树欲静而风不止，子欲养而亲不待
The trees may prefer the calmness but the wind will not subside;
The child may be ready for respect but the parents may not be still alive.
The trees may prefer the calmness but the wind will not subside;
The child may be ready for respect but the parents may not be still alive.
— Ancient Chinese proverb on Filial Obligations
My Beloved Mother
(机器妈妈) is a 2004 Manhua by esteemed Chinese comic artist, Wang Xiao-yang.
In a technologically-advanced future, robots are integrated into society (albeit as second-class citizens), including in the childcare system. That is, especially in the childcare and welfare system — where orphans are issued a mandatory robo-mom.
Sinbell is one such orphan, a child in the small town of Marloq, who lose his mother years ago under mysterious circumstances which he doesn't remember due to being too young when it happened. Issued a robomom codenamed "Milan" - one which is military-grade, and the first of her kind - who raises Sinbell like a real mother and loves him with all her heart, Sinbell unfortunately doesn't reciprocate Milan's love to him. After becoming the school's laughingstock and outcast when Milan's appearance in Sinbell's class reveals him to be an orphan raised by robots, and finally losing his temper on his loving, well-meaning robot mother, Sinbell decides to flee from home.
Believing his real mother is out there and alive, Sinbell runs away into the big city, while Milan goes on a desperate search for Sinbell despite being repeatedly rejected.
Soon enough, Sinbell discovers the truth about who his mother really is, and realize the robot mother, Milan, is far more precious to him than he could imagine. And the readers will need to grab a new pack of tissues.
My Beloved Mother, upon its original release, won the Golden Dragon Award Original Animation & Comic Competition (OACC) Award in 2004, putting Wang Xiao-yang on the map as one of China's notable comic artists. A subsequent re-issue in 2012 earned it an award by China's Ministry of Culture, one of the highest honors in media available to comics. It was re-published in multiple languages, including English and Malay, for distribution in East and Southeast Asia.
Not related to the My Beloved Smother trope.
This manhua contains examples of:
- Almost Dead Guy: In the flashback final chapter, Aya, the biological mother of Sinbell, was incinerated alive while using her body to shield her son from a gas explosion, with Sinbell surviving but losing his memories as consequence. Aya's a Bandage Mummy clinging on the last thread of life when Dr. Carl finds her, and in her death throes, gives her Dying Wish - for her mind to be programmed into the military-grade prototype robomom in Carl's laboratory, so that she can continue being a mother to Sinbell.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Milan shows up in Sinbell's school when he forgot his lunchbox... and accidentally reveals the fact that Sinbell has a robot mother. And then Fantastic Racism comes into play, leading to Sinbell getting kicked out of his class' Anti-Robot Club and being laughed at by everybody for having a "non-human" mother.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: Sinbell, throughout his life, always pinned for his true, biological mother, but he never really questions who's his father. It's the resident doctor, Carl.
- Ambiguous Time Period: Is the story set 20 Minutes in the Future, or an alternate, high-tech version of the present? While there are robots all over the place alongside humans, society still works like normal; there are human jobs that functions like in our world (Sinbell's human teacher with a class of human teenagers, the adult Sinbell works in an office, one of the characters is a prostitute, etc.) and if readers ignore the robots' presence, the manhua' world is barely any different from ours.
- The Atoner:
- The resident doctor of Marloq, Carl, seems a little too concerned over Sinbell's welfare, being the first to attend to Sinbell after repeated run-in with bullies, allows Sinbell to be treated without charge, and does everything he can to ensure no harm comes to the boy, even moreso to the other civilain kids. It turns out Carl is Sinbell's biological father, in the aftermath of an affair with Sinbell's mother Aya, and is still guilty for trying to force Aya into an abortion. In other words, he's remorseful over nearly killing his own son.
- Sinbell himself, once Asara, the prostitute who's pretending to be his mother, throws him out and reveals she's only playing along because Sinbell's robot mother is paying her. A Jerkass Realization soon follows, and Sinbell quickly returns to Marloq to find Milan and accept his robot mother as an actual mother.
- Barehanded Bar Bending: Milan demonstrates this ability on a gang of robot bullies when one of them tries assaulting Sinbell with an iron bar. Cue the bullies fleeing in panic.
- Determinator: Both Sinbell and Milan. Sinbell will do anything to find his true mother out there, even if it means sleeping in the streets, while Milan won't stop until she retrieves Sinbell and brings him home.
- Died on Their Birthday: As revealed in the story's epilogue, Aya was incinerated alive by a gas explosion on her 25th birthday while using her body to shield her toddler son, the then 4-year-old protagonist Sinbell. Before she dies, she requests for her consciousness to be reprogrammed into a robotic body, the Robot Mother codenamed Milan, for her to continue her motherly duties.
- Dull Surprise: Early in the story when Sinbell returns from school and his neighbor, Aunt Slado, worriedly tells him the news that his mother's had an accident in the factory she worked and severed her hand, Sinbell's response is a flat, emotionless "Whatever". That was before readers find out Sinbell's caretaker, Milan, is a robot.
