Main account @alfwig. This blog is to review various Manga &Anime for Aspec Representation of all Forms. Header Image is a Collage of Various Items from the Pinned List, Message for Specifics if you Want Them.
This list will be continuously updated from time to time.
Everything on this list will be my personal recommendations for manga that either give off the aspec vibes, have a canon character or have an indirectly labeled character. I will admit a lot of these may be headcanons more than anything, but they aren't without their backing.
I'm using the term aspec as an umbrella term for arospec and acespec.
Trigger Warning Key:
*Contains Sexual References (Jokes, Mentions, etc.)
+Depictions of Sexual Imagery/Complete Nudity (Usually won't go that far, but just to be safe.
-Homophobia,Transphobia, Aphobia, etc.
!Themes of Suicide
/Gratuitous Violence, Gore
Aspec Stories with Canon Characters:
In which the words are said.
Mine-Kun is Asexual by Isaki Uta (ace)
My Astible by Amupaka * (aroace and demiaroace)
Our Dreams at Dusk by Kamatani Yuhki *-! (aroace)
Is Love the Answer? by Isaki Uta - (aroace)
Sex Education 120% by Takaki Kikiki, Illustrated by Hotomura *+ (aroace)
Lots of apps say your companion is made for you. SweetDream actually backs it up. Because you author every part of her, looks, personality, voice, backstory, the result genuinely reflects you instead of a default template.
And the quality keeps that promise intact over time. She stays in character, remembers your history, and shows up the way you designed her to. On sweetdream.ai, made for you means exactly that.
This list will be continuously updated from time to time.
Everything on this list will be my personal recommendations for manga that either give off the aspec vibes, have a canon character or have an indirectly labeled character. I will admit a lot of these may be headcanons more than anything, but they aren't without their backing.
Trigger Warning Key:
*Contains Sexual References (Jokes, Mentions, etc.)
+Depictions of Sexual Imagery/Complete Nudity (Usually won't go that far, but just to be safe.
-Homophobia,Transphobia, Aphobia, etc.
!Themes of Suicide
/Gratuitous Violence, Gore
Aspec Stories with Canon Characters:
In which the words are said.
Mine-Kun is Asexual by Isaki Uta (ace)
My Astible by Amupaka * (aroace and demiaroace)
Our Dreams at Dusk by Kamatani Yuhki *-! (aroace)
Is Love the Answer? by Isaki Uta - (aroace)
Sex Education 120% by Takaki Kikiki, Illustrated by Hotomura *+ (aroace)
As Ace Week comes to a close, I would like to share my absolute favorite manga about asexuality. Itâs I Want to Be a Wall, specifically volume 2.
What I love the most about this manga is that the main character, Yuriko, is not discovering her identity as an asexual woman. She has already fully embraced her asexuality and is navigating adult life in her platonic marriage with Gakurouta.
I am a huge fan of domestic, slice of life stories, and this manga is exactly that. Yuriko and Gakurouta learn what it means to be a family in their unique situation while going on their first vacation together.
Also, poor Gakurouta struggles to find non-explicit books to read while at the bookstore. A struggles Iâm sure many of us experience when looking for a good romance book.
I Want to Be a Wall volume 2 is just very special to me, because itâs exactly what Iâm looking for in an ace story: adults just living their lives while building their found family. It has become my number one manga recommendation, and I canât wait for volume 3.
Happy Ace Week Everyone! I was able to get this post in somewhere because life has been a rush but I wanted to talk about one of my favorite and most direct aspec manga, Is Love the Answer by Uta Isaki.
There isn't much to talk about this time since the story is about the protagonist discovering that they are aromantic and asexual and that research makes up a majority of the 6 chapters.
I earnestly recommend the manga to anyone who is thinking they may be aspec or even need a little bit of encouragement in embracing their identity. It helped me a lot during a depressive time and it reminded me that it was ok to be aspec even when I felt like I couldn't talk to anyone.
