Kyouiku Mama

Kyouiku mama (教育ママ), or “education mom,” is a Japanese slang term for a mother who’s unhealthily obsessed with her child’s academic performance. She’s controlling and overbearing, forcing them to study excessively and attend cram school. Children with a kyouiku mama live in constant fear of her temper, as she will explode in angerif they fall short of her high expectations. Her behavior often negatively affects the child’s physical and social development, while also taking a toll on their mental health.

Kyouiku mama bears some similarity to the authoritarian "helicopter parent" stereotypes in other cultures, such as the American “soccer mom” that pushes her child to succeed in school sports, or the Chinese “tiger parent,” who uses severe, strict parenting to ensure that their child succeeds in all facets of life, be it school, sports, or music. However the kyouiku mama diverges from these, in that she strictly forbids her children from partaking in any hobbies that aren’t related to studying, including clubs and extracurricular activities.

While any mother of any appearance can be a kyouiku mama, the most common stereotypical portrayal is a middle-aged woman who pulls her hair back in a bun and wears pointed cat-eye eyeglasses. She may also use the antiquated, snooty speech of feudal era courtesans from the Yamanote prefecture to make herselh sound more sophisticated.

Yukimitsu’s mother, Akari, is modeled off the cultural stereotype of a kyouiku mama. She’s forbidden her son from partaking in club activities and sports since he was a child—to the point he's grown up to be a typical gariben with a skinny, frail body—and is portrayed as an older woman with a bun and pointed cat-eye glasses. Yukimitsu even dreads the day she’ll start adding ~zaamasu (ざあます) to the end of her sentences, a hallmark of feminine Yamanote speech.

Akari is also shown to have a nasty temper, to the point Yukimitsu is visibly afraid of her. He hides playing American football from her to avoid incurring her wrath. In a surprising twist, Akari happily approves of her son's new hobby after Hiruma convinced her that Yukimitsu's playing on an all-star sports team would help his future job prospects.