Overprotective Fathers as a Trope: Does It Exist in Manga?

On Votaries, I discuss overprotective fathers as a trope. I conclude that 21st-century television fathers have become far more nuanced in their reactions to their families.

My plan was to write about overprotective fathers on Romance & Manga, particularly overprotective fathers in shojo & yaoi manga.

There are some--the fathers who protest when their sons or daughters move away from home or start dating someone they don't know. However, overprotective boyfriends abound far more. Well, except for all the times they decide that reserved, deliberate, almost aggressive inaction is actually healthier for their mates.

It would be most accurate to say that in manga, over-protection is a trope in the negative--that is, lots of manga volumes present situations where the heroes or heroines are left to figure out things on their own. Growth is predicated directly on alone-time introspection.

Over-protection isn't cute in manga. It's dangerous.

Shojo

In Hana-Kimi, Mizuki Ashiya makes a father figure out of Hokuto Umeda, the school doctor. He is sarcastic, aloof, self-interested (he claims). Yet he keeps her secret (she is a girl pretending to be a boy in an all-boys' school) and gives her reluctant advice. His advice almost always takes the form of pushing her to think out the problem for herself: What do you think you should do? He consistently refuses to take the matter of choice out of her hands.

Yaoi

In Honey Darling, the "bear" boyfriend offers Chihiro a place to stay, then is quite clear with him about his duties. This speech is the climax of the romance (I'm not kidding):

If you keep giving up on everything so easily, you'll eventually give up on yourself. Why don't you take your time to decide. Don't rush it. You said this job has been worthwhile. If you feel that way about it, then you'll eventually gain the necessary knowledge and experience to carry you through. 

Of course, there are those manga where individual self-reliance is taken to such extremes that the main characters have to learn to at least tell each other where they are going (think 127 Hours). But that's a post for a different time.