People love drama. Why else would we devote several hours of our lives glued to our computer and/or smartphones watching some angsty heroine discover that she’s actually an heiress who was switched with some other kid at birth?
We anime fans, on the other hand, devote our time and satisfy our craving for plot twists and turns to series that have requisite “oh my, so she’s actually the long lost sister who was kidnapped a long time ago?!” element that move us. Here are some of those shows.
Father and sons
(and mothers and daughters too)
The classic example for all anime-and-drama loving watchers would be the case of Prince Zardoz and the Armstrongs of Voltes V. Prince Zardoz was hell-bent on destroying the Armstrongs because they were the main force blocking his conquest of Earth.
During a climactic fight scene, Dr. Armstrong recognizes the knife Zardoz was using as the gift he had given to his wife before he had been forced to flee to Earth. The true heritage of Zardoz was revealed. When his father came to Earth, he met a woman and begot three more sons who became members of the Voltes team.
So, all this time the prince had been fighting his own brothers. Of course, to add more irony, Zardoz learned this fact a few minutes before he sacrificed his life for the people he had tried to kill many times before. Viewed in this light, it’s no wonder drama loving folks loved this series!
A similar situation happened to Ken Washio, the leader of Gatchaman (G-Force) and his dad. The boy was given to ISO’s head. Professor Kozaburou Nambu, and brought up to become the leader of the main defense team against the alien force of Gallactor.
When Gatchaman began fighting years later, the group had a back-up group called the Red Impulse, which was headed by a mysterious man who became Ken’s rival in flying. Just before he went on a suicide mission, the leader revealed that he was Ken’s father.
Apparently, Kentaro has previously faked his death so that he could spy on Gallactor.
Gatchaman II feature an unusual daughter-mother situation. Dr. Sylvie Pandora was Dr. Nambu’s administrative assistant. She specialized in cybernetics. She had lost her husband Domingo and her six-year-old daughter Sammie in a shipwreck.
During Dr. Pandora’s time, Gatchaman’s new nemesis was a being called Gel Sadora. This new Gallactor puppet was very tall, good at fighting yet had a propensity for tantrums.
At the end of the second series, it was revealed that Gel Sadora was a mutant, force-grown from a six-year-old girl Sosai X, the head of the Gallactor, took from a ship he wrecked. Gel Sadora recovered her memories as Sammie Pandora and tried to revolt, Sosai X retaliated by killing her mother — a move that drove his puppet into open rebellion.
Another example of an unusual father-son relationship is Kakeru of Blue Blink and his kidnapped dad. A mysterious being called Black Emperor had kidnapped Kakeru’s father and took him to the world where stories come alive.
Kakeru had to travel many worlds and stories with his magical friend, Blink, to find his dad. After many trials and frustrations, Kakeru found out that the Emperor was none other than his dad. His father had wanted to let Kakeru experience how wonderful books and stories could be.
Holly of Monster Rancher also went on a journey to find her missing dad. She didn’t know that when she was just a child, her father had resurrected Moo, the most evil creature in the world of Monster Rancher. Moo had the power to turn other monsters into evil creatures.
Moo’s body had been sealed by the Phoenix a long time ago but his mind had been able to take over a human’s mind. Moo used his human body to search for his original form. He first sent minions to destroy Holly’s village because the clue to the location of his body was in a stone Holly’s dad had given her. The elder of the village managed to save Holly and to tell her find the Phoenix. Holly accepted the quest but she never guessed that in the final battle with Moo, she would have to fight her very own father.
Nadia of Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water hadn’t been trying to look for her father. She was just trying to find out what the blue pendant she was wearing was all about. Destiny, however, had other plans and not only gave her a father but a brother as well.
Through her adventure, she met the mysterious Captain Nemo, leader of the submarine called Nautilus. She first thought that he was a bad person because his vehicle had been terrorizing many citizens. She found out later that he was on a quest to put a stop on a maniacal group called Neo-Atlantis whose purpose was the annihilation of the entire human race.
After several escapades, Nadia learned that Captain Nemo was her father and that the leader of Neo-Atlantis was her brother whose body has been cybernetically preserved and whose mind was controlled by the evil Gargoyle.
