Kuma Miko Episode 8 Discussion

ReaperCreeper said:
Thought this was gonna go in a different direction...

Kougeru said:


I greatly disagree.

I disagree because I have aspergers. This episode, and the one with Village Vanguard basically confirmed to me that Machi has aspergers. Intentionally? Maybe not. Maybe they just thought it would be funny to make her struggle so much socially...but either way the result was that her anxiety and stress...her reactions, match mine almost perfectly. She also takes things super literally, another thing that a lot of people with aspergers do. The fact that she seems only capable of talking to people she's been around before is another factor. Thinking back, the episode she went out with Hibiki and knew literally EVERYTHING about the store.....that's another thing people with aspergers often do: We'll struggle talking to strangers...but if something we can nerd-out about comes up, we don't shut up. She did that perfectly when it came to that store lol.

It matches so perfectly, it would be an amazing coincidence if it was accidental. So for that reason, I greatly disagree with your statement. Yoshio is doing exactly the WRONG thing for her. Throwing people into a fire is not the best way to deal with it. Some people are literally incapable of doing certain things, and never will be. If Machi was a real human, I'd honestly put her stress levels at such a high degree that I'd say she might not make ever be able to do things like retail. For a lot of people, even just ordering food from strangers can be a lot of stress. She might need real professional help rather than people just making her mental health worse.

LaceyKuroki said:
I felt those Tomoko vibes!

dbaranyi said:
I'm feeling no sympathy for Machi at all because she is deliberately supposed to be the target of the jokes in this series. This is a comedy, not a romance or "feel good" show.

On the cynical side, look at the set up - Machi is a 14 or 15 year old who acts like and demands to be treated like an eight year old. Yoshio is doing exactly the right things by putting Machi into situations where she has to step up to life or fail. Because she choses to fail, we laugh.

Kougeru said:
Asperger yadda yadda

Bibimbapski said:
Poor Machi. I think her severe social anxiety needs professional help. It's not healthy or cute anymore. She's being a useless little brat.

Barusamikosu said:

Yup. Somehow this show stopped being brainless slice of life and became brainless WataMote... I'm pretty weirded out at this point on why they changed the aura of the show out of nowhere.


Well, this definitely isn't what was sold, and while I relate to your vision (that was how I felt in WataMote), this is not exactly the same situation.
In WataMote we had Tomoko being a jerk to everyone and getting what she asked for; in Kuma Miko, she's just the portrayal of a pure hillbilly miko, and all this "abuse" sets the tone of the show on an entirely different spot. The show never implies she is bringing it upon herself, so it's your interpretation alone about the whole "she must face the world" thing.
Which might be a realistic point of view, but certainly not what this kind of show is (was?) about.


Now this is just self-inserting...
As a highly-functional asperger myself, it always puzzles me when I see people assuming shallow characters with trope-ridden personalities are some portrayal of a very specific psychological disorders they experience, and that it's all actually a hidden drama about their specific "sicknesses".
You don't have to pull out a Psychiatry book and diagnose it: it's a slice of life anime, she's just a (generically) socially awkward person.

It's not Alzheimer's just because the old man forgot something, it's not Guillain-Barré Syndrome when a character has a pain on the back, it's not prosopagnosia when the MC fails to recognize someone.

Screenwriters write traits, not your specially unique handicap. When it IS about a handicap, they will make it unambiguous and relevant, because they're added to intensify drama. No one puts a character on a wheelchair "just because". Same goes for their mental state - characters can be happy, sad, angry, traumatized, NOT hormone unbalanced, chronic depressed, ADHD or bipolar. This stuff isn't narrative tools.


See this? You want an anime girl to seek professional help?
Would you really feel all the excitement of a slice of life about a miko going to Psychiatry, taking a couple pills, then having their serotonin levels measured, going to the big city to do some MRI scans and consulting her local doctor twice a month? [/spoiler]

This is stuff that would appear on a show about this kind of trauma, otherwise emotions/personality traits are just that - traits. They move the story or set up the stage for interactions.

I believe you are all old enough to separate fiction from life; you can feel bad for Machi (I do too!), but diving this deep into it is definitely pushing it.
Stories are allegories made so you can reflect upon them and apply your findings into real life, not the other way around.

Bibimbapski said:

Yes, dear child, I am old enough to separate fiction from life. As a matter of fact, I am paying taxes. I know what "adulting" is all about. You're the one pushing it and taking it too far if you're highly disturbed by my comment. Don't tell me how to interpret to appreciate my slice-of-life series. If I want to dissect, analyze and shit on every moe character, I will do so with gusto.