I have noticed in recent years a tendency by some to diagnose fictional characters with some sort of autism spectrum disorder based on some traits which may be broadly associated with autism. This may correspond to an explosion of autism diagnoses in the real world, the cause of which is beyond the scope of the instant article. This article will focus on fiction – specifically using examples from Japanese visual novels and anime. Beginning with the case of Maria Ushiromiya, a character in the eight Umineko: When They Cry visual novels from Japan, I will examine the tendency to try to diagnose fictional Japanese anime and game characters with autism and what one who is actually interested in understanding a character and a piece should consider before dusting off the [2]DSM (see what I did there?).
Maria Ushiromiya’s Context
Umineko: When They Cry is an eight-part Japanese doujin visual novel series by 07th Expansion (the eight main games were released from 2003-2010). Like many of the freeware Japanese novels I have reviewed, it was originally written in NScripter (the official English localization by Manga Gamer is written in PONScripter, which is a fork of ONScripter-EN). Umineko has its warts, but it is a very good visual novel and well-worth reading. It is available for purchase in English on Steam, GOG, and Manga Gamer, so I will limit my discussion here solely to providing context for the character of Maria Ushiromiya in furtherance of my discussion of diagnosing 2D Japanese characters with autism.
The setting for Umineko is the Ushiromiya family conference, which takes place on a remote island owned by the family head. The family head lives on the island with his eldest son (note the eldest son is about 50), his eldest son’s family, and their servants and staff. Joining the family conference are the head’s other three children (again, all adults) and the head’s four grandchildren (ages 9-22). We will focus on the youngest of the family head’s four grandchildren, the nine-year-old Maria Ushiromiya.
Maria stands out as an initial matter because she is significantly younger than the three other grandchildren at the conference (they are 22, 18, and 17). Her age is not the only reason she stands out. In my review of a 2004 doujin visual novel called Collage, I covered another young Maria, the six-year old Maria Sakamaki. That Maria was wise beyond her years (too wise, I argued). Despite being three years older than Maria Sakamaki, Maria Ushiromiya not only comes off as younger than her cousins, but also young for a nine year old.
The first thing readers will notice about Maria is that she has speech patterns that make her sound more five than nine. She has a particular verbal tic, “uu-uu,” that she brings out when she becomes excited or frustrated. This verbal tic annoys her mother, Rosa Ushiromiya, who has a tendency to run hot and cold with her daughter. Maria often comes off younger than her actual age in the content of her speech as well as how she delivers it. She is quick to believe things, even for a nine-year old, and immature as a general matter.
But that is not all there is to Maria. While she comes off as a very young nine-year old in most cases, she has an odd fascination with the occult and specifically with the legend of Beatrice, a witch who purportedly bestowed on her grandfather his enormous wealth. To that effect, she has memorized a great deal of occult and witch facts. The fastest way to trigger one of Maria’s fiery tantrums is to make light of the witch. For our purposes, we are less interested in the particulars of the legend and how Maria’s interest of it is relevant to Umineko’s overarching plot than we are with how Maria discusses the occult. When Maria is triggered by something having to do with the witch, she adopts a different personality – as if she is channeling someone or something. With a somewhat disconcerting smile, she can discuss the witch and magic with an uncanny vocabulary for a nine-year old, and she trades her childish verbal tics for an unsettlingl creepy laugh.
Does Maria Have Asperger’s Syndrome?
I can see how the juxtaposition of Maria’s general childishness with her lengthy discourses on magic and the occult – subjects she is shown to have an obsessive interest in – could tempt some readers to diagnose Ms. Ushiromiya. I noted in the introduction to this article that such speculation often flows downstream by the fact that many individual traits that are associated with moderate-to-high functioning autism can be picked out in people who may or may not actually be autistic. Before continuing, I will spoil for readers that I had never understood Maria to have been written as having Asperger’s Syndrome, autism, or any other diagnosis. But rather than I explain why off the top, I will first turn to an interview with the creator of Umineko, Ryushiki07. This interview comes from The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers by S.M.G. Szczepaniak. Mr. Szcezpaniak interviewed Ryushiki07 about the latter’s work, including Umineko. In the course of the interview, Mr. Szczepaniak posed the following question about Maria:
In Umineko, some feel the character Maria … shows signs of having Asperger Syndrome. Was this your intention?