Oshi no Ko: Lies & Love. Aromantic Coded Narratives
I'm going to edit this more, but I'm pushing it out to feel better.
This post is an incredibly cut down and curated version of a longer academic style paper on this topic. If there are any confusing bits or inaccuracies, let me know. A lot of this is rewritten for a more digestible format.
This post is going to talk about spoilers for a majority of the Oshi no Ko manga,the short story, "45510" and the song it inspired "Idol" by Yoasobi. I will also discuss relationships with power imbalances and the sexual relationships between two minors, as Ai Hoshino was 16 when she had children. There will not be explicit detail but it is important to keep in mind the conditions of Ai's relationships.
There will be major spoilers so if you are waiting for Season 2 of the anime, don't read on. I highly encourage everyone to read the manga if you can. If you haven't started it and have just found it through this post, start by watching the anime if it is available, it is excellently produced.
Some Background:
Oshi no Ko was written by Aka Akasaka, known author of Kaguya-Sama Love is War & Renai Daikou. A lot of his work is introspective on the nature of relationships and love, Oshi no Ko being no different.
Oshi no Ko follows the story of two twin siblings, Aqua and Ruby Hoshino reincarnated fans of their new mother, Ai Hoshino. Ai Hoshino was the famous main idol of the idol group B-Komachi. The two of them previously new eachother as a doctor and patient before the latter passed away from Anaplastic astrocytoma, a form of brain cancer, and the other stabbed by Ai's stalker.
The two of them live a regular life as Ai's children until she is murdered by the same stalker that killed Aqua in his past life. After her passing they follow in the footsteps of their mother and enter the world of Japanese Entertainment in pursuit of getting revenge on their unknown father who they blame everything on.
Both of them have a very pragmatic view of the world, but they aren't the focus. Lets talk about Ai.
Ai Hoshino, 45510 & Idol:
The main point of this post is to argue that Ai lies somewhere on the Aromantic spectrum. There are some light pieces of evidence for her also being asexual, but not nearly as defintive as her aro-ness.
Ai Hoshino is the driving force of the narrative despite her story only making up around 10% of the manga. The main reason I want to talk about her is how she is displayed in Idol and "45510". For this I'll be using a fan translation by u/64990022 on Reddit the link for which can be found here.
The short story follows another member of B-Komachi looking back on Ai's popularity with jealousy.
In this we get to see an old interview of Ai's which holds her perspective on love: "I think affection comes from trust. What was it, payback? Like, to return affection with affection. But I'm a coward. I canât believe in the words âlike,â âlove,â or âaffectionâ very much. I donât know, Iâve never really fallen in love with someone before.â This is the core of Ai's identity as an idol and how she performs. She doesn't understand love and how to be affectionate towards other people. Additionally, she doesn't seem to understand the point of marriage: âI canât imagine it at all. Marriage? Me? Even if you say you want to marry me, how much of that is true? I can understand when people want to be with someone they like, but why marriage? Is it an expression of love? To prove that you would stay forever with that person? If thatâs it then maybe I understand a little.â
Personally, I think that this rings true as an aro perspective on love and affection, not understanding the conventions of love and instead coming up with her own. Without being told that its normal to not have the ability to fall in love, Ai has given her feelings its own definition in an objective sense.
She reached the conclusion that lying was the greatest form of love, all stemming from her experience as an idol and observing the world of fans. To her, idols expressed their love to their fans all the time in their words, but none of them truly meant their words. While this is most likely true, we can see how this came to a head in the construction of the stage persona of Ai in the lyrics of "Idol" by Yoasobi;
"
That "I love you" again
Now, everybody is lured and captivated by you
The pupil that you got
The words you vocalize
Even when untrue, it's your perfected Ai
"
Every expression of love is a lie to captivate the audience, but to Ai, even if its untrue, its an expression of care and appreciation.
