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INTEREST: Shoko Nakagawa Shares Her Teen Experiences with Bullying, Suicidal Thoughts




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Banjo



Joined: 13 Dec 2010
Posts: 779
PostPosted: Mon Aug 26, 2019 1:01 pm Reply with quote
I rather not let people in school/work etc know anything about me other than my name. to them I am just a guy without any hobby or dreams. Twisted Evil
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Aca Vuksa



Joined: 22 Mar 2018
Posts: 643
Location: Nis, Serbia
PostPosted: Mon Aug 26, 2019 1:28 pm Reply with quote
Poor about Nakagawa getting her own suicide. As for me, i am usually getting a lot of abuse from my family, but sometimes i love them no matter what i do something bad to them.
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Mon Aug 26, 2019 2:00 pm Reply with quote
Single gender schools sound good on paper, but in practice it's one big double edged sword, they can be rife with bullying due to hierarchical systems within groups of students and in rare cases, the school itself. While even co-ed public school systems have the same issues, it's worse when you have just one gender around.
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2385
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Aug 26, 2019 4:33 pm Reply with quote
Well, considering how successful she became later in life, I'm glad she was able to deal with and overcome the problems she had and show those bullies what for. I was also similarly picked on in my early years for preferring to draw, read books, and watch anime rather than stereotypically girly things such as talking about boys, makeup, fashion, and boy bands, which is what my peer groups in middle school always did. I hope her book gets translated into English and brought over here, kind of like Mari Okada's autobiography was. I'd love to read it.

I do find the part about the teacher and the shoes kind of appalling. Demanding an innocent student pay for something that you yourself paid for of your own volition is not okay. I don't blame Nakagawa-san for feeling like she couldn't trust adults after that incident, since that teacher basically guilt-tripped her and tried to take advantage of her vulnerable position, and I'm pretty sure receiving new shoes from a teacher wasn't what Nakagawa had in mind when she approached her for help (Basically saying "Here's new shoes, but you better pay me back since I went out of my way to do this for you. What an inconvenience you caused me).
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4566
PostPosted: Mon Aug 26, 2019 6:04 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, that teacher makes me angriest of all. If you can't step in to help a kid when they're in trouble, you have no goddamn business being in that profession.
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mrsatan



Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 909
Location: Olympia, WA, USA
PostPosted: Mon Aug 26, 2019 6:13 pm Reply with quote
This was my life, both in the US and Japan.

Quote:
The badmouthing, both to Nakagawa's face and behind her back, escalated to such a degree where even the girls Nakagawa was on speaking terms with started to avoid her.

This really resonated with me because the same thing happened to me in Japan. Except it was never to my face, always behind my back. (Because I wasn't Japanese and they knew I wouldn't take crap passively.)

I would advise everyone that goes there to never talk about otaku stuff like anime unless someone else brings it up. If you have a collection, hide it, especially when visitors come by.

The other American guy I was with learned to fake interests in things he didn't care about. Like he sucked up to our advisor by pretending to like soccer, the man's favorite sport. And this teacher soon took a liking to him over me. I don't blame my friend for doing this, it was the best way to "survive".

At my nadir, I told this sensei I was severely depressed and wanted to go home. He just sat there silently with a derpy expression on his face. He stayed completely silent and I walked out of the room feeling like an idiot. I completely avoided that man after that, even though I was required to meet with him weekly.

I told the gal in the office the same thing. She told me to suck it up and be a man and all that. I gave up trying to talk to senseis after that. In retrospect, I should have gone to talk to the school's English teacher, who was an American or one of my other teachers that actually liked me.
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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 3945
PostPosted: Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:42 pm Reply with quote
What appalled me the most about this was how the teacher acted towards her.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1823
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Tue Aug 27, 2019 8:47 am Reply with quote
Shoko Nakagawa and other artists have appeared on a programme broadcast by NHK at the end of the summer break discussing these issues.
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SheRrIs





PostPosted: Tue Aug 27, 2019 9:21 am Reply with quote
And now she has a successful career. Where are her bullies now? Probably still dealing with their mental issues. The school should be named and shamed - it's the only way to put a stop to school bullying. Parents will not pay for their kids to be abused.
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7jaws7



Joined: 17 Aug 2013
Posts: 704
Location: New York State
PostPosted: Tue Aug 27, 2019 9:54 pm Reply with quote
While I can’t say I had it as bad as her, I certainly had my fair share of tormentors. Not for liking anime (hadn’t quite discovered it yet) but just for being a socially awkward introvert.