S.M.G. Szczpenaiak
Asperger’s Syndrome is an autism-spectrum disorder – although it was written out of the DMV starting with DMV-V and folded into broader autism. But setting aside the official cancellation of Asperger, Mr. Szczepaniak’s question is phrased very well. He referenced that some people (I assume people on the internet) had diagnosed the fictional Maria Ushiromiya with Asperger’s Syndrome. (See speculation about Maria and autism in a blog post about the first episode of the anime adaptation of Umineko, collected from around the web on a Tumblr blog, another Tumblr blog take, an English-language reference to there being speculation from Japanese readers that Maria is autistic, and a very thoughtful opinion and reply on an Umineko forum (beware of spoilers in some of the posts in the last link).) Mr. Szczpaniak’s question recognizes that the first thing one ought to ascertain is whether the author, Ryushiki07, in any way contemplated the character he wrote as having Asperger’s Syndrome. I suspected not, and Ryushiki07 all but confirmed as much without explicitly addressing Asperger’s Syndrome by name. Note that I will leave off a small part of the response in order to avoid saying anything unnecessary for our purposes about the plot.
Regarding Maria … I think about her as sort of like a joker character. When you think about a child you don’t … expect that they would have tricks up their sleeve. But Maria is portrayed as somebody who is not a typical child — somebody who is a bit strange, a bit mysterious — so she can do these things. So this was the background to creating the character Maria, as a different type of child, with some characteristics that make her different from everybody else.
Ryushiki07
In other words, notwithstanding the fact that Maria has some traits that are similar to some generic Asperger’s Syndrome and high-functioning autism, Ryushiki07 did not have the subjective intention of writing her as an Asperger’s character. The reason why she is in some cases very childish and in other cases “strange” and “mysterious” has nothing to do with a set of diagnostic criteria. To be sure, some could read into “a different type of child, with some characteristics that make her different from everybody else” as inadvertently satisfying diagnostic criteria, but I would caution against doing so in this particular case.
I read Umineko without the benefit of online commentary, but having seen and heard similar discussions of fictional autism in other contexts, it did occur to me that some readers would likely see Maria as being autistic. I doubted that this was Ryushiki07’s intention for several reasons, with the first being that Umineko is not a character piece and nothing in my knowledge of Ryushiki07’s prior work, the eight-part Higurashi: When They Cry, suggested that he was likely to set out to write an Asperger’s character. While I think one can infer from Umineko alone that Maria was not written with Asperger’s intent, having read the similarly long eight-part Higurashi before Umineko offers another reason to doubt any attempts to diagnose Maria. Higurashi features centers on school-aged characters (an overall younger cast that Umineko) and three of the girls, Rena Ryuugu, Satoko Hojo (pictured in one of my earlier articles), and Rika Furuude, are strange in their own ways and all have similar verbal tics to Maria. Without delving into unnecessary details regarding Higurashi, some of the girls are prone to the sorts of sudden personality shifts that we see in Maria. Moreover, many characters in Umineko behave in strange or unsavory ways, meaning Maria is but one of many peculiar personalities in the cast. Taken together, I had reason to believe that Ryushiki07 has a particular way of writing young female characters in both Higurashi and Umineko (note that these traits do not apply to all young female characters, for example Maria’s older cousin Jessica Ushiromiya in Umineko and several characters in Higurashi do not have the traits I referenced above). Ryushiki07 addressed this point in response to a different question wherein he discussed the effect that visual novels written by Jun Maeda at Key had on his own character writing style:
[U]p until [Key’s visual novels] in Japanese moe games, the heroines were all just lovable and cute young girls, but Key made their girls just thoroughly bizarre. In that vein, I decided that from now on the heroines can’t just be cute, they have to be a bit crazy, a bit perverse or strange.
Ryushiki07
I referenced Key’s style of writing odd female characters with verbal tics in my review of an original English language visual novel called The Dandelion Girl. To be sure, there are some differences between Key’s works and the the first two When They Cry series. Most of Key’s major visual novels include dating elements whereas neither Higurashi nor Umineko do (both include characters who have feelings for other characters and love is a key theme in Umineko, but not in the Key visual sense of the player-controlled character building relationships with female characters in the cast). But while Higurashi and Umineko lack “heroines” in the Key sense, much less datable ones, one need not squint to see that Ryushiki07 gleaned inspiration from some of the iconic heroines in novels such as Kanon and Clannad in writing Maria and other female characters in Higrashi and Umineko.
Examples Where Diagnosis of Unstated Asperger’s/Autism May Be Justified
Having established that Maria Ushiromiya was not written as an autistic character and should not be understood as one, it is worth considering what readers, watchers, or players should consider when considering whether a specific character is autistic. It should go without saying that we are contemplating cases wherein the specific work is silent on the autism question. For example, With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child by the late Keiko Tobe is a very good manga series about a young Japanese mother raising a boy with low-functioning autism. Because the manga series is explicitly about raising a diagnositically autistic child, there is no need for the mental gymnastics I describe below.
