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Neurodivergence and Kageyama in Haikyuu!!
(THREAD)
(THREAD)
I have complicated feelings about neurodivergence + fictional charas. For one, theyâre not real! So it can feel like Iâm just going âtrait A-Z matches up to this laundry list of X mental illnessâ when in reality, neurodivergent people live varied and often dissimilar experiences.
Disclaimer going in that Iâm NOT speaking for every neurodivergent person. You CAN not relate to this whatsoever, and I donât care. Iâm talking about my PERSONAL experience and my PERSONAL reading.
That said, in Haikyuu!! the prime candidate that I always think of as neurodivergent is Kageyama. Specifically, I read him as autistic.
I donât think Furudate intended for this to be the case, becauseâŚwell, frankly autistic people are hardly portrayed in any media with complexity outside of their autism. This reading is just something thatâs resonated with me over the years of reading HQ!!
Kageyama is just one of those characters who seems to operate on a different wavelength from everyone else. He has a lot of trouble communicating with others. Itâs pretty painful when he does (âKanekogawaâ, âPlease teach me how to serveââŚsigh).
Heâs initiated only a handful of conversations outside of ones with Hinata, with whom we see in the text that he felt an instant kinship. Like, boy stands from afar and simply radiates INTENSITY at Kenma after their practice game instead of APPROACHING???
He has poor perception of atmosphere and social cues. Does he even really realize that Oikawa would have easily punched him out?
This incident DOESNâT SEEM to register on his radar with nearly the same magnitude of importance as it does on Oikawaâs. He literally went outside after that and monch monch on onigiri. UNBOVVERED.
Heâs similarly unbothered that Sakusa just runs up on his dinner at Youth Camp and starts grilling him about Ushijima haha. When asked he SERIOUSLY THINKS about how Ushijima was during their game. He takes thingsâŚso literally. Itâs why heâs so bothered by âgoody two shoes.â
BUT what Kageyama does have is volleyball. Heâs a prodigious talent, and he hyperfixates on volleyball (to the exclusion of other hobbies, likeâŚliterally, boy doesnât even own a video game 
).
).
Volleyball IS his wavelength, the one that he eats, sleeps, breathes. And who does he communicate with best on said wavelength? Hinata.
Kageyama has a deep well of caring, and he flexes so of it with Hinata. You can tell how deeply he grows to care about him. He just doesnât display this caring the same way that maybe other characters might (likeâŚverbally and directly haha).
Itâs in ways like staying late after EVERY practice and âYou can jump higher.â In spite of this, Kageyama is repeatedly misread by people around him. One main way is because he isnât really aware of his facial expressions.
The boy really gives off intensity while thinking about flavored milk. He canât read kanji properly in spite of being in HIGH SCHOOL T___T A fact which is shocking to others haha.
Heâs really caught up in sensory details. Tape on his fingers bothers him; the floor at the Natâl Training Center wasnât wooden boards (neglects to mention the fact that ATSUMU BULLIED HIM LOL). He likes the gym even as a baby because âthe color and the smellâ is distinctive.
His meltdown in middle school? Autistic meltdown. Like, yeah heâs a shitlord to his Kita Ichi teammates, but we see that his frustration stems from wanting to find other people who are AS wild about volleyball as he is. And he just hasnât found them.
I know that many of these elements are meant to be a repeat gag showing how he is kind of alien, which is why I donât really think that heâs intended to be read as autistic. These traits about him are meant to indicate that heâs special, not that heâs neurodivergent.
Often in fiction, when a character is meant to be idiosyncratic or esoteric, theyâll have tics and behaviors that set them apart from their (normal) peers. âNormalâ peers who have ânormalâ behavior. These esoteric tics are notable because they are troublesome and different.
Kageyamaâs singularity is two-fold: his volleyball genius and his very distinctive personality. They go hand-in-hand. I often wonder whether neurotypical people think or pick up on these indications. These tropes came from somewhere.
In a fictional text, the trope might be a fun quirk, but those character traits are also a real lived experience. And you know? People donât usually think itâs cute or quirky.
Regardless, itâs been rewarding seeing Kageyama grow over time and think in my own private world that he is an autistic kid growing with love. In the world of Haikyuu!! someone like Kageyama gets to exist as he does and find a community who loves volleyball with his same fervor.
Kageyama is a really special character to me, so thanks for reading to the end!
