When You Coming Home Dad / Anime & Manga

• 20th Century Boys: This has happened with a police detective and his daughter, to the point that she tells him if he's only one hour late to his grandson's birthday party, it'll be okay. It's a Doomed Appointment, of course. It also happened to Otcho, with similarly devastating consequences.
• In Bokurano, Waku tells Moji that he used to play soccer, but his father never showed up for the tournament he was in, so he began to question why he was doing it and decided to take a break from it. At his funeral, his father admits to having been burdened with work. In the manga, Aiko "Anko" Tokiosumi's father Akira is one as a news reporter, and it's revealed that she had once hoped to be an Idol Singer to see him on TV.
• Cardcaptor Sakura:
  • Sonomi Daidouji, Tomoyo's mother. Like Dr. Mizuno, Sonomi's always very busy with her business and barely has time to see Tomoyo, but is genuinely affectionate to her and her friends when she is around. Specially seen in the episode where Tomoyo temporarily becomes a Cute Mute due to a Clow Card stealing her voice.
  • Sakura's father Fujitaka is a milder example, as he's an archeologist and uni professor with a very heavy schedule. Since he has been widowed since Sakura was three years old, Touya, his older son and Sakura’s big brother, often gets Promoted to Parent while he’s away. Fujitaka, however, is not abusive, and genuinely loves his children.
• Fans often think this is the case in Dragon Ball Z, though Gohan has never shown much if any anger for his father not being there more for him. This is probably because his absences are usually with good reason, and he spends as much time as he can with his family when he is around. His first absence of one year is because he dies saving Gohan, and stays in the afterlife to train so he can protect the Earth from the Saiyan threat. The next time, he crash-lands on a distant planet following his fight with Frieza, and only declines to return to Earth immediately because he is in the midst of learning an incredibly useful technique - he returns of his own accord a year and a half later. His longest separated time (seven years) was due to him sacrificing himself to prevent Cell from destroying Earth, and believing that if he stayed dead there would be no more foes (like Frieza or Cell). Despite this, he ends up returning and staying until he had to leave to teach his successor - which doesn't prevent him from visiting often if Neko Majin Z will have us believe. Least to say, neither of Goku's sons are in any way resentful for this and Chichi ends up understanding (but still doesn't cease to worry).
• Shun of Endride is rather more proactive than most, so when his dad doesn't come home for his own birthday, Shun goes to his office to drag him back home. Ironically, the tables are turned when this leads to his getting Trapped in Another World, with his parents now probably missing him.
• Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA: Shirou and Illya's parents spend most of their time away on business trips, leaving them in the care of the family maids. Iri comes back every once in a while, but Kiritsugu is almost always busy. While it's mostly Played for Laughs (with Shirou complaining that the male to female ratio is too skewed), in 2wei it's implied that the reason Kiritsugu is so busy is that he's killing anyone who might try to start another Holy Grail War, since doing so would put his daughter in danger.
• Tsubomi's parents in HeartCatch Pretty Cure! had this problem, being well-respected botanists and always off on business trips until Tsubomi had an emotional breakdown, forcing them to realize that they were destroying their family. They quickly quit their jobs and move to Kibogahana so they can be with Tsubomi's grandmother and be a family again, which kicks off the story.
• I Had That Same Dream Again: Nanoka's parents both work a lot and are rarely home at the same time, which is part of why she spends so much time with Minami, "Skank-san", and Obaachan. This bugs her more than she tends to let on, but when Nanoka learns that her parents can't come to school on the day that her class gives their reports on the "happiness" assignment due to sudden work commitments, she blows up at her mother.
• I Think Our Son Is Gay: The boys' father often goes overseas for his job, which causes him to be rather out of the loop regarding his son's sexuality. However, while he is home, he tries to spend as much time as possible with his children, and they get along well.
• Tsugawa's family in Japan, Inc..
• Jewelpet Twinkle☆:
  • Miria has parents who're famous in the music business, and so they spend the majority of time away from home, making Miria feel lonely. It was during one of these periods of angst that she met her Jewelpets.
