Three cheers for mums. Single mums, cookie-baking mums, strict mums, workaholic mums, martial arts master mums, bike gang mums, wolf child mums and actually-giant-mecha mums — we appreciate you, in life and in anime. And there are some very, very good mums in anime.
Madoka Magica
In celebration of Mother’s Day, we’re honouring our five favourite anime mums. Here we go:
Junko Kaname from Madoka Magica
Madoka Magica
Junko keeps it very, very real. She’s busy as hell, a real businesswoman and the family’s breadwinner. In the morning, she helps her daughter Madoka tie bows into her hair. Late at night, when she returns from work, she drinks herself into a stupor. Her most memorable quote: “Us adults are always in pain. That’s why we’re allowed to drink alcohol!”
Chi-Chi from Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Z
Chi-Chi’s idea of mothering might be a little controversial. She’s pretty strict. When her son Gohan is training to defeat some critically evil figure, or running off to save the world, Chi Chi’s always telling him, no, studying is more important. She’s overprotective and, probably, would prefer it if her husband and son weren’t constantly endangering themselves. But she loves her son and just wants him to grow into a good kid — which is exactly what he does.
Kyoko Honda from Fruits Basket
Fruits Basket
Throughout Fruits Basket, Kyoko is a strong presence, even though we never really meet her. Before a fatal car crash left her daughter, Torhu, an orphan, Kyoko had lived a full life, spurning her bad family situation and joining a biker gang. She was all surgical masks and dyed-black hair until she met Torhu’s father, a kind businessman. Later in life, after he dies, Kyoko is a loving mother to Torhu, raising her alone selflessly and with good humour. She had a hard go of things, but taught her daughter to always be positive in the face of harsh times.
Sanae Furukawa from Clannad
Clannad
What a weird mum. We meet Sanae as she’s feeding protagonist Tomoya a very questionable rice cracker bread bun she baked. She’s soft-spoken and can go a little overboard if someone doesn’t like her bakery’s… stranger… goods, like octopus bread. But Sanae loves her family, and whomever her family loves, and will do anything to help them out. Also, her quirks are endearing as hell.
Hana from Wolf Children
Wolf Children
The strength Hana musters to raise her two half-wolf children is admirable. Back at school, Hana fell in love with a werewolf who dies soon after they have kids. Her kids aren’t the easiest — they’re constantly turning into mischievous little wolves. But Hana gives up everything to provide for her children, something she never thought she’d have to do. It’s inspirational and, at the same time, heartbreaking.
Comments
8 responses to “The Five Best Anime Mums”
What about Sachiko Fujinuma from Erased?
Agreed! Looking after her comatose son for decades surely counts for something 🙂
Shinji’s mum from Evangelion.
I don’t know, she has a bit of a tendency to go berserk.
Have an upvote. Few notice how she basically outsmarted everybody and how much she sacrificed just so her son would survive the inevitable apocalypse.
Ash/Satoshi’s mom is the best.
“You’re 10 now, so get the hell out of my house!”
I liked how in Dragon Ball Super they revealed that much of Chichi’s strict and bossy treatment of Goku is just posturing and that Goku knows it. It’s an interesting relationship those two have.
There’s a scene in Dragon Ball Abridged episode 58 that really does sum up Goku and Chichi’s relationship