Misdiagnosis

According to various fans and the illustrious Wikipedia, Hanazawa Rui of Hana Yori Dango fame has Aspergers. A few of my students are on this end of the autism spectrum, so I thought this was a really cool thing for mangaka Kamio Yoko to include in her story. A main character, a romantic lead (albeit on the losing end of the love triangle) with a classically anti-charismatic syndrome.

I thought of all the awkward middle school students who could see themselves reflected in Hanazawa Rui. I thought of spreading awareness about Aspergers to a wide-ranging, manga-reading audience. I thought about the levels of acceptance and understanding that this "fictional diagnosis" could foster.

And then I thought about Rui's seemingly psychic emotional intuition. (It's at this point that I'll confess I've only seen the drama; perhaps Rui isn't so psychic in the other HYD incarnations.)

Let's face it, no "white knight" character can get away with not being able to read the female lead's thoughts. How many times did the other members of F4 say, "I wonder what's up with Tsukushi's weird behavior?" only to have Rui fly out the door to her rescue minutes later? How many times did Rui understand what Tsukushi was thinking better than Domyoji did? How many times did he understand what Domyoji was thinking better than Domyoji did? (I know Tsukasa's no emotional genius, but you think he'd do better than a guy with a medically diagnosed issue reading emotions.) I'm just sayin'.

Weren't there times when Rui was almost emotionally manipulative? (Flirting with Tsukushi on the staircase, etc.) Not that people with Aspergers can't flirt, but he played that one pretty close to the line. You've got to be able to understand what the other person is thinking to get away with that.

It's nice that Hana Yori Dango is trying to be culturally relevant, but it's doing it in typical, lovably ridiculous HYD fashion. Maybe the manga and anime better reconcile Rui's behavior with his diagnosis. Maybe I'm overthinking it. Maybe there's a new kind of magic Aspergers out there...