To my younger self, bullying was just a part of school life; it never occurred to me to speak up about it. On the plus side, suicide never crossed my mind, either. Until becoming an adult, I never realized that it hurt so much for some people that not only do they contemplate it, they actually go through with it.

Though anime/manga is mostly a casual hobby to me, it’s stories like Haibane Renmei, Orange, and A Silent Voice that made me appreciate the medium and understand the real dangers of depression. Nakagawa never had that stuff to fall back on, but now she can use her own platform to help others who are going through that pain.
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manapear



Joined: 02 May 2014
Posts: 1524
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2019 12:34 am Reply with quote
Reminds me a lot of some of the shojo manga coming out in the 90s that centered on bullying, and sometimes, other societal issues. It's always so heart-breaking but infuriating to hear about. And it's most unfortunate that it seems largely universal for teachers to not care, but it's also not surprising when lined up with similar instances of victims being told to suppress themselves.

I'm glad she held on, and that she's had an amazing career. I hope her book can help others going through a hard time. I'm plenty of adults will relate, but bullying among teens and suicide is a big issue on its own.
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gilnokoibito



Joined: 17 Aug 2010
Posts: 107
PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2019 2:41 pm Reply with quote
This really hit home for me. I was bullied almost all through school, contemplated and attempted suicide several times as well. Just like Shoko-tan, the teachers ignored it and never did anything even when I told them. No adults lended a hand at all! I wasn't just bullied for anime and drawing but for how I looked, how I talked, anything I liked, being poor (though most others were poor at this school too), just about anything even if my bullies had to make up baseless rumors to get a jab at me, they would. I constantly had nausea every morning waiting on the bus and often during class. I'd have to have someone come pick me up just to feel completely better once I got home and then my parents of course thought that I was faking. It was truly awful but by some miracle I'm still here.

Hearing Shoko-tan talk about similar things really hit with me. I know it's a long shot but I'd LOVE it if this was ever translated! I'd really love to read it as I always looked up to Shoko-tan and knowing she's been through similar things and how she overcame them would be a blessing for me to read!
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kae kurono



Joined: 24 Mar 2011
Posts: 102
PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 12:33 pm Reply with quote
gilnokoibito wrote:
This really hit home for me. I was bullied almost all through school, contemplated and attempted suicide several times as well. Just like Shoko-tan, the teachers ignored it and never did anything even when I told them. No adults lended a hand at all! I wasn't just bullied for anime and drawing but for how I looked, how I talked, anything I liked, being poor (though most others were poor at this school too), just about anything even if my bullies had to make up baseless rumors to get a jab at me, they would. I constantly had nausea every morning waiting on the bus and often during class. I'd have to have someone come pick me up just to feel completely better once I got home and then my parents of course thought that I was faking. It was truly awful but by some miracle I'm still here.

Hearing Shoko-tan talk about similar things really hit with me. I know it's a long shot but I'd LOVE it if this was ever translated! I'd really love to read it as I always looked up to Shoko-tan and knowing she's been through similar things and how she overcame them would be a blessing for me to read!


i'm sorry to hear that you had to go through that, i'm glad your ok & doing fine now in life & i hope you continue to be happy.

Thank you Anime news network for this thought provoking article it was uplifting to read & learn this from shoko-tan. please keep doing more articles like this its amazing to read stuff like this to me.

Thank you to the user comments for opening your selves up it was very relatable & uplifting to me to read you guy's thoughts & experiences. just remember that there are people out there you've never met that cares about you as a person and as a human being, i love you guys & your all awesome thank you.
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