Mayu's Mother

Mayu is struck by more than just her mother's hand

Mayu, a young teenaged girl, is a main character in the Elfen Lied manga and anime series, homeless when first seen, and we later learn her mother and step-father are the reasons why.

Nothing is known about Mayu's birth-father, or exactly how long Mayu's mother was without a husband. In flashback, and never revealed to the other characters she comes to live with, Mayu remembers meeting her new step-father, who soon begins to sexually abuse her. Unable to bear any more, Mayu told her mother what was happening.

To Mayu's shock, her mother neither disbelieved her nor urged her to keep quiet about this matter. Rather, she expressed bitter jealousy towards her daughter, decrying her as the reason her new husband was not paying attention to her. Driving home her selfish point of view, Mayu's mother told her that, were she to simply disappear, no one would care. That same night, when the step-father attempted to rape Mayu again, she fled her mother's home, never to return.

Mayu was eventually taken in by two college students, Kouta and Yuka, and stayed with them in a former restaurant called Maple House. While she was reluctant at first to reveal where she had lived (and again, never her full past), eventually, the young couple persuaded her to let them contact her mother, so that Mayu could attend a school in their area. To their dismay, the mother signed away effective custody of Mayu without discussion, deeply raising their suspicions of her. However, out of respect for Mayu, Kouta and Yuka did not press this matter, basically becoming Mayu's parents for all intents and purposes. For a time, the abuse and betrayal she had suffered in her old home made Mayu suspicious of her guardians, in particular Kouta, who she caught in a typical harem-anime compromising situation with the child-like Nyu ( the alter-ego of the series' main character, Lucy ). Her mother was not seen or heard from after signing away custody.

As with many minor (and some major) characters in Elfen Lied, next to nothing is known about the mother's name, appearance, or subsequent fate in the series, or whether her marriage endured after her daughter left, with the stepfather's possible true aim in marrying her thwarted. Some fan speculation have placed the mother and step-father as victims of either Lucy or the rough-hewn Bando, who came to care about Mayu, but nothing in either version of the series supports this in any way. In fact, since authorities would know Mayu's new home address, if anything had happened to her mother, she likely would have been informed.

Two things are clear. Mayu was better off in her new home, and that, while her step-father is the one who abused her, only her mother could betray her. While far from the worst mother in fiction or anime, she will likely always have a relatively high place on that list.

Trivia

• Currently, no listing can be found for the Japanese Voice Actress (Seiyu) for Mayu's Mother, the only character not so listed, major or minor. Whether this is merely an oversight or perhaps a deliberate choice on the seiyu's part is not known.