With the Light Vol. 2 (Keiko Tobe, For Mrs.)
This is one of the most challenging volumes of manga I’ve read. Hikaru is out of control. He’s been accused of shoplifting. He’s boarded trains without paying. He’s been labeled a punk. He’s been banned from restaurants and he’s become a home invader. He’s a threat to society and some have even said he should be locked up. Oh, and did I mention that Hikaru is an 11 year old boy with autism?
In case I wasn’t clear enough, Hikaru is an outsider, incapable of conforming to society’s social standards. Even as he exposes how myopic said society really is the manga emanates an overwhelming desire for Hikaru to conform. What’s most striking about this is that there’s little intellectual argument presented to justify conforming. Rather, it’s almost entirely emotionally driven, based around making mother happy. As such it may be worth examining Sachiko’s motivation.
Sachiko’s desire stems from the fact that the community foolishly attributes her son’s misbehavior to her parenting skills. The unusual thing about this manga is how it continually tries to enforce this line of thinking even though Hikaru negates it. In this volume Sachiko begins thinking this way herself after the arrival of another autistic child, Miyu, and her less than knowledgeable mother. You see, Miyu is much worse behaved than Hikaru because her mother is ignorant of her condition and hasn’t given her proper care. By accepting that conformity is best for her son, Sachiko, along with the narrative, continue to propagate a commonly accepted but problematic ideology that still haunts her.
There’s one obvious alternative: refuse to conform. But what about those who’ve already been integrated into society? The manga presents quite the lesson in “acceptance”. Hikaru’s teacher Aoki-sensei preaches that his students need to be accepting of themselves. Forcing themselves to be someone they’re not only leads to self-hatred. Unfortunately that knife cuts both ways and assuming it doesn’t can have serious consequences. In a chilling scene, two mothers recall how the local community was bullied by parents of Special Ed children into accepting their children and treating them normally, though normally really meant specially. The terror of political correctness has been felt and is furthering the division between normal and special needs families.
This series’ elephant in the room is how heavily Sachiko and her family rely on special institutions that understand autism. In particular, the Special Education class that Hikaru attends. There’s an extended episode in this volume that acknowledges how Hikaru is pretty much at the mercy of his school. Aoki-sensei accepts his transfer and is replaced by Gunji-sensei, a bitter old teacher who is about to be spit out by the public education system. She believes the school should make children all the same and has little interest in learning about or tolerating Hikaru’s erratic behavior. As a result, she views all people as being about the same and has no strong relationships. Their dichotomy is similar to that of Hikaru and Sachiko but without the emotional component. Hikaru’s inability to submit to Gunji-sensei only serves to remind us how unwavering individualism can restore the power balance between social systems and individuals.
