 good day you absolute chad of a human being or or chadette or chad them welcome back to another video on my channel the autism and mental health channel my name is thomas henley and today we're going to be talking about autism and anime now you may be thinking to yourself why why why is there any sort of link between these two things and you you may also have the thought that you know to be honest my my child really does love anime and i've never really understood why hmm you may also be absolutely bamboozled by the facts that you know anime comes from a different country to the country that you're born in you know a japanese culture with different sort of social rules and different sort of norms and styles and animations and you may think you know for someone who you know has a diagnosis where they they struggle with understanding social concepts wouldn't it be a lot more difficult a lot more difficult for for that autistic child to understand a different culture 90 percent of my screen time you know the time that i'm actually spent watching tv or watching youtube or watching anything of that nature it's usually anime that i watch you know to be honest the the majority of stuff that i do watch tends to be informative stuff tends to be documentaries but in terms of pure entertainment i always gravitate towards anime now before you say well i do not know that you were weeb thomas well i'm not i used to be probably when i was very very young but that was because i never felt really a part of society until you know i know i never really felt understood or or a part of society or understood socializing or communication or social groups until i actually delved into the world of anime now you could say that this is probably not the best place to teach shows social skills you know you have a lot of emotion and like you know it's it's it's a it's not reality basically but for me during those times when i was really really depressed during those times when i was really really anxious and didn't really know where i where i fit in with the world anime was probably one of the the biggest escapes that i had and furthermore i actually started my career in taekwondo which i eventually took up to quite a high level in terms of getting a national gold medal british british national gold medal junior and senior as well as competing at the commonwealth championships and winning a gold medal and god i hate i hate talking about myself but i know that it's it's interesting to some people so i'm like probably should say it but i i feel like a gigantic narcissist if i like so yeah i got a medal i got a trophy which was like best best male fighter i competed all across the world and come trained and training camps with gold medalists olympic gold medalists so i took it quite far and the the anime that really sort of encouraged me to go do that was uh an anime that you may know which is dragon ball z but i'd also say that things like yugioh and things like pokemon were absolutely massive for me during those times this is because they put a really really strong focus on core values you know things like um gritting your teeth and and getting on with it things like training hours and hours and hours just for one result and failing and then learning from that failing or it could just be something as simple as appreciating the people that you have around you appreciating the people that fight with you people that have your back and a lot of those core values in anime did a large amount to sort of encourage me to get out of that really poor mental state that i was in and take it out on other people in combat sports yes it didn't sound as romantic as as i thought it would saying it out loud so i've done a little bit of rambling about my personal uh love of anime and there are some key things that i really want to go over that i think you know could explain why a lot of autistic people like anime and definitely explains why i have liked and and do like anime so number one yes indirect exaggeration yes two words completely meaningless to you i understand that completely meaningless to me but i just couldn't think of a better title that fit in my little instagram post blog whatever you want to call it so basically in an in anime there is undoubtedly a lot of emotional displays and you know with with other types of film tv it's it's always very subtle you know all all of the characters intentions how they feel they're a lot harder to pick upon and when you're autistic and you struggle having that cognitive empathy being able to analyze people's emotional states just by going off indirect things it makes sense that it that's something that exaggerates those things and makes it very apparent is going to make it a much easier watch and you're going to be able to sort of predict things a lot easier you're going to be it's going to be a lot more of a comfortable watch rather than trying to analyze the social situations that are happening it definitely takes a lot of the guessing work out of it and although it might not be totally conducive to understanding real life interactions and sort of understanding emotions in the context of a social situation but that's not really what what you want from entertainment entertainment supposed to be relaxing and fun and anime or to be honest a lot of modern day cartoons do a really good job of amplifying the emotions of the characters so that it can be visibly seen it's not subtle it's straightforward it's exaggerated and it's easy to watch number two a cable dropping down there number two japan is different yes if you did not know it's probably one of the only places that you can go in the world