No One Cares But Me: A Master List of Why Enomoto Kei From Kagi no Kakatta Heya is Autistic
(aka this angel. lookit him. he has string on his glasses and wears knitted ties. thats bomb as.)
Appearance:
Enomoto wears the same basic outfit just with colour variations: button up shirt, knitted tie, cardigan (a cardigan!!!!!!! what an angel), slacks and some fancy shoes that make clip clop sounds when he walks on hard surfaces.
its arguable that all of the characters wear the same outfits too (bc the two lawyers are wearing suits and im pre sure aoto doesnt... actually have any other suit than the cream one)
but THE POINT REMAINS that enomoto has the same outfit in different colours. this is a choice consciously made. hes a fashionista.
Body Language:
or, lack thereof.
His posture and demeanor are very stiff and controlled, especially when he’s walking. he takes precise steps and instead of turning while he walks he stops, turns his body, and then continues. his shoulders and head slump slightly, which is mostly noticeable when he’s in the frame with other characters. when he sits he’s very still and again, his head and shoulders lean in.
He never initiates physical contact. he allows people to touch him but he never leans in or even generally react to the touch. one moment we see him react to a touch is when a little girl holds out her hand for him to take. he really hesitates and is very slow to take her hand, like it makes him nervous. another is when he shrugs off serizawa hand from his shoulder, although that could just probably be because he wanted to move.
Communication:
If this boy doesnt go by social scripts then im jesus. he is always polite, even if the person talking to him isnt. he says the same basic phrases, especially “thank you for waiting for me.” he doesnt say it as if hes genuinely thanking them though, but just as a sort of thing hes expected to say, but also he speaks in monotone. he could genuinely mean it. but we just dont know.
he doesnt understand other people’s thought processes during conversations:
aoto: enomoto-san, do you have a girlfriend?
enomoto: how is that relevant [to the case]?
aoto: i just want to know if you have a girlfriend.
enomoto: how is that relevant?
and then later he asks “why do women always talk about relationship stuff?” to which aoto replies “because its interesting”.
THEN AT THE END OF THE EPISODE enomoto randomly asks aoto if she has a boyfriend. aoto gets confused as to why he’s suddenly asking (theyre just having dinner in his work space, talking about nothing) and enomoto says “i thought we should talk about something interesting.”
he has remembered their earlier conversation and was trying to relate to her by talking about something she had previously told him was an interesting subject. when it immediately falls flat he tells her to forget about it (embarrassed that he failed the social script).
he info dumps. big time. the first time we meet him he just starts unlocking a bank safe (without permission) while wearing headphones (and ignoring everyone around him) until aoto asks him what he’s doing and how it works. and then he just blabs on and on about lock mechanisms and how to unlock certain locks. not only that, but a few times aoto interrupts him to get him to stop but he just blunders on. he asks her if she understands, and when he sees she doesnt, he goes back to explaining. and he says this all REALLY FAST (the subtitles we on and off before i could finish reading them). he continues to do this at least once per episode. his special interest is locks and keys, which is why he agrees to help solve these “locked room” cases in the first place. he just likes the puzzles.
to the point where, sometimes, he doesnt know who the murderer is because “it wasnt part of the locked room puzzle so i wasnt interested”. amazing. he literally stayed in his lane even though they didnt want him to.
he omits information because no one actually asks him for it. he answers if questioned, but beside that he doesnt just give out information, even if the people around him are speculating the answer that he knows. additionally, he doesnt give out information if he doesnt think its relevant to the locked room puzzle.
he also doesnt always elaborate on his answers, especially if the question isnt phrased differently.
enomoto: lets go.
aoto: eh? where?
enomoto: lets go.
aoto: eh? where?
enomoto: lets go.
aoto: eh? where?
enomoto: lets go.
[actual dialogue from an actual drama]
additionally:
serizawa: where did you get all that money to travel the world?
enomoto: my savings.
serizawa: and then where did you get the money to buy your own shop?
enomoto: my savings.
serizawa: how?
enomoto: i worked hard
[they repeated this exact conversation about three times]
he doesnt like answering personal questions. he asked for aoto and serizawa’s help for a friend, but never actually told them how they knew each other (even when directly asked). in fact, we barely know anything about enomoto other than he likes locks.
he also doesnt understand implications. both aoto and serizawa try asking him if a company hes installing security for are criminals, but he doesnt understand what they mean by “one of those”.
he rarely speaks unless prompted and only talks about what he wants to talk about. namely, locks. he doesnt immediately answer when hes called for (if anything i think he just straight up ignores when hes called for and appears when hes ready). he rarely replies when someone is talking casually with him, even as they say goodbye to leave. oft times hes wearing headphones (and can probably hear when someone is talking to him) but doesnt acknowledge them until they forcibly take his headphones out.
he doesnt make eye contact. when he speaks he usually stares off in the distance.
he’s blunt. aoto asks him to subtly ask if this guy is the killer, to be really evasive about it, and he agrees. as soon as he hangs up the phone he says to the guy “are you the killer?” when the guy says no enomoto accepts this. when people share their theories he’s quick to tell them no. at one point aoto asks him to teach her how to play shogi so they can play against each other and enomoto immediately says “no. i dont have to hesitate when i play against the computer [in shogi].” >> meaning at some point someone has told him that when playing against other people he has to pretend to think to spare the other person’s feelings.
Miscellaneous:
he stims. straight up stims. he rubs his index finger and thumb together near his ear (right side) when he’s thinking. the other characters notice and imitate him. the sound effects make it seem the movement it meant to mimic picking a lock, and when he finally figures out the puzzle he turns his hand and the sound effect for a lock opening is played. (then he says one of his catch phrases that could either be cheesy or a social script :) )
he works for a security company but due to an incident he works in the basement. at the end of the season he goes away for a holiday and comes back and opens his own security shop. the layout of the two places are identical. this could be a budget thing but its just so obviously mimicking each other that its immediately noticeable. #habits
often creeping up on people. people just dont notice him until he suddenly speaks.
he builds to scale models of all of the locked room scenarios so he can test his theories without actually being there.
he is very clearly, from the start, marked as different. when they look for him at his workplace, the boss is confused as to why they would want enomoto specifically. enomoto is kept in the basement, away from everybody else. after first meeting him serizawa calls him weird.
anyway enomoto kei is an autism. hes ours now.