I recently had approx. 24 hours trapped in a flying metal tube, so to prepare for this torturous experience I had loaded up some anime to watch with my buddy who was tagging along. Of these was one of my favorite anime of all time – Orange.
If you haven’t seen Orange yet I would highly, highly recommend it. It streams on Crunchyroll, so that’s nice and easy. I’m going to try and avoid big sweeping spoilers, but it is impossible to talk about without mentioning the key themes and premise.
Last warning to go watch it first if you haven’t already…… It’s only 13 episodes.
Okay, now with that…. I have a macabre fascination with the topic of suicide in any piece of media. It’s no secret that mental health topics and accurate representations are so important to me, and when a show does it well it shines above the rest. Suicide specifically ranges massively from how it’s handled and how it depicts the characters inner turmoil. Welcome to the NHK focuses much more on being a recluse and some of the more intense, visceral internal aspects of mental illness, as where Orange focuses much more on the external aspect and outsider perspective.
Although the show focuses mostly on Naho’s perspective, I think Kakeru is the best starting point. I genuinely feel his demeanor, attitude, and facade all amazingly exemplify how some people who are struggling hide themselves day in and day out. I’m immediately reminded of two different ad campaigns that were done for suicide awareness that cut so incredibly, incredibly deep. His past experiences with his Tokyo friends and unwillingness to open up is such a fascinating case that you don’t see too much in media, the feeling of isolation. I feel many depictions of the internal struggle comes from some obsession with revenge or “getting back” at someone or driving some specific narrative ( there was actually a very interesting study done on the topic of people trying to simulate what they thought people would write vs actual notes). The most common theme was self-guilt, minimizing damage that it may cause, and apologies. Orange nails every aspect of this – with a rewatch you see how most things Kakeru is doing pushes towards this, I genuinely think either the Mangaka either struggled with it themselves or has a close friend who does.
As interesting as Kakeru’s perspective is Naho’s absolutely just as fascinating. She’s obviously motivated to both make and save this new friend, but she is willing to do almost anything to achieve that goal. One of the most common themes of suicide is being a burden or not wanting to get in other people’s way – but the story being told from Naho’s perspective shows she’s willing to do so much to make it happen (even if she can tell the future.) I regrettably don’t have as much to say but I think Naho acts as a stand-in of all the people who are caring out there and wanting to help struggling friends. If I may soapbox for a moment, the world has gotten so negative but truly I do believe in general people are good. Everybody has had bad experiences where somebody has hurt them deeply but kind, caring, gentle, and respectable people are everywhere, and are the rule rather than the exception.
One thing though I do think about Orange specifically that may have rubbed me slightly wrong (although I do not have any idea how it could be changed, so it’s fine) is the supernatural element of the whole show. Getting letters from their future selves to prevent this tragedy is just too convenient. Again, there’s really no way to write this story except for that but it can’t help but feel like a slight slap in the face – the characters clearly would not have acted with such intent without the letters. However, I think this wraps around extremely hard to do some real good in the world – check in on your friends. One of the best pieces of advice to help struggling friends that may be having issues with this topic is just to ask “Are you suicidal.” It’s a weird question but I would wager a majority of suicidal people have never been asked that. People need support for all things and therapy + a good social support can help.
I believe Orange stands as a testament to what media can do to tackle real topics. More (very much more lighthearted!) posts coming soon.
