Interest Stacks

Now, before I’m completely shut down and you throw away the entire list, I’m unsure if he’s on the spectrum. However, I felt it was a good idea to mention it anyway because there are some autistic traits and behaviors that I can recognize in him. His intense devotion to basketball is very reminiscent of an autistic special-interest. While we could say he simply likes basketball, I have trouble believing it’s that simple when he has comfort spots in the same restaurant, food, and other special interests. His awkward social cues and blunt nature are also telling, but that’s not what had me scraping my head thinking, ‘Is he?’ His faint presence that he utilizes for basketball is intentional, but he had it before he joined the club. It’s a superpower in the show, but fading into a crowd and walking silently isn’t hard to learn when masking and avoiding people like your life depends on it. That theory that it wasn’t just this weird thing he had since birth solidified more when, in certain games, he would make his presence more visible to people and that people would start noticing him after a while if he wasn’t careful.

Chika Kudo is a misunderstood boy who picks up on the koto after his grandfather dies. After every experience he’s ever had, I understand that a lot of his behaviors are because of trauma. However, his autism, while debatable, is something I can’t help but consider. He cannot find interest in the class curriculum unless his best friend Tetsuki helps him study, and the only reason it works when he does it is because he changes the material in a way where Kudo isn’t wholly disinterested. He makes math characters into people and gives these people stories that pull on Kudo’s heartstrings. Chika has safe foods, strawberries. Kudo is also very particular once he finds an interest. The way he raises his voice when he talks without realizing and people find it terrifying is a common autistic experience. Adjusting the sound of your voice is something a lot of Autistic people struggle with. He’s susceptible to people and their emotions to the point where it feels like he’s compensating. His incredibly blunt nature can be seen as intimidating and insensitive. However, he’s never actually intending to hurt others and gets incredibly hurt if he does so. He only raises his hands to protect others, even when he is just mindlessly going with the flow and fighting because he gave up on himself and others. I genuinely think he’s autistic. However, I understand if people disagree.

The main character in this show, Kyouko, has a very hard time dealing with social cues. She can’t seem to get along with people her age. She tends to do very rash things to get what she wants without realizing how bad of an action it actually is till someone points it out to her. She doesn’t quite understand when people are vague or don’t get to the point. She’s incredibly blunt. She has no talent in lying at all. She’s got plenty of special interests; making dolls, mysticism. fantasy like things, princesses. She still believes in fairies and no one can tell her otherwise.

This BL is a classic, and there are many interpretations of the characters but I believe that Usagi is autistic. He doesn’t understand how to act with someone he loves because he self isolated most of his life. True, his family wasn’t very accommodating with his needs but he genuinely just doesn’t understand how to interact with people. He is obsessed with trinkets like teddy bears, trains, certain foods, books, and writing, etc. he has so many special interests that I wonder why nobody ever talks about the possibility he could be autistic. The way he interacts with Misaki is telling as well. He has meltdowns often when things aren’t a particular way, he seems to be a genius but he finds it extremely difficult to do certain things like cooking no matter what kind of instruction he gets. I don’t find his jealousy endearing but I understand it as I’ve had similar meltdowns when I was younger. He needs introspection but at the same time I can’t see them as anything but autistic meltdowns. He’s not really trying to control Misaki and he’s not really trying to harm him either, they’re outbursts. Even the way that Misaki handles Usagi feels like a man who is trying to understand triggers and avoid them at times. Again, this is just my opinion but I hope others can agree with me even a little on this one.

Sunako, the protagonist of this series develops a special interest in the supernatural, dark, and otherworldly things after she was dumped by a pretty terrible guy. This attachment becomes an integral part of who she is even after Kyo helps her get over that traumatic experience. She stims, she hops around and giggles around things she adores and she screams and shrinks up around things she dislikes. She finds it difficult to be affectionate around people she loves. Although you could say that because she could do it prior to the traumatic experience of being dumped, it’s because of that, I say it’s simple skill regression which is a normal part of autism. She’s autistic, or at least seems that way to me.

