after her mom's death. She ends up being a maternal figure for the protagonist, Rei, too. Look, she's even got The Hair.

March is very good at making her a compelling and three-dimensional character, though. She's not a matronly cipher. She works as a hostess. She struggles to support her family while also helping them with their own issues. I think it's a great and nuanced portrait of a "non-traditional" motherhood.

One of many reasons why Chihayafuru is the best!

It's also worth noting that series like March comes in like a lion and Chihayafuru might hit differently because they are written by women who are commenting on motherhood. I'm also thinking of Mari Okada's directorial debut, which is a movie singularly dedicated to Mom Feelings.

We've got a whole column on that, of course.

True, it's difficult to compete with Yor's popularity. But in my books, when I think about contemporary anime moms, I have to (yet again) bring up Journal with Witch. It's such a rich and complex portrait of many of life's facets, but motherhood is one of its chief concerns, explored both through Makio and her deceased sister.

Like, for all the anime moms that exist out there, Journal with Witch is one of the few examples that prompted a real discussion with my own real mom. That counts for something.

Now, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, there's all of the mom stuff in Gundam. Which is mostly just very funny.

Nothing weird and psychosexual happening here, nope.

What's a baby fuel here and there? It's fiiiine.

Kill la Kill has another sterling example of a mom who is as normal as can be to her daughters.

And if we want to get really regressive about the concepts of motherhood, gender, and just human existence in general, there's always DARLING in the FRANXX.

RIP, Shinzo Abe.

And if you're an aspiring anime mom, be sure to practice your "ara ara"s. Or else.