Kyouiku Mama

Kyouiku mama (教育ママ), or “education mom,” is a Japanese cultural stereotype 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, which flares whenever they fall short of her high expectations. Her behavior often negatively affects the child’s physical and social development, as well as their mental health.

Kyouiku mama is similar to the authoritarian "helicopter parent" stereotypes of other cultures, such as the athletics-focused American “soccer mom” or the Chinese “tiger parent,” who uses severe, strict parenting methods to ensure that their child overachieves in all facets of life. However, the kyouiku mama strictly forbids her children from partaking in any hobbies that aren’t related to their academic careers, including clubs and extracurricular activities.

While any mother of any appearance can be a kyouiku mama, the most familiar portrayal is a middle-aged woman who pulls her hair back in a bun and wears pointed cat-eye eyeglasses, with a severe, no-nonsense demeanor. She may also speak in the antiquated, snooty Yamanote dialect of feudal era courtesans to make herself sound more sophisticated.

Yukimitsu’s mother, Akari, is modeled off the kyouiku mama stereotype. She’s forced him to attend cram school since he was a child, and strictly forbade him from extracurricular activities. As a result, he's grown up to be a model gariben with a skinny, frail body and almost no social life outside of academics.

She's also portrayed as an older woman with a bun and pointed cat-eye glasses. She fits the cultural image so well that 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 also has a nasty temper, to the point Yukimitsu visibly walks on eggshells around her. For most of the series, 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. While disguised as Yukimitsu's homeroom teacher, Hiruma convinced her that playing on an all-star sports team would help his future job prospects.