- Exact Words: Dr. Carl tells Sinbell his mother is "still alive", while rushing to attend a patient. He's not wrong - Sinbell's biological mother, Aya, may be dead after sacrificing herself to save him, but her soul was reprogrammed into the robotic body of Milan who serves as Sinbell's robot caretaker.
- Family Versus Career: In the flashback, Sinbell's biological mother, a supermodel named Aya, unexpectedly realize she's pregnant with him while in the peak of her career after an affair with Dr. Carl, who was then recently promoted and at a high point of his career, too. Aya chose her child almost without hesitation, but Dr. Carl disagrees - which turns ugly when Carl attempts to have Aya drugged for an abortion. It doesn't work, Aya escapes the hospital and the city and Carl later have a My God, What Have I Done? moment upon realizing what his action entails.
- Fantastic Racism: Despite robots being accepted into society, humans still bear some sort of prejudice towards the machines, with orphans raised by robomoms deemed an "outcast". Sinbell himself is a member of his class' Anti-Robot Club, which make things difficult considering his caretaker is Milan, a robot, a truth he unsuccessfully tries to hide from his classmates to avoid becoming an outcast.
- Foreshadowing: Right in the first chapter, when a dejected Sinbell asks Milan where he's from, Milan replies with, "You come from mommy's tummy!" - this is despite that being a robot, there's NO way Milan should (or would) know how the human biology (reproduction, pregnancy, etc.) works. Then comes the revelation that Milan was actually Sinbell's biological mother, Aya, reprogrammed into a robot body, memories and all intact.
- Full-Conversion Cyborg: From Aya to Milan, with the only "human" part of Milan being Aya's soul.
- Gang of Bullies: A quartet of robot bullies repeatedly harasses Sinbell early on, which he beats up easily. Until they tried ambushing him after Sinbell tries running away from home by himself the first time.
- Identical Stranger: Asara, the prostitute living in Hodes City, looks like a doppelganger of Sinbell's mother Aya. Sinbell assumes his search for his real mother is complete after meeting Asara, but things are not what it seems.
- I Will Find You: Sinbell's quest to find his "real" mother in the capital city, Hodes, with only an old photograph as clue.
- Jerkass Realization: Sinbell, upon discovering the truth that Asara, the woman he thought was his mother, was just a fraud. And that his robot mother Milan has been his Mysterious Protector even after he sent her off, the whole time.
- Kids Are Cruel: And are they ever - one of Sinbell's schoolmates who was issued a robot mother after his biological parents' deaths gets bullied to the point of fleeing school, two months later, due to prejudice towards robots. Yes, a child who lose his parents just recently. It gets even worse when Milan accidentally appears in Sinbell's school after Sinbell forgot his lunchbox - the whole class is quick to sever ties with Sinbell just because his mom's a robot!
- Lethal Chef: Asara tries cooking for Sinbell when pretending to be his true mother, but unfortunately her meals are an unsightly mess that Sinbell couldn't even swallow, opting to make a run straight to work and have breakfast elsewhere. Justified since, well, she's a hooker who never actually had any experience.
- Mama Bear: Milan, the robomom looking after Sinbell, isn't afraid to defend her son from bullies (humans and robots alike) and eventually fought a military-grade destroyer robot to save her child.
- Memorial Statue: The last page (chronologically, if discounting the final chapter which is a flashback) of the story is a live-sized sculture of Milan, the robotic mother of Sinbell, which he finally accepts and creates in memoriam over her final sacrifice to save him from a nuclear strike. Complete with a plaque that doubles as a Title Drop: "My Beloved Mother".
- Minor Living Alone: 12-year-old Sinbell, after running away into the big city to seek his "real" mother.
- Mysterious Protector: Even after being sent back to Dr. Carl, Milan would repeatedly come back for Sinbell, bringing him lunch while staying away from the humans. Subverted that Sinbell is well aware of Milan's presence (hence downplaying the "mysterious" part) but he simply doesn't acknowledge her.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Sinbell, after finding Asara in bed with another man, leaps on him and pummels him repeatedly, despite Asara shouting at him to stop. It leads to Asara grabbing a nearby sculpture and smashing Sinbell's head. And then revealing that she's never Sinbell's biological mother - she's only playing along because Sinbell's robot mother, Milan, was paying her to play along the whole time.
- Race Against the Clock: In the second-to-last chapter, Sinbell must locate his robot mother, Milan, within 3 hours to make amends with her... before a nuke destroys most of Cantal and every robot inside it.
- Raised by Robots: All the orphans, including Sinbell, are given to robotic caretakers, whether they want it or not.
- Redemption Equals Death: Dr. Carl, who tries reuniting Sinbell and Milan, only to be shot by a stray bullet and bleed out. Moments before he succumbs, he reveals himself as Sinbell's biological father, and the reason why Sinbell and his mother was separated in the first place, apologizing all the way until he succumbs.
