Asuperu Kanojo - Vol. 9 Ch. 72 - The red city Part II

[Carmichael]

In the real world, people would long have oriented her toward Psychological Professionals. However there are several points to keep in mind:
1. This is a work of fiction, and having a couple try to deal with their own problems while being surrounded of people similarly troubled makes the story more entertaining. Ever wonder why the apartment complex is full of people with psychological problems?
2. Japan is notorious for its societal problems, of which the lack of recognition of psychological problems and lack of psychological care result.
3. MC has his own psychological problems that went unaddressed for far too long in this series. As someone diagnosed with Asperger, I actually found as much in common with MC than Saitou. It is clear that he also has problems, and I don't think the series will have a happy ending so long they are not addressed.

 

[silverpetricof]

I know the both of them will overcome this. I believe in them.

Thanks for the translation (I'm still glad I wrote my final Intro to Psychopathology essay on this manga. And even more glad my professor accepted and loved it 😄).

 

[tomtom78]

I think this mange handles this topic perfectly, and shows to everyone who romanticizes mental illness that sometimes, if not most of the time, things don't get better, they also can get worse, but the baseline might just be low all throughout. I appreciate the way the author is depicting this relationship, as I've dealt with suicidal people in my life, this feels very accurate.

 

[BCS]

She shouldn't be here. I commend the guy for taking care of her for as long as he did, but honestly, she should be in a facility.

Then the facility will be the taking care of her. But she'll being taken care of either way, so what's the point?

 

[eviljackspicer]

Then the facility will be the taking care of her. But she'll being taken care of either way, so what's the point?

The facility has way more resources: Medication, therapists, treatment programs. Our MC can only do so much with what he has.
It would be like taking care of an elderly family member who is suffering from multiple medical issues. You could in theory take care of them, but the average layman won't be able to jump on and handle an medical complication that pops up. Yes, calling the ambulance will help, but without the proper knowledge, tools, etc, you'll be calling for that ambulance over and over again to handle things you just can't.

To get back to it, I honestly believe that our FMC needs way more then our MC can provide. What our MC provides is genuine, (not dismissing it) but it isn't enough.

 

[coyote_vdb]

I think my main frustration is that we have a MC willing to help her at every stretch and yet she has almost no motivation to help herself. All the help in the world won't do any good in this case. As badly as I feel for this character, I find it equally frustrating watching someone drowning in mud, all while kicking any good willed rescue attempt aimed at them and making no attempt to get out of it at all.

I have an autistic daughter. She's not as severe as the girl in this manga but leaving with her made me understand that there are things they just don't control. For instance, she's strongly affected by the sound of rain on a roof, and if it lasts too long, she needs to go in a silent and dark room for potentially hours to calm down. Same with noisy parties with a lot of people. She might look asocial or full of "ticks" to people who don't know about autism, but the fact is that she can't in any way fight it or get used to it. And there's no "facility" that will help you because it's not a condition you can cure, it's a way of being that you have to adjust to. The autist and the people around him have to understand what situations are unbearable for the former and leave space to him or her to avoid these situations. Our daughter's life became a lot easier when we all understood that.

 

[MawMaw]

I'm glad we got this arc, this is well needed for their development.

 

[rudezki]

Are things really this bad in Japan? No professional help at all for the mentally ill?

 

[choccio]

People really be thinking that you just have to go to a facility or see a psychiatrist to be cured...Mental health is very much not understood yet and very taboo. Treatments for it are mostly useless and or dangerous and or act only as pain killer. At this point I even feel like we know more about curing cancer than a serious mental illness. If you end up really sick mentally.... chances are that you'll stay that way for years if not your whole life. If you do manage to get better it'll be thanks to a mix of : healthy diet, enough sleep somehow, sports, above the poverty line lifestyle and most importantly extremely supportive social network and possibly help form a psychiatrist and or mental health facility. No way on earth only a psychiatrist will be able to cure anything beside very light and simple symptoms.

 

[KajurN]

When people are saying she needs help it's not to cure her Autism, it's to treat her PTSD, which is what is tearing her apart. Without the past traumas she would be living absolutely fine with Yokoi.

 

[coyote_vdb]

When people are saying she needs help it's not to cure her Autism, it's to treat her PTSD, which is what is tearing her apart. Without the past traumas she would be living absolutely fine with Yokoi.

Good point.

 

[0181sam]

Are things really this bad in Japan? No professional help at all for the mentally ill?

Yeah why do you think they have the highest suicide rates lol

 

[jeremymd]

But it's been 72 chapters with little to show for it.

If what you're looking for is progress in her personality, then yeah, per se, she barely has any progress because she is so very inconsistent. But if you focus on the relationship they have, it's undeniable that their interactions and trust have progressed a lot.

 

[coyote_vdb]

Are things really this bad in Japan? No professional help at all for the mentally ill?

I believe that the more normative the society, the more this kind of deviance from the norm will be considered a bad attitude that will be blamed instead of people being understanding and patient. I suppose that Japan, in that aspect, and most asian countries which have very normative social codes, are probably not the easiest place to be autistic.
Truthfully, twenty years ago, in France where I live, almost nobody knew anything about autism and very few doctors or psychiatrists knew how to deal with this nature. France is not the most normative of countries but it's not the best in Europe to handle social and mental suffering. So it's probably a question of time before things improve in Japan.

 

[my0tis]

How has no one mentioned that she just came back from trial that opened up a lot of literal and figurative old wounds? If course she'd be extra on edge, all of her trauma has been more present now than ever before in her relationship with Yokoi.

 

[Eighty-six]

When people are saying she needs help it's not to cure her Autism, it's to treat her PTSD, which is what is tearing her apart. Without the past traumas she would be living absolutely fine with Yokoi.

You can't cure autism, but the condition overall causes objective deficits (e.g. impaired theory of mind) that need to be compensated for as much as possible in order to function as well as possible.

Her autism isn't all inconsequential cute quirks, and while it operates in the complex of her various traumas, PTSD, panic disorder, and OCD, there are also issues caused by her having yet to manage and overcome the issues that are specifically a result of her autism.

Yeah why do you think they have the highest suicide rates lol

They apparently don't even rank in the top 10 for suicides (though they'll rank high in the context of the G7 and OECD). That aside, much more concerning is their attitudes towards it-- things are changing for the better, but they've historically been at least "tolerant" about the matter.

 

[Hootanic]

A lot of people here may be discounting that he might actually have feelings for her, that he might love her, and the anguish of having made seemingly little progress is tied with that sense that their journey together going forward is what's in peril. Emotional issues are always difficult to navigate, especially without professional therapy, but hopefully they can decide what it is they really want to get out of their relationship together. If it's some sort of codependent relationship, it'll be doomed; but if it's a loving, supportive relationship, it'll be one where they confront their issues together as a team.

 

[Nolzi]

Ok, let’s not act like he was forced to take her in his home. He willingly let her in and even told her multiple times he likes her being there and accepts her.

This is definitely a tough obstacle in their relationship tho. I wonder how they’ll get past it.

Well, he didn’t really understand what he was signing up for, he had no experience taking care of someone with special needs. Boyo thought “I can fix her”, but now he is too invested and weak hearted to get rid of her, even without the manipulation. So he is in a lose-lose situation.

 

[Marcellx]

Every time I read this series I get flashbacks. I relate to this guy so much.

 

[Akikako]

The boy work maybe 5 hours at days (in the chapter say he take the afternoon too) close to home and he can't find a couple of hours to sleep? Seriously, he was good until some chapter ago, why he became idiotic now?