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Beautiful anime fantasy mom is now teaching Japanese people how to speak English

Casey Baseel Mar 25, 2020
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Fans of Do You Love Your Mom? Will learn how to say “You may not look at me in the nude” as part of new textbook.

Despite Japan being the home country of anime and manga, not every parent is happy to find out their children are fans of those media. After all, any time spent indulging their otaku tastes is time they’re not spending studying, right?

Not necessarily, because there’s a brand-new English textbook with anime characters explaining the fundamentals to Japanese students.

To clarify, this isn’t just an English text where the illustrations have an anime influence, like when New Horizon’s Ellen Baker charmed the Japanese Internet a while back. No, the lengthily named Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? Junior High English Review Book stars the cast from actual anime series Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? This isn’t some doujinshi fan parody either, but an officially licensed, earnest-minded study aid for learners of English as a second language.

For those who didn’t catch the anime TV series (which aired last summer) or who haven’t been keeping up with the continuing light novels, the plot kicks off when ordinary teenager Masato gets transported into an alternate world, a fantasy video game realm. But in a twist of anime’s absentee parent cliche, his doting mother, Mamako, is along for the adventure, and quickly establishes herself as the strongest fighter in Masato’s band of companions.

Since the book is aimed at junior high school students (or those looking to review that linguistic level), it covers some very fundamental topics such as the difference between the verbs “be” and “do,” how to use “can” and “may,” and how to pose and respond to questions, all of which are common stumbling blocks for Japanese students. However, while the grammar is all pretty standard, the vocabulary is anything but.

Granted, a lot of the vocabulary isn’t all that applicable to everyday conversations for anyone who isn’t an isekai story protagonist. On the other hand, many of the grammar explanations look pretty solid (though the phrases “go to the quest” and “a armor” show up), and the abundant number of example sentences give plenty of opportunities to see the teaching points in action.

There’s also a mnemonic boost that comes from working with sentences that relate to what the target audience, fans of Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?, will know as preexisting characters and relationships. A major issue in language instruction is instilling the concept that the student actually should learn to say things correctly, in order to avoid misrepresenting a situation. That concept doesn’t always stick when dealing with purely arbitrary example sentences, but in this case, fans of the show should get some extra satisfaction from knowing that the English they’re working with is a way to stay true to the anime source material.

As an added bonus, purchasers of the book will also be able to download an audio guide with Mamako’s vice actress, Ai Kayano, providing narration of the lessons.

Online reactions from fans of the series have included:

“What a tine to be alive!”
“If they’d had this when I was in junior high, I probably would have studied a lot harder.”
“I’m out of junior high and going to trade school but I still want a copy of this.”
“Pre-ordered!”

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? Junior High English Review Book releases on March 28, and can be ordered for 1,650 yen (US$15) through Amazon here. Considering how Mamako’s fans have shown themselves to be willing to lie down on the street for her, odds are it’ll be a big seller.

Source: Amazon via Twitter/@okaasan_online via Otakomu
Images: Amazon
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