Understanding the psyche of Overhaul pt.1
Let's investigate the symptoms of ASPD and how that’s portrayed in Kai Chisaki
Right off the bat, most people would describe Kai as a classic example of a sociopath. While they’re not wrong, I think it’s important to note the proper term is classified as Antisocial Personality Disorder or ASPD.
Kai is someone that seems to have: a lack of remorse for others, he has a tendency to be manipulative and violent, and he’s got an ego built on his arrogance. His demeanour fits the criteria of ASPD, so it’s fair to assume that Kai’s a sociopath. What I’ve noticed though, is that a handful of people see neurodivergency in a very binary way. Some people believe that his apathy makes him irredeemable. Some others sit on the fact that Chisaki’s a monster, and they’ll call it a day. They believe no discussion is needed, adequate with the notion that Kai was “simply born that way” and that there’s nothing that can be done to help him improve. When people think about neurodivergency, they often think you’re either 100% one thing and 0% the opposing thing. Realistically, (like a lot of other mental conditions) ASPD is a spectrum, and the symptoms will vary in every person that’s diagnosed with ASPD. And believing that some people are just “born” as sociopathic monsters really is just dehumanizing… and it reflects how little people actually understand where personality disorders come from and how it manifests. While a biological component CAN be considered, there’s very little salience in that when we’re trying to investigate a fictional character. So if Overhaul’s a hyperfixation for you too, you’re in for a treat! I’m going to start diving into his psyche as deeply as I can, with my background of a handful of psychology/sociology courses! The theory of personality is immensely complex, but before we get more into the different factors of Kai’s upbringing, interpersonal relationships and other aspects of neurodivergency let’s start with… attempting to diagnose this darn fictional character. But with respect and investigation, because we can’t just throw around labels unthoughtfully.
My argument here is: no Kai isn’t ‘born’ a monster and he wasn’t ‘born’ wrong necessarily. I think his upbringing, trauma, home-life, and use of his quirk directly contributes to how he lacks empathy. But before we get into a tangent of those, let’s just take go over what symptoms DOES present Kai with Antisocial Personality Disorder. From there we can confirm he’s not “born a monster” he’s just someone that lacks the capacity of emotions and cognitive reasoning that neurotypical minds hold.
So let's take a rundown on the ASPD criteria, according to the DSM-5 and how it’s shown in Kai.(1)
✔️Disregard for right and wrong: Pretty obvious that Kai’s moral compass is pretty skewed. He’s not above manipulation, violence and murder. Does he completely throw ethics out the door though? No, he’s no anarchist; he follows his own warped version of morality. While he consciously rejects the morality of gangster chivalry that Pops tried to instill in him, parts of it still shaped him as a person. Kai pertains a deep sense of loyalty and devotion and those things are intrinsic to morality. I think a better way to frame this demeanour is: “disregard for right and wrong upheld by the law.”
❓Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others: this one pretty much speaks for itself. What’s interesting though is there’s this dichotomy where Kai as a person, is distinctly both deceitful and candid. He speaks his mind, even when it lowers his persuasion because he’s too confident in his opinion to be seen as ‘wrong.’ He has trouble understanding that others can’t automatically be on the same page as him, and explaining his plan thoroughly isn’t going to make him any more charismatic. For example, minutes after talking to the LOV, they feel soured by his arrogance, or when he talked to Pops he completely shut down Kai’s plan. The only people he was able to manipulate were outcasts/emotionally vulnerable men a literal child. So I would say if we can frame what we’ve seen of Chisaki, he’s not as cunning or as cool as a manipulator as most people would depict him as. He just talks smoothly (sometimes) and has an air of confidence clouding him.
✔️Being callous, cynical and disrespectful of others: Kai is bitter at the current state of the world and has a repulsed feeling toward humanity in general. He sees people as assets and tools before he considers them human. He makes constant remarks about how narrow-minded and diseased everyone is, and seems to hold no respect for the people around him.(2) Using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or personal pleasure: yes and no. To reiterate, the only people that Kai was able to manipulate were existing Eri, and a handful of vulnerable men, many of them already presenting mental instability when he met them.
✔️ Arrogance, a sense of superiority and being extremely opinionated: One of the first personality traits that you can pick up about Kai; I’d say this symptom alone though is just something that formed with how he was raised and where he was raised. Despite the state the yakuza is left in the MHA world, it’s still a culture that’s built upon uprightness; a place that holds standards above meer villainy. And considering how Kai’s positioned as the second command in the Shie Hassaikai, evidently he’s going to present an air of arrogance and superiority above others whether he has ASPD or not. So I feel he was bound to become extremely opinionated.(3)
❓ Repeatedly violating the rights of others through intimidation and dishonesty: For intimidation, again I think that’s a personality trait formed by his upbringing/environment. Growing up in a morally grey criminal group will shape how you communicate with others. For Kai it creates that combination of superiority and intimidation towards others, and he’s not the only one that acts like that. You can see a lot of other Shie Hassaikai members that hold onto that mentality too if you listen carefully enough to their dialogue. Dishonesty is a different conversation however. Culturally, the yakuza tries to uphold a notion of honour, so I feel that should go hand in hand in being honest (within reason) but Kai doesn’t hold onto that. He’s deceitful and dishonest… but also candid and frank at the same time.