While I believe that Hinata has the possibility of being autistic because of his intense adoration for Volleyball, his love for a specific team in particular, and his slight awkwardness when talking about anything besides volleyball... I think Kageyama has more autistic traits than Hinata. Kageyama has trauma because he took his specialinterest too seriously and couldn't understand why others would struggle to keep up with his training regimen. He couldn't socialize or comfort his teammates well and expected other people who loved the sport to have his same devotion. He doesn't speak to people unless they're talking about the sport itself, and he also has a lot of trouble with social interactions. While he can understand social cues to an extent, he still tends to make wrong decisions in conversations that create misunderstandings. He can't maintain his facial expressions well. He also stims and tends to expect a certain level of order to things and if things don't go on schedule in a specific order, he gets angry.

Mafuyu is a character that I found to be very obviously autistic. He has trouble managing a reasonable distance between two people and often gets in people's personal space. He tends to get confused if people aren't explicitly direct with instructions. He's sensitive to sound, and he finds himself constantly humming even without being aware of it, and that looks a lot like stimming. He's attached to music, so much so that it seems like a specialinterest. He's got no sense of social cues. He's very repetitive with his word choices and he's very blunt.

Oga Tatsumi doesn’t mask regularly like many people on this list; his traits are more apparent. He gets overstimulated quite easily. He has difficulty being transparent about his feelings and tends to mask when he’s with people he cares about. He doesn’t understand social cues, and he genuinely doesn’t care enough about them, either. He has a powerful sense of what a man should be and a strong sense of justice despite what he would tell you or what his expressions would make you believe. His actions prove that. His specialinterest is fighting; he doesn’t care about being a delinquent in school or looking tough. He likes to fight. He has comfort people who he trusts, and if they aren’t comfort people, he doesn’t communicate with them. He even goes as far as distancing himself from people if he thinks his presence would do more harm than good. He’s incredibly intuitive and sensitive and makes a pretty good father for his age. He has repetitive behaviors, and he scripts the first two episodes, he uses the same first line to describe what’s going on. He’s got pronounced signals to me that he could be autistic.

Shin Walford is autistic. The little jokes that he doesn’t understand common sense aren’t just jokes to me because he genuinely can’t tell. His special interest in magic and fighting could come from video games, but the manga, the anime, and even the light novel don’t seem to suggest that. He just genuinely loves these things. He doesn’t just show this unawareness of social cues with magic though. He’s often misunderstanding jokes, missing sarcasm, and being offended in areas that weren’t meant to be seen as offensive. He tends to ignore things that don’t have to do with his friends, family, or magic unless it’s extremely important. He’s from a different world sure, but he’s making mistakes that I would genuinely make. Maybe I’m overthinking, but I’m like 85% sure he’s autistic.

I feel like Misaki and Usui from Maid Sama are both on two completely different sides of the spectrum. Misaki hates to be touched and because of her own experiences that is especially so with men. She’s bull-headed and stubborn, to the point where she can indirectly offend someone without realizing and she has a tendency to be insensitive without realizing. She’s incredibly strict with regulation, routine, and order to the point that it makes life difficult for her and others, and she has no concept of her own health when she’s focused. When she’s overwhelmed and overstimulated she tends to dive into the things that make her comfortable (strict rules).

Usui is on the other side of the spectrum, he’s has a hard time recognizing people’s boundaries and he’s very touchy to everyone. He’s always moving around and doing something new, his special interest keeps him entertained regularly and maids just so happen to be a special interest for him. His fascination with Misaki starts off because he sees her working as a maid and then as he gets to know her it expands to something more. He heavily masks around most people but when they get to know him, he’s silly and can say some slightly offensive things without realizing it. He distances himself from people when they learn too much about him because he feels uncomfortable and overwhelmed and although he’s certainly less structured than Misaki, he has repetitive tendencies.

