Anime protagonists often have parents missing from their lives. They may be at work, on vacation, or dead. Whatever the case, they are gone.
There is a debate to be had regarding Dragon Ball Z Goku as Gohan’s father. He spent much of the dead boy’s early years, off world, training or somewhere else where he couldn’t be a father. However, despite this, Gohan, knowing that his father still loves him, is able to grow up healthy both physically and mentally. Other anime protagonists are also unaffected by the parents’ absence, which is part of why it’s so hard to say why they’re eliminated in the first place.
Many anime characters go through their series with one or both of their parents missing from their lives. This can happen for all kinds of reasons and therefore has all kinds of effects on the characters. Understanding why this is such a common trend in anime will require a closer look at how or why it happens and what impact it has on the story.
Perhaps the most common way that anime characters lose their parents is for them to die tragically. If it happens when the protagonist is too young to remember, then it won’t really mean anything to him. If they remember it, it is usually a traumatic experience that twists them inside. This key context behind the death of the parents can greatly change the way the characters think and feel about it.
A good example of this contrast would be with naruto‘s main character and his friend Sasuke Uchiha. For Sasuke, having his parents and the rest of his clan killed caused him such great pain that he spent the entire series seeking revenge. Naruto, on the other hand, never got to know his parents, so he wasn’t really influenced by his deaths, nor could he understand the pain of losing them. Sasuke called him out for these two points during his first fight in the Final Valley. The difference between when and how one grows up without parents can create a wide spectrum of reactions.
If a protagonist loses their parents because they were killed, then they can become the driving force behind their actions. This often manifests as a strong desire to defeat the culprit, usually out of revenge. For those who recognize Sasuke as a deuteragonist, there are plenty of protagonists who share this distinction; Popular examples include Eren Yeager (attack on titan), Lelouch Vi Britannia (Code Geass), Shinn Asuka (Gundam Seed Fate) and Rin Okumura (Blue Exorcist). For these protagonists, losing their parents and father figures is a source of great pain and anger that they can hopefully get over by the end of the series.
Another more cheerful cause of absence comes from the parents of the protagonist of the harem. In harem anime, the parents are kept out of the house to make it easier for the protagonist and his girlfriends to get into all kinds of ecchi shenanigans. They could be busy with work or high society for most of the series. Such series include date a live and Monster Musume.
Unfortunately, parents being away from home because they are busy with work is a common phenomenon not only in anime but throughout Japan. The best representation of this in anime comes from Neon Genesis Evangelion. In this series, Shinji Ikari’s father, Gendo, keeps his distance because of how important his work is, but also because he doesn’t really know how to communicate with his son. This form of abandonment leaves Shinji with horrible anxiety and a lack of self-esteem.
Another type of absent father is the lazy one. They are alive but they do not raise their children for one reason or another. Goku arguably qualifies as this, but a better example would be Hunter x Hunter’s Ging Freecs. He left his son Gon and the rest of his family in order to pursue his goals as a hunter. Instead of disagreeing with abandoning him, Gon became curious about the hunters and became one in hopes of finding his father. Whether the resulting quest is good or bad is debatable, but Gon seems happy with his decision.
A more positive look at missing parents is how the protagonists make up for them. Even without parents, they can still lead full lives with good friends and other people who care about them. This is true of Naruto and many other shonen protagonists; Monkey D. Luffy (A Piece), Natsu Dragneel (Fairy tale) and Goku. In this sense, these characters are almost better off not having parents.
However it happens, there are many things that can happen if an anime protagonist doesn’t have their parents. It all depends on what story needs to be told and how absent parents are needed to move the plot forward. It usually has a negative effect on the protagonist, but not always. Responses to these absences are as varied as the people who experience them.
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