#somewhat related: happy autism month wheres the down with autism $peaks bus

[tamamatango]

Keroro Gunso 30 Day Challenge Day 28: Character Most Like Me

I think I’ve talked about how I find traits of certain characters to be relatable before, but I think Kururu has to take the cake here. I stated at the very beginning of this challenge (and quite a few times before) that I headcanon him as being autistic, and while I’m not the first one to come up with that HC my own experiences certainly were a factor my adopting of it. He’s very knowledgeable in his fields of passion and expertise, and is damn good at figuring things out to the point where he can know what he’s talking about, but he’s also quite inexperienced and uncoordinated in other areas. He also clearly has a hard time adapting to social norms, and displays discomfort in large groups, preferring to be quiet and off to the side until his abilities are needed. He can be talkative and goofy once he finds people he can be comfortable with, but it takes him a while to get to that point. In general, as someone who grew up as “the really smart kid that doesn’t socialize,” these aspects of him are heavily relatable. We share quite a few other traits and mannerisms as well, but that’d be going a little too deep for the purposes of this post. While I don’t think the writers’ intentions with Kururu were to reflect the autism experience(TM), that’s a large part of what I get out of him.

Today’s honorable mentions: Tamama, another rather predictable answer, not only because I’ve used him as a large part of my online presence for the last year or so. Tamama’s constantly teetering on the borderline between maturity and immaturity, which is a spot I find myself in a lot. And, without getting too Personal On Main, I’ve been through some of his emotional struggles as well. I also see a little bit of myself in Keroro, for the sheer anxiety and inattentiveness that overwhelms him at the mere thought of having to do something with himself. He’s a lot more extroverted than I’ll ever be, but that one aspect really gets me in the gut.

The next and penultimate prompt is best gadget. There’s like 500 machines in this show how am I supposed to choose