To complete this small list of unexpected parent-child relations, let’s bring in Yusuke of Yu Yu Hakusho.
Would you ever think that he’s got demon blood and is related to Raizen, one of the worst demons in the demon world? Okay, so maybe that’s not so far off seeing as he was practically a devil on the loose whenever he fought. But to transform in to a fiend when he died for the second time and look like his ancestor, now that was unexpected.
Crosses and Ties
We can’t choose our family. There are some people though, who would love to change history and be related to any other people except their blood relatives. One of them would be Omi Tsukiyono of Weiss Kreuz.
Raised as Mamoru Takatori, Omi was adored by his brothers and mother, and mildly tolerated by his father, Reiji Takatori. At a young age, he was kidnapped and never ransomed. He was rescued by a mysterious man who turned out to be Shuuichi Takatori, brother and number one nemesis of his father, Reiji.
Mamoru was so traumatized by his experience that he developed amnesia. He was trained to be an assassin and later emerged as Omi. He went to school and had a relationship with Ouka, daughter of Reiji. Later on in the show, he one by one killed, helped kill and saw the entire Takatori clan die. What he never found out was that his real father was Shuuichi who had an affair with Reiji’s wife, Kikuno.
Those uncanny relatives
From parents and offsprings, let’s move on to the siblings.
Kaede and Momiji Kushinada are sisters whose blood were fatal to monsters called Aragami. At the beginning of Blue Seed, it was believed that Kaede had died trying trying to find her destiny and Momiji was in danger of being killed by Aragami.
A special group called TAC, headed by Kaede’s adoptive father, was formed to protect the remaining Kushinida. A major problem arose, at the latter part of the show, when Kaede resurfaced, this time conspiring with the enemy. She believed that her destiny was to wipe out all of mankind, which had become evil forces destroying the planet. It was up to Momiji to stop her.
Emeraude was princess and Ferio was a street rat minion of Zagato in the anime, Magic Knight Rayearth. Emeraude was Ferio’s older sister. Just before Emeraude chose to become the pillar of Cephiro, she gave Ferio two communication broaches as farewell gift. They never saw each other after that because Ferio’s memories were altered so that Emeraude could become the pillar without any distractions. Ferio regained his memories after his sister’s death and in the second season of Magic Knight Rayearth, he took his rightful position as the prince of Cephiro.
Relena and Zechs of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing are another pair of siblings that would never cross your mind as being related. She was the future Queen of the world and defender of Earth. He was an agent of Oz and almost annihilated Earth. She relentlessly stalked a Gundam pilot and frequently asked him to kill her. He liked to change his name a lot and wore a mask to hide his identity. Maybe they’re not that different after all. They certainly knew what they wanted and were willing to do anything just to get it.
However, of all the unusual siblings out there in the anime world, Maze the Megaburst Space would probably take the cake. Maze was a normal Japanese girl who was transported (along with a part of her house) to some sword and sorcery type of world.
Once there, she was cursed to become a boy at night. Male-type Maze was the total opposite of of the female-type Maze. Let’s just say he was constantly driven — driven by his hormones that is. In a world where the female population wears little clothing, he was in seventh heaven.
The low-down on this two is that they were actually sibling on Earth named Mei and Akira. Akira was one year older than Mei and has a totally bad attitude. The two were very close though. Akira wanted nothing more than to protect Mei and guard her forever. Mei would go over to Akira’s apartment (since he had been driven out of their sadistic father) to just clean the place and make sure her brother ate.
Because of his general behavior, Akira had to repeat on year in high school and since they were so close and Mei’s classmates considered him as another Mei, everyone began calling the siblings Meis or Maze. When they were transported to the new world, their wish to become one became real.
The last on the list is quite unexpected. No one would have guessed that Dilandau and Allen would be related. In Vision of Escaflowne, Allen’s younger sister, Serena, was kidnapped when she was little. She was then “adopted” by the Zaibach kingdom and experimented on.
Years later, she became Dilandau, a sadistic leader extraordinaire with a penchant for slapping his subordinates. Near the end of the series, Dilandau changed back into Serena for a short time after seeing all of his subordinates die. She reverted to her Dilandau form but was never the same sadist. At the end of the series, she became Serena again after Allen fought Van for her life.