Why on earth do I hate the Mother manual? Well, for starters, it's not a manual, per se. Rather, it's a huge piece of paper--a poster, really--that's been folded into a two-inch-by-three-inch rectangle. (What can I say? I much prefer manuals that can be flipped through, one page at a time, to ones that require folding and unfolding.)
Another reason I'm not a huge fan of the Mother manual: There's a lot more text, and a lot fewer illustrations and screenshots, than I expected to see in such a production.
That's not to say it lacks any interesting art whatsoever. On the contrary, a number of interesting illustrations and photos (of what appear to be clay models) can be found within the folds of Mother's instruction manual. (They're fully responsible for the love I feel for this booklet, by the way.)
For instance, there are these models of the game's main party members (Ninten, Ana, Lloyd and Teddy):
I also like the models seen on this otherwise-text-filled page:
Click on any or all of the scans above or below to take a closer look at them, by the way.
Photos of even more clay models can be found on the following page, which details Mother's many enemy characters.
