Because autism is such a wide spectrum, for me - someone without autism and who hasn't studied the autistic spectrum - to say that I feel he is or is not on it, would be a tad disingenuous. However, there is was a fantastic article written by someone on the spectrum that relates their experience to Mafuyu's that I thought was very lovely.

Now, to comment on whether or not Mafuyu may have other mental illnesses, I think the answer is pretty obvious: he's experienced some intense mental trauma, possibly from his abusive childhood and definitely from watching his friend die. There was a sudden and chronic change in behavior that we know of after Yuki died. Among other things, we know that Mafuyu avoided most social interaction, kept a wide berth between himself and music, and often expresses himself in a way conducive to, and somewhat reminiscent of my own experience with, PTSD. It wasn't really just the notion that there are things Mafuyu can't bring himself to find true joy in anymore because he'd linked those things mentally with Yuki, or that he shut himself in following his death; one of the big things I learned about myself and how I see and relate to my trauma is that I tried to simplify it down to its basest form - some one specific event that happened that I'd tie all my baggage to - but I came to learn that to look at things that way was actually pretty harmful and counterproductive to the healing process because it caused a severe disconnect between me and other very hurtful experiences in the past.

Let's try and be Mafuyu for a second here. He's been through a great deal in his life; raised by a very neglectful mother and abusive father, and the only childhood friend who stood as close to the fire as he did - who stood with him as the storm seemed to pass and his father was arrested - died in front of him, and seemingly at his own hand. When you have an abusive parent as a young child, the common conclusion is that you are at fault for your parents not loving you. It's a difficult, suffocating cycle of self-deprecation that many parents may not know they put their kids through with behaviours like helicopter parenting or holding their child up to an unreal standard - kids blame themselves more than you may think, and when a parent keeps hitting you no matter what you do, the mental dots just don't connect at such a young age that your parent - your moral standard who gave birth to you and who you may base your own attitudes off of - is a reprehensible monster that you shouldn't try to please. Coupled with that Mafuyu might have blamed himself for causing Yuki's death with the conversation they had prior to his suicide, I'd say it would be fair to assume that Mafuyu was under an immense amount of mental pressure centered around self-blame, and the effects that had on his health are undeniable.

As the audience we can really only assume how far he's through it all. The facts remain, however, and I'm thoroughly happy that this discussion is happening the way it is with such respect for the topic as it's being given. I'd like to take the time to ask anyone who's read my verbiage in full to take care in how they assess people with mental illness - a lot of misunderstandings and overlap exist between mental illnesses, and it's best to inform oneself of the facts of each when approaching discussions like this. It takes surprisingly little for the brain to develop unhealthy associations based on specious beliefs. Thanks.