Anime Review: Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?
- Very Average Joe
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
English Title: Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?
Japanese Title: 通常攻撃が全体攻撃で二回攻撃のお母さんは好きですか？[lit. Do you love your mother whose normal attack is hitting all with a two-hit attack?]
Director(s): Iwasaki Yoshiaki
Screenwriter(s): Akao Deko
Studio: J.C.Staff
Released: 2019
Runtime: 12 episodes + 1 OVA, ~24m each.
Starring: Kayano Ai, Ishiya Haruki, Suzushiro Sayumi, Harada Sayaka, Arai Satomi, Lynn
Based on the light novel series of the same name by Inaka Dachima that ran from 2017 to 2020, this is an isekai harem comedy about the mother–child relationship. I have not read the novels so this review is of the series only.
The series begins with high school student Oosuki Masato filling out a survey regarding his relationship with his mother, Mamako, who is very kind and loving. Although Masato does get annoyed with Mamako’s doting and thinks their relationship is just “average” or “ordinary”, they get along better than he thinks.
After consulting with Shirase, a representative of those who run the survey, she (in effect) transports Masato into an online fantasy game as a test player. He is excited… until he realizes that Mamako is tagging along.
To help them get started, they are given items: Masato picks one sword whilst Mamako somehow gets two powerful swords, and so ends up demolishing monsters and earning skill points, leaving Masato to do nothing and earning no points.
Mamako also has abilities that stem from her being a loving mother. Whilst these instances seem convenient, this is obviously part of the theme and humor, that mothers are powerful and can be overprotective and overbearing even when they don’t mean to.
The premise is a bit nuts and the themes of motherhood and mother–child relationship are certainly worth exploring, with or without humor. Unfortunately, the series does not reach anywhere near its full potential.
It is a comedy that includes the typically silly harem genre jokes such as slapstick-accidental nudity which our hero Masato is totally embarrassed about because he’s not a pervert. Even accepting that, this should not exclude other forms of comedy. There are moments in which it cleverly plays on the irony of the situation but there needs to be way more.
Mamako’s character design is deliberately youthful with big breasts. That is part of the comedy but her voice is too young. There is nothing wrong with the performance of Kayano Ai in itself but the voice needs to be older. This would be more natural and better establish the age gap between her and her son.
Also, some of her silliness is forced for the sake of comedy. For someone so considerate, one expects less of that. These moments of so-called silliness should be more from her ignorance due to the generational gap or simply from a mother’s overbearing initiative or even angst, which they sometimes are. This is more natural and would be funnier.
At the start, Masato and Mamako recruit two other players, two girls named Porta and Wise. Whilst Masato wants to build a good team to go on adventures, Mamako intends Porta to perhaps be something more for her son but this is not followed up.
As part of the theme, there is an issue between Wise and her mother. But other than that, Porta and Wise are too much of a placeholder for the sake of the harem genre. Granted, Mamako somewhat treats them as adopted children and they love her in return; this is consistent to the theme but the plot fails to utilize Porta and Wise or develop their characters and their relationships with others.
As a sidebar, it may even be better to have a boy who is younger than Masato as part of their team. This can be a means for Mamako to relive what it was like raising Masato a few years earlier and for him to see what that was like as a third party. Alternatively, this could have been done with Porta to some extent but the series fails to capitalize on this opportunity.
The series is organized into a few arcs. One of the arcs is at a school. The reason is that Mamako is so powerful that Masato, Porta and Wise need opportunities to earn some skill points. Whilst that may be a reasonable excuse and such a relatable setting is consistent to the slice-of-life angle (if one wants that), it is ultimately unnecessary. One such episode is fine but an arc spanning a few episodes is a waste. This is meant to be a fantasy-adventure and the plot should take advantage of the freedom of using fantasy settings.
Also keep in mind that the game is still in development and Shirase is crudely used as a device to announce the next quest so the heroes can help fix some bug. If she is going to do that anyway, then that is as good an excuse as any to them anywhere. There is no need for a school.
Visually, it is on the cheaper side as expected. Both the characters and environment can use more detail. But since the production is mostly consistent, it is not jarring.
The ideas are there and although crude, it is not as superficial as one may think. Good mothers and their strengths are praised whilst bad mothers and their weaknesses are not glossed over; for example, a mother who thinks their child is in their way or one who wants their child to be “No. 1” for their own vainglory.
Either way, motherhood is portrayed as something very important and is lifted up despite the silly harem genre humor. It is not a bad series but there is so much more that can be done for both the comedy and the themes.
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