First, Mr. Szcezpaniak set a terrific example in specifically asking the author of the work in question whether he had intended for Maria to be autistic. Citing to John Ruskin, I have opined on numerous occasions that the first step to reading fiction is to understand the author’s intent. Only after understanding the author’s intent can one criticize a work (either favorably or unfavorably) in an informed way. If the author is available, asking him or her whether a specific character was intended to have a specific diagnosis is the best way to reach the heart of the matter. We should not discount the possibility that an author may write a character with a diagnosis in mind but never explicitly state the diagnosis in the story.
While fictional character overdiagnosis should be avoided, we should not discount the possibility that an author could write a character who checks enough boxes to raise questions without having a specific disorder or disability in mind (one could argue Maria is an example of this, although I would disagree for the reasons I discussed above). For example, I suppose that it is entirely possible that an author could model a character after someone he or she knows or studied but without reference to specific diagnositic criteria. We are unlikely in most cases to come across an interview in which the interviewer asks the author of a work point-blank whether such and such character was written with Asperger’s Syndrome or something similar in mind. When we lack direct evidence, we can consider circumstantial evidence – albeit again with the provision that the burden of proof rests with those who want to make the diagnosis. When I say circumstantial evidence, I mean not only evidence about the character him or herself, but also evidence about the work as a whole. Returning briefly to Umineko, I do not think that the best reading of the novels, especially when supplemented by knowledge of Ryushiki07’s other work, would not lead one to the conclusion that Ryushiki07 wrote Maria Ushiromiya with Asperger’s/autistic intent.
Having cautioned against reading specific diagnostic criteria into fictional characters without proper foundation, one reason I was interested in writing this article is because I have noted two instances here on site where I think that one could make a case for un-stated autism.
The first concerns the first two seasons of the Kimi ni Todoke anime, which aired from 2009-11 (note I have not read the underlying manga so my assessment is based solely on the first two seasons of the anime). In an article about the show’s treatment of hair color, I agreed with an assessment that the heroine of the shoujo romance manga and anime, Sawako Kuronuma, “is an absolute textbook case” of Asperger’s Syndrome.”
The show never makes reference to Asperger’s Syndrome, autism, or any other specific diagnosis. However, without stating with certainty that Sawako was intended to be an Asperger’s character, and granting that some of her behavior regarding romance is also broadly consistent with shoujo romance genre tropes, one could make a compelling case based on Sawako’s behavior that she is indeed a “textbook case” of Asperger’s Syndrome in how it may present in a high school girl in her specific context. Sawako is portrayed as being an above-average student and intelligent enough for all normal purposes, but one who relies on studying and repetition and is not exceptional academically or intellectually. Outside of the context of her love story, Sawako has a distinct inability to read people, especially when it comes to how they perceive her. She internalized years of bullying to the point she has very low self-valuation, but at the same time she finds comfort in her routines and doing what is expected of her. Her low self-valuation has the tendency to cause her to doubt that people who care about her accept her as she is and also to trust certain people with ulterior motives when she should not. The counter-argument against diagnosing Sawako concerns her romantic misunderstandings with the popular boy who has a crush on her (it is mutual) in that many of those misunderstandings are consistent with plots in similar romance anime. Nevertheless, we learn enough about Sawako outside of her romantic misunderstandings to make a fair case that she has a case of decently high-functioning Asperger’s syndrome. Moreover, Sawako’s traits are distinct and materially distinguishable from other shoujo romance heroines with self-confidence issues related to bullying. For example, I opined in my review of the anime adaptation of Honey Lemon Soda that the romance anime and its main character, Uka Ishimori, have significant structural similarities to Kimi ni Todoke and the circumstances of Sawako. But while Uka’s circumstances are similar to Sawako’s (she was the victim of bullying, has low self-confidence and difficulty relating to others, and becomes close to a popular and attractive boy), her struggles seem to derive more obviously from having been bullied and her sheltered upbringing than how her brain is wired.
Before proceeding to the next character, the case of Sawako invites us to make a fine distinction in diagnosing fictional characters. Absent some comment from the author of Kimi ni Todoke, it is impossible to say with certainty whether Sawako was written with Asperger’s/autism intent or some other diagnosis entirely. For that reason, to the extent one may agree that she is a “textbook case” of Asperger’s, it may be most accurate to say that she is a believable portrayal of how Asperger’s would present in a Japanese high school girl with specific experiences in a certain circumstance without weighing in decisively on whether that was the author’s subjective intent in writing Sawako.
