Fairy Tale Tropes: Mean Families in Manga

Despite not caring greatly for the Cinderella fairy tale, I acknowledge that it delivers important and prevalent tropes and themes. 

One trope is the awful family/step-family/foster family from which the Cinderella character needs to escape. (The sisters in McKinley's Beauty are unique since they are actually quite nice.)

Despite the prevalence, I struggled to find examples in manga. 

It isn't that bad families don't exist in manga; rather, the manga that I read rarely present the family as the primary motivation for leaving. (Guess the Japanese forgot to make Freud a constant presence in every story.)

Cinderella needs to escape a seriously bad situation; in Western art, only her historical time period excuses her passivity. Get it together! Move out!

Contrariwise in manga, though family members often represent uncomfortable situations--debt, pressure and expectations, indifference--in only a few instances--Mars and potentially Caste Heaven come to mind--is there actual family abuse. 

I could be reading the wrong manga. 

In the series I do read, the closest "bad home life" I could come up with was Punch Up! in which Kouta prefers not to return to a living situation that became extremely unstable after his parents' deaths. He moves in with Maki, an extroverted beast (with two cats), instead. 

The major difference between Punch Up and Cinderella is something that Cinderella bypasses since the tale typically ends before Cinderella gets bored (excluding Into the Woods in which Cinderella ends up with the Baker) yet Jane Eyre addresses: the horrible family might be horrible but at least it has an obligation to the protagonist. If the Cinderella figure marries "up" to someone with more money and power, hasn't one uncomfortable family situation simply been exchanged for another? 

Kouta wants to make his own way, not live off Maki. He is happier with Maki but still conflicted. Imperfection has not be left for perfection, merely for something somewhat better. 

Left to right: Father, Tin, Can

Mean families are more prevalent in live-action BL (ah, contemporary teens love to be angry at their families!) but the emphasis is still on reconciliation rather than escape--and reality often intrudes (what will you do instead?). Tin in Chance to Love leaves the family home--he also immediately gains, at his request (and by sheer force of personality), an integral position in the family business. He and his father make peace.

Western Cinderellas are often Horatio Algers. Cinderellas in manga and BL are closer to Beauties. Both are fairly respectable tropes: 

Find one's own path. 

Or--

Bring the Beast and the beastly behavior into the fold.