OWLS Strength Blog Tour: Shirotani’s Mental Fortitude and Helping Hand (It’s OK to Need Help Sometimes)

For this tour, we will be exploring anime characters that have overcome adversity due to a personal insecurity or physical weakness. It is these type of characters that many anime fans may identify as role models because fans are able to feel empathetic towards these characters’ struggles and insecurities

Because I already talked about Kyoko for the Sanctuary tour, I guess that means I can’t talk about her for this one (or you know, if I did, it would just end up as a repeat of the other). Instead, I thought I’d talk a little bit about a boy’s love manga because I’ve just been itching to talk about one for this tour since forever

Warning, SPOILERS for Ten Count (and remember this is a yaoi so as much as there’s all this great content, there’s also some very-yaoiesque stuff too)

Shirotani & Mysophobia

I honestly have no idea why I picked this series up. I want to say it might have been curiosity over the whole mysophobia topic and how it was going to be portrayed. It may also have been the art and how beautifully it’s done. Whatever the reason, I really feel like Ten Count is one of those boy’s love manga that you should check out if you like the genre. Yes there’s lots of smut, but it talks about a topic that we don’t really get in BL titles and does it in an interesting way

Ever since the beginning, I’ve always felt admiration for Shirotani. Having developed mysophobia at a young age (after someone Despicable said something Terrible), Shirotani has lived his life afraid of contamination, afraid of contaminating others, and afraid of being true to himself.

It’s only after he meets Kurose (and snaps at him) that he finally decides he should probably do something about his insecurities. Seeing that his mysophobia was so far along that someone else noticed his habits and are pointing them out to him, plus feeling the guilt of not helping out his boss when he was in a traffic incident makes Shirotani try. But I really believe it’s because Kurose was there and took notice and offered an alternative that Shirotani even thought of another possibility

The thing about Shirotani is that he’s acknowledged that he has a problem and he’s actively trying to find a way to get better. He decides to go along with Kurose’s idea of jotting down 10 things he’d like to do during his treatment. The things he does seem like they’re easy (touching a doorknob, eating food from a restaurant, grabbing a book from a bookstore) but the way that he sees them and considering his condition, are really tough and important. There are times where we see he just doesn’t want to keep going but after some encouragement and patience, he manages to complete a handful of tasks (AND he ends up writing in the 10th item, which he’d left blank at first)

The 10th item is supposed to be something he believes is impossible to accomplish

We see that words from the people he cares about both put him in his current state but also help him. If it weren’t for that Despicable person (whose name I honestly just can’t remember), he wouldn’t have mysophobia. And if it weren’t for Kurose’s encouragement and patience (plus stubbornness), Shirotani wouldn’t have accomplished as much as he did. We even get to see what happens when we take Kurose out of the equation, which is Shirotani falling back to some of his old habits, especially since it’s so early in the therapy

He did have others that cared about him, like his boss Kuramoto and his friend Mikami, but they weren’t really the same. In a way they just accepted how Shirotani was living his life. They were worried about him, but they never tried to actively help him out. Kurose, on the other hand, was just a stranger passing by and was able to immediately tell that Shirotani had some trouble. He became a part of Shirotani’s life and that’s why I think things worked out better between them

There was someone that Shirotani could depend on and felt comfortable enough to finally state what he wanted

Realistic Depiction?

I don’t have mysophobia and I don’t know anyone who has mysophobia, but I think there’s some realism in what we see in this series. Personally, I have issue with opening doors with my hands. I tend to use my leg to help open a door and cover my hand with my sweater’s sleeve, but I also wouldn’t panic over having to use my hand if need be. But I can see it happening to someone else. I’m sure that a lot of people don’t go to certain restaurants because they worry about sanitation even when technically, the restaurant should be in good shape if it’s running (I’m so there on this)

All of the items that Shirotani wants to accomplish feel real and they’re things that we can probably relate to on a certain level. The only difference is that Shirotani’s condition makes it worse for him and I really like how the manga shows this visually

Even the whole sexual stuff (what do I call it? sexual exploration? awakening?) is just Shirotani finally coming to realize what he wants. As a kid, he’d been called disgusting for something his body naturally reacted to. Sexual activity was something taboo to him and to finally have the chance to explore and get comfortable in his own skin is believable.

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When I wrote up my post for Sanctuary, I mentioned that it was something that had to come from within. To be at peace I felt like you had to mentally be okay with yourself. With strength I’m falling into the same mindset. Yes you can have physical strength but having that mental fortitude to admit you need help, find help, and actively try to better your situation is something that requires a lot of strength

In Shirotani’s case, he wants to get better and he takes the steps needed. His tasks, while simple sounding, all require a lot of effort on his part. Sometimes it takes him just the one try to get the door open, sometimes he gets himself sick from trying to ride a train, and other times he just needs to try a couple times

And like most stories that we read, it’s okay to get help and rely on others. I think that’s something that we often forget about when we’re trying to take on tasks like this. We’re not alone, someone is always willing to help out and a lot of times it starts with a stranger who later becomes your best friend (or more in Ten Count’s case)

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Wow, I feel like I keep failing at these. It’s probably a sign that I should write them sooner but I seem to like to suffer. I’m not sure I got all my points across or even well since I feel this is a shorter post than normal, but hopefully, I got something done correctly (lol)

Don’t forget to check out Nick’s post over at Chasing Japan (OWLS Tour: When It’s OK For A Man to Cry) and Kat’s this upcoming Friday (about Clannad)!

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