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In many anime, after the moms have passed away or left the families, it's often the daughters who are in charge of the household chores, like cooking and cleaning. Their dads just look like good-for-nothings, who just eat, drink, watch TV and seem to never do any housework. For example, Mouri Ran from Case Closed, Uesugi Raiha from 5-toubun no Hanayome and Kagami Kasumi from Tsugumomo.

Why are daughters usually in charge of household chores after their moms have passed away or left the families in anime?

Michael
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    don't forget [kei shirogane from Kaguya-sama](https://www.reddit.com/r/Kaguya_sama/comments/viz40g/2nd_imouto_parallel_in_kaguyasama_and_tqq_is_it_a/) – BCLC Aug 21 '22 at 08:15
  • 'good-for-nothings' hey don't be like that. they're probably grieving and so on, so they're struggling. same as the kids. don't judge them. – BCLC Aug 21 '22 at 09:23
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    Men not doing any housework is a pretty common issue even if the mom is there. – pboss3010 Aug 22 '22 at 15:53
  • The reasoning can also be partly due to https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/63927/why-are-most-women-in-anime-housewives-instead-of-being-independent/63929#63929 although I might write a separate answer but you have to wait for some days (been busy lately) – Fumikage Tokoyami Oct 16 '22 at 04:35
  • Hey Michael, what do you think of this? [Why do anime mothers often get the short end of the stick?](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/49006/why-do-anime-mothers-often-get-the-short-end-of-the-stick) – BCLC Nov 30 '22 at 08:13

2 Answers2

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I think it is just the case women/girls do cooking/chores in most parts of the world.

The following may partially answer the question, even if not directly.

  • There is a saying "Men should not enter the kitchen", which seems to be originally by a Chinese philosopher Mencius. In Japan, this was understood as "Men should not bother such trivial things as cooking".
  • In the post war Japan, generally speaking, there was a complete division of labor: Men go to work until late and women do all the housework.
  • It is still the case that Japanese workers tend to work extra hours, and have no time for household jobs.

Because of these, there are some truths that girls are left to do the chores. But in reality of course, fathers would do the job if the child is young. Today I guess most single fathers do the household job regardless of children's age. And there are some cooking mangas about such fathers (e.g., this).

At the same time, there is a social problem around young carers. Poor families have no choice but to make children do the things parents (or other adults) are supposed to do.

sundowner
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  • sundowner, i posted an answer about how I conjecture it's about not sex but age. are you familiar with the situations of Mouri Ran from Case Closed or Kagami Kasumi from Tsugumomo ? I mean are they like [Uesugi Raiha from 5-toubun no Hanayome or Kei Shirogane from Kaguya-sama](https://www.reddit.com/r/Kaguya_sama/comments/viz40g/2nd_imouto_parallel_in_kaguyasama_and_tqq_is_it_a/) : youngest in a family of 3 including a single parent? If so and if their older siblings and single parents are male, then I'd say sex is absolutely a coincidence. – BCLC Aug 29 '22 at 21:04
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Update: There's a related question Why do anime mothers often get the short end of the stick? My answer is Moms die, so imouto's 'step-up' to take their mothers' places.

I'm not familiar with the other shows, but as for the imouto's Raiha Uesugi from The Quintessential Quintuplets and Kei Shirogane from Kaguya-sama (image here) :

I don't think it's about sex. I think it's just about age.

They're the youngest in a family of the 3:

  1. The oldest in the family is a single parent is working full time.

  2. The 2nd oldest in the family is their older sibling who works part-time on top of being a top student, probably to either maintain a scholarship in 2ndary school or to obtain a university scholarship. The youngest has the most free time of the 3.

Perhaps you could say what's up with the other series: what's their family like? Are they structured similarly with TQQ and Kaguya-sama: single parent with 2 children?

BCLC
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