where you could get octopus flavored ice cream or wasabi cookies or like they do a really good job of amplifying the quirky aspects of their culture and i really like that the first time that i was actually introduced to what japan was was watching a film called the karate kid not not the new one with jaden smith and all that i like the old school versions you know karate kid one two and three mr miyagi daniel laruso i think that's what he called him i absolutely binge the absolute mother of god out of that series i'm calling it a series but it's not a series it's a it's literally like a trilogy of newbies i at least i think there's three there might be enough off oh yeah with a girl what's what's she called was one with a girl or was that number three that's beside the point i was introduced to both sides of japan i really really really got into the history i loved watching things like i think like the last samurai i think the one of the first books i ever read was was just like a a story of like a samurai whose his parents got killed and like they basically enrolled to become a samurai and they trained and they found that their trainer was the person that they were going to seek revenge from it was a very very interesting thing and like i really liked it's not it may come across as sounding like an insult but it's not but i found the the social rules and the social sort of concepts within within japanese history within modern japan within anime just a lot more more straightforward a lot more easier to understand and although you know in film and in tv and in anime it's it's all exaggerating and it's all part of the plot and it's not reality but whenever i made any friends that were japanese you know we had like an exchange student who came over and i really i really got on with them and it was one of the first times i actually felt like a a cool person in a in a social group i didn't feel like the weirdo or the outsider you know they liked that i was good at taekwondo and that that i was doing well and i was quite academic and i was like yeah of course like why why wouldn't they like me but all the all the british kids obviously thought that i was weird and quirky and strange and they didn't want anything to do with me so this type of culture i'm not i'm not going to go into too much of it because i'm not a cultural expert and i wouldn't want to say anything over um what other japanese people are telling us about their culture so i'm just going to leave it as that leave it as that and just say that you know entering a world which is much different to your own isn't doubtably going to be a massive escape it's also going to be quite um validating as you you realize that even though you don't fit into the culture that you're born into there might be some cultures out there that you really identify with so that was a really great moment for me number three yes where we're i think we've got two more this is this is one of the one of them the next one's number four yes number three internal monologues yes so it's it's not always done in all films and all tv series but i i have seen quite a few uh like i think tv series like dexter they have that he has like an internal monologue which kind of i guess gives sort of a a parallel way of hat of what he's presenting on the outside and what he's actually feeling on the inside uh which you know seems all positive and good and normal on the outside but inside he's a he's a demon with you know just trying to blend in so that nobody finds out that he's a psycho so you know american british tv we sometimes do it but in a lot of the animes that i've watched there is either one of two things there is either a really strong internal dialogue particularly if it's surrounding one or two characters like death note you know with l and oh my god i've forgotten his name the other guy light with those two that there is really strong like you're like internal dialogues from pretty much all of the characters to be honest but specifically those and as well as the internal dialogues you also have explanations for things you always have like it with pokemon you know actually misty go do something and brock gives some really bog standard commentary which to a lot of people is quite funny but for me little little autistic tom uh that monologue it really helped me sort of tie together what was happening i think in terms of the internal monologues the actual things that they were saying in their heads it really sort of resonated with me and how i go about my life you know you kind of have this picture that most people are kind of going out and they're not really thinking they're just kind of going in the motions of things and you know from talking to a lot of autistic people it seems that we have a lot more of that in that internal monologue those those thinking about what we're going to say and i know some people don't which is okay it's not for the for the whole of people i'm not saying every autistic person in general has an internal monologue um this is just something that i've i've heard about quite a lot you know as as kind of going through life and thinking through things and understanding uh the world around us it really really translates well into that idea of an internal monologue and it makes it a lot easier to follow the story the characters intentions and how they feel i like that about anime it's not something that makes me cringe or urk or it sometimes does get me a laugh especially with pokemon about some funny funny times with my mate watching the like the first 10 episodes of pokemon oh my god rock is such a comedian is so funny so number four without trying to