✔️ Hostility, significant irritability, agitation, aggression or violence he get’s easily aggravated, hostile, agitated and violent: A lot of people feel he switched from cool and cunning in the beginning of the Shie Hassaikai arc to erratic in the end, but he’s been consistently unstable since we’re first introduced to him. It doesn’t take much to tick him off, and that’s something also interwoven with untreated OCD. Pair that with his overpowered quirk, it’s too easy for him to get violent, and for things to get out of hand quickly.(4)
✔️ Recurring problems with the law, including criminal behaviour: Pretty self-explanatory. Even before he took on the persona of overhaul and started getting into that fiasco of distributing narcotics (selling trigger to street villains), he was very much involved with the morally grey world of the yakuza, the black market and under-the-table matters. On top of partaking in underground fight clubs (that we see in flashbacks), putting other guys in critical condition or killing them. A life of crime is pretty much the only world he knows of, and we definitely return back to this point of environment influencing personality.
✔️ Unnecessary risk-taking or dangerous behaviour with no regard for the safety of self or others: Once again, pretty self-explanatory. His whole motivation is built on protecting and reviving the yakuza in modern day, and more importantly, he’s devoted to paying back his debt to Pops. We return to this notion that Pops has picked up on, Kai always “takes things too far.” For trying to restore the yakuza back to its former glory, he risked everyone else’s safety and security. Including his own well-being.(5)
✔️ Failure to consider the negative consequences of behaviour or learn from them: Should be kept into consideration that this is a result from quirk nature, this point alone really deserves its own post that I’m going to tap into. (6)
✔️ Poor or abusive relationships: Another self-explanatory one so long as you watched/read the whole arc. Treats Eri like shit, push him down da stairs guys
❌ Being consistently irresponsible and repeatedly failing to fulfill work or financial obligations: Only thing on the list of symptoms that doesn’t really fit Kai. I suppose how he decided to taint Shie Hassaikai’s name by making it a “designated villain group” is something you can consider irresponsible, on top of him being a shitty foster-father as irresponsible, but this statement seems to follow more of the idea that a person isn’t cognitively accountable. Kai has the capacity to be responsible, he’s a fully functioning adult that can blend in with everyday society; he’s just deliberately being reckless and unlawful which is a different category that we already covered.
Additionally, for ASPD to apply, the person would need to fulfill this criteria:
✔️1. The individual is at least 18 years old - Check. Our guy Kai is 27-28 here depending on the timeline
✔️2. There is evidence of conduct disorder onset before age 15 - Safe to say there is. We really only get one flashback canonical of Kai as a kid getting into fights at school, but we can extrapolate from that and from Pop's dialogue that Kai’s always had recurring issues with impulsiveness, violence and crime when Pops mentions “you always take things too far.”
✔️3. The occurrence of antisocial behaviour is not exclusively during the course of schizophrenia or a maniac episode. - Haven’t investigated other mental disorders for Kai other than OCD, but it’s safe to say this doesn’t apply to him.
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Footnotes
(1) The lists I have here are available on mayoclinic, but for thoroughness I also pulled up the DSM-5 list as well as a chapter in the book “Bad Boys, Bad Men : Confronting Antisocial Personality Disorder” to cover these symptoms. (2) Also an important rhetoric for the affects of quirk nature and how the capabilities of his quirk overhaul allow him to avoid consequences, making him callous and naturally uncaring to those around him. I’ll made a separate analysis post on this in depth! (3) It’s important to note that his extremely opinionated beliefs are deeply tied to how he feels about quirks, the current state of the world and probably severe and untreated OCD. Once again another topic that deserves an exhaustive post I’ll make (4) Referring to my 2nd and 3rd footnote again (5) On top of the effects of quirk nature, Kai really doesn’t have regard for his own safety and sanity. There are a couple analysis posts on tumblr that talk about how Kai is negligent to his own safety, and completely throws out the idea of self-preservation. A clear example is when we see him numb to Mr.Compress taking his first arm, but horrified when his second hand is taken not because he’s worried for himself but because he can’t honour back his debt to Pops, and that he permanently fucked up everything. (6) Referring back to 2-3rd footnotes
