As an autistic woman (with ADHD) myself, I find it really hard to tell whether Doumeki is autistic or not. There are clear signs that are typical for autism, but also many signs missing. That doesn’t have to mean that he’s not autistic, since many low support level autistic people are capable of masking, but I’ll try an analysis here based on what we can see in the manga.
The DSM-V divides the symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 2 main clusters: a social-communicative cluster (A) and a behavioral cluster (B).
Cluster A: Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction
The first cluster (A) is the easiest to discuss. It consists of 3 criteria, that all need to be fulfilled for an ASD diagnosis:
1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
Doumeki easily fulfills this first criterium: people often complain that he’s saying so little (especially after the time-skip), lacking in communication. Furthermore, he only rarely shares his emotions or thoughts, unless Yashiro pushes or manipulates him to do so. Of course, within the Yakuza world this could be interpreted as a conscious choice to not trust his co-workers, but as far as we can see Doumeki shares just as little info with his sister and mom as with his co-workers. So far, I’ve only noticed more extended conversations of Doumeki with Yashiro and on occasion with Nanahara (talking about Yashiro). Finally, attempts at conversations by other people often fall flat due to Doumeki’s short responses.
2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
For criterium 2, Doumeki clearly shows a lack of facial expressions. Even when he’s in great turmoil, it’s only rarely visible on his face. In Yashiro’s case this is a skill and a deliberate poker face, but in Doumeki’s case this seems to be a lack of expression rather than a deliberate choice. For example, in the flashback to Doumeki’s kendo practice he thought that he was a child that had a hard time expressing his emotions. In the Yakuza world this lack of facial expression is a great advantage and in the current stage of the storyline this helps him not to spook Yashiro too much, but it might become an obstacle in the future if (hopefully when) Yashiro is ready to hear Doumeki’s true feelings.
What’s also apparent is that Doumeki’s lack of facial expression causes Yashiro to frequently misjudge Doumeki’s feelings, despite the fact that Yashiro seems to be able to read most people like an open book. For example, before the time skip he regularly thought that Doumeki helping him out with his sexual needs resulted from guilt about not fulfilling his job as bodyguard, rather than true love and desire. Of course Doumeki deliberately chose to hide his feelings, but not many Yakuza seem to be able to actually succeed in hiding things for Yashiro.
3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.
While Doumeki has largely learned to adapt himself to the social rules of the Yakuza world, he was frequently blundering around before the time-skip. He’s called naive, because he’s frequently missing crucial social cues. For example, how could he miss that the company he was going to work for was a Yakuza firm rather than a normal loan firm? Furthermore, it’s a running joke among Yashiro’s group that Doumeki frequently takes sarcasm literally.
The same issues come back in his sexual relationship with Yashiro, but in this case it seems to be an advantage. Doumeki doesn’t seem to have as much pre-conceived notions about sex and homosexuality. For example, for most people Yashiro’s initial question to blow him (at the start of the story) would constitute sexual harassment, but Doumeki doesn’t seem to perceive this as such. Even if he had at that point sexually desired Yashiro he should have felt that this was wrong (an abuse of power by Yashiro), but that was clearly not the case. This even gets Yashiro mad at one point, when he tells Yashiro that it’s not sexual harassment if the other party is willing (while cosplaying in cop uniform).
Furthermore, while his exclamation that the boss is “kind, strong and beautiful” (chapter 6) at Kageyama’s hospital may be perceived as courageous, it’s also possible that he truly didn’t realize what Kuga and the others found strange about Yashiro (as in not picking up the social cue that homosexuality is frowned upon, or not caring about that social cue).
What does run counter to this interpretation is that Doumeki seems to have learned a lot and become more cunning after the time skip. For example, he’s even able to goad Kamiya into revealing that he’s spying on Doumeki for Tsunakawa. However, when dealing with Yashiro he’s still breaking tons of social rules (e.g. Yashiro considers the shower incident as sexual harassment as he explained to Kamiya, while Doumeki clearly did not), so I still stand by my judgement that Doumeki is just as out of depth in new social situations after the time skip as before the time skip (fulfilling criterium 3). He has just gotten used to a broader range of social situations within the Yakuza world, including their associated social rules. And even in situations he’s used to he’s often still breaking social rules or not appropriately adapting his behavior to the context, as shown by Kamiya’s repeated expressions of embarrassment about Doumeki’s use of polite language with him.
