#such a relatable character

[pikatrainer99]

(SPOILER WARNING! GO WATCH ON NETFLIX FIRST IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!) So I watched an anime movie called Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop...

...And the male lead, Cherry, is SO AUTISTIC CODED and I relate to him so much!

This is him...first off, the headphones around his neck aren't used AT ALL for listening to music. He uses them SOLELY for blocking out loud noises and to give himself the APPEARANCE of listening to music just so people don't talk to him. I do this often as well, though I do also use mine for music if too much noise gets through. He gets visibly overwhelmed and is quick to put on his headphones when it gets too loud (so am I), like in this scene where Mr. Fujiyama is talking too loud for him.

You can see that he's clearly distressed by this, and when it happens again later, he even TELLS Mr. Fujiyama that he's too loud after he quickly puts his headphones back on. When he meets Smile, he bluntly points out her braces (I watched the sub, and he just stares at her braces and says the word 'braces', I don't know about the dub), which causes Smile to run away since she is self-conscious about her buck teeth and braces. Cherry also doesn't make eye contact as much as a "normal" person would, speaks with a quieter, more monotone voice than the other characters, and talks as little as he possibly can, because he is not good at talking and gets extremely anxious when he has to talk to people he isn't comfortable with. When Smile calls him to find her phone after their phones accidentally get switched, Cherry freezes up and can't speak, he can't even ANSWER the call because of his anxiety, leaving his friends to do it for him. This is just like me, I freeze up in social situations all the time, and I am physically incapable of talking on the phone without freezing up to anyone but my grandma and my mom, my mom has to do all the phone stuff for me because I have panic attacks over making phone calls.

(He's so anxious about the call, just look at him freaking out...he's seriously just like me, I freeze up on the phone too.)

When he has to recite his haiku in front of everyone, he also freezes up and takes several deep breaths before reading it as quickly as possible and then saying that haiku is a WRITTEN art form, and that it shouldn't have to be read out loud, before putting his headphones back on and sitting down, clearly embarrassed...and that's only two situations where he gets anxious. Also, when he's nervous/embarrassed, his WHOLE BODY turns tomato red.

(You can't see it in this image, but he is actually red like this ALL THE WAY DOWN TO HIS FEET!)

Speaking of haiku, Cherry writes haiku in order to better express himself, and it seems to be his special interest, as he is knowledgeable of haiku poets and their work, and lights up when he talks about it in a scene where Mr. Fujiyama recites random haiku to kinda quiz Cherry...? At least, that's how I interpreted that scene, and Cherry was correct in his answers. He keeps a haiku dictionary in his phone case, which makes it look like a brick in comparison to everyone else's, and the dictionary belonged to his dad originally, but, because his dad supports Cherry's love for haiku, he gave it to him. His mom also supports his haiku writing, and even likes all the haiku he posts online, much to his embarrassment. He also uses it to confess to Smile at the end of the movie, while still being incredibly anxious and his whole body still being that same tomato red color, it is a very sweet scene and for me personally, it was cuteness overload. He confessed to her in a very socially awkward way, using his special interest of haiku to recite some he made about her, and I know some people might find it a bit cringe, I thought it was adorable watching him struggle initially, but eventually build up the courage to express his love in the only way he knew how. I relate to this as I have always been much better at expressing myself and communicating through creative writing than actually speaking, I use creative writing to process basically anything...from things that happen in life to my own complicated emotions (I have alexithymia, which is sometimes referred to as emotional blindness, meaning 99% of the time, I have no idea how I'm feeling about anything, and this also extends to not knowing how other people are feeling as well...this is why I watch anime, because the expressions are much easier to read due to the much more expressive character design, particularly the eyes). Creative writing can help me figure out the emotions I'm trying to process, as well as just help me get my point across in a much clearer and easy to understand way...just like how writing haiku helps Cherry understand his feelings and express himself better.

(Look at him, he's trying his best and it's honestly adorable in my opinion.)

We see Cherry grow closer to Smile over the course of the movie, and I personally knew he was comfortable around her when he was finally able to take off his headphones when around her, because I'm very much the same way. If I take off my headphones around someone, it's a sign of trust, security, and affection, and it seems to be the same for Cherry. One day while walking with Smile, she points out that he's not wearing his headphones, and he replies that he doesn't need them anymore. I thought this was adorable and a good way to show that Cherry feels comfortable around Smile.

