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The Depiction of Hikikomori in Japanese Pop Culture: Can the Anime Industry Help ‘Social Recluses’ B

It's like i'm reading about myself.

Just coming at this subject with some personal background dealing with ASD and SM, I find it really disheartening how much of the modern isekai genre is seemingly predicated on this idea that if you're neurodivergent and having trouble, the best cure is death. There's something profoundly cynical about it, couched as it is in the wish-fulfillment fantasy of a Do-Over where Everything Goes Right.

It also plays into the stereotype that the people suffering from these conditions really are just lazy, since ultimately all they need to do to turn things around is try. Turns out it was a super-easy problem to solve after all.

And if they have to reincarnate just to have that opportunity, well, doesn't that just mean that it was already too late for them back in their original lives? And in that case, aren't they justified in not making any effort to change?

So the genre tropes are effectively taking neurodivergent people with (probably undiagnosed) disorders of some kind, and simultaneously telling them both that it's too late for them to fix themselves, AND that they could have easily fixed themselves in the past, with a little effort.

Obviously, I'm not saying that *all* ND representation is like this. But a whole heckuva lot certainly is. On the whole, I'd say it's a net negative, all around.

Man even as a massive otaku, like this stuff was always laughable. Like, where do these people get the money to be able to survive this? Man if i just stayed shut in, id lose my house in 2-3 months. Yet, some do this for years? Like half the time it seems like parents enabling this behaviour.

...Also having a cat is really nice...

...The situation turned abusive, with them yelling at me over minor mistakes until eventually we broke up over a sandwich I accidentally ate that they screamed at me over.