Guest post: Sociopaths in manga

I've been thinking about certain Japanese anime and manga I am audience to recently, and I realize that openly sociopathic characters, or at least characters that fit those criteria without being labeled as such, seem to be more common in roles that do not involve out-and-out villainy. I'm not certain whether there might be a difference in cultural perceptions involved, but I suspect that diverse sociopathic characters are more common in Japanese media simply because, freed from regular social conventions, you can do more things with them than other types of characters.

There is one sociopathic villain who sticks out in my mind because, unlike most in Western media, he *doesn't* fit the mold of an unrepentant murder-rapist - Izaya Orihara, of the light novel, manga, and anime series called 'Durarara'.

Izaya is a twenty-six-year-old information broker living in the Tokyo district of Ikebukuro. The chief joy he gets out of life is simply playing with other people's intentions and expectations, and he uses his occupation as an excuse to screw with people on a professional basis. In addition to this, he has a particular modus operandi that seems to suit all of his purposes simultaneously:

Step 1: Find a high-school-age girl, preferably an insecure or withdrawn one.
Step 2: Ply the girl with attention until she is completely infatuated with him.
Step 3: Plant the girl as a spy/information gatherer wherever he feels she is necessary.
Step 4: Once he has gotten enough use out of her, find ways to undermine her confidence and self-worth, which are at this point totally dependent on his approval.
Step 5: Repeat ad nauseam.

In the very first two episodes of the anime, Izaya contracts a group of kidnappers working for an unlawful pharmaceutical company to abduct one of the girls who works under him in this way. Once she is rescued by the heroine, the trauma has affected her so badly that she goes to the top of an abandoned building with the intent to jump off the roof, but relents at the last minute. Izaya takes the opportunity to pop up, revealing that he's been following her the entire time, and congratulates her - on doing exactly what he thought she would do in the aftermath of such an event. He goes on to tell her, in a syrupy tone, that he's rather disappointed in her now... because she's not *quite* as special as he initially thought. Her anguish at this latest insult and manipulation is palpable, and once he leaves she really does jump, but is again saved (physically and emotionally) by the heroine, which is fortunate for her because it releases her from Izaya's control.

Izaya mentions in passing that he loves humans - 'humans' being the operative word, because it indicates that he thinks of himself as being on a separate level from them. This does indeed seem to be true, but not in the way that normal love is expressed. As far as he is concerned, his use and abuse of others is a fitting expression of affection, and despite his skill at manipulation he seems to be unable to grasp the sincerity of other people's feelings. Late in the series, when he ends up in the hospital, a girl who has been covering for him (in a complicated way) by pretending that both her legs are still broken has a breakdown and bursts into his hospital room with the intent to kill him. Her own stress is so great that she breaks down crying - and Izaya, startlingly, responds to this by embracing her and telling her how much he still loves her.

Why is this significant? Because Izaya is easily the most popular character in the series. Fans do not downplay his sociopathic tendencies at all - in fact, they actively revel in them, and look upon him as hugely entertaining. I find myself hard-pressed to argue with them, considering that he is a man who thinks nothing of using his connections to hound a particular target he's been hired to search for, then turning up moments after the man trips and falls flat on his face and jumping up and down on him like a trampoline. If what Izaya does isn't hilarious in a mean way, it's still damnably fascinating to watch.