  • Sara also has scientist parents who went abroad when she was a kid. The only news she gets of them is when they send gifts.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, we have Jotaro Kujo's father, who wasn't around often, due to being a jazz musician that was frequently on tour. Not that Jotaro seems to resent him for this, but he clearly didn't understand that most people need a dad while growing up. This affects his and his daughter Jolyne's relationship in Stone Ocean, as he just sort of assumed that she would inherently know that his near-constant absence was to keep her and her mother out of the Stand-related trouble he regularly dealt with.
• Little House with an Orange Roof: This is one of the catalysts for the premise; to keep the soulless corporation from firing him, the series' "dad" spends every waking moment working. It costs him his first marriage.
• In Magic of Stella, Tamaki's father's jobs require him to only available at home one weekend a month. This is the Freudian Excuse for Tamaki's fascination of fictional middle-aged men.
• This is the tragic backstory of Precia Testarossa in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st. The sad part is, she did know that this was a problem and tried her best to make time for her daughter, but unlike the other Good Parents in the series who managed to balance their work and family life, she got smacked with the double whammy of a demanding job and unreasonable higher-ups. Unsurprisingly, when her daughter died before she could make up for lost time because said higher-ups ignored her expert warnings about her project, her mind broke.
• Parental Substitute Aversion in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. Kobayashi initially said she wouldn't be able to attend Parent's day (Sports Day in the anime) at Kanna's school due to it being the launch day for a project she was working on, but she then worked even more insane hours than normal to go anyway after realizing how important it was to Kanna.
• Lunge from Monster is this to the extent that his wife and daughter actually leave him. He doesn't particularly care at the time (that is how much he is obsessed with his work), but at the end of the story shows a desire to reconnect with his daughter.
• My Hero Academia: Izuku's relationship with his father is so distant, he never mentions the guy even in internal monologue, and seems to consider All Might his Parental Substitute (when he gets his provisional license, he wants to show his mom Inko and All Might). The only reason we know Inko is married is because she mentions her husband once. It's only in supplemental material that we find out that his name is Hisashi and he works overseas.
• In the Distant Finale of Naruto and its sequel series, Boruto Uzumaki seems to have this relationship with his father Naruto. He spends a lot of time playing pranks mostly as an effort to get his dad's attention since he's too busy being the seventh Hokage. While Naruto perhaps means well, it is shown that he barely knows anything about his son and has burned up much of Boruto's goodwill towards him, leading his eldest child to openly disrespect both him and his title of Hokage. Even when Naruto attempts to spend time with Boruto, it mostly revolves around things Naruto himself preferred as a child, such as taking Boruto out for ramen. Sadly, the man who once declared that "I never go back on my word, it's my ninja way!" seems to either be stretched too thin or just not understand his responsibility to his children. Boruto is particularly enraged when he feels he received a promise from Naruto to be at Himawari's birthday celebration, only for Naruto to send a clone...and one that dispels while carrying Himawari's cake. Needless to say, Boruto is NOT pleased with Naruto. His younger sister Himawari doesn't have this issue and is more accepting of their father's job.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gendo appears to be an example of this during the Journey to the Center of the Mind/Dream Sequence/who knows what in End of Evangelion, and at least one Alternate Continuity runs with the idea that this is how he'd be if his Start of Darkness hadn't taken place. It's somewhat telling that even when experiencing Instrumentality, which supposedly lets you live out your greatest wishes without limit, this is the most positive portrayal of his father that Shinji's imagination can devise.
• An episode of Nurse Angel Ririka SOS reveals that the Alpha Bitch Miyuki who frequently bullies Ririka has issues because her father is always at work and doesn't spend time with her. She becomes friends with Ririka's father however doesn't learn until the end who he is.
• This idea kicks off the story in Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror, exaggerated by the fact that the main character's mother died when she was young, so she feels especially abandoned by her remaining parent. In the end, the magic mirror projects her childhood and reveals that her father was more openly affectionate and around her more, leading to a twist on this trope of the child ultimately coming to realize that the father's workaholic tendencies are out of love and are necessary to support her, and she learns to accept it and to start loving him just the way he is.
• Pokémon:
  • Sorrel from Pokémon: I Choose You! has parents who work often. When he was younger, he was raised by their Luxray. The Luxray ended up freezing to death keeping him warm while they were stuck outside in a snowstorm.
