Parental Advisory

It's not too often that we see a character, at least in anime, who has the type of personality that was a product of his or her parents' influence. Usually the only influence their parents have over a character is motivation to fuel a revenge plot that may or may not be any good to watch. That type of imbalance is very odd to me considering that -- despite what many teenagers might think -- a person's personality is influenced by their parents. Sure the amount of influence your parents have on ones personality will variety, but even the smallest bit of impact can have some type of significants.

With one of the recent episodes of Gin no Saji -- Silver Spoon -- revealed Hachiken Yuugo's parents, and the problems that are in his relationship with them, I've been really thinking about the importance of parental influence in an anime character. A few months back I wrote about the fact of there being a lack of any kind of parent appearances made things more convenient in high school romance anime; however, that lack of parent-child interaction never bared well for observing anything that could be considered a trait that the child picked up from his or her parents.

By actually having some type of connect with the character's parents, it feels like these characters are more believable. Simply by having a parent that is actually influential to the main character, it make it easier to perceive the character has been living for more than just this slice of the story, without the need of a backstory flashback. Having parents that actually contribute to the main character's development also is a good way to build a world just like adding any character to a story is, only this is specific to the main character's family tree. And as mentioned, Silver Spoon is a good example of something like this that I want to explore further, so be wary of the spoilers below.

Good Intentions Lost in Translation

As I mentioned before, we got to see a preview of the relationship between Hachiken Yuugo and his parents in episode six, and lets just say it wasn't that pretty. Most of the tension is coming from Yuugo and his father; his father seems to care about his son's best interests, but when he expresses them it comes off as uncaring and very judgmental. The result of this is Yuugo's complex about trying to impress his father and the side effect of wanting to be the best is him deeming a lot of his previous classmates as competition to hop over, as he attempts to surpass every one of them.

So both of them seem to be stuck in a feedback loop; whenever Yuugo continues to improve, and better himself academically, his father believes this is what Yuugo desires but is unable to express his emotions clear enough. It get to the point of Yuugo feeling like he isn't good enough for his dad; the unfortunate result is Yuugo constantly trying to prove himself to his father hoping to get his approval.

As for Yuugo's mother, she is very sweet and concerned about her son, but that loop Yuugo and his father are in affects the relationship between mother and son as well. Basically it is an asymmetric concern for each other. Yuugo can't get himself to say anything disrespectful to his father's face and as a by product, Yuugo takes his anger out on his mother.

I'm actually surprised at how much I drew out of just a handful of awkward minutes spent with both parents separately in just one episode. However, we can see the "world" of the Hachiken family begin to be filled in as relationships start to be established to the viewer. It may not be the best of relationships, but it is pretty easy to relate to; and that alone makes a character like Yuugo that much more "real" as a result.

Parental Guide

There have been a few cases of influence coming from a parent this season that are good examples to pull from, for example Wizard Barristers: Benmashi Cecil, and the involvement of Cecil's mother is in the selection of Cecil's career. However, the more I watch Silver Spoon the more I fall in love with many of the good cases of character building that make the series feel like it is alive. I never really thought that a characters' parents could be such an integral part to character molding -- that many anime either shrug off or completely miss out on.

And the idea of not needing flashbacks seems like a good enough idea to include parents as more important of a role, and act as a bridge to the past. A lot of character development can be inferred rather than told explicitly; plus, not always having a younger aged cast give the pallet of characters a bit more of range, making it feel more fluid rather than a controlled group of students involved in a story and everyone else is not important.