Natsu Dragneel stims echoes his own catchphrases, has a challenging time with social cues, and has special interests. The way he expresses himself is often seen as odd, and while people around him try to make him seem dumb, Natsu is very focused on things he’s interested in. They call it instinct, but Natsu worked hard his whole life to reach the skill level he’s at now. It can’t be considered instinct. It can be considered an incredible focus on a hyperfixation he's had for years that becomes so intense he becomes a borderline genius at it.

This series is about a young girl who has struggled with communicating with people her age all her life due to comparisons between her and a horror movie character. Sadako is sweet, kind, and adorable, and she has a huge crush on this boy in her class named Kazehaya who likes her as well. Her trouble with social cues makes her distance herself from him sometimes though. She’s often mislead by people with negative intentions because she isn’t understanding that they have these negative intentions. She stims, quite regularly actually if watch the anime. She’s very expressive and has a hard time hiding how she feels. She masks, and it’s quite obvious that it isn’t really working for her favor. She believes that the people around her want to be scary so her demeanor comes off scary around people even when she doesn’t want it to. I could be reading too into that part but it’s something I would struggle with too.

Subaru is a man who has always despised social interactions, loud noises, tiresome situations, and anything outside of reading. It’s hard to look past his sensory overload, repetition, meltdowns, and try to view him as anything but. His relationship with his cat is adorable though and that’s more on what the show is about so if you’re a cat person this show is probably for you.

This series is about a little boy who lost his parents young and finds ways to move around the world without them regardless. He’s spontaneous and smart and he’s a very charming young boy. The reason I believe him to be autistic is because he reminds me of my little brother. His repetitive behaviors, his frustration with doing something out of the routine, his sensitivity toward certain smells and foods, and his attachment to his favorite show. However, Kotaro could very well just be sensitive because he misses his parents and so I’m still not quite sure on this one.

A person incredibly obsessed with books, doesn’t get social cues, would like to just be left alone, gets overwhelmed and overstimulated while conversing with others, and hyper fixates on many different things possibly being autistic, le gasp, what a shock!! XD

Two science researchers who are in love with each other can’t admit that they’re in love till they figure out if their love falls within the parameters of what love actually is. They’re both extremely stuck on routine, rules, and have no clue how to communicate with people outside of the boundaries of people who understand their special interests.

Saiki I always felt was an allegory for an autistic child in a family and in a world where people are neurotypical. He’s sensitive to noises, his eyes are sensitive too, he’s sensitive to underlying meanings of what people say, he’s got comfort foods, doesn’t like being touched, wants a stable routine, and many more. I feel like this show is comparing a child with autism to a superhero and saying “Look you’re not alone, it’s just how your brain works and that’s okay. In fact, it’s more than okay, you’re beautiful the way you are.” I love that about this series.

A young girl is isekai'd into the body of Eumilia Dolkness, a dark magic user. Still, instead of caring about the main characters, her new family, or anything else, she’s fascinated by leveling up and being strong. She’s not an expressive person, so people misunderstand her quite often, and while it does bug her, it’s not her priority. She loves magic, to the point where it becomes an attachment or special interest. She would put everything behind because of it. She doesn’t understand social cues either, when a young lady tries to become friends with her she uses a script she’s created to have a decent conversation. She’s blunt, honest to a fault. Plus, when she finally finds someone she likes she doesn’t understand quite obvious signs he likes her back. I know all of this is genuinely for a comedic effect, the author probably isn’t trying to propose that she’s actually autistic but the very few flashbacks we see of her life in Japan make me believe it’s not only a theory. She has very clear and obvious symptoms of autism and I refuse to ignore them.