"
So strong, it's you, unrivalled idol
There cannot be weaknesses to find
The brightest star is residing in you
The gaps and shortcomings, don't show 'em
Dammit, dammit
Parts nobody wants to know should remain hidden
One and only
If it's different, no way, no way
Such a true love, it's the realest Ai
"
Despite not knowing how to love, Ai believe she'd give her fans the most appreciation she could by lying to them. Things like this aren't uncommon in the lives of young aros, claiming to have a crush or to love someone to fit in with the expectations people have for them. Despite all of this, she did hope that one day she would feel a 'true' love towards someone, which ended up being her children right before her death.
The Father
This is where the spoilers actually begin. Despite Ai being in a relationship with someone, there isn't much proof that this relationship was anything within the realm of healthy if not completely manipulative.
The twins' father and Ai's ex-boyfriend was Hikaru Kamiki. He was a child actor the same age as Ai, 15, and shortly after the two of them meet Ai becomes pregnant and gives birth at the age of 16. At this point Hikaru Kamiki has had multiple of these relationships and, to the reader, is known to be a serial killer of women in the entertainment industry, luring them in before killing them. He is suspected to, if not almost fully confirmed to have leaked the address of Ai to her stalker as well as which hospital she was staying in.
Needless to say, their relationship is incredibly brief and ends as soon as Ai becomes pregnant and is forced into hiding. The entirety of their relationship is shown as being based around meeting up around hotels and lacks an air of romance commonly seen in teen romances. He most likely manipulated Ai into a relationship with the intent of murdering her but there is some evidence to him actually being in love with her as he brings flowers to her grave on the anniversary of her death.
At time of posting, we don't know enough about him or their relationship to draw many conclusions but as he is the only partner Ai has every had, omitting their relationship felt disingenuous.
TLDR;
Ai's treatment of love as a whole relates greatly to an aro lens of love and the institutions of love in society. Lying about love is not uncommon among aro experiences. Idol is a bop no matter the language and its a really good aro song.
Written and illustrated by Yuhki Kamatani, Our Dreams at Dusk is a manga about self acceptance, dealing with expectations, the power of queer spaces and the relief in questioning one's own identity.
Trigger Warning: Homophobic Comments, Mentions of Sexual Content, Transphobia, and Mentions of Suicidal Intent. I you can handle these topics, I highly reccomend this manga. If not, I break down the main aspec character below the break.
This manga is a masterpiece of identity and the overwhelming heteronormative expectations of society. The manga itself is incredibly contemplative of these topics but also the power and solidarity that comes with queer spaces. A lot of this is my own interpretation and the manga leaves a lot up in the air for the reader to decide for themselves.
Light Plot Spoilers Below:
The main plot of the manga follows Tasuku Kaname and his process of dealing with the fact that he was outed as gay to his high school class. The evolution of his self-acceptance and moving towards living a queer life in the public eye is the main conflict, but he isn't the one I want to focus on.
The main supporting character of the manga is Anonymous. She owns the small house from which a community sprung out supporting many queer individuals who couldn't find themselves elsewhere in society. But her origins are what make her characterization as an aspec character interesting, though she prefers to remain unlabeled.
We are first introduced to Anonymous as she flies through the air and confronts Tasuku when he is contemplating suicide after being outed at school. Multiple times throughout the manga show her often appearing and disappearing at will, seemingly able to do whatever she wishes to do. She is as she says, "nobody".
In listening to one of the older members of the community, they recount giving her the identity of "nobody" because she felt like she couldn't be defined by society because of her lack of romantic and sexual attraction.
Important Note: A lot of the time in Japanese Media the term "Asexual" refers to the term "Aromantic Asexual" in English as it is in this case. An "alloace" would be "Nonsexual". There isn't any adopted phrase for aroallo people, though there are ways of describing the feeling rather than a label.
Anonymous desired to be so because of a lack of social support in Japanese society for people that want to remain "isolated", so she accepted an identity that remains "invisible". Anonymous also identifies as free of gender but is referred to by female pronouns.
