Family-Unfriendly Aesop/Anime and Manga

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Examples of Family-Unfriendly Aesops in Anime and Manga include:

  • Pet Shop of Horrors is based entirely on this, due to the dubious morality of the Pet Shop owner, Count D. While he maintains that he is only giving humanity what they deserve, a good heart is no guarantee of a good outcome—several of the Count's shadier customers escape unscathed from their deals with the Count, while softer-hearted clients can be "punished" for a minor character flaw. Even if a character undergoes a positive change through being with their pet, such as developing a sense of compassion, they often fall victim to a tragic twist. This may be because he wasn't human - his character reads like one of The Fair Folk, so expect Values Dissonance, because their morality isn't anything like our own.
  • The same as the above happens in one occasion in Zatch Bell when Sherry is confronted with the task of saving her best friend Koko. Not wanting her to feel so depressed, she has Koko's partner, the very one she hated for taking Koko away in the first place, erase Koko's memory so that she forgets the whole thing. After Koko's memory is erased and her personality is changed to 'suit Sherry better' (Of what Sherry describes as "The kind Koko I knew growing up"), Sherry lies upfront to Koko's face to prevent her from knowing the truth. The consequence of this? Sherry gets accepted as having saved Koko, and the two hug and make up, despite neither having really done anything to 'make up' for their tension other than having burned Zofis's book. A heartwarming story, and a great lesson learned there.
    • To be fair on that one, even if it might have been a form of More Than Mind Control, Zofis did still actively change her personality. You could probably just say that Sherry was just making him undo what he did to her.
    • For the case of 'saving her' and trying to revert her back, sure. But did that give her the right to decide whether or not Koko (good or bad) could keep her memories? And then lie to her about it to be made out like a big damn hero? It just reeks of a rather piss-poor FU-aesop.
  • Kaleido Star
    • "When everyone around you is treating you like dirt, if you just be really nice to them and generally act like a dogsbody, they'll come around eventually." While it's nice to see the Genki Girl's sweet personality overcoming all the odds and avoiding the risk of becoming a Purity Sue by having to work for her acceptance, some of the other Kaleido Stage performers could really have used a slap in the face, rather than getting away with some seriously obnoxious behavior (such as Layla's sort-of Girl Posse Julie and Charlotte, before their Heel Face Turn).
    • And another one, from "Kalos Eido's Guide to Managing a Circus": "When your cast members are trying to kill each other, just leave them to it. It's a learning experience for them. While you're at it, why not try putting even more pressure on someone who's already being bullied?"
  • While the manga and anime itself has a Family Friendly Aesop, the creepy children's books in Monster were made like this purposefully by one of the characters to instill nihilism in children. They feature such lovely morals as "It doesn't matter whether you make a deal with the devil or not, because you're screwed either way."
    • The other, much more horrifying story the "God of Peace" gives us (basically), 'no matter how good you are, there will always be darkness inside you, so you should kill yourself'.
  • "Honesty is the Best Policy" is one of the Stock Aesops—face it, how many shows have you seen where a little lie leads to bigger ones, and Hilarity Ensues? So it's a bit surprising that Digimon Adventure 02 has one episode drop an anvil that little white lies are justified if lives are on the line.
  • Kodomo no Omocha Episode 12 teaches the moral that when your friends are irrationally mad at you and start bullying you for something you can't control, keep apologizing to them over and over again for said thing that wasn't your fault and maybe they'll forgive you!
  • The moral of the Tsumihoroboshi-hen arc of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni appears to be "friends help friends hide the bodies." But in a more directly stated example, it's okay to hide things from your friends if they don't need to know about it. Even though they're your friends, it doesn't require complete disclosure. While Higurashi certainly emphasizes the importance of trusting your friends, at this point it acknowledges that there are some things people just can't tell others and shouldn't have to.
    • Saikoroshi-hen (whether you accept it as All Just a Dream or not) seems to advocate a rather ruthless approach to pursuing one's own happiness at the expense of others.
  • The moral of The Irresponsible Captain Tylor as a series can be taken 2 ways: 1) Being an individual in a conformist society will lead to extreme success, or 2) Rigid military discipline is actively bad for winning wars, and treating it like a joke will make everything better. The former is a Family-Unfriendly Aesop for the Japanese, and the latter is one for Americans.
  • In-universe example: in Urusei Yatsura, Ataru tells a class of kindergartners a story about the legendary Kintaro, who through ceaseless effort, finally became the assistant to a great man.

Ataru: The moral of the story is, "Even if you work like a dog... you can only rise so far in this lousy world!"

  • At the end of Eden of the East, Akira (the hero) makes a comment to the effect that Japanese have great potential but need someone to rule them to unlock that potential. In the end, though, it actually subverts this aesop by more or less stating that while it might achieve great results, it would be wrong to do so. Similarly, Akira/the series seems to take the viewpoint that since national tragedies/catastrophes bring a country together, causing one is a great idea so long as you can figure out a way of doing it without killing anyone.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica revels in this. "Never follow your emotions, you'll end up dead." "Never believe in the power of friendship - you'll also end up dead." "Helping others will royally bite you in the ass." "If you ever become a better person, you'll get killed." "Never sacrifice your individual well-being for the good of the universe." This is later inverted by the end of the anime in the new world created by Madoka, then re-stated by the events of Rebellion.
    • Madoka, even before the new world is more complicated than that. While pretty much all instances of "selfless" actions come back to bite people in the ass, the characters make it clear this is not intrinsic to the acts themselves, but due to those doing them pretending to be selfless. Sayaka seemingly uses her wish to heal someone else, but really just wanted the boy to love her. Kyoko wishes for more followers for her father, but was really wishing for a better family life. This is spelled out to the characters repeatedly, and it takes a whole lot of pain before Madoka makes a truly selfless wish, fully aware of what she wants and what will happen.
  • In Tiger and Bunny the message seems to be that there is nothing wrong in receiving corporate sponsorship, even at cost of product placement, and working with the system, even if it has has flaws and may be corrupted from within. Not as family unfriendly in Japan as in the West, with it's tradition of worshipping underdogs, rebellious spirits and people who don't like playing by the rules and portraying those who get funding from big industries as "sellouts".
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