#i really love masaomi. i feel like i dont think or talk about him enough

[shinraapologist]

time to ante up to the promised essay in your shinra post on which characters in drrr are autistic. NOW

short answer they all are. long answer with receipts under the cut (sources: my autistic ass)

mikado- has trouble navigating social situations and responding "appropriately" to them, and his vocal inflection that doesn't necessarily "match" feelings,. his special interest is the dollars and watching the interactions between them and studying what impact his actions have on them. hes just like izaya fr. i feel like the paralels between them dont get talked abt enough. mikado is izaya if he got scared straight at the end of his middle school homoromantic friendship that resulted in him being stabbed instead of going hm. this will have long term consequences on me actually

masaomi- has trouble understanding the motivations and feelings of others. he masks strongly with his confident "ladies man" persona.

anri- she has a lack of vocal inflection, doesnt make eye contact, has trouble navigating social situations, her vocal inflection doesnt necessarily "match" her feelings. she has sensory issues (wears her her hoodie dress because she likes the sensory input, not to little and not too much.) relies on a routine (nothing ever happens nothing ever changes).

celty- uses strong body language yet struggles to read the body language of others. mirrors extensively. she mirrors everyone to a degree but especially shinra and shizuo. this should not be news to anyone just LOOK at them. i love them.

her dramatic body language is 100% mirrored from shinra. since she spends a lot of time with him and he emotes so strongly she's memorized his body language in association with certain emotions and performs them when shes feeling that emotion. (in SH she's even depicted as rolling around on the floor when shes upset, which is something shinra does 18436 times.) is shown to occaisonally wear regular clothes (mostly pajamas) when shes capable of making anything with her shadow which to ME implies she's seeking the sensory input from the soft fabric. she also tends to think in extremes, everything is very black and white for her.

shinra- has trouble regulating his emotions and helps himself regulate by stimming (dancing/wiggling when hes happy, rolling on the ground when hes upset, getting very still when hes concentrating or anxious.) over emotes to match the intensity of his emotions regardless of the situation. his neutral expression and tone of voice are hyper and excitable. has trouble understanding social cues and social norms. wears the lab coat ALL the time to the point that other characters comment on it. not something a neurotypical man does. his special interests are surgery and human anatomy. he genuinely loves his job in part because even though there's an anatomy "standard" no human body ever actually looks like the illustrations. he loves to study the variances he notices in his work and loves to perfect surgical techniques.

shizuo- has trouble regulating his emotions. his neutral expression and tone is said to be flat and without affect. struggles with overstimulation (wears the blue lens sunglasses to avoid the bright sunlight, wears his vest fitted at the chest for the slight compression) (because hes TRANSGENDER and really liked how his binder felt. brought to u by me who had a phase where i was binding unsafely purely for the stim of it. dont do that btw i can no longer bind at all 🤪) he has meltdowns when he gets too overstimulated. he enjoys uneventfullness and routine but from a combination of powers that be and his tendency to escalate situations when hes upset, he doesnt get much of that. escalates situations due to losing his emotional regulation. he also has trouble reading situations as well as trauma that leads him to constantly feel on edge and anxious.

izaya- somehow the only canonically autistic character. he has a strong mask in his usual calm vaugely smug demeanor that slips when he feels strongly about something. (stomping on the cell phone, laughing when he's delighted by human behavior, punching the telephone pole.) he has very black and white thinking that often gets interpreted as being morally grey. (he is btw. literally everyone in drrr is. its the morally grey fucked up characters media idk what you want) he would describe his special interest as humanity (and does, in canon) but its more sociology and human behavior. just like shinra, hes always in that damn coat. autism behavior.

walker and erika- they are autistic in the same font. twins. besties. wear comfortable clothes for sensory reasons (although erika's interest in fashion is enough incentive for her to sometimes dress up despite the sensory issues it causes. me too tho.) both have a special interest their light novels. both dont understand social norms and theyre both aware of that and neither of them care. legends.

