He suggests that it's to save money on voice actors, but that can't be right, because most anime is produced from existing manga, and manga is noticably lacking in the audio department.

It's a plot device.

The other things these characters have in common is that (a) they are young and (b) they are not living what you would call normal lives, exactly.

Ranma and Urusei Yatsura are prime examples of this.

In Ranma, both mothers are absent; Mrs Tendo passed away some years ago, and Mrs Saotome is at home waiting for the return of her husband and her son - who are, of course, desperate to avoid her. If both ladies were present, the series would have been over in 13 episodes rather than 176.

In Urusei Yatsura, on the other hand, most of the characters do have two living parents (Ryuunosuke being the exception, and she's not a major character). But Ataru's parents are largely ineffectual (though one of the best episodes has Mrs Moroboshi taking center stage), and Lum's parents are absent most of the time, being, after all, from a different planet.

It's effectively the same, and the reason is the same: If you want your teenage and pre-teen characters to be running around causing chaos, it's hard to do it and give them a stable home environment with parents who aren't complete idiots. Some shows (Sailor Moon did this, I think) push the plot point the other way: You have to go out and save the world... Exept you're grounded.

Note also that it's usually the mother that gets it. The reason for that is that it's much more acceptable to portray men as idiots (see Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome for prime examples) than women. Possibly because men are idiots, but that's a whole 'nother post.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:40 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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