[kimigasukidayo0]

For those who havent read After School Nightmare yet:

Firstly, i recommend this story to people who are, at least, around 21 years old, so that they've the maturity to understand it better. really, im glad i read this at an older age, or else i would have been so confused. i can't decide personally whether i like it or not, but the story was definitely well-paced and well-crafted, and i've no regrets reading it. here are my little thoughts on Sou etc. after finishing it --------------

For those who finish After School Nightmare(About Sou):

----- i've suspected, ever since the beginning, that Sou was the little girl who called herself Ai in the Dream world!! i am proud to say i was right on the dot even for the imaginary sister sorry, i just had to let it out, cos, ohboy did the author had me frustrated for withholding that till the last few chapters. Shes really good though, cos she managed to made me never certain who Sou was despite strong suspicions.

I was able to guess all these probably cos i happened to read about a certain psychological condition before, called "Dissociative Identity Disorder(DID)". For more info heres the link: http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/d...ality-disorder

To be honest, i had wish i was wrong, that the mangaka hadn't use the concept of DID. DID isn't something that should be casually discussed and use as a plot device in a fictionalised story. There are truly people out there who (seems to be) suffering from DID, and it is usually due to something VERY traumatic, which i think Sou's past isn't as nearly traumatic such that it will trigger off DID. e.g a 5 year-old girl kidnapped, raped, beaten and kept in an underground basement for several years.

DID is so rare that there are some psychologists who think it as a false condition. Even now, it is still being disputed as to whether DID exists. Those who think it does, have observed some conditions that are required to trigger DID:

- a very sensitive, imaginative and artistic personality of the kid
- an extremely emotionally, mentally and physically traumatic past
- traumatic past usually happened during childhood

Often the personality that was created is older than the kid's itself, as the kid is too young to know how to handle the situation, so they need a more mature personality to help take care of them(as seen by Sou and his elder sister). Even the notes in the story were similar to how it might have been in real life, as some DID victims are recorded to have use notes to exchange messages amongst themselves. Unlike Sou, they suffer from memory lapses(periods when they are not their original personality, but the ones they created), so they wrote notes for the other personality to see when the other personality so called "awaken" and take over the body. Unlike the story though, the notes of DID victims are real, and not blank like how Kureha discovered Sou's notes. The handwriting of the different personalities are said to be consistently and distinctly different from each other.

Anyways, in conclusion, i started this thread hoping people would better understand this real-life psychological condition. DID is not something to make light of, and not simple to resolve.

To young kids out there who may be reading this, Sou seemed different and unique, yet erm it is not very cool to imitate Sou, its really a painful issue, and erms, not very cool.

As to my thoughts on the rest of the story:

Just in case there are people who don't know, Mashiro Ichijou's condition of being both a boy and a girl is a real-life condition as well(yea big surprise i know). They are known as Intersexuals, heck theres even a whole manga dedicated to them on mangafox. http://www.mangafox.com/manga/is/ heres more info on Intersexuals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interse...nd_photography

Mashiro didn't struck me as a very pure Intersexual though, with his "upper part is male and bottom part is female". He just came off lamely as a flat-chested girl to me most of the time in the story. -_-

One thing i had wish the mangaka had expanded more on would be the homosexual perspective. When i was reading ASN, there were parts where it seemed as though Mashiro just HAD to be a girl in order to be with Sou, and a boy in order to be with Kureha. The mangaka seemed to be conveniently missing the point that, why can't Mashiro be a boy AND love Sou at the same time? Then they would just be gays. Or Mashiro could end up liking both Sou and Kureha and became a bisexual. Sure it isn't how things are frequently done and the story would have been alot more messier, but there are such options to be explored. Sometimes while reading, it makes me think what's the big deal, accept your sexuality and life goes on. ohwell, the story went on quite well as it is, so either way guess it would have been fine. =P

Another thing, am i the only one who think some of these peeps are being WAY TOO over-sensitive?

or perhaps im just not very delicate Theres that girl Momoka Ohara for instance whose dreamself is the many arms. If your friend doesn't treat you as importantly as other friends, well, that only shows you guys aren't that compatible to be best friends, and go do other stuffs or know other people. GOSH theres so MANY people in the world, why are you so hung up on these two??? For me, she was the most boring character of all -__- Sou was also oversensitive as a kid, luckily he grew out of it.

Who knew Kureha and a dog would become my favorite characters of the series at the finale? i hated Kureha at one point when she backstabbed Mashiro in the dream world with her umbrellas just cos he/she was leaving her to do something else. Her growth as a character was amazing, and what i considered the best part of the entire story.

Thanks for reading this long entry, would like to hear your opinions 2!!!

[mokopi]

I've got to say that it is not required of the Manga-ka to keep that close to what you've mentioned, the kind of disorders which you've mentioned as it is already clear in the ending that that so-called real world is actually non-existant to start with... or more like a parallel world to start with that does not require much logic... as logic only pertains to what we perceived as reality. ... and I dun think the mangaka did them with reference to DID nor intersexuals... in fact, she made it seem as though it is so so that u may be surprised when the ending reveals.... the things that the manga-ka did for the characters in the school world are more metaphorical? Like an emulation of how the 'real world' is like? like ppl like SOU exists... who rather hide his weakness... ppl like mashiro... who is indecisive of his/her life... ppl like momoka... who doesn't fend/speak for herself... things like that

As for Mashiro-kun, the reason why he/she is half of which is due to the plot in the later story where he/she have to make a choice of who is to be 'sacrificed' and who is to 'live'... as mentioned... it is fate that only one of them can live...

