Disabled teens in anime? Really? But I wonder who that anime is for.
A lot of anime, I think, is actually marketed toward outside Japan and inspired by things outside Japan, so they cater to the foreign audience more so than the Japanese audience. Actual Japanese anime made for Japanese people, like some of the old, old Japanese animations, I find to be more genuine. Once Japan realized they could just make anime with a foreign lens from the start so it translates easily, they all gravitated toward that, is how I see it.
Slice-of-life anime, I don’t recall seeing much diversity. Have you ever come across anime where the special needs character is the hero or main character? Not the token side character with a stereotype? That’s what I’ve seen. Even seen them as the villain’s side-kick
See, I don’t watch a lot of anime, but a lot of it is based off of manga and some manga I’m familiar with. I can’t recall any with a special needs character as one of the main characters (or any manga that even touched on special needs topics). I do know most protags in anime are thin and have hair color and shapes so wacky it goes against the laws of the school attire and gravity
You will get tired and a day is long. Definitely, you can go for both.
At some point, you’ll have to stop at a local restaurant for a break. If you have a friend living in an apartment in Japan, you could experience apartment living or something, idk
Eat the real ramen. There’s a ramen place called Ippudo which is really good
If you like sushi, a sushi place would be good. Go eat all the Japanese things that tourist sites tell you to eat.
I read her fandom wiki and it sounds like, idk, but they used this wheelchair character as like a sympathy moment. A gimmick, if you will, and when they make her stand, it’s like “yay” to everyone or something.
If they wanted to create a special needs character, shouldn’t the character not be able to stand? Isn’t that representation? (it’s like saying disabilities must be cured or can be quickly overcome But that’s not the case. You can represent, but you can’t just have representation without accuracy or at least some discussion, or can ya? Obviously, you can…get away with it )
a tiny rant of a romance short story manga thing
Reminds me of this manga romance story about this girl who suffered from a traumatic experience of her father giving her a pet rabbit, then out of anger, he takes it away from her telling her she’s not good enough which causes her to lose her voice. So the entire story is about this mute character…who, you guessed it, falls in love with this boy who is nice to her, and at the end, she says “thank you” and is cured! Able to speak again! Yay!
I didn’t think much of this story at the time but looking back, that really minimizes the disability. I mean, it took a cute boy crush to instantly cure her of her mutism. She can now speak. The power of love and friendship and all that. I think she should have not spoken if you really want to show disability, you know?
Ugh, media.
This is all my opinion, to reemphasize.
You can tell I feel some way about how Japan treats its special needs citizens.
Essentially, all of the magical girls become phsyically disabled over time, as they are effectively immortal. In the end, Yuuki is able to undo the curse and undo all of the damage they were inflicted as a result.
There’s one magical girl who is effectively bedridden and worshipped as a goddess.
It was an unnatural affliciton. Magical problems require magical solutions.
And, as they say, after flowers bloom, they die soon after. I’m happy they undid the curse because the last thing I wanted to see was all of the girls effectively becoming hospitalized for the rest of their lives.
Not to derail the thread but diversity is also a diversity of thought and values. And culture and not just putting a brown skin on some random American
What if you were to rewrite the story for special needs representation in your own way? Would you change anything or not so much?
I guess I want to know what a special needs anime would look like if it were to accurately represent people with special needs in a way that is educational and respectful?
I’m not special needs, so I can’t say anything about that.
I would make Togou’s parapalegicness(for lack of a better word) a result of an accident, not a magical curse. She is at risk of losing even more of her bodily functions as she goes on, which deeply horrifies her.
If you want to feel as if you are going insane, they made a movie about Blue and Josh (the newest host) going to New York, meeting the previous hosts, and also it is directed by a music video director. The editing and cinematography is bizarre. Like, Battlefield Earth, bizarre.
I know they know. You can tell by how they go out their way to get rid of dissenting voices without consistently policing their own that its pretty malicious.
notnmesnt to be a politicsl rant
Just one mame Harvey Weinstein. This isn’t a debated person, where you swear that half of America is delisional like one half for the curent president or one half for the previous. This is someone you hear little to no support for right now, lo g after things have died down (and too many people came forward so msny years later).
But overall Hollywoord doesn’t continue to talk about him and root out those who are his possible accomplices becauee its accepted as a normal part of Hollywood: this is why Terry Crewes has been assaulted. Its why Brendan Frasier has been assaulted. This is an indicatiom that they don’t go after just weak victims because they have entrenched power that’s hard to touch.
It doesn’t mean that indivudals arent indoctrinated and blind, but it’s definatwly a systematic predation.
So this system definately gets rid of ideology that threatens their base.
But that’s not the case. You can represent, but you can’t just have representation without accuracy or at least some discussion, or can ya? Obviously, you can…get away with it 
