You don't need a father. The form of a father that Jump taught me.

Pardon the intrusion!
It's Basha.

This article is written about the "ideal father figure" as I see it.

Please be aware that this is a crazy article with ideas far removed from those of a normal person. Lol

[Introduction]

I have grown up reading "Weekly Shonen Jump" since I was a child.
(Hereafter referred to as Jump)

Jump is a textbook for life itself.

For me, who buys Jump without fail every Monday,
a Monday without Jump is not a Monday.

Now that I have a child of my own and have become a father,
I have started to think about how I should be as a father
and what kind of influence I can have on my child.

At those times, the fathers from Jump come to mind.

I realized that my ideal father figure
exists within Jump.

And they were fathers who were either not by their children's side or were already dead.

[Immediate Conclusion]

This is a radical argument.

Once a child has grown up to a certain extent,
it is okay for the father not to be by their side.
That is my opinion.

What is important is
that the father's presence reaches them even when apart.

Even if they are dead,
that the words and actions from when they were alive
continue to resonate somewhere in the child's heart.

If that is the case,
a father does not need to be by their side.

[Ideal Fathers]

I will introduce the fathers I consider ideal.

・Monkey D. Dragon

Luffy's father from One Piece.
Leader of the Revolutionary Army.

Although he does not appear before Luffy,
the will to "live freely" is certainly inherited by his son.

A symbol of quiet fatherhood that "says nothing, but trusts and entrusts."

A man full of mystery.

"Children are a parent's weakness."
Since I became a parent myself,
I've truly come to agree with that idea.

・Bardock

Goku's father from Dragon Ball.

A proud Saiyan warrior.

Even while losing his comrades, he continued to fight until the end,
looking toward the future and entrusting his son with the words "survive."

Is he the legendary Super Saiyan?

Honestly,
he might not be an ideal,
but he's cool. lol

・Ging Freecss

Gon's father from Hunter x Hunter.

A legendary Hunter.

He leaves his son behind to continue his journey, but
that absence becomes Gon's driving force.

By "not being there to meet," he
"the power to search for himself and grow"
is a father who instilled this in his son.

A man who is too much of a free spirit.

Even if I'm drifting around,
I want my child to want to see me.

・Minato Namikaze

Naruto's father from NARUTO.

The Fourth Hokage.

To protect the village and his son from the Nine-Tails' attack,
he risked his own life to perform the sealing.

Although they could only be together for a moment,
he is a father who left "trust and love" for the future.

A very kind man.
He is overwhelmingly a better father than the others
introduced here, to the point where they shouldn't even be compared. lol

Kind, cool, and strong!

My ideal, everyone's ideal.

This guy isn't from Jump, but
since he is an essential character when talking about fathers in manga,
I would like to include him as a special case.

・Yujiro Hanma

Baki's father from the Baki series.

The strongest creature on Earth and a man who pursues ultimate strength.

He always stands in his son's way,
imprinting his existence through 'pressure' rather than love.

Though he is nearby, his heart is far away,
yet his way of life leads Baki to become the strongest.

The 'father who is there but not there'
—the ultimate form of fatherhood.

[Benefits]

These are the benefits when a father is constantly absent.

・Children become independent more easily

Rather than an environment where someone is always supporting them by their side,
they gain the experience of 'thinking, choosing, and acting for themselves' sooner.

・Becoming an object of admiration or a goal

A father you cannot meet becomes idealized.

Because he doesn't show his real-life weaknesses or hesitations,
he remains strongly in the child's mind as an 'existence to be surpassed'.

・Strength of heart and kindness are nurtured

Precisely because there is no one to rely on,
they become able to understand the pain and loneliness of others.

[Drawbacks]

Having no father
is by no means all good.
It also becomes a 'trial' for a child's growth.

While he leaves a powerful impact,
it is also a fact that his absence gives the child 'pain' and 'loneliness'.

・Affection is not conveyed

No matter how great or how strong he is,
the warmth of a 'father who is not nearby' is hard to convey.

Just as Naruto envied other parents and children,
the fact that 'there are no memories of time spent together'
leaves a hole somewhere in the heart.

It's not that there is no love.
It's just that,love that cannot be touched sometimes feels as if it doesn't exist.

・Feeling lonely

Children with an absent father always carry loneliness somewhere.

Even if they live their lives smiling,
deep down in their hearts, they want 'someone to be watching them'.

That loneliness can become a driving force, but
at the same time,it can also nurture a sadness that cannot be shown to anyone.

・The burden on the mother

This is the most important thing.

The reality is that if a father is absent,
that meansthe burden on the mother increasesaccordingly.

Housework, childcare, mental care—
no matter how strong a person is, there is a limit to carrying it all alone.

In the world of Jump, the story progresses even without a father.

But in real families,
a father's absence remains not as a story, but as the "weight of reality."

How much the mother is struggling behind the scenes to support the children.
If you lose sight of that, the ideal image of a father becomes nothing more than self-satisfaction.

[My Ideal]

Once children grow up,
they don't really play with their fathers anymore.

They make plenty of friends to hang out with,
and they get busy with club activities and lessons.

So, you don't have to be together all the time.
Even if you aren't by their side,
it's enough if your presence remains within the child.

Even if I were to die, it would be the same.

What matters is
whether your "attitude" and "way of thinking" remain within the child.

When they are lost, I want to show them a "back"
that makes them think, "Dad would do this."

For a father,
the time spent after he is gone
the "influence"is more valuable than the time spent next to the child.

[Summary]

The fathers in Jump are usually"absent".

They are either dead or have gone somewhere.
Yet, strangely, they live on inside their children more than anyone else.

I think.
Maybe a fatherdoesn't need to be thereat all.

What matters is not whether they are "absent," but
"how they lived"and"what they left behind".

Even if you die or are far away,
it is enough if you remain in your child's heart.

That is why I
want to leave many things for my children on SNS and in this note
before I die.

Thank you for reading.

I hope this serves as some kind of reference
for dads working hard at parenting!

Or maybe it won't. Haha.

To everyone who loves Basha, see you next time.