- Redemption in the Rain: It's raining when Sinbell starts walking from Hodes back to Marloq. That's also when he had his Jerkass Realization and finally decided to seek his robmom, Milan, to make amends.
- Regained Memories Sequence: When Milan uses herself to shield Sinbell from the bomb that destroys Cantal, Sinbell suddenly sees his memory from his past - what actually happened when he was four, with his biological mother Aya using herself to shield young Sinbell from a gas explosion.Sinbell: Suddenly, my memory came back to me... the old memory playing right in front of my eyes
...the mother that I've always been searching for has always been at my side... - Riddled and Rattled: Milan, the titular robot Mama Bear uses herself as a shield for multiple rounds fired from a security turret so her (human) son Sinbell can flee and take cover. When the dust cleared, the turret is out of bullets, Milan is still standing, and she finally falls when Sinbell rushes out of cover to her side so she can perform her final Heroic Sacrifice saving Sinbell from a city-destroying nuke.
- Rotten Robotic Replacement: Sinbell sees his robomom, Milan, to be vastly inferior to his alleged real mother, despite having no memories of his biological mom. And then comes the revelation that his real mother, Aya, is actually a soul inside Milan's robot body.
- Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead: Sinbell adamently believes his true, biological mother is out there (in a Believing Their Own Lies sort of way), running away from home into the big city, from his robomom Milan, and everyone who knows him. It turns out his biological mother, Aya, died and was reprogrammed into his robot mother Milan - the woman he assumes to be his mother is just an Identical Stranger.
- Stand-In Parents: Early in the story with Sinbell as an elementary-school kid, Sinbell asks for his neighbor, Aunt Slado, to attend his school's parent-teacher conference due to being ashamed of revealing his robomom Milan to the rest of his classmates.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: When Sinbell returns to Marloq after spending years in Hodes, and finds out Asara, the woman he assumed is his biological mother, was a fraud all along, he realize how dilapidated and run-down his former home had become. And that all the robot residents have seemingly vanished. Then he finds out the truth from Aunt Slado that all robots are to be recalled and destroyed, including his robot mother Milan.
- Struggling Single Mother: Milan is a Struggling Single Robot Mother.
- Surprise Pregnancy: How Sinbell comes into existance as revealed in the final chapter flashback - his biological mother, a supermodel named Aya, unexpectedly became pregnant with him after a brief affair with Dr. Carl. Suddenly throwing up in the middle of a photoshoot, a pregnancy test reveals that Aya will soon be a mother, where she decides to ditch her career aside and be a full-time mother. Unfortunately, Dr. Carl has other ideas.
- Tomato Surprise: Sinbell's true mother, Aya? She's the robot mother Milan, the whole time. After giving up her life to save Sinbell back when he was 4, Aya's Dying Wish is for Dr. Carl to reprogram her into the Milan prototype, effectively recreating Aya's soul inside a robotic body so she can resume her motherly duties.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Sinbell in a nutshell - even discounting the fact that he's an orphan, he's still a massive jerkass to his robomom Milan for most of the story's first half, despite Milan loving him with all her heart, until his Jerkass Realization moment. He finally decides to go home to Milan, his robomom, realizing how much she means to him, but then the government issues a nationwide robot recall and for all existing models to be destroyed.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Sinbell, can't you be a little appreciative over what your robot mother is doing for you?
- Unrobotic Reveal: In a way - Sinbell's robomom, Milan, is actually occupied by the soul of Sinbell's biological mother Aya, where despite being entirely mechanical, she's alive on the inside.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Two of them:
- When Sinbell gets humiliated in class after he's revealed to have a robot for a mother, he asks his neighbor, Aunt Slado, where he's from. Aunt Slado managed to recall a vague memory from a decade ago of Milan and Sinbell moving in from Hodes, a nearby big city... which unintentionally inspires Sinbell to run away from home towards Hodes to find his "real mother".
- In the flashback, Dr. Carl decides to have Aya sedated after she announced that she's pregnant with his child, Sinbell, and abort the baby. It doesn't work, and only leads to Aya suddenly regaining consciousness in the hospital and fleeing the city. Carl regrets his decisions and spends the next decade trying to atone for his actions.
- Wham Line:
- Asara, the hooker who appears to be Sinbell's real mother, had one of these in the big revelation scene.
- There's also Dr. Carl's revelation that Milan, the robot mother, is actually Sinbell's real mother.Dr. Carl: ...she is not a robot! She is your REAL mother!... she wished that she would be turned into a robot to continue to protect and take care of you... and also to watch you grow up.
Sinbell: No... it's not possible! Lies! They're not real! How could you have known all this?
Dr. Carl: Because... I am your father...
- Whole Episode Flashback: The last chapter is a flashback to Sinbell's past and discloses what actually happened when he was 4 years old, and how his biological mother, Aya, gave up her life to save him before getting reprogrammed into a robot, Milan.
