alright, I have new meta for you all to think about today, and I’m warning you in advance, this will be a long post- this is regarding karamatsu so called being a narcissist/having npd and shedding some light on the possible reason that’s been so emphasized lately (this is also essentially a break down of his character that ties together all the other break downs I’ve done so far)
we know it’s been said multiple times that karamatsu is narcissistic but let’s take that and throw it out of the window for now because I really am starting to believe that this term is used too loosely in regards to him and the osomatsu production team has no idea what they’re doing with their own character
as a narcissist myself, I look at a lot of karamatsu’s behavior, and it’s so /odd/ how differently he acts compared to me and what I know about others like me- I’m aware that narcissism exists on a spectrum so I guessed that maybe he’s just on an opposite end of it but something still doesn’t add up with the way he acts and how he carries himself
before typing this, I’d actually been rewatching the beginning of episode 9 and poking fun at how intimidated he was of chibita but that skit in particular is one I feel is very telling about karamatsu and it seems to have been overshadowed a lot by the second half of the episode, jyushimatsu falls in love
karamatsu is too….nice, he’s too soft spoken, he’s too easily manipulated into situations and swayed by other peoples’ opinions- he’s not an angel or anything, sure, but a true narcissist would have NEVER let chibita get away with overtalking them, ignoring them, and pushing them into a situation they didn’t want to be in, going as far as SHAVING THEIR HEAD
whereas osomatsu exploded on chibita once just because chibita attempted to give him advise, karamatsu couldn’t even speak loudly enough to tell chibita no or that what was happening wasn’t what he wanted- he even listened to chibita’s rant; he meekly begged for chibita to listen to him and tried asserting himself but had trouble with it because he’s not used to speaking up for himself; it was obvious he wanted to escape the situation he was in but he also didn’t want to hurt chibita’s feelings and wasn’t confident enough to just leave; there’s no way he couldn’t have just used physical force or yelled at chibita in that situation to force him out of his delusions- this is the same guy he and his brothers mercilessly bullied all throughout their childhood, after all- but he just….didn’t
this is what I mean when I call him genuinely kind, he’s no SAINT but little moments like these show who he really is- might I also mention, he had his guard down a majority of this skit, using his actual voice and not delivering any of his painful lines, so this is not something that was just an act to add to his image- chibita wasn’t even PAYING ATTENTION to him
and after all of this, he SNUCK away and ran off crying, and I noticed that he didn’t even TRY to make any oden, as a true narcissist would because of how haughty we are; karamatsu just reminds us of how little he really thinks of himself by repeating ‘I can’t do that, there’s no way I can do that’
this type of kindness (or softness, should I say) makes up who karamatsu really is and it’s mainly for that reason, I think it’s impossible for him to be an actual, full blown narcissist
these are some of the traits of npd and among them are ‘taking advantage of others to get what you want’ and ‘having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs of others’- in other words, we can be kind, but it’s /shallow/ and we’ll only do it if a person is of use to us; we don’t have genuine moments of kindness like these and our true colors will come to light the minute we’re placed in an unwanted situation
karamatsu has been placed in MANY unwanted situations and mistreated MANY times by people- if he was a true narcissist, he would have snapped
besides that, nearly none of the other traits fit him either
what I believe is that he DOES care too much about his image and that DOES make him self centered in a way, which would fit under the extremely basic definition of narcissism, but in actuality, he doesn’t have npd at all
from what I can tell, karamatsu likely has hpd
hpd, or histrionic personality disorder, is characterized by a pattern of attention seeking behavior and extreme emotionality; people with hpd want to be the center of attention in any group of people and feel insecure when they are not, are extremely sensitive to the way others perceive them, and behave in an extremely dramatic and flamboyant way to draw attention to themselves
without being aware of it, they often act out roles (example, the white knight or the constant damsel in distress), and they can become extremely depressed or upset when they’re not well liked or the center of attention- for people with hpd, their self-esteem depends entirely on the approval of others, and does not arise from a true feeling of self-worth
often developing hpd as a result of mistreatment and or low self esteem, they have an overwhelming desire to be noticed, and often behave dramatically, inappropriately, or in a way they believe appeals to others in order to get attention (which brings us back to karamatsu being nice to others to contribute to his image and to appeal to people more than because he finds it’s enjoyable and recognizes that it’s the right thing to do- I’m sure he still WANTS to be nice though and doesn’t see a reason why he shouldn’t be so kindness IS his default reaction to things)
people with hpd are said to harbor a deep hurt, so deep and intense that it’s buried- they use denial as a coping mechanism and humor/their personas to deflect and suppress their inner pain; because they lack a deep sense of identity, they are very vulnerable to outside influences (think of how karamatsu is a complete ozaki yutaka wannabe because he sees him as ‘cool’ and also of how concerned he was when talking to oso about how people found him painful), and will tend to stay in their own little worlds where they feel confident and safe
they have not learned to value themselves from an internal perspective, which can cause them to feel unworthy, not valuable, empty, and sometimes ugly inside- as a coping mechanism, their focus is turned to external things, like appearances and impressions (impressions may include changing their tone of voice, using exaggerated mannerisms, dressing oddly, etc); they also have no yardstick to measure intimacy by, therefore, if a person gives them the attention they are so hungry for, they may mistake this attention for friendship or love (think again of his flower fairy and also how he thinks any woman who gives him the time of day is his ‘karamatsu girl’)
the word histrionic literally means “dramatic or theatrical”, which is /exactly/ what karamatsu is
look at some of the symptoms of hpd compared to npd and it should become clear which is most fitting in this case for karamatsu
if not, in simpler terms:
this is literally the way karamatsu’s character is presented to us, from the way he’s easily influenced (there’s lots of incidents where he just goes along with things, usually after being talked over, and todo in particular seems to know him well enough to get him to do nearly anything), to the way his identity is literally made up just of him playing the role of a character he believes to be cool (not to mention how /dramatic/ he is- no wonder he joined theater club in high school used to play lead roles; the attention must have been nice), to how he believes the relationships he has with others are closer than what they are (this hurts a bit but would explain why he never seems to realize that his brothers purposely treat him the way they do and sometimes have malicious intent; it could also explain a reason why he stuck with his flower fairy girlfriend despite the fact that their relationship was toxic and she was very clearly using him), to how he craves popularity
if the osomatsu production team truly intended for karamatsu to be a narcissist/have npd, this is a bit of a hit and miss situation- he can be seen as one if the simplest definition of narcissism is used and his character is only viewed on a surface level but otherwise, we’ve been accidentally given a character who exhibits traits of a completely different disorder
also, might I add- there hasn’t been any real emphasis on karamatsu’s so called narcissism up until recently and a few people have pointed THIS out to me:
remember it was stated that people were sending in complaints about karamatsu because they felt he was a good guy who got treated badly too often? there’s a FAIRLY GOOD chance fujita and the others got rather tired of them and now a particular light is being shined on karamatsu’s more negative traits
it gives off the vibe of ‘maybe if they see he isn’t so great, they’ll stop pitying him’ and it’s been said the complaints have stopped at this point, which seems like too much of a coincidence to me
sure, some of what fujita says might be true, but this in particular is odd to me, especially when the writer of the show said nearly the exact opposite thing about karamatsu’s personality a few weeks before- I guess the important thing to keep in mind here is that no one man is completely running things and they all have their own opinions and ideas, some of which have already been vetoed by the others- certain things should just be taken lightly and the truth of them will come to light depending on what’s revealed in the actual show
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