Taking all of these examples together, in my opinion Doumeki easily fulfills all three criteria of the first cluster (A) of the DSM-V criteria for ASD.
Cluster B: Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities
In order to get diagnosed with ASD, only 2 of the 4 criteria of cluster (B) need to be fulfilled. It’s much harder to recognize Doumeki in this cluster of criteria though.
1. Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypes, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).
The most common example of stereotyped or repetitive movements are different forms of stimming, e.g. rocking back and forth, nail biting, fidgeting, … Doumeki is always shown as standing still like a rock, without the slightest show of fidgeting, so I don’t think he fulfills this criterium at all. In theory there might be some echolalia or strange speech patterns, but the fact that his words are written down in the manga makes it hard to pick up the typical tone differences of parroted or cited phrases. Until I find clear proof to the contrary, I will assume that there’s no echolalia or strange speech patterns (in the way implied by this criterium - I will count Doumeki insisting on using unusually polite speech as a social context issue rather than as a strange speech pattern).
2. Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat same food every day).
I don’t think that this symptom is present, since Doumeki doesn’t seem to be phased or stressed by changes in routine or unexpected changes during Yakuza crisis phases. This is further confirmed by the fact that Muraji considers him to be level-headed (as explained by Muraji to Tsunakawa). Only Yashiro seems to be able to push him out of balance, but that can be better explained by love than by autism. Doumeki’s thinking patterns may be a bit more rigid than that of average people (e.g. his insistence on polite speech with Kamiya), but in my opinion not enough to say that he fulfills this criterium.
3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).
This is the only criterium from cluster (B) that I 100% agree with for Doumeki. While Doumeki certainly loves Yashiro, the intensity and focus is abnormal, to the point where it could be called a hyperfixation on Yashiro. For example, who would insist to such degree to stay in the Yakuza in order to remain in the same world as their love interest, even after they’ve already been shot by them and thrown out?
The only caveat that I need to add to this is that it’s not clear whether Doumeki already had restricted or fixed interests in childhood (maybe Kendo?). Furthermore, even non-autistic people can get extremely fixated on their love interest.
4. Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g. apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).
Doumeki doesn’t show signs of sensory hypersensitivities, but he may be hyposensitive to pain. The fact that he says that his finger doesn’t hurt after cutting it off is commonly interpreted as that “it doesn’t hurt when compared to the pain of almost losing Yashiro”, but what if it really didn’t hurt? Similarly, even with a fresh knife wound in his face he doesn’t seem to be bothered by it. In conclusion, it’s a tentative yes for this criterium. However, it’s also possible that he DOES feel pain like a normal person and is just unable to express it, so I can’t 100% confirm whether he fulfills this criterium.
A second sensory example might be Doumeki’s fascination with Yashiro’s hair, because this might be interpreted as sensory seeking behavior. Besides these 2 examples (pain and Yashiro’s hair), there are no other sensory oddities that jump out to me. Doumeki might be less sensitive to cold, because he doesn’t seem to be bothered when loaning his jacket to Yashiro, but there’s not enough info to confirm this interpretation.
In conclusion, Doumeki may fulfill the required minimum of 2 out of these 4 criteria in cluster (B), but that’s with quite a bit of goodwill and I can’t 100% confirm that he does.
In conclusion, I think that Doumeki is at least “autistic-coded”, as he does show evidence of many autistic traits. However, whether he fulfills the full diagnostic criteria of ASD depends on our personal interpretation of whether he fulfills enough of the behavioral criteria in cluster (B). It’s probable that he fulfills the criteria for ASD and that he is autistic, but it’s not possible to confirm this with 100% certainty.
In any case, I do think it would be correct to call Doumeki neurodivergent, as that is just about “thinking differently” and not about fulfilling specific diagnostic criteria.
Personally, I think that Yoneda Kou never intended Doumeki to be autistic, but just as stoic and introverted. If she had intended Doumeki to be autistic, she would probably have written more behavioral symptoms (of cluster B) into his character. Sometimes, autistic characters that were initially not intended to be autistic are the best representations of autism, because those characters tend to be more “complete” with both good and bad sides, rather than just disabled by their autism. Because of that I think that it is okay for people to read Doumeki as autistic, as long as they realize that the autism spectrum is much more diverse than the autistic traits shown by Doumeki.
More specifically, most autistic people will experience more issues outside of the social and communication difficulties (e.g. trouble with sudden changes) than Doumeki, even if Doumeki is a really great example of the social and communicative difficulties often faced by autistic people.