Seiya is an actor and he loves everything about the industry even though he gave that up eventually, however his behavior and his perception of other people is quite twisted. The entertainment industry is a dangerous place especially for children and he was a child actor so I can’t say for sure whether or not he genuinely is autistic. However, he’s clueless about social interactions outside of what’s common for a child star. He masks, he puts on this funny and arrogant facade so that he can feel safe around people and distance himself from his tv persona. He needs everything to be in order and he gets genuinely frustrated when things aren’t that way. As an actor, an amusement park wouldn't genuinely be something that would inspire your love for the industry to bring back that fire… unless as an autistic person seeing anything in the entertainment industry failing is something that hurts you deeply. He’s sensitive to people’s emotions even if he pretends he’s not and once you can get him riled up he can’t get himself to stop, hence his beef with Moffle. I’m not one hundred percent with him because I didn’t see and real sensory issues on his end however maybe I just need to rewatch and see if I can find them.

Two people on opposing sides of the autism spectrum get together and it creates chaos, romance, and a bond that will never fade away between multiple people.

Chiaki is orderly, he’s got sensory issues and he wants things to be in their right place. He needs notes to be perfect, he needs life to be stable, and his routine never disrupted. He’s strict and serious and has a serious love for music that borders on obsession. He’s blunt, he either doesn’t care if his opinion hurts your feelings or he didn’t notice that they did but either way he can be insensitive. He’s generally a kind individual until you disrupt his routine, which is exactly what Megumi does.

Megumi is a woman who is more emotionally sensitive than Chiaki. She also has sensory issues and so she moves in a way that suits her. She doesn’t seem to notice her own well being and she’ll let things get incredibly dirty if she’s hyper-focused on a special interest. She doesn’t understand a lot of social cues and makes assumptions that people feel incredibly uncomfortable with but she means no harm while doing so. She’s seen getting overstimulated in multiple instances and terribly sad when she gets confused. I feel like in comparison to Chiaki her symptoms are definitely more prominent.

Taiga is a classic case of undiagnosed autism in girls, honestly I feel like a lot of tsundere women in anime fit that as well. She struggles communicating, so much so that she’s branded as a tiger in their school is pretty fitting. Her meltdowns usually happen after people stare at her too long or someone touches her without her consent, again a common thing with people on the spectrum. It’s clear she doesn’t know how to communicate with someone she actually adores so she asks help from someone she at first looks down on, because she can see he can at least communicate better than her. She has repetitive phrases, clear special interests, and hate when things change (even if those things are her own feelings). As a kid I used to hate her, as an adult I can see why I did. I saw myself in her at a young age and I really didn’t like who I was back then. She clearly doesn’t mask well but she certainly does try. I think this is a case of textbook autism actually.

Makoto Misumi is a character I can’t really say definitely has autism. I have a few theories in my head about mental illnesses he could have but this specific interest stack is dedicated to autism so I’ll put my theory on that and that alone. It’s stated that he had trouble understanding topics about death and sadness and that unless he’s really close to a person he just sort of mimicked those feelings, that’s common in people with autism. It’s not that those people can’t feel those things or that they don’t but sometimes it’s harder for certain people with autism to feel that way about a stranger or to grasp that it even happened at all. That’s why there’s a lot of stereotypes about autistic people being robots or unfeeling, but we clearly aren’t. Autistic people feel deeply and very intensely and so the brain will try to cope without by sometimes making them numb.

Makoto can be seen masking all of the time, trying to be calm and understanding in situations he doesn’t understand and that are clearly triggering him. He has plenty of special interests before he’s isekaid over and some that even Tomoe ended up adopting herself. He likes things to be structured, loves routine, and he will fight tooth and nail to make sure that he or his loved ones don’t experience injustice. A common trait for people with autism.

Cid Kagenou is someone I’m sure has autism and a few other things as well. He has a terrible attention span, he’s intensely attached to being cool (masking to the extreme), he has many special interests, has an extremely hard time communicating and understanding people, and has got extreme sensory issues. His intention to become the strongest by any means possible is a comforting technique, and I swear this man stuns every second of the day doing so. His character and the show is satire but I think that is just a story about an autistic child so caught up in their own world that they literally got themselves isekaid and kept on living in his own space. I can only find it endearing and funny in its own little way.