saburo- struggles with social interactions. special interests in his van (possibly cars in general) and ruri hijiribe. had no idea he was autistic until he met walker and erika who assumed he already knew. looked at one (1) website and suddenly his whole life made sense.

seiji- his usual speaking voice is very monotone and his facial expressions are typically pretty reserved. like izaya and celty he thinks a lot in black and white.

mairu- her speaking voice is very monotone and she doesnt tend to express her emotions outwardly. she's selectively verbal also. likes her gym clothes for sensory reasons.

kururi- autism/adhd combo platter legend and we love that for her. special interest in martial arts. she doesnt quite get social norms nor does she care.

manami- i dont have solid evidence for this one i just know that is the hairstyle of an autism hero.

kasuka- speaks in a monotone, has one facial expression, doesnt outwardly show his emotions (altho ppl close to him can still read them). doesnt comprehend neurotypical socialization but gets along really really well with other autistic people.

ruri- she is just like kasuka fr. walker and erika moment with these two.

saki- masks really heavily but is bad at it. me too girl. when shes comfortable and not masking she somehow seems less stiff.

akane- really struggles with figures of speech. hates eye contact. special interest in art and drawing and i hope she starts making art again. i love akane thats my child and the entire awakusus child and shizuos child also.

vorona- she speaks in a monotone and HATES eye contact. she gets away with not making any by always looking at her book instead. reading as a special interest. she has an amazing memory.

slon- struggles with figures of speech and emotional regulation.

kasane- also speaks in a monotone. takes everything very literally. another strong black and white thinker. special interest in cats and cat behavior. cats LOVE her. cats always love autistic legends. also the yellow pantsuit? a slay. no nt person would ever pick that up.

dokusonmaru- got it genetically from his father kasuka. also all cats are autistic inherently.

characters that arent autistic but definitely have adhd: KADOTA. aoba. mika. tom. chikage.

[shinraapologist]

light novel reread, vol. 1 ch 4

in this chapter, we get introduced to a lot of characters: anri, walker and erika, simon, and izaya all make their first appearances in this chapter (which in the anime was all condensed into the events of ch. 2). despite the wide cast of characters, most of the insight to be had in this chapter is centric to masaomi.

mikado has no way of knowing masaomis history with walker and erika (and neither would anyone on a first read through with no prior knowledge of the series). i think drrr as a whole (both the anime and the light novels, i havent read the manga so i can't speak for that) is one of those pieces of media that needs to be read/watched more than once to be truly appreciated. on my first watch of the anime i turned to my spouse at least a dozen times to say "i cant fucking wait to rewatch this." theres just so many details that jump out in a different way when you know how everything unfolds- but at the same time, i knew even on my first watch that it would be something i would desperately want to see for the first time again.

our first introduction to izaya: from mikado's perspective, izaya is Just Some Guy. the most guy ever. despite masaomi's clear unease at being near izaya, mikado doesn't seem to take masaomi's reactions as a warning sign, even when he's introduced to izaya and recognizes him as one of the people masaomi told him to avoid. it just goes to show how effective izaya's image is, although i haven't decided yet if i think he's crafted himself that way intentionally or whether it comes naturally to him.

i found this passage to be interesting mainly because it's uncharacteristically vulnerable from masaomi. he's open with mikado about people he feels should be avoided; its clear he doesn't want mikado to follow in his footsteps. i think he's this forthcoming about the situation because he's just that desperate to keep mikado away from izaya. after all, he could have just as easily defended walker and erika by telling mikado that they had helped a friend of his when she was in trouble. instead, he played up his jack-of-all trades image as his reasoning for knowing them. (of course, he also could have avoided that conversation because he still holds a lot of guilt and resentment over that situation.)

i think that mikado's.... character arc? descent into madness? is a lot more apparent from the beginning in the novels than in the anime, although it could be reader's bias of me already knowing how he develops. i love the use of the word "misguided" in this context, that was a great translation choice from stephen paul.