Onemine: (is reading a newspaper)
Najimi: Hey, can I have the funny pages?
Onemine: ...it's the New York Times.
Najimi: Okay, MAY I have the funny pages?
Interesting! Though the joke only works if Yomiuri Shimbun lacks an equivalent to American newspapers' "funny pages".
...actually, it also only works if there is a Japanese equivalent to American newspapers' "funny pages".
Wikipedia's List of newspaper comic strips has only three Japanese comics: Charisma Man, Sazae-san, and Sennin Buraku. Of these, only Sazae-san's page mentions it being published in an actual newspaper, with the Wikipedia pages for Charisma Man and Sennin Buraku instead talking about the magazines they're published in.
Which made me wonder what the distinction between "newspaper" and "magazine" is. Is it just that magazines are bound and newspapers aren't?
Anyways, I'm not sure if the joke works at all in Japan. If anything, I'm less sure now that I've done some research than I was before.
I know you haven’t posted anything in months but you’re basically the only person online who is repping Tadano x Komi x (Kawai/Manbagi) and I wanted to say I respect you so much for being the only other person in this fucking life raft of a ship with me.
I'm guessing that's because the anime hasn't properly introduced Manbagi Rumiko (so anime onlies don't have a chance to ship her) while the manga settled on Tadano/Komi as the monogamous One True Pair (which a surprising number of manga fans assume invalidates other ships). Which also lead to Manbagi doing her own romantic subplot with some character who mostly exists to give Manbagi her own romantic subplot, and going out of focus overall. Shame.
Also because the anime hasn't properly introduced Kawai Rami and the manga's narrative never took her seriously as a romantic rival. Partly because Kawai's fine with polyamory and the narrative refuses to consider that seriously...which might also contribute to so few people in the fandom considering poly ships even though the text is right there.
Or maybe it's just the monogamy in the broader culture, which Komi-san Can't Communicate merely reflects.
Anyways, if the anime gets a third season, it'll introduce Manbagi and the chemistry she has with both Tadano and Komi, and that should bring in some more shippers for that trio. And if this shoujo anime somehow gets half a dozen or so seasons before puttering out, it'll eventually get to Kawai, too. There's hope!
Until then, imagine the chaos of Manbagi × Komi × Tadano × Kawai. I don't think Manbagi and Kawai have interacted in canon, but I doubt it would be smooth and painless.
Najimi: STOP DOING MATH!
Najimi: Numbers were never meant to be given names!
Najimi: We've counted for years but NEVER found a real-world use for going higher than your fingers!
Najimi: Wanted to go higher anyway for a laugh? We had a tool for that: it was called "GUESSING!"
Najimi: "Yes, please give me ZERO of something. Please give me INFINITY of it." These are statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged!
Najimi: Look at these crazy graphs! This is REAL math done by REAL mathematicians, and it's what they've been demanding our respect for all this time with all the calculators and abacuses we built for them!
Najimi: "Hello, I'd like f(z) = √z apples please!" They have played us for ABSOLUTE FOOLS!
Katai: Manga lied to me. I never see bad boy types protecting stray kittens, therefore revealing to me their soft side. It's always me picking up the cats.
Katai: ...Maybe I'm the bad boy.
Autistic Anime Boys Prelims - Propaganda Division - Group 5
Who is the best autistic boy?
Ame (Wolf Children)
Floyd Leech (Twisted Wonderland)
Hibiki (Bubble)
Akira Midousuji (Yowamushi Pedal)
Chu Sang Woo (Semantic Error)
Douglas Billingham (Double Decker! Doug and Kirill)
Scott Pilgrim (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off)
Shinra Kusakabe (Fire Force)
Soi Purson (Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun)
Makoto Katai (Komi Can’t Communicate)
Voting ended onJan 5, 2024
Propaganda:
Ame -
"Typical autistic childhood – doesn't want to go to school, doesn't talk a lot, his plans for the future are just to go to live as a wolf in the forest… He's basically a werewolf and I think werewolves are often autistic coded. Actually his whole family is autistic coded."
Floyd -
"Has no emotional regulation skills and will make it everyone's problem. Prone to mood swings and can get angry at the drop of a hat, but can also be so goofy, silly, and lovely. Sways side to side for that good good stim, and loves to squeeze others (with violent intent and affectionate intent). Who doesn't love a good pressure stim? His interest in things can be fleeting, and his motivation to do things can change as quickly as his mood. Spontaneous and feral extraordinaire."