Train Heartnet, a reformed assassin who was taught by someone he loved that he doesn’t have to follow certain orders. If he thinks it’s wrong he can stop. I think all the traits that I’m going to list for why he could potentially have autism are all traits they gave him so he’d seem more cat like but =o we do what we can do, lmao.

He has absolutely no concept of social cues, partly because he was raised as an assassin but also because he simply doesn’t. His facade with the people working with him makes him feel safe even if people see through it and he hates touching in particular. The reason why he’s so sought after as an assassin are because of his sensory issues. How sensitive he is to noises, lights, and etc.

Again, it’s mostly just a cool thought.

Izumi and Ryouma are clearly both on the spectrum; Izumi is attached to his manga, has comfort shows, routines, and foods, has trigger words, etc. The idea that there could be something that he could be good at outside of what he likes is so uncomfortable and scary to him that he continues to stay stuck in that world of his. He’s sensitive to noises touch and doesn’t like to be touched without warning, hence why even though he loves his brother he tries to stay away from him. He masks so heavily around most people that he gets irate when his family expects him to do the same as well and it makes him even more self conscious of his appearance and his family situation. He’s uncomfortable with things that go outside social norms because he himself goes outside social norms so it takes him a while to come to terms with his own eventual love for Ryouma, for various reasons besides that one as well, Ryouma forcing himself on Izumi at one point certainly didn’t help.

Ryouma is structured and hates the idea of change, he doesn’t like when people lie and he masks frequently. I can only imagine being an actor exasperated this issue by an unhealthy degree but he most certainly can’t stand it when people act outside of the ways he can understand. He has a strict view on life and even stricter routines in place so when he sees Izumi’s routine isn’t as healthy as his he unintentionally disrupts Izumi’s. Just like Izumi, Ruouma’s special interests are clear and he has a hard time understanding other people’s boundaries.

Another example of a tsundere girl potentially having autism. She struggles with understanding and grasping Kazuma’s sarcasm. Struggles to communicate with people outside of her family and is incredibly sensitive to stimuli. Hates for her routine to be disturbed, and can’t understand anyone who would break rules or lies. She’s prone to meltdowns and gets overwhelmed by acts of affection she can’t understand.

Now I feel like a lot of people would say that Naoki would be the one I’d consider autistic because of his tendency to have things in a strict order and routine, his lack of physical affection, and his blunt way of speaking. Now, I’m not exactly disregarding this and I think it’s quite likely too but I see it more in Aihara than Naoki.

Aihara tends to live in her own world, she’s very sensitive to other people’s emotions and doesn’t seem to have a clear perspective on how or what people see or think about her. She’s in love with idea of love and she idealizes people in her head so much that she grows attached to them quickly. She has trouble focusing on things she’s not interested in and she’s very easily over whelmed and overstimulate by things that confuse her.

A lot of sports anime have this tendency to make their main characters incredibly amazing by making it seem as if specific sense are heightened and a lot of the things that make them so amazing or powerful in these sports, are symptoms of autism. Ushio was a sumo wrestling genius and then because of his own circumstances he ends up moving to a different school and making sumo wrestlers out of delinquents. He’s got sensory problems that he utilizes to overcome his height differences and his stubborn obsession with sumo wrestling affects his daily life and eventually becomes a career. He doesn’t understand or like when people give up and he doesn’t stand for injustice.

Another example of a sports anime character who is clearly autistic being described as a genius for being so incredibly passionate about their special interest that they have to be doing it everyday. Water is incredibly soothing for a lot of people with autism, it blocks out noises and it’s cool and makes you feel loose and floaty.

Haru is obsessed with swimming free, because that boy just wants to be in that water and do what he wants to do. He has no social cues whatsoever, is not good at expressing himself, is very nearly nonverbal (he barely speaks), gets very attached to certain people and things, and has clear and understandable sensory issues.

