Abstract
This chapter showcases Okita Bakka’s tōjisha manga series, Gaki no tameiki, published by Kodansha. Gaki no tameiki, or Gaki-tame for short, tells Okita’s direct experience of hattasu shōgai (developmental disabilities), a neurological condition that entails Asperger’s syndrome (AS), learning disability (LD), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Okita was first diagnosed with LD and ADHD in the fourth grade, and her Asperger’s syndrome was officially identified in adulthood. The chapter first provides contextual information about the series such as its target readership and the author’s background and then analyzes her artistic styles and storytelling characteristics, drawing on an interview with her and sample panels from her series.
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Notes
- 1.
In Japan, mental disorders are typically divided into two large clusters: hattatsu shōgai (developmental disorders), a category that includes autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and Learning Disorder (LD), and mental disabilities, a group that includes depression, schizophrenia, mood disorders, and substance-related/addictive disorders. While DSM-5 classifies autism spectrum disorder in the class of neurodevelopmental disorders, ICD-11 places it in the section of mental, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental conditions along with mental health conditions with psychosis.
- 2.
Besides these memoirs about her hattatsu shōgai, she has published an autobiographical manga, Shinkirō Kazoku (The Mirage Family), featuring Okita’s family, which she said she had written “without thinking carefully” and was almost sued by one of the families, especially because she used the people’s real names in the story. (Both Okita and Ito laughed, however, indicating that the situation was not so serious.) With its story, Shinkirō Kazoku is considered a gag manga, and Volumes 1–5 were published in 2015–2016. Okita said, jokingly, “Because of that, I’m a hotte okuto chotto nanisuruka wakannai mitaina (unreliable person who needs some supervision). I write whatever comes to my mind. So I need someone to stop that.”
- 3.
In Japanese, “breathing” is iki wo suru, which shares the same word iki (breath) with tameiki.
- 4.
The word ryōiku refers to a type of special training for children with hattatsu shōgai; its process involves both the parent and autistic child (Kondo 2018). In Japan, one- to two-year-old toddlers can be tested for Asperger’s syndrome. An autistic baby typically has trouble falling asleep and tends to wake up frequently. Thus, it is recommended that such a baby be examined right away. By the age of two or three, ASD can be confirmed by means of the child’s biorhythms. After that early diagnosis, the next step is providing the child with ryōiku, or rehabilitation education for children with hattatsu shōgai, in facilities similar to Asperger’s treatment centers in the United States that provide educational therapy for autistic children. If ryōiku is provided before entrance to elementary school, the child is likely to have learned to deal with various social situations, even somewhat difficult ones. Then, by the time of adulthood, the person’s ikizurasa (difficulties of living) will be greatly reduced. The official enforcement of ryōiku varies from prefecture to prefecture, however. Some prefectures run a campaign such as “Let’s protect children with hattatsu shōgai!” while others are totally opposite.
- 5.
- 6.
Hikikomori can be total or partial isolation at home and withdrawal from school and society.
- 7.
Japan issues a shōgai techō (disability passport) to those who have disabilities severe enough to prevent them from working. The Municipal Office of Tokyo issues a shōgai techō specifically for children with hattatsu shōgai, and the unique name of the passport is “Ai no techō” (literally, “Passport of Love”), while the standard name of the passport is the ryōiku techō (“rehabilitation passport”). Regardless of the name, the government’s “love” seems rather conditional, as only children with hattatsu shōgai whose IQ is below 70 are officially qualified to have that passport. Aspies whose IQ is higher than 70, so-called Borders, are not qualified for that passport. If the person has no intellectual disability, he/she can only apply for the other type of disability passport for mental disabilities: seishin shōgaisha hoken fukushi techō. However, this passport is designed for adults diagnosed with hattatsu shōgai later in life; they can apply for this passport when trying to find a job at a company that has a number of positions set aside for disabled individuals (shōgai waku). Thus, this passport does not enable school-age children to receive any benefits and support.
- 8.
Mixi was an old social media site in Japan, a sort of a precursor to Twitter or Facebook, and was active particularly in the 2010s. It allowed users to create their homepages easily.
- 9.
The term “ofu-kai” literally means “off-meeting,” used in reference to face-to-face meetings with members of an online community in Japan.
- 10.
In the manga industry, “drawing analog” means drawing manually with pen and paper only—the traditional method of using a tsuke pen (a pen and ink bottle) and manga-yō genkōyōshi (manuscript paper designed for manga), while “digital” means drawing with computer software, the most common approach to manga drawing nowadays.
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Okuyama, Y. (2022). Okita Bakka’s Gaki-tame Series (2011–2013): A Memoir of a “Troublemaker” Aspie Girl. In: Tōjisha Manga. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-00840-5_5
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