Hibiki -
"he is canonically diagnosed with hyperacusis <3 my fav sensory issues guy (he's so relatable). also canonically pulled a bad bitch (uta) by being autistic."
Akira -
"He has a heartbreaking relationship with road racing and the memory of his dead mother, and while he is a major antagonist, he is given a lot of interesting looks into his internal logics that I personally find relatable as an autistic person. I also like how he expresses himself in unpleasant ways, but isn't always treated with disgust, its kind of refreshing."
Sang Woo -
"literally the first results on google is "sangwoo semantic error autistic." he loves routine + is extremely distressed by change in routine (contrasts w his ADHD-coded bf). very blunt/cannot read social clues which leads to some misunderstandings throughout the manhwa. he's very relatable to me as an autistic person but also as a queer man, and it's refreshing to see autistic characters being open with their sexuality/sexual life bc we're often displayed as asexual robots incapable of love (bad for lots of reasons haha). he's super cute generally and really grew on me throughout the series. definitely the best part of semantic error."
Douglas -
"Many other characters try to read into what he does and says, looking for deeper or different meanings but it's always revealed that he means exactly what he says every single time and the butt of the jokes is always the other characters for being dramatic and presumptuous, not Doug for being autistic. Also he's the mean autistic representation we deserve."
Scott -
"look at him. failboy autism. even more so than any previous version!"
Shinra -
"he's just like me forreal."
Soi -
"I mean come on, it’s Purson. He thinks he’s really good at talking to people but most of his conversations (at least at the start) are completely one sided. He just blurts out whatever he’s thinking and completely dominates the conversation (if you can call it that). I love him so much for it, I have a really hard time figuring out when I should just stop talking and let someone else have a turn and only tend to realize after he fact that I didn’t really let anyone else get a word in and feel really bad. But the way Purson communicates is never shown to be a bad thing it’s a bit awkward at times but that just how he is and the rest of the misfit class live him for it. I think I could go on all day about how wonderfully inclusive Iruma-Kun is it’s such a good series, also in my brain Balam, Kalego, Clara and Opera are on the 4 outer points of an x-y graph that represents the autism spectrum. Everyone else fills the blanks in between. His bloodline magic is ‘detection warding’ and for the first several arcs of the manga the rest of the class didn’t even know he was there."
Makoto -
"In one sentence: Katai considers the titular Komi-san a communication master. Katai looks like a brutal thug, but he's actually extremely shy. Shy enough that after missing a couple weeks of class, it takes him months to build up the confidence to go to school. Katai tries to make friends once he does go to school, but he can't hold a conversation and doesn't realize that his mumbled half-sentences and resting bastard face make it look like he's threatening people. He's also pretty bad at reading the room, which is why he interprets Komi's behavior as a communication master trying to guide him from afar rather than a kindred spirit also struggling to hold a conversation."
Teacher: Tag what you’re majoring in/intend on majoring in!
Tadano: Respecting women
Nakanaka: bat man
Chiarai: Minecraft
Manbagi: youtube
Ase: in the tags guys
Najimi: fuckin weed
Otori: W
Isagi: Criminal justice and psychology
Komi: I’m terrified I’ll lock myself into something I’m no longer passionate about in a few years like all the other areas of study I’ve pursued over my life!
I've been pondering on what about comedies revolving around social anxiety like Bocchi the Rock and Komi Can’t Communicate makes them so beloved when they could have easily been interpreted as ableist mocking of people with crippling disabilities. I think the main difference is that while shows like this do get their humor from the fears inherent in these disabilities, its far more sympathetic and good-natured compared to others. Like with The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon clearly has some very autistic and OCD traits that are treated by the characters and narrative as annoying, bizarre, and infuriating to deal with. While when Bocchi has a full-on panic attack the joke is focused less on her herself but what she THINKS she is doing wrong, which while largely exaggerated for humorous effect is still portrayed in such a way that it is really relatable to people who have an anxiety disorder from what I have been hearing (or to people with OCD, from my own personal experiences with the disorder). The joke is her overactive imagination and her hilariously simplistic facial expressions, not “this mentally ill girl is such a weirdo”. The narrative also treats her as someone who is worthy of love and is obviously rooting for her to succeed, but her own head convinces her that she is doing far worse than she actually is. Everyone around her never loses their patience with her or calls her a creepy weirdo, they are just really concerned because their friend just fell over and started convulsing into different art styles at the mention of doing something social. They just met her and they already love her despite her disorder. Its a FAR less viscous type of schadenfreude then something like Watamote where absolutely nothing goes right in her life.
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