Gintoki was raised in a battlefield so he’s most definitely got ptsd and some other mental illnesses as well but I seriously think he has autism as well, honestly I think Hijikata does too but we won’t talk about him.

He was nonverbal for a pretty long time, he has a strict idea of justice and honor, he does things at his own pace and he doesn’t like that to be interrupted. Gintoki is seen as lazy and dumb but that just what he likes to mask as so that people don’t see the hurt that he carries on his shoulders. He’s sensitive to sounds and he’s very alert. He has very clear special interests and he has comfort foods, places, and people.

Kei Kunieda is a very high masking autistic man, it’s clear in how much he struggles to maintain communication with his coworkers when he’s working. He assumes people wouldn’t be able to stand him the way he is and he takes that to such an extreme degree he creates another persona, it also helps him to not get recognized when he’s out and about. When he meets Ushio he struggles to maintain this mask as he falls further in love with him and he even gets jealous of his other persona because he knows that Ushio likes that version of him, even if he doesn’t. He likes things to fall within his routine and he’s extremely bothered to the point he starts cursing others in his head when they do not. He doesn’t like spontaneous behavior and he seems to have some level of sensory issues as well. I think he’s very clearly autistic but some people might disagree with me on this one.

Another example of a tsundere character who potentially has autism but you genuinely will never be able to rip away the idea that Liselotte is autistic. Sure we could say Kobayashi and that her special interest is magikoi, butttt I don’t see it. Kobayashi doesn’t seem to struggle with communicating at all, she is a little bit dense to other people’s emotions occasionally but I think she’s just not that in touch with romance yet, she’s a teenager. She has seemingly no sensory issues either. Liselotte on the other hand, she is strict about routine and schedules. She was raised to mask from a young age in order to be the prince’s fiancée but she took like it like a plant would to water and she hates for that to be interrupted by anything. She’s stuck in her own head, has a hard time communicating, and there’s even a scene where she doesn’t understand many people’s intentions and the darkness trying to take her into a different direction use that to their advantage. Prince Siegwald misunderstands her frequently because he’s not on the spectrum, without guidance and without looking into her thoughts occasionally he never would’ve understood her. Of course, I think the more he learns and understands about her and falls in love with her it becomes easier for him so I doubt he’d need guidance later on… but it’s typical of an allistic and autistic partnership for the allistic to have these kinds of drastic assumptions and misunderstandings about their partner.

Oreki, he clearly has sensory issues. He has a special interest that allows him to utilize those sensory problems too… on his own terms. Most of the time, he’d rather rest or try not to be put into a situation where there’s too much stimuli. You even see him getting overstimulated and dissociating multiple instances in the show as early as episode 2 when he’s by the club board. Things are always too loud, too bright, too annoying, and he just wants to sleep. A common autistic feeling. He doesn’t want to be a part of anything social even he wants to go home. “If I don’t have to I’m not going to, and if I have to I’ll do it as quickly as possible.” A phrase he coined, a thing he enjoys saying and gets called lazy for it.. no. It’s just efficiency. He gets used to and attached to certain people hence why he’s able to be dragged around to help bust mysteries despite not wanting to be a part of them but because he’s so overwhelmed by noises and certain visual stimuli he sees things others don’t. When he’s paired with Eru Chitanda who’s bright, curious, and has a special interest in mysterious things, really sensitive ears and a good memory (sometimes a sign of autism, it’s a spectrum so there are various sensory problems people experience and some autistic people do have good memories.) … they become quite the pair and she helps bring him out of his shell. Honestly I think all of his friends are slightly on the spectrum.

Staz, a vampire with a special interest in all things human. He’s got manga of all kinds, merch, and a room filled with everything human related, he’s got quite a lot of triggers and is very sensitive about his things. He’s got no clue how to interact with people and indirectly offends people quite often, even going as far as not recognizing boundaries with touching. You could say he’s out of touch because of how long he’s been a vampire buuuuuuuuut then again there are other vampires who’ve been alive longer who do sprightly have that problem just not to as intense a degree.