UtaPri and Neurodivergent Headcanons: Yamato Hyuga
This might become a series at some point, because I think it's really interesting.
That said, I want to start out with a few disclaimers:
I am not an expert in psychology.
No identity category is a monolith. That holds especially true for neurodiverse folks; it is a huge and incredibly varied umbrella.
No UtaPri characters, to my knowledge, have a canonical formal medical diagnosis.
UtaPri is a Japanese franchise, and I am not Japanese. All sorts of intercultural misunderstandings may come into play, here.
It is entirely possible that others will find some or all of UtaPri's representations of neurodivergence and/or mental illness unimpressive, inaccurate, and/or upsetting; these are just my opinions as one fan. I'm truly just here to have a good time, and I'm also fully open to disagreements with my perspective or analysis.
That said, let's move on to Yamato!
Yamato Hyuuga and ADHD (+ possible dyslexia/other learning disabilities)
Yamato shows an impressively wide range of traits common among people with ADHD. In no particular order, there's:
Physical movement as self-regulation: Yamato regularly walks around on his hands, goes out running, and generally finds ways to move his body when given half a chance. He often flips onto his hands in the anime, and mentions fitting in runs whenever he can in Live Emotion.
Special interest in exercise: Yamato regularly tries to share what he knows with his peers, both as a way to bond with them and to help improve their fitness. According to the audio dramas, he goes training with Eiji to help him build his confidence; according to Live Emotion, he keeps up on different brands of protein powder. The first chapters of the "private stories" in Live Emotion involve instructing The Player/Haruka in the finer points of sportsware. In fairness, UtaPri tends to define its boys by their hobbies, but even given that, Yamato jumps more directly into a "teaching" mode than most of the other characters.
Struggles with sudden, intense emotions: Yamato's mood changes rapidly in a way he struggles to control, but he also returns to baseline more quickly than most people would. Anyone who's seen his episodes in the anime will have an idea of what I'm talking about here—his explosions towards Syo, which (deservedly) did little to endear him to the fandom, are the main thing I'm thinking of here. There's already been a reference to this in the early chapters in the main story: Yamato's mood is ruined in a split second by Cecil bringing up his brother, though he manages to hide the depth of the problem and not explode this time. There are a lot of possible alternative explanations for this too, in fairness, such as PTSD; more information about what happened with his brother would help to make things clearer. But emotional volatility is also a trait associated with ADHD in some cases.
Struggles with studying/mental labor: One of the main story chapters in Live Emotion involves Yamato struggling with ideas for lyrics, and the way that he tries to apply himself, rapidly gets frustrated, gives up, leaves, and then gets his idea (by engaging in his special interest!) really stood out to me as a relatable ADHD moment. In the Maji Love Kingdom audio drama, he goes out of his way to attempt to hide these difficulties in this area by insisting on working alone, which shows that this is a struggle he's all too aware of.
This struggle hints at possible comorbid learning disabilities—most likely dyslexia, though there are other potential explanations. A few details in support of this:
Trouble with reading: One of the repeated dialogues in Live Emotion, as well as a detail in at least one of the audio dramas, involves that there are a lot of kanji Yamato has trouble reading. (Bonus fun fact: Japanese dyslexia and English dyslexia are at least partially separate conditions! Some folks have one and not the other, independent of their first language. It's wild, but also given how different the writing systems are, it also makes sense. Yamato is shown sounding out words in English in Live Emotion, which I thought was a great moment, but either way it's unclear whether he experiences different levels of difficulty in Japanese and English.)
Trouble with writing: In the Maji Love Kingdom drama, Yamato is shown struggling with composition (coming up with what to write), and vocabulary (he ends up needing a lot of help from a dictionary and his unit partners to come up with his lyrics. Tokiya and Cecil were such a good team to help him with this!! "Kaleidoscope" was awesome for many reasons).
In addition, the franchise's commitment to the bit regarding Yamato's handwriting is impressive as well. Here's one of his birthday messages, for instance:
I thought at first that it was just because my Japanese wasn't great that I was struggling to read his writing, but I've also seen Japanese fans on social media scratching their heads over parts of his writing in the past. Not only that, his handwriting has been mentioned in canon (mainly HEAVENS Radio, if I'm remembering right?), with Nagi in particular complaining that his writing is often indecipherable.
There is no way to be sure, but to me, this combination of traits reads as an intentional depiction of ADHD and/or learning disabilities by at least some of the writers or character designers, even if it has not been named as such explicitly by the franchise (which, to my knowledge, it hasn't).
However, more than any particular character details, the overall arcs Yamato is involved in, and in particular the thoughtful way in which they're structured, that I find most meaningful. Yamato often says things that are openly brash, antagonistic, and/or unintentionally harsh to the people around him. However, the stories he's in follow through on this beyond the initial interaction: we find out afterwards why he's behaving this way (in the sense of his motivations, his struggles that were not visible at first, and so on). Then we get to see him reflect, either by himself or with the help of his teammates, and understand what went wrong. And finally, he often has a chance to revisit the situation with people he's clashed with, and find a more constructive resolution together with them.
I myself have been diagnosed with ADHD, although in my case, it's mostly inattentive type, and I mask it pretty effectively in my daily life. Still, I have a few of these traits: I can instruct others endlessly on my special interests, I get sudden flashes of temper, and I get easily frustrated by "simple" things in a way that can be difficult for others to understand or empathize with. These traits are ones I often feel guilt and shame about.
Yamato's strong personality is often on display for all to see, and it would be easy to turn him into a caricature or even just a villain. But instead, we get insights into his perspective, see him grow and overcome difficulties, and are shown time and again that he cares about the people around him and wants to learn to work with them better. Yamato makes me feel more confident in myself: however different I am from the people around me, and whatever mistakes I make, if I can stay brave and open-hearted, I can keep learning to be better than I was before.