Throughout the movie he tries to tell her that he's moving away, but is either unable to bring himself to tell her or gets interrupted by someone or something else. Eventually, Smile finds out anyway and is very upset since she wanted to see the fireworks at the festival together with Cherry. Cherry obviously is DISTRAUGHT when Smile sadly continues the walk back home alone with only a "Take care", and as she walks away he tries to reach out one more time, but can't speak anymore and the world gets louder and louder until Cherry finally puts his headphones back on to make it all stop. He holds his hands over his headphones as he sinks to his knees right there where he's standing and completely breaks down shaking and crying...it's like he's having an implosive meltdown...and as someone who has both explosive and implosive meltdowns myself, I can definitely say that my implosive ones do at times resemble Cherry's breakdown in the movie, as I will also hold my hands over my headphones and put more pressure on them, and/or curl into myself or go completely into the fetal position and cry.

(He's trying to reach out, but can't and he's clearly frustrated with himself...)

(And here comes the breakdown...poor Cherry 🥺)

This scene broke me...hearing everything get louder and louder until Cherry put his headphones on and it all went quiet, and then hearing nothing but his cries for the rest of the scene with the volume increasing as it went on...yeah...I felt that to the core...the sensory experiences with the sound design in the movie really made me feel what Cherry was feeling, and it was so relatable too.

I think that's enough now, I've gone on long enough as it is, and even though I jumped around through the movie scenes in this post, I hope you can still understand it okay. This is my first attempt at a headcanon-supportive character analysis (and actually a character analysis in general), so I hope I did alright. I just wanted to express my love for my new comfort character, Cherry, because he's adorable and relatable and I love characters like that. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop can be found on Netflix. Personally, I think it's really underrated and it's a very sweet slice-of-life movie about two insecure teens and how they spend their summer together. There's nothing TOO heavy in it and I like the characters, the animation, and the color palette is very interesting and fun. All in all, it's an easy one for me to watch, and having a comfort character in it in the form of Cherry just adds to its appeal for me.

I hope you don't mind how different this post is from my usual Pokemon-related stuff, but I just had to make this because I relate to Cherry so, SO much. I'll be back with more Pokemon stuff next time though, so don't worry 😅

[craftbadger]

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you’re at a low point:

If you were a fictional man right now, there would be *at least* ten people if not a large portion of the fanbase that would call you their wet beast poor little meow meow

[aphel1on]

i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good

[canisalbus]

✦ Diplomacy ✦

[bastardlybonkers]

i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one

his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.

ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication

[diornies]

Suddenly, it's December by margaux paul

[onebadnoodle]

[🍒]

[egophiliac]

You can’t pick Lilia for this. But who is your other favorite short character in Twst?

I like the angry little king boy 🌹

[ancientbread]

The hunger games: capitalism pits individuals against each other in order to prevent us from uniting against the systems in power that maintain our oppression

teen dystopian YA for the next decade: light hair good boy 😍??? Or dark hair bad boy 🫣😈😈

[applestruda]

*falls through the ceiling and comes crashing to the ground*

SECRET LIFER DESIGNS BUT THEY ALL HAVE PERSONALIZED LIKE, BOOK HOLSTERS FOR THEIR TASKS THAT THEY GET EACH SESSION

[scamoosh]

hi guyz i made a quiz abt which horror trope/theme i enjoy you are!! cws are in the description so please mind them!

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[artemx746]

can people start obsessing over queerplatontic ships the same way they obsess over romantic ships

[intermundia]

i just read about the "narcissism of small differences," aka the idea that the more a community has in common, the more likely the people in it are to engage in interpersonal feuds and mutual ridicule because of hypersensitivity to minor differences perceived in each other, and i knew there was a reason my time in academia and fandom felt oddly similar lmao

[vault81]

I've finished my Fallout OC Character Sheet! this is my first time making something like this, but I like how it turned out!

PSD below cut!

Compressed Version!

[reigobun]

early AT anniversary art