Post
by Rorschach » Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:39 am
Aishiteru Ze Baby was full of this kind of character; it seemed to deal with just about every kind of non-sexual abuse and neglect there is. Among the abused and neglected:
Kokoro, whose father remarried after her mother died and left her to fend for herself. She gets to live in a luxurious apartment as part of the deal, but she's still portrayed as being very lonely.
Five-year-old Yuzuyu, whose mother proved inadequate to raising her after her father died, and abandoned her to the rest of her family to raise. (She adjusted remarkably well to this new arrangement, however.)
Miki, probably the character with the most disturbing story of the lot, fell prey to the abuse of her teacher, classmates, and even her own family when she tried to tell the proper authorities her teacher had beaten and bullied a boy in her class. She has (apparently self-inflicted) cigarette burns on her arm, wields a bicycle chain as a weapon (it was a switchblade in the manga), and is implied to have been contemplating suicide in at least one episode.
Then there's Shouta, one of Yuzuyu's young classmates whose mother had a lot of trouble with her temper and once flew off the handle and hit him so hard he ended up in the hospital. His mother and father in turn had a lot of issues, and had to move back in with his grandparents to get their family back into some semblance of working order.
Miki with her messed-up psyche and emo goth-punk motif is probably closest to the kind of character you're seeking, (and her backstory has some very vivid imagery to it) but you might want to throw some of these other characters into the mix as well depending on how much material you're seeking.