Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Don't Anime Characters Go To Therapy?
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wastrel
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That was an interesting question, and an interesting reply.
But there's also that seeing an anime character going to therapy wouldn't necessarily make for a very good story. How many "lie on the couch and tell me about your mother" episodes could there be? I'd rather watch Endless Eight again. |
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SaiyamanMS
Posts: 302 |
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To be honest, there's probably a lot of people in the west who could probably benefit from therapy and simply aren't getting it either. I know for years my mother was against the idea of me needing therapy, although it turns out she's probably a big part of the reason I actually do need it.
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2189 |
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More importantly therapy is a lot harder to make interesting than going on an emotionally compromised vengeance rampage, sleeping with your girlfriend's sister, killing yourself, or many, many other irrational decisions that emotionally damaged people do in anime.
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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Funny this question should be asked, because the one exception to "anime characters never go to therapy" I've ever seen is Okabe Rintaro in Steins;Gate Zero which just started airing. Poor guy, after all the events in Steins;Gate, he ends up with PTSD and possibly depression, but will most likely be always incorrectly diagnosed because in the beta timeline, none of the traumatic events that gave him PTSD have actually occurred. To all outside observers, it looks like he spontaneously became depressed.
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ultimatehaki
Posts: 1090 |
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Not gonna lie, I laughed pretty hard just by reading the thumbnail question. Not because mental illness is funny but because I thought "how much shorter would nearly half of anime and manga be if the characters actually did that."
Insightful answer tho. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18185 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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For anime examples of this, see episode 8 of Paranoia Agent and a midseries story arc from Welcome to the NHK, among possibly others. |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5316 |
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Maybe they don't need it, to quote Jack Nicholson
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myskaros
 Posts: 598 Location: J-Novel Club |
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I agree! This was a great read!
I think the way it's done in Western media works well enough, though at this point I think Americans all have an internalized idea of how "psychotherapy" (lie on a couch, talk about your issues) or "couples/marriage therapy" (complain about each other openly) goes so that media can cut straight to the juicy bits. It really just depends on how it's portrayed, as well. Take this season's Persona 5: The Animation; the interrogation scenes could just as well be therapy scenes and wouldn't lose much, if anything. Or any high school scene where troublemaking students are being lectured by a random teacher, that teacher could be a counselor trying to root out issues instead. 3gatsu no Lion comes to mind with the teacher and the bullying student. |
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Chrono1000
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Well this is based on the idea that western psychiatry is the answer to personal issues. The increasing emphasis on long term treatment over cures does look a tad suspicious from a profit standpoint. You don't have to be a Scientologist to question the subject of western psychiatry and how it is often held up as the gold standard for the entire world.
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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It’s an older documentary on depression in Japan but, I recommend is Does Your Soul Have a Cold? I think people can probably find it available to watch or purchase.
Anime Feminist earlier this year had an interview with a former volunteer at Aokigahara. One anime I do remember showing counseling was Loveless. Ritsuka and other characters in that sure need it. I also recall Comical Psychosomatic Medicine. |
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AJ (LordNikon)
 Posts: 504 Location: Kyoto |
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I think Justin's stat of one out of every three seek help is VERY high. From the limited amount of time I have spent even in the US, I think that figure would still be high. Everything else as half American and half Japanese moving between the two countries tells me mental health is something that the west also ignores, though to a lesser extent than Japan (which is hard for me to say, considering the mental health issues surround mass-violence that occurs in the US).
I remember my father who would now be in his 90's if still alive was American, would tell me, that Japanese people would tell him all sorts of things that they would never tell another Japanese person out of fear or shame. Even the simple ability to vent I have noticed was easier for my kids while they would be in the US than when they would be in Japan. |
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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I feel like a lot of people who talk about what happens during therapy have never been in it, and just base it on these media portrayals/stereotypes. I've seen several therapists, though none as long as my current one. There's no lying on a couch while being fed direct questions. It's very collaborative and often can be emotionally tiring. A couple sessions doesn't make the problems outside therapy go away.
Loveless is such an odd case. It features therapy, as most series won't, but also makes the therapist lust after her 12 year old patient. It was more a passing line in the manga iirc but the anime really upped it. Last edited by RestLessone on Wed Apr 25, 2018 12:07 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ARC-1300
 Posts: 360 |
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That’s kinda what puzzled me about the question as well. Americans don’t have this shit figured out either,in fact,it couldn’t even be further from the truth. Most times it’s ridiculed just as worse over here. Nor is it a subject that is even discussed seriously between anyone. |
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青白
Posts: 184 |
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I think the difference is not that neither countries have completely figured out psychological disorders, it’s that North America is promoting more awareness of the issue than Asian countries, especially Japan. And that is not surprising because it will take more effort for Japanese to try to get out of that mindset of self-reliance that is so ingrained in their culture. |
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Mojave
 Posts: 178 |
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I think you misunderstood the question. It wasn't bragging that Americans have this all figured out. It was asking why characters seeking help for mental health issues is almost never depicted in anime. For all of America's shortcomings concerning mental health, a willingness to portray characters seeking help for mental health issues is not one of them. There are countless scenes in American films, television series, etc. that feature characters seeing a therapist/psychiatrist/ etc. So to me, at least, it seemed pretty obvious what the person who asked the question was getting at. This is something frequently depicted in American media, and almost never in anime, so it's a fair question. |
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