Yuki Nagato: mental impairment and moe

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Note to readers: If you have to ask, "Who's Moe?" in response to this thread's title, then you are unlikely to benefit from it (at least until you learn about moe).

I just rewatched The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (afterwards Haruhi, when referring to the remade world) and I remember something that had struck me at first: The Yuki Nagato that appears in this movie struck me as being mentally impaired. The way she needs a volunteer to bring her food and stuff and that she has no one she talks to gave me the impression of someone who might very well qualify for a disability pension. Now, granted, she's in high school and is in the unusual situation for someone her age (or apparent age) living alone. Still, she comes across as impaired.

Now in the current The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan (afterwards Yuki-chan) series, the impairment seems like it's there, but perhaps it's not as bad. Nevertheles, there seem to be some subtle differences between the Haruhi and Yuki-chan situations. In Haruhi in the scene in Yuki's room, Ryoko Asakura, the volunteer, seemed to try to engage Yuki in discussing buying a scarf for her, but Yuki seemed barely responsive and for the most part seemed focused on eating. In Yuki-chan, Yuki seems to be more responsive.

Now, I'm not a big fan of moe, and I don't know a lot about it, but I wonder if an actual mental impairment is something you see all that often when it comes to moe. As I understand, in moe the girl is usually portrayed as being helpless or needing protection in some way in order to appeal to the patriarchal notion of male viewers that they could help the girl make up for such weakness by getting into a relationship with her. Maybe this could apply to Yuki-chan, but the impression I got in Haruhi was that a relationship with Kyon, or anyone for that matter, wasn't really going to solve Yuki's problems, or come anywhere near that. It seems that where there is a mental impairment, the girl would usually be viewed as broken, and lots of guys who get into a relationship with such a girl end up either getting sick of and abandoning her or controlling and abusing her.

The impression I get in moe is that the "helpless" aspects or the aspects needing "protection" simply add to her appeal, but the girl remains basically functional and would be able to at least be a "good wife and mother" (in the traditional, patriarchal sense). In Haruhi, and possibly Yuki-chan, Yuki's impairment seems to preclude that. In Haruhi, the way Yuki took Kyon home with her a day after he got physically aggressive with her suggested someone who could easily be taken advantage of--which seemed to justify the warning Ryoko gave to Kyon in the elevator.

Perhaps this was meant to be a deconstruction of moe, in that they decided to take a different tact withthe "helplessness" and "need for protection" by making the girl in question actually impaired, posing to male viewers, "You sure you'd want to take on being in a relationship with a girl or woman like this?"

Well moe often refers to the feeling in needing to protect something, possibly because it is helpless. It really makes sense that someone who has a mental impairment might need to be protected and some extent looked after. I can also probably name a few examples in anime where the over moe aspects are actually the result of some mental impairment, notable I would say is Grisaia no Kajitsu where their personality quirks that are kind of "moe" are the result of some pretty big trauma.

If you want to talk about some weird disconnect of impaired and needs help, and moe aspects, well the anime I will mention is Watamote. The main character pretty clearly suffers from something, but we are often shown her as kind of scruffy because she actually cannot look after herself that well, some of her family think of her as being quite lazy, but other people make a comment that to them she looks like a real quiet type, and some actually see her as helpless and kind of cute for how she tries. I think it creates an interesting dissonance to how "moe" is often seen.

I guess if he'd be the right kind of guy, which might explain why Ryoko is trying to get Yuki and Kyon together (to perhaps take some of the burden off of herself). By the way, I do like Ryoko's character, in that she is strong and self-assured and tries to do good, but of course has her limits and weaknesses like all. (I like Ryoko in the whole Haruhi series, too, especially her return late in the series and the prospect that she may become independent herself.)

Nevertheless, I know a woman in her late 30s who ended up developing Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and recently had to go to a mental hospital for depression. She used to work alongside her husband and she has kids, but she is now on disability, which looks like it's going to be permanent. After she had to go to the hospital, her husband handed her divorce papers and left. Now a huge pillar of support for her is gone.

I will say I like one thing: I think the depiction of Yuki-chan (as well as the alternate Yuki in Haruhi), at least from my impression, shows her to be absent-minded, but makes clear she isn't just a ditz. In the Yuki-chan series, Yuki seems to have a pretty good intellect, suggesting that Kyon and Ryoko might be able to do a lot of good for Yuki--and maybe even Japan and the world! Who knows?--if they support her into a STEM (science/technology/engineering/mathematics) field.

At least from what I've seen (from mostly Western stuff), rarely is an absent-minded female character depicted as possibly being the next Einstein, or, let me correct myself, the next Marie Curie (who, incidentally, was known to forget to eat herself)! I'm impressed by the glimpses we get into the workings of this Yuki's mind.