I described Tomori Takamatsu in the 2023 show BanG Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!! as being autistic despite the fact the show never used a diagnostic term. While Kimi ni Todoke leaves plenty of room for different interpretations of Sawako, MyGo’s portrayal of Tomori, which includes an entire episode shot from Tomori’s first-person perspective wherein she shows viewers what it is like to have always felt different and unable to understand people around her, is what I would describe as delivering an unstated autism case with a sledgehammer. Before seeing the world through Tomori’s eyes, we learn about her passion for collecting animal-print Band-Aids and rocks. She struggles to communicate with others and her ability to read people makes Sawako look like a social savant. Fitting the theme of the show, Tomori struggles greatly with change and quickly blames herself when things change in ways she is uncomfortable with. Unlike Sawako, she is not portrayed as being book smart or possessing above average intelligence (one would imagine her struggling as a student, although academics are never a focus in the show), but she has the ability to touch others with her sincerity and efforts to convey her feelings.
The Dangers of the Over-Diagnosis
There are other cases of character autism diagnoses, however, that I would either wholly reject or dismiss as uninteresting, regardless of the truth of the matter. Mashiro Shiina in The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is a phenomenally talented high school-aged painter with a photographic memory who is otherwise incapable of attending to her basic upkeep. Was she written with some sort of autistic savant intent? Possibly (if not probably) – but the whole anime series (I cannot speak for the underlying source material) was effectively a wish fulfillment fantasy. Mahiro was not written convincingly as a general matter — so I would be reluctant to spend much time thinking about it. I suppose one could read Shigeo from Mob Psycho 100 as being autistic, but I never thought about that while watching the show’s three seasons and in any event am inclined to doubt that was the intent or the point of the piece. I have reviewed some visual novels with characters that I could see some readers would impute autism to. Return to Shironagasu Island features a socially maladjusted girl with a genuinely photographic memory who is socially awkward incapable of taking care of her person and appearance. Is she autistic? She has some surface autistic savant traits but I am reasonably confident that she is a case of the author writing a character with traits he liked rather than intentionally or unintentionally writing a character with Asperger’s syndrome or autism. What about the social outcast Kana Moriyama in the excellent (and free) Shooting Star Hill? Is she on the spectrum? I think not — while she is an awkward, shy social outcast who may, depending on which one of two ways you read the novel, see things a bit differently than those around you, that piece is about bullying and loneliness, not diagnostic criteria (coded or otherwise).
I had an epiphany while writing the previous passage: In certain media, one should be particularly careful with respect to certain kinds of characters. For example, many anime series are written for or based on material targeted at young people. For this reason, many characters are written in such a way as to be relatable to the audience. Many romance series aimed at girls and young women feature lead characters who are cute enough for all normal purposes but who are insecure, socially awkward, and have trouble reading guys who are interested in them. Series aimed at boys and young men often feature disaffected young men with social problems. One can see, especially in the case of series with male characters, how characters can have traits that could be generically associated with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, or other conditions or disorders which affect social functioning, but which were not actually written with that intent. I only cite to those examples since they are the subject of the instant article — but other media and genres present similar issues.
Conclusion
While this article is about over-diagnosing fictional characters, the main point is that readers, viewers, or players should make a point of trying to understand the author’s or creator’s intent before substituting their own. Someone who goes into a work intent on diagnosing characters who march to the beat of their own drum with Asperger’s Syndrome or autism, who struggle on tests without studying as dyslexic, or who seem just a little bit too energetic as having ADHD does not enrich one’s understanding of the work – it is instead projecting what one wants the work to be about without considering the work as it is. Umineko is a terrific test case. Over eight visual novels, the piece provides an account of Maria Ushiromiya and why she behaves in the way she does – grounded in her own home life and point’s about the visual novel’s world that are well beyond the scope of this article. Focusing on trying to diagnose her in a way that was not intended by the author or ultimately supported by the work as a whole does not enrich one’s understanding of Maria or her significance to the story. However, none of this is to say that considering real world diagnoses in fiction is never justified in media where they are not stated outright. Granting some caveats about Kimi ni Todoke’s genre conventions, it is fair to describe Sawako as being a believable portrayal of Asperger’s Syndrome regardless of whether that was the author’s intent – so long as one does not substitute the former DSM-IV for considering what the author conveys about Sawako’s actual behavior and actions in the context of the story. A careful reader could even disagree with my take about Maria provided they do so with the understanding that Ryushiki07 did not subjectively intend to write her as satisfying the DSM. In other cases such as Tomori in MyGo, the implications of the character’s portrayal are made so obvious that one can grant the presence of aspects of the diagnostic criteria without an explicit diagnosis.
Understand the work first. Analyze the work second.
