Screws Loose

If you were confused about the media I consume and like to discuss, this won't help.

What makes a protagonist engaging? A hard question to answer, and it wasn't until reading Tatsuki Fujimoto’s hit manga and now Anime “Chainsaw Man” where it finally clicked for me. A character is told if they want to survive and succeed “you’ll need to have a few screws loose”. After hearing this, it put how I felt into perspective on what I love about different characters. How their mental health affects their story, and their resolve and how their perspective differs from those around them. Now I could take the treasure trove of narrative complexities from series like “Breaking Bad” or “The Sopranos”. But I want to write about things a bit less serious than that. discussed in this article, will be characters from Chainsaw Man, Demon Slayer, DC Comics, White Lotus, And The Office. I will do my best to make each part of the discussion as digestible as possible, but if for whatever reason you cannot stand the thought of dissecting an anime, or comic book or even the office, feel free to jump between sections, and I hope you enjoy what you read. Perseverance is what makes these characters so impactful, these characters are so different from the others in their world. That you cannot help but take notice of them and their struggles. “Screws” is sort of an analogy for mental health. To remain steadfast in your belief and ideology regardless of the world around you takes tremendous willpower.

Aki Hayakawa - Chainsaw man - Screws Kept Tight-

Since Chainsaw man was the inspiration for this article it's only right I talk about it first. If you are outside of the anime sphere or live under a rock, Chainsaw Man is an action manga/anime written by the prodigy Tatsuki Fujimoto. In typical anime fashion there are devils, and those who hunt them -Devil Hunters-.

Aki is a devil hunter with the goal of killing the gun Devil, a devil which took the lives of his whole family. Despite his stoic and blunt personality, Aki is softhearted and bears the pain of those he’s lost. Unlike many of his associates, Aki is described as being a "normal person", as he still grieves for those lost and has not become jaded enough to close his feelings off. In other words his “screws” aren’t loose enough. It isn’t until (Spoiler warning for season 1 of CSM) The death of his first partner, Himeno, who sacrificed herself to save his life, that we truly see Aki’s struggle. Everyone around him has become jaded for a slew of reasons but he was still holding on. Instead of succumbing to the ideology presented to him, he doubles down, as he will continue to cherish the ones he’s lost, and grow fonder of those close to him.

Tanjiro Kamado

-Screws Clean Off-

If you have watched/read Demon Slayer, you know that the world it is set in is cruel and unforgiving. The first moments of the series, we see Tanjiro return home to his whole family violently massacred, with the sole survivor being his younger sister, now a demon. Tanjiro sets off on a goal of turning her human again. You should expect that anyone who bears witness to such an atrocity would struggle to even smile. Well not Tanjiro, He is so filled with love and compassion for every living thing, even the demons that took his family away from him. Throughout our time with him, when a demon is slain we see Tanjiro sit with them, to ease their pain as they move towards the afterlife. We even see him find a demon who is clearly suffering, and he defeats her in the most painless way he knows how. Now Tanjiro does hold pain and anger, but Tanjiro’s screws are ripped off and thrown across the room making his perception of reality drastically different from the other characters in this story. “To be born is a blessing… do not forget to smile… do not look back in remorse… to have any choice at all is fortunate… happiness isn't about the length of your life… Life itself is a miracle…”

Nightwing -Pressure Building-

Dick Grayson, a former protégé of Batman returns to his home city of Bludhaven, a city known for those who have left Gotham City and more specifically Batman. Nightwing (2016) by Tim Seeley begins with Nightwing struggling with his identity, after taking up the mantle of batman for a brief time and even being a spy. Dick himself describes his experiences as balancing on a tightrope above darkness, all he wants is a chance to breathe and rest easy. Yet the moment he gets what he’s been craving, he gets “itchy feet”. Ready for the next part to begin. Dick eventually encounters a mysterious figure named Raptor, a man connected to his past and parents, arguably the one thing Dick has spent his whole life running. Placing him at a crossroads, keep running or face his demons. Nightwing is a character who struggles with his mental health in a way that stands out amongst other characters in the DC universe, He might not even want to be a hero. He is exhausted, but he refuses to be bitter or angry. Grayson even goes out of his way when he's not in spandex to run a villain rehabilitation group. Where Gotham runaways get together to try and turn a new leaf away from crime and trouble. Dick gets an incredible amount of joy from helping this group, Typically, in comics the concept of rehabilitating criminals rarely shows its face. Pushing aside the melodramatic tropes of tossing your super suit into the trash, Dick Grayson continues to help others.

Tanya McQuoid -Screws Gone-

Tanya McQuoid took pop culture by storm in Mike White’s White Lotus. She is a woman tormented by the death of her mother and is on a journey of inner peace. When a character gives Tanya the smallest bit of joy, She latches on intensely, potentially due to her alluded traumatic experiences caused by her mother, leading her to have a strong desire for any emotional warmth she can come across. Unlike the previous characters discussed Tanya is supposed to exist in OUR world. Instead of a character staying grounded in a fantastical world. Tanya is fantastical in our normal world. She is impulsive and passionate, a truly chaotic combo, which is what we all love about her. During our time with her we see her begin the steps of supporting and funding a woman’s dream business and then almost completely drops it overnight after coming to the conclusion she needs to stop having transactional relationships. The true irony of this is that the one who helps her realize this is a man named Greg who she falls very in love with and eventually gets engaged to. Tanya’s plot stands out amongst the others because its not necessarily centered around her wealth, it's about her struggle to be find earnest relationships and overcome the traumas of her past. “...I’m a very needy person. And I am deeply, deeply insecure. Both of my parents mentally abused me and my mother still tortures me and she’s dead…”

Michael Scott -Learning to Tighten the Screws-

Michael Scott of The office, expresses a very immense desire to be liked. However due to his layer and layers of foolishness, it's rare he receives the kindness he actually wants. Throughout the series we see Michael lie to his coworkers to seem cool, for things that don’t actually matter like halloween costumes, or things that really do, like promising to pay for an entire class of children’s college tuitions. His words are very at odds with his lonely home life, his feelings of loneliness grow so much he even is happy to be in an abusive relationship. The other characters in the office come across as “wacky sitcom characters” or “a normal person stuck in a sitcom”. Yet Michael is the balance of the two, which makes him the most human of them all. He buys an unlimited phone plan for his top 5 friends that he doesn't have. Michael scott is delusional but has grandiose dreams to help people. Michael Scott’s development throughout his time on The Office makes him the most human amongst the characters of the show. “Would I rather be feared or loved? That’s easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me,”

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These are the things that make characters compelling to me, there is so much to love about each of the characters spoken about. Yet the most impactful is their resolve. It’s definitely a little strange to compare a character from Demon Slayer to Michael Scott, but that's just what I do, these are all characters in stories. All of these characters in their own ways, tell us as the audience to never give up.