Decades’ worth of anime moms assemble for amazing group shot that even features an Undertale shout-out.
Anime is full of terrible fathers. From Ranma 1/2’s lazy Genma to Evangelion’s emotionally abusive Gendo and Fullmetal Alchemist’s “See ya in 10 years, sons!” Hohenheim, anime dads often exist as a source of rueful comedy and/or challenges for the hero to overcome on the path to self-realized adulthood.
Anime moms, on the other hand, are often saintly, serene, or just all-around awesome. Maybe it has something to do with Japanese mothers traditionally taking on the majority of child rearing duties, with dad tied up with work and thus a more distant provider of financial security. Or maybe it’s just because slapstick hijinks and pratfalls are funnier when it’s a dude on the receiving end of a fist when the hot-blooded anime protagonist gets fed up with his dad’s shenanigans and throws a punch.
In any case, manga artist Dragon Garow Lee (@dragongarowLEE on Twitter) figured Mother’s Day was the perfect time to salute anime’s most famous moms, drawing, and then tweeting, this amazing illustration.
https://twitter.com/dragongarowLEE/status/995474304060936193Though Dragon Garow Lee has his own set style (as seen in his Yamcha-centric Dragon Ball spinoff manga), he’s talented and flexible enough to adapt his baseline aesthetic to make mothers from other artists’ series easy for fans to identify. There’s a particularly high concentration of star power in the front row, where Dragon Ball’s Bulma (sporting her shorter, more mature hairstyle) and Chi-Chi just left of center, with Sazae-san’s Fune, Crayon Shin-chan’s Masae, Chibi Maruko-chan’s Sumire, and Doraemon’s Tamako to Chi-Chi’s left.
https://twitter.com/hayato719_pad/status/995525395746209792Dead-center, packing a pistol and rocking a bowler hat, is Dola, leader of the sky pirates from Studio Ghibli’s Castle in the Sky Laputa…
ドラゴンボールのバーダックの奥さんのギネかな pic.twitter.com/qD1vOW4s4l
— トモロー🐥 (@Tomorow1214) May 13, 2018
…and to her left are a pair of anime’s most influential mothers: Fullmetal Alchemist’s Trisha and Evangelion’s Yui, both of whom have passed away by the start of their series’ first episode but still end up extremely relevant to the events that unfold.
FF外から失礼します。
— L'Aile (@Laile_Laile) May 13, 2018
ハガレンのエドとアルの母の右隣、名探偵コナンの工藤新一の母の下にいるのがそうじゃないですかね? 違ったらすみません(>_<) pic.twitter.com/uY7HiQ7pUK
To Yui’s left are Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s Junko and Clannad’s Sanae, one an alcohol-loving career woman and the other an angelic yet untalented baker, but both tirelessly supportive of their children.
▼ Sanae
https://twitter.com/msmsadgjmptw/status/995548437339762688Other standouts include the mothers of Detective Conan’s Conan, Attack on Titan’s Eren, Gundam’s Amuro, and even Queen Serenity, mother of Sailor Moon’s previous-life incarnation Princess Serenity.
https://twitter.com/Hinamin_Megumin/status/995533555127042048And while Undertale may not be an anime, Dragon Garow Lee also decided to let the smash-hit indie game’s Toriel join the group shot.
マッマァァァァァ pic.twitter.com/zXerh97WTN
— Arus (@Arus_Trinug) May 13, 2018
There are still a ton of moms left to find (like Ranma’s mother Nodoka, second from top on the far left), so see if you can’t spot the representative from your favorite series. And if you are super-otaku enough to identify each and every character, you can then move on to the challenge of doing the same for Dragon Garow Lee’s “famous bald men of anime” illustration.
Source: Twitter/@dragongarowLEE
Follow Casey on Twitter, where he initially thought that was Megumi Reinard in the bottom left, realized it’s not, but now still wants to rewatch Martian Successor Nadesico anyway.

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