extend this video as you know as far along as i wanted it to it's only like it's like 15 minutes recording now it's not going to be for you because i'm going to chop it down because i thought like a bloody animal but number four yes art styles just by searching through some of the posts from your favorite autism creators you'll see that there is quite a wide variety of art styles quite a wide variety of color choices of of particular uses of of certain brushes you know you might might watch some autistic artists or tattoo artists and you know they produce stuff which really goes against the idea of what you think a tattoo is or what you think a piece of art is they really they really do a good job of personalizing it and making it into something that's very individual i feel like you know that this this kind of thing that i've noticed um it's very similar to how anime is you know they can be quite creative the ways that they express emotions the way that they amplify humor through visual effects or i'm not gonna say effects but visual changes through through different animation styles it's really really interesting and you know people may say that oh anime is all the same thing it follows the same market as the same sort of weird sort of um dynamic where where two of the characters are sort of a little bit clicked a little bit sort of on the edge of being maybe a little bit sort of intimate you know that that kind of feeling um but they they actually do have quite a wide variety of anime like different genres like different ways of actually drawing or painting or designing a character different ways of telling the story different characters like obviously all film tv they're going to have different characters and ways of telling it but within that genre of anime it does seem like that that you know they can be from different worlds it's like it's all up to the imagination of the people who are creating it so they can make some really out there things i'm thinking of things like neon genesis evangelion which felt more like an art piece rather than an anime but then you can contrast that with things like one punch man which is like it's taking the concept of being invincible and sort of applying it to regular old guy's life is absolutely hilarious and there's all sorts of concepts like that that you can really delve into with anime and the thing is is that it's not always to people's tastes and if people tell you you have to watch the sub versions or you have to watch the original versions don't bloody listen to them watch it however you like honestly like maybe the thing that I want to be doing is listening to something and then occasionally glancing at the screen while I'm playing on my phone that tends to be the case when I'm watching anything so that you know having the dubs usually quite helpful for me but again you can get some really weird creative takes on popular tv shows just just type in an anime of your choice and what was it you have to they do like a mix around of it they dub it no they don't dub it um they abridge it you gear the abridge series is always would have felt like my god it's one of the most quoted animes that I've watched and it's not even the original anime it's an abridge version where they just take the make out of it very very funny very hilarious the whole thing with this this these types of our styles is that they're very different they're very quirky and I always gravitate towards different and quirky things and a lot of autistic people that I know like to gravitate towards difficult and quirky things not difficult different you know things that that really open your eyes to the ways that humans can express themselves I find it really really interesting and whenever an anime comes out and it looks to have a different sort of different vibe or different style I'm always really intrigued by it the anime that I'm watching at the moment is called Hajime no Ippo which is sort of a series about a kid who's who's pretty pitiful and then he sort of goes through the ropes as it be and he starts to become a boxer and he sort of learns how to do it and he does all these amazing things and he shows all these his amazing talent and the boxing like the actual combat so well done honestly and that's just one of the the things that I that I've been watching at the moment but it's the most standout thing and there's a lot of season so it's going to be a while before I finish it but it is definitely my comfort show at the moment so I've talked a lot about anime I've talked a lot about autism and the ways that they can sort of cross over and sort of I don't know flip over each other you know insert really witty comment but I don't want to keep you too long so make sure if you haven't like your subbie put a comment down below what's your favorite anime I want to know and if you want to stay up to date with things social medias either side here I can't remember because it's always flipped when they when they start to edit it so it's what it's one of these sides except outside oh no maybe not no outside hmm I don't know but you will find the written versions of pretty much all of the videos that I do over on Instagram along with a nice little picture that you'll recognize from the thumbnail so very easy to find and yeah I hope that you have enjoyed this video and make sure again let me know what your anime is and I'll see you in another episode of my youtube channel that doesn't sound that doesn't sound too bad I'm still working on the outros should really put some time into to actually developing it but I feel like that would that would tarnish my creative style so we'll leave it at that