Anime Mom Hair / Dead Mom Hair

About

Anime Mom Hair or Motherly Side Plait refers to the side plait hairstyle commonly used in manga and anime to demonstrate that the character is a housewife. Due to such characters tending to get killed and then serve as a driving motivation for the main protagonist, the hairstyle is also known as Dead Mom Hair.

Origin

While the exact reasoning behind the side plait hairstyle being used to demonstrate that an anime or manga character is a housewife is unknown, it is speculated that the side plait is a low-maintenance hairstyle that would befit a person who has less time to spend on her appearance, distinguishing her from other female characters.^[1]

While the first use of the side plait to demonstrated that a manga or anime character is a housewife is unknown, some of the better known examples of the trope are Toko Yadomi in Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Carla Yeager in Attack on Titan and Trisha Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist. Some of the earliest examples of the trope are character Marie Paindavoine, the ill mother of the main heroine in The Story of Perrine, released in 1978 (shown below, left), and the hospitalized mother of Satsuki and Mei in My Neighbor Totoro, released in 1988 (shown below, rigth).^[8]

On October 7th, 2012, TV Tropes ^[1][2] user Lyedith made the first known documented description of the Motherly Side Plait trope.

One good way to show how sweet and caring a mother is is to depict her with her hair tied in a loose braid or ponytail and put on her shoulder. For some reason, this detail immediately tells the audience, "Hey, this mom has to be nice and gentle!"

On January 16th, 2014, Tumblr^[3] user a-multi-shipper made the first known viral post about the Dead Mom Hair trope, comparing the fates of mother characters of Anohana, Attack on Titan and Fullmetal Alchemist. The post received over 14,300 likes and reblogs.

Spread

In the following year, a-multi-shipper's post was widely circulated online, including reposts on Facebook and iFunny.^[4] In the following year, the memes about the trope received moderate spread online. For example, on September 9th, 2014, Beelzebub^[5] forum user 正義的鐵拳 reposted a meme a highlighting the similar hairstyle of mother characters from Anohana, Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo ESP (shown below).

The trope received further spread online in the following years. For example, on May 6th, 2015, Tumblr^[6] user starfirexuchiha posted a meme about Seraph of the End character Akane Hyakuya having the hairstyle and dying (despite not being a mother). The post received over 370 likes and reblogs (shown below).

Starting in 2015, more post highlighting the existance of the trope were posted on Facebook, Tumblr and other websites. In May 2017, the meme saw a surge in popularity following a May 14th, 2017, meme posted by Twitter^[7] user @animetbh that received over 2,800 retweets adn 4,000 likes. On May 16th, 2017, SoraNews24^[8] reported about the trope.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References