Anime’s Less Than Flattering Depiction of Mental Illness

The issue of mental health is one that’s near and dear to my heart. I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression ever since I was 11 and have recently been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). I studied psychology for four years at university and, upon graduating, started work as a recovery worker for a mental health charity. So, with anime also being near and dear to my heart, I’m very interested in its portrayal of mental illness. Over the past few years I’ve noticed anime’s depiction of mental illness improve somewhat. A Silent Voice and Orange both depicted depression and suicidality in a sensitive way and it’s interesting to watch Okabe tackle what appears to be post traumatic stress disorder in this season’s Steins;Gate 0. However, to date anime’s depiction of mental illness has been largely insensitive or inaccurate.

Can you truly appreciate a show without first analysing it?

I’ve been blogging for 9 months now and it’s taught me a lot of things but, mainly to foster a greater appreciation for the shows I watch. This is achieved through taking the time to sit back and consider whether there was anything the show was subtle-y hinting at or alluding to. I’m sure you’re all familiar with this process of over-analysing shows to the point it seems, to others, as though you’re pulling stuff straight out of your derriere, it’s something that kind of comes with the territory for a blogger but, is this truly necessary in order to be able to enjoy a show?

“Why meee!?” – Ty-chama on possibly why all her favourite characters die

So this is more an observation I’ve made in regards to the anime I watch rather than any kind of explicit analysis or anything, just a heads up for those looking for that kind of thing!

You know, ever since I started to regularly watch anime three years ago now I’ve been unfortunate enough to always seem to pick the characters that die to be my favourite characters- now, just to be clear, I don’t select them as my favourite after the dying has occurred, but beforehand… Obviously death isn’t something which occurs in the large majority of the shows I watch, but if it does, it will always be my favourite character that experiences it! Only one character in the entire show can die, and it will, I guarantee it, be my character- it’s soul crushing! To illustrate, here’s a relatively spoiler-free list of all the shows where this has been the case:

Enough with all the nice-y-nice already!

Something that has increasingly come to my attention over the years I’ve spent watching anime is the awkwardness that so very often pervades the interactions between casts of characters. Conversations are often far too polite, stiff even, in spite of the fact that the characters have usually known each other for a very long time. This is most obvious when the cast is made up mostly of female characters. There is a disturbing lack of that light-hearted ridicule that I myself am regularly subject to by my few friends, or observe so often in the friendship of others. And sometimes when a character attempts to turn something another character says or does into a joke, that can often come across as awkward too due to the character on the receiving end of the joke’s aggressive overreaction to it. I’m thinking pretty much every interaction Sunohara ever had with Tomoyo here! And, if you couldn’t tell from the fact that I’m writing a post focusing on the very subject, that’s something that bothers me somewhat.