mental health Tag

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“What If Our Greatest Pain Speaks to Us?” Using the supernatural to explore mental health in Bunny Girl Senpai
If I feel invisible, then I turn invisible. If I feel conflicted about myself, I split into two people. If I suffer from verbal bullying, then I wake up with cuts and scrapes all over my body. This is Adolescence Syndrome, the key concept behind Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, which the series uses to explore various social anxieties and mental health issues that can affect young people but which often go unnoticed.

Featureby Yasmine Maher September 2, 20200 Comments
Thinking Outside the Circle: Accessibility and education in Witch Hat Atelier
Using its “magical school” premise, Witch Hat Atelier explores diversity among students and argues for the importance of accessibility throughout society, but especially in education. With supportive mentors and a focus on individual accommodation, anyone really can wield their own kind of magic.

Featureby Dee August 19, 20200 Comments
Skip Beat!’s Harmful Healing: Forgiving abuse at the cost of self-worth
As Kyoko struggles to recover from abuse and trauma, she is encouraged to forgive everyone around her, put her own happiness last, and believe that love cures all. Skip Beat’s prioritization of these ideals over actual healing processes perpetuates unhealthy, even dangerous ideas about recovery.

Featureby Baillie Pucket May 22, 20200 Comments
“A Man Who Can Experience His Feelings”: Fruits Basket, toxic masculinity, and mental health
Fruits Basket is a radical work regarding its treatment of mental health because it actively works to destigmatize mental illness, critiquing and dismantling ideas about toxic masculinity through its portrayal of mental health.

Featureby Katie Randazzo May 8, 20200 Comments
Joy in the Apocalypse: Ruminations driving through desolation
At first glance, Ashinano Hitoshi’s 1995 sci-fi world seems no more than a quiet and rural part of modern Japan, but the easygoing protagonists live amidst ruin in what would have been the metropolitan Tokyo Bay. Entire cities have sunk and an untold number of lives have likely been shattered, yet the comic takes solace, even joy, in depicting the beauty of the world as humanity sits back to accept its fate.

Perspectivesby Chiaki Hirai April 22, 20200 Comments
Coping with Trauma and the Burden of Leadership in Maid-sama!
Juggling respect and likability is a tightrope many women are forced to walk. This intricate dance of cultivating social and professional balance is what first drew me to Maid-sama!.

Featureby Luisa Aparisi-França March 11, 20200 Comments
I Am One Yet Many: Plurality representation in the When They Cry Series
The horror genre has historically stigmatized mental health conditions, but Ciconia normalizes plurality and frames it as explicitly positive, making me feel comfortable in trying to express myself as plural.

Perspectivesby Lilith Miao March 6, 20200 Comments
Indecent Exposure of the Soul: Trauma and recovery in Gintama
When I found Gintama, I was going through the worst depressive/anxious episode of my life. The thought that plagued me the most was: “How am I going to live like this?” Of all the people in the world, I was not expecting Sakata Gintoki to give me an answer.

Perspectivesby Meg Ross December 13, 20190 Comments
After the Injury: Rediscovering my athletic identity through After the Rain’s Akira
Series that focus on non-cis male athletes in a serious, competitive environment, let alone deal with the mental health issues that some athletes face, are rare and valuable. I was absorbed with how much I saw my own relationship with tennis in Akira’s relationship with track, and that it wasn’t cute. It hurt.

Perspectivesby Olive St. Sauver November 20, 20190 Comments
My Roommate is a Cat Provides Comfort to the Socially Anxious
Throughout the series, My Roommate is a Cat depicts Subaru’s social anxiety and his efforts to manage it in a realistic manner. As he and his adopted cat Haru grow closer, he learns to cope and develop warm friendships.

Featureby Latonya Pennington November 15, 20190 Comments
What We Owe to Creators: Burnout in manga artists and how to prevent it
While manga artists have done a great service for international comics, we readers see an unsettling trend of writers and artists burning out.

Featureby Priya Sridhar October 23, 20190 Comments
Our Dreams at Dusk and the process of healing through found families
I knew Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare would be the series that got me back into manga as soon as I saw a cover image. The fourth volume features two women in wedding dresses, clearly getting married to each other. There were no pretenses; it wasn’t open to interpretation. This was a queer manga and I loved that the cover didn’t hide it.

Perspectivesby Dani M August 28, 20190 Comments
Not with a Bang, but a Letter: How Violet Evergarden rewrites traditional World War I narratives
Violet Evergarden reimagines historical discussion of post-traumatic stress, early 1900s literary tropes, and the popular “war narrative” genre, but with a female child soldier as its protagonist. In its remixing and calling back to World War I history and especially women’s history, the series provides a fresh take on an old tale with a strong undercurrent of feminist themes.

Historyby Katie Randazzo July 24, 20190 Comments
Subaru Sumeragi and the dark side of total empathy in Tokyo Babylon
The main driving theme of Tokyo Babylon is Subaru’s unlimited empathy for everyone, be it victims of supernatural occurrences, earthbound spirits, or simply an elderly man at the park. To Subaru, all deserve to be cared for, even at the cost of his own well-being.

Featureby Celeste Seifert June 12, 20190 Comments
Flying with Your Spirit: Independence, self-definition, and Kiki’s Delivery Service
The very idea of being able to live on my own, make my own decisions, and grow based on my experiences outside of the stipulations placed upon me by my small town seemed like the ultimate dream. After seeing Kiki leave her parents and fly across the water at midnight with her little red radio, I thought that I could do the same.

Perspectivesby Morgan Byrne May 29, 20190 Comments
Fruits Basket’s Tohru Honda and her Path to Self-Acceptance
Selfless heroines are common in anime and manga, but Tohru is particularly noteworthy because her development throughout the series serves as an example of growing up, coming to terms with one’s feelings, and finding one’s voice. She navigates a very real, very familiar river, fraught with anxiety and self-doubt.

Featureby Ariel French February 13, 20190 Comments
Cursed with Insecurity: Howl’s Moving Castle in print and film
Released in Japan in 2004, Howl’s Moving Castle remains one of Studio Ghibli’s classic films. But to anyone who was inspired to read the book it’s based on (written by Diana Wynne Jones), the film reads less like an adaptation than a complete reimagining. One of the biggest changes is the character arc of our protagonist, Sophie Hatter.

Versusby Genevieve Hammang December 5, 20180 Comments
On Your Side: Support networks in March comes in like a lion
March comes in like a lion is not always an easy show to watch. The protagonist, Rei Kiriyama, is probably the most relatable and moving representation of anxiety and depression I’ve ever seen. He’s what brought me to this show, but he’s not the only reason I stayed.

Featureby Marion Bea November 2, 20180 Comments
“The Courage to Speak”: Mental illness and recovery in Natsume’s Book of Friends
Using both its fantastical premise and grounded characters, Natsume’s Book of Friends tells a story with strong parallels to real-world mental illness and trauma. But what really makes it special is that it’s far more interested in exploring the recovery process, offering hope to its viewers who are trying to do the same.

Featureby Caitlin Donovan September 28, 20180 Comments
The Trauma of Velvet Crowe: Finding myself in Tales of Berseria
It was me, my mom, and my sister growing up. Like Velvet in Tales of Berseria, I was the middle point of the trio. Unlike Velvet’s family, it wasn’t the youngest I was worried about. It was the oldest—my mom.

Perspectivesby Jervon Perkins September 5, 20180 Comments