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Answerman - Why Don't Anime Characters Go To Therapy?

You just offended Naruto Uzumaki. That said, two anime character that could be a respective poster boy and poster girl for therapy are Shinji Ikari and Yuno Gasai.

Citation needed? Some places allow assisted suicide for terminally ill patients who are in great pain, but I've never heard of any country offering it to anyone simply for depression.

There was one anime I watched a few years ago that featured the main character seeing a therapist several times in the series about his childhood trauma. It was called Ghost Hound.

There's also the fact that "therapy" and "going to therapy" is not a Western but a purely American habit. I am French and there are very few therapists here, typically only used for severe traumas and mostly court-ordered. Europeans, just like Asians, Africans, South Americans or Oceanians don't share the Americans interest in mental health - and note that it's note a judgement, just a fact, I understand how helpful it can be and how a lot of people are missing on that even in my family. It's a perfectly good way of getting to know oneself better and thus improve, or cure existing traumas, so I'm personally all for it but I'm in the very low minority to think like that in Europe. Don't quote me on that, but I remember reading somewhere that there were more shrinks in the US that in all the other countries of the world put together (as are lawyers by the way, ), which frankly didn't surprise me.

wastrel wrote:

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.

I think it could be really clever. Imagine your typical high school anime insanity but one protagonist breaks down the events in therapy?

"Well, I think she might like me but then she calls me a 'Stupid Idiot' and punches me."
"What do you do when she punches you?"
"Well, I let her, because she's a least paying attention to me."
"Is that the kind of attention you really want?"
"No, but... ...Oh my god... If I just stopped associating with her I wouldn't suffer that abuse but I keep coming to her because I have no idea what is good and bad attention. I just want people to talk to me, ANYBODY, even if they're accusing me of being a 'pervert' over obvious misunderstandings!"

You could do a REALLY amazing deconstruction of high school anime tropes. I'd SO watch it.