This ungrounded identity is really expressed later in the manga near the end, inspiring the idea that your labels aren't your entire personhood and that you are a living breathing person just like everyone else, even if you are Anonymous. Anonymous isn't Anonymous because she is Asexual; she is because she wants to remain undefined as a person. Anonymous isn't a list of labels and personality traits, she is the foundation for a network of support, and that is what is most important to her.
Anonymous is a characterization of the role of queer communities in supporting others without taking on the burden of their identities to try and understand.
TLDR:
Our Dreams at Dusk presents an aspec character dealing with the weight of societal expectations through a disassociation of identity from self. Anonymous exists as both herself and the personification of queer support.
I began watching Tonikawa recently and just got to the episode introducing Nakiri. You cannot convince me that this girl is not the slightest bit aspec. Just look how she reacts to finding out Nasa got married.
âI figured you were like me.â That wording hit me hard. Nakiri knew she was different from most people and thought she wasnât alone with Nasa.
Later on in the episode, she even says that she was never interested in romance before and asked Nasa what it was like to be in a relationship. She may not be canonically aroace, but I did feel represented by her character.
A one shot so the post will spoil most if not all of the plot. A piece that debates the nature of aromantic and asexual identities directly. There are some gatekeeping sentiments around the nature of labels and the spectrum of both identities, but, I believe if this was written with the knowledge of the labels of being demiromantic or demisexual, the story would be much more conscious of them, so trigger warning for that sentiment.
Despite this, I think this warrants a rec for the fact of acknowledgment. Mentions of sexual themes and aphobic themes of society.
Authored by Amupaka, the story follows two women, Kanade and Aoi. Aoi has been struggling to connect with others as she cannot seem to make herself fall in love with others despite pushing herself to conform and dress to appease potential partners. On another night of this routine of trying to find someone that she could love she meets Kanade, who after hearing about this mentions that Aoi might be aroace, just like Kanade.
This identity seems to be very freeing for Aoi, letting herself be free of expectations and norms and living life how she wants to. The two of them very quickly become friends and confide in one another their life problems and stuggles of a love expecting society.
The story turns when Aoi begins to have a crisis of newfound identity as she begins to fall in love with one of her coworkers after learning to trust and care for him. After telling Kanade telling this, she expresses:
She feels betrayed by her friend falling in love when she couldn't.
A Sidebar about This
In a more aware context, I think that Aoi's character is incredibly a textbook example of a demiaroace. She only forms a romantic and sexual connection with her coworker after a deep emotional connection with them. The author introduces some context of possible romantic trauma in highschool towards Aoi, but it is never made clear if she was the one denying herself love or if she fits the labels. Either way, the sentiment that Kanade expresses here is incredibly divisive nowadays and has been the source of much online discourse. While the two characters reconcile, this should still be addressed and acknowledged as a reductive view of aspec identity. People can fall in and out of labels because they are just that, labels. They create a meaning for self that doesn't need to last forever.
Sidebar Over
We are shown Kanade's attempts to fall in love all met with failure of herself, even experimenting with her sexuality assuming that she wasn't straight until she is met with the revelatory introduction of the words asexual and aromantic. We don't spend much time in the conflict as Aoi expresses that she wouldn't have been able to be happy without Kanade's influence and that Kanade would always be a part of her life no matter what.
I think that this isn't the best representation of aspec identity, but it is a welcome step in the right direction of acknowledgement of the pressure and assumptions that society puts on aspec people.
TLDR:
Direct addressing of aspec identities and the pressure that society places upon them to conform to concepts of romance and family life. While there are some ideas that are reminiscent of past ace discourse, a modern lens makes the story read differently than it is written.
This post will contain mild spoilers for the plot and character dynamics of the Manga. Sorry about the long post, but its a lot.
Contains a romantic subplot not involving the main character. Some evidence for an Aspec Protagonist. Reference to Sexual themes but no explicit imagery or sexualization of characters.
Remember, panels are right to left.