  • In Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, Lillie feels this way about her workaholic mother Lusamine. She opens up about it to Professor Burnet after losing her temper over it that morning, which starts to mend the strained relationship they had.
• In Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea the father of main character Sosuke is this, much to his mother's annoyance. Hayao Miyazaki made the film at least partially as an apology to his son and wife for working so much. When the father signals I'm sorry from the ship, it's Miyazaki, talking to his family.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: Fuutarou's father Isanari often has to work extra hours to provide for his children, but he otherwise seems to have a fairly good relationship with them. By contrast, Maruo Nakano, the quintuplets' stepfather, seems to spend more time running his hospital than at home, and his relationship with them is at best distant and at worst even strained.
• Sailor Moon:
  • Ami's mom is a workaholic doctor, but also a pretty good person who had to raise her daughter almost on her own after her divorce. She even laments in the manga that she would really love to spend more time with her kid, but she cannot. This is to the point where she doesn't show up at all in The '90s anime. Likewise, her Disappeared Dad is a travelling artist (seemingly a wildlife painter) who communicates to her via letters and paintings but almost never actually shows up.
  • Rei also suffers from this — she lives with her grandfather in a Shinto shrine and only sees her father (a famous politician) on her birthday each year. Though in her case, Rei is perfectly happy with this arrangement - she hasn't really gotten along with her father since he couldn't be bothered to take some time off from work to be with his terminally ill wife some years before.
• Eri from School Rumble has this sort of relationship with her rich businessman father, who spends a lot of time away on business. One time she had put a lot of effort into her plans to cook nikujaga for dinner for the two of them that night, only for him to pull up right in front of her in his limousine on the way home to let her know that he has to fly out of Japan immediately and can't make it to dinner after all. She puts on a brave face and tries to be understanding, telling him she had plans to meet up with a friend anyway, but as he drives away leaving her standing in the rain it's clear she's heartbroken.
• In Sonic X both of Chris Thorndyke's parents have this problem, leaving him to depend on the company of an eccentric grandfather, and later a blue hedgehog and his friends. Subverted somewhat in that they both obviously care deeply about him, as shown by his father immediately calling him in concern after hearing from his mother that he went near the pool at night.
• Kotetsu/Wild Tiger's relationship with his daughter and how it's become strained because of his work as a Superhero (especially the fact that he's afraid to tell her about his job because he doesn't want her to worry about him) becomes a primary focus in the second half of Tiger & Bunny. After the series' climax, he uses the gradual decline of his powers as an opportunity to retire and spend more time with his daughter... Only to have said daughter talk him into coming out of retirement in less than a year.
• To Love Ru has this with Rito and Mikan Yuuki's parents, who are around and loving, but very busy with their occupations. Their father is a mangaka who works under such strict deadlines that he effectively lives in his remote studio, while their mother is a fashion designer who works overseas, and both of them only drop in to check on very rare occasions. Neither of the kids seem to mind much as they're smart enough to take care of themselves (especially as the hijinks Rito finds himself in attracts further companions), and they also don't seem to harbor any resentment towards their parents or their reasons for extended leave.
• Chiaki's father in Today's Cerberus is a globetrotter who even refers to himself as eternally traveling in letters to Chiaki.
• Yo-kai Watch:
  • It's revealed that Nate's friend Eddie is a Lonely Rich Kid whose parents are often too busy.
• Voltes V: Out of all the Gō brothers, Daijirou is the most desperate to see his father again, abandoning a mission to rescue him from Zuhl's forces. When this fails and he's forced to abandon his father again, Daijiro sheds Berserker Tears and lashes out at Kenichi. Unfortunately, as it turns out, Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You.
  • Touma from Yo-kai Watch: Shadowside - The Return of the Oni King feels as if his existence doesn't matter because his parents are usually away at work and he's never had any friends. This resent and anger leaves him the perfect target for manipulation by the Onimaro.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, the father of Akiza Izinski was a politician and, due to this, often couldn't be there for his daughter. One day, when he had a duel with his daughter, he got a call from his office, which triggered Akiza's Psychic Powers due to her rage about this.

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