For Momoka... it is something that happens to real life actually... so for me, I don't see how it is boring... in fact, it really relates to real life. Perhaps you live in an area with a different culture or... well, I don't know... hahaha... If knowing someone who used to be your best friend becoming an even closer fren to one whom they just met recently... it's not something to be easily forgotten and let go... so ya... I have got to disagree that it's boring. Sorry It is like knowing that you treasure that fren who kinda ditched u but because u value her more than u value yourself... you'll do the same as wat momoka did...

Pardon if my thoughts are a bit scrambled o.O

[Oakarii]

some people are just that weak though~ but u dun seem to understand it
but if u've never felt, u'd never know, so its normal anyways~

Momoka is pretty much just a victim more or less~


~OFF TOPIC`~
lols~ i went to the website u talked about, and saw the sleepwalking part~
my mum caught me sleepwalking once, and according to what she said, what happened was sorta embarrassing=p but it was weird that i didnt wake up....-.-;;;

but i sorta wonder if she told me that just to get me to stop playing my computer so much....


but then i sleepwalked this year "again" i suppose~ since i woke up and released that i didn't change to my pajamas though i was asleep....

an observation was that i did not sleep much as i had something going on that time...
but it was sorta funny that i actually went to the toilet first when my mother asked me to go bath and gave me my clothes and i came out of the toilet after being inside for a while and coming out and going to bed....

i was sleeping on the sofa in the first place and she and my uncle and dad said that i was like crazy when she tried to pull me out of the sofa and had to drag me off -,-;;;;

if its like that... it made me wonder if those "dreams" that i had when i was a kid of waking myself up from dreams and then walking to the toilet were real....

[DreamChaser]

First of all, I'd like to say that the age you should read this manga at depends on the person. I'm barely a teenager and I really did enjoy it. Teens and up seems about right.

Also, I don't think the mangaka had DID (or MPD, whichever works) in mind when they created Sou. I was thinking more along the lines of schizophenia, which can happen with triggers like childhood neglect. After all, Ai only ever seemed to "take over" as a personality when Sou was inside the dream. In reality, she was basically a hallucination.

I agree with you about Mashiro's condition, though. I know he/she had different chromosones in the upper and lower parts of his/her body, but still. And the homosexuality thing bugged me too. I guess it's because Sou was so insistent that Mashiro was a "woman".

[UreshiSweetS]

I don't agree with you.
(Not the poster above me)
It does not depend on the age. Instead, it depends on how mature you are.
(I am twice the age of what age you said was required to read it/21)
And I understood it completely.

I wasn't creeped out about Mashiro because in real life I know there are people with the same thing.
Heh.
For those of you who are disgusted with Mashiro:
Just keep thinking he's a woman with a flat chest

[REOP]

I think that the loving Sou means being a woman and loving Kureha and being male makes sense seeing as Mashiro was basically choosing between being born female or male. Mashiro wasn't choosing his sexuality but rather which twin would die and which would live. So being like makes a hell of a lot more sense.

Also different things traumatize different people. And children make no sense so I think what caused Sou to imagine a sister could be completely logical response to a little child in his position.

[TheRandomChocolate]

Okies, I completely disagree with you on the age thing. I'm 14 years old and I understood this manga perfectly! And why the heck do you think I'd imitate Sou or make fun of 'DID'? I'm not a cold-hearted freak. =_= I might not be a genius with an IQ of 293838484 so that I could not predict the plot but one thing is for sure, I loved it!

About the Sou thing, I agree that his past is not so traumatic that it should trigger off DID but you could argue that he was pretty weak as a kid which is why it triggered it off (?) But I think it was good the mangaka used it although Sou's condition was not as bad as a real TRAUMATIC past of someone, because it makes others aware of it (though not all the fact may be true).

As for the author not focusing much homosexual and/ or bisexual scenes, I understand what you mean. However, it sounds to me you are a little picky, after all this genre isn't exactly Shounen Ai/ Shoujo Ai.

[erhothien]

Sou didnt have DID, DID is when you actually change into another person while your 'default' personality who doesnt know anything about the other one(s) will remain in a sort of dormant state, kind of like blacking out

Its more like Sou has schizophrenia, because he really thinks his sister is there, when in fact she isnt, and he becomes so obsessed that when he dreams he takes the form of her

[casually.obsessed]

Originally Posted by erhothien

Sou didnt have DID, DID is when you actually change into another person while your 'default' personality who doesnt know anything about the other one(s) will remain in a sort of dormant state, kind of like blacking out

Its more like Sou has schizophrenia, because he really thinks his sister is there, when in fact she isnt, and he becomes so obsessed that when he dreams he takes the form of her

Well he did kind of become her, the notes he had written to himself were from 'his sister' so one could assume all the scenes where they showed Ai in the real world were actually Sou, but we saw him as he saw himself at that time, meaning we saw him as Ai.

I hope that makes sense... I haven't finished the whole manga yet.

[erhothien]

Originally Posted by Asainwannabe13

Well he did kind of become her, the notes he had written to himself were from 'his sister' so one could assume all the scenes where they showed Ai in the real world were actually Sou, but we saw him as he saw himself at that time, meaning we saw him as Ai.

I hope that makes sense... I haven't finished the whole manga yet.

I still think its more of schizophrenia. They are similar, but schizophrenia deals more with hallucinations affecting all the senses, and can cause psychosis, which would explain the notes and how he put them there and convinced himself that it was his sister. Its just like the movie A Beautiful Mind and the main character John Nash has paranoid schizophrenia.
Dissociative Identity Disorder would cause memory loss and only auditory hallucinations, where he wouldn't see his sister, only hear her. And Sou was present during the dreams, he says at some point that he was there he just couldn't stop his sister, but with DID you wouldn't remember nor be aware of the other personality.