Written by Kanehito Yamada and illustrated by Tsukasa Abe, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End follows the journey of Frieren, the elf mage of the hero's party after their victory over the demon king. She travels to speak to the now dead hero Himmel in Aureole, where all souls rest. Currently being released as an anime by Studio Madhouse, now seemed like an apt time to talk about it.
The manga explores themes of loss, grief, found family, coming to terms with your emotions and the importance of non-romantic relationships. Especially with our protagonist, Frieren, bound to live a life of near immortality from a human perspective.
Immortality and Relationships:
As we follow Frieren on her journey north we are told directly that she herself doesn't understand the nature of relationships. Her perception of the world is stuck in how she will long outlast the people that she cares for. Below this appearance is someone who truly care for others.
She learns to cherish the time she spends with others and we can see that with how she treats Fern, her apprentice. The adopted daughter of one of her former companions, who she begins her journey solely with.
We are shown in a flashback to the end of her previous journey that she would never consider an apprentice because their life would never amount to much of her own existence:
Frieren often conflicts with the ideas of relationships and it is the main conflict of her returning journey north. Fern very quickly becomes incredibly important to her, taking care of her needs and very swiftly looking after her apprentice's condition instead of continuing her own journey northward. Frieren defies her own beliefs and worldview because she has learned that the people that she does care about will eventually disappear; as it is the nature of her lifespan for them to be nothing but fleeting moments. She chooses to spend time with her companions because she wants to carry their story and memory for the rest of her life, something that she never felt with the hero's party.
How is this Aspec Representation?
Clearly more depictions of unfeeling characters as aspec isn't progressive in making aspec people seem more "human" but I think how Frieren subverts this trope demonstrates a great aspec character.
At this point, this representation is, and will probably continue to be a headcannon more than it will be actually confirmed, but it has some pretty good foundation.
Early on, Frieren directly tells us this about elves:
This is a pretty overt statement of her romantic and sexual orientation as early as Chapter 13 of the manga as the journey was just beginning. There are some questionable parts of this claim that "all elves" lack romantic and sexual attraction, but the author directly displays elves later on that hold or are implied to have romantic feelings for other characters. It reminds me of how some aspec people believe that everyone is like them, having an understanding without knowing fully that they have different experiences.
*Note, they kept the panel above in the anime.
So where does this leave Frieren as she is perceived by others?
No one questions this about her. It never comes into question if she had found the right person or if she was interested in the relationships herself, it is just accepted. In a later chapter exploring the romantic subplot between her two companions, she is asked for dating advice to which she responds:
The interaction is treated very naturally which mirrors realistic assumptions of these feelings and experience with them that might come with age.
The only claim to her holding romantic feelings towards another person was towards the hero Himmel. Which is suspect to say the least. Most of these assumptions are based on their close emotional bond, how much Frieren grieves his death and how Himmel treated her.
Throughout flashbacks, we can see that Himmel almost constantly was flirting with and then subsequently denied by Frieren along their journey. It isn't played as hurtful or annoying, just as a form of endearment that wasn't reciprocated; something that neither character seems to grieve in any fashion. They had a close emotional bond, but the manga doesn't display it as anything but platonic and I believe that to be true.
TLDR:
Frieren exhibits multiple aspec traits in how she perceives others and her relationships to the people in her life. While her traits may be seen as "inhuman" on the surface, she deeply cares for others without needing to be in a romantic or sexual relationship. The manga puts very little focus on romance and merely on the nature of relationships of all kinds and meanings.
This is my first large-scale post like this, so I would appreciate any feedback people are willing to give me. It is a very long post so I hope I didn't ramble too much
I'm making this account to talk about manga and anime mostly. I'd like to provide resources so that people can enjoy good media and have a place to find some that won't make them uncomfortable or where they can find representation. Not all of my recommendations will be about Aspec identities but that's whats important to me.
My main goal is to spread good media around for those who are looking for something to read, just like me.
