Ranpo is autistic-coded and here's why: a thread

a note before starting: op is autistic. i know what i'm talking about, so please don't try to 'neurotypical-splain' my own neurodivergency when you don't live with this.

also if your only argument for disagreement is 'ranpo is too smart', just don't say anything. that's ableist. A lot of us are very smart, just not in the way society expects ‘intelligence’ to ‘look’. our intelligence is much more focused on specific things/areas.

ANYWAY LET'S GET TO IT!

1. Talkativeness, overexplaining, infodumping.
Ranpo is well known for being seen as a chatty character, and that's because he is. If you let him, he talks a lot, especially in the case of his realm of expertise, special interests, or hyperfixation.

This becomes most obvious when he's put on a case or against an enemy, as he ends up being ridiculously thorough in his explanation, and no one ever expects it. Instead, they end up being overwhelmed or surprised by it.

When it’s related to something an autistic person knows well, or is interested in, they’re often very eager to show others how interesting it is in their eyes. To us, oftentimes, EVERYTHING about it is interesting so we end up mentioning... Well, everything.

And this can come off as chatty, annoying, and arrogant — which is something Ranpo comes off as when he does this. It makes us seem like we just like hearing ourselves talk, when in reality we don’t have any bad intentions. We aren’t good at picking up social cues to begin with.

2. Social cues/socializing.
A lot of autistic people can come off as blunt or rude. What we perceive to be an insult does not often match the societal standard of what is or isn’t an insult. Things we think are more of a compliment or obvious come off as insulting or demeaning,

and we don’t even realize it. If you don’t outright say that you are hurt by something that was said, we just assume you aren’t — and this in turn vilified us as uncaring, cruel people. Which really isn’t true at all.

A nice thing to note though is that the agency does not condemn Ranpo for this and knows that his way of talking is not in any way intended to put them down, hence as to why they seem to indulge his chattering and pride in himself. This support and understanding is SO important.

3. ‘Obliviousness’.
In the same way we don’t know if our words hurt others, there are often times where someone makes a joke or implication we do not pick up or get at all. It makes us look stupid, oblivious, or innocent when this is often times not the case.

You can see with how Ranpo has made Minoura mad and how Poe's words go over his head at times where this supposed 'obliviousness' is. Sometimes we need things to be explained outright to understand it.

That doesn’t mean we’re stupid or ignorant, our brains just don’t follow the same pattern as yours every step of the way, even if we may get you some or most of the time.

4. Not feeling/expressing emotions/understanding others the way most do.
The most clear evidence is right in our face, honestly. Ranpo is aware of this within himself and says as much in current canon.

This is a REALLY big one with Ranpo. And honesstly, It goes even further back to the untold story the founding of the agency, 12 years prior to current manga canon. In the untold story, Ranpo inevitably has a meltdown in front of Fukuzawa.

He expresses fear, anger, and frustration because he doesn’t understand the people around him. No matter what he says, people don’t understand or listen to him, and he says they look like monsters to him. Moreover, on the flip side, people view Ranpo as a monster as well, but

he isn’t aware of this at all. Autistic people, because of their struggle with expressing and understanding emotions the so called ‘proper’ way by society norms, sometimes feel alienated, heartless, or as if something in them is broken.

For years, before my own diagnosis, I thought I was some sort of monster because I didn’t react to situations (specifically emotional/distressful ones) correctly the same way as those around me did. It was confusing and alienating, and I thought I was broken.

But when I got my diagnosis, I was really happy! So happy I cried, because suddenly everything I did and thought made sense! It wasn’t my fault, I just worked differently — which is something that we see Ranpo react to similarly when Fukuzawa convinces him he’s an ability user,

and his suffering is because of his ability, not because people hated him. That part was really so similar to the struggles of myself and so many autistic people, and is why the untold story holds such an important place in my heart.

And Ranpo’s, for that matter, because you can see how much he grows and comes to like himself and what he can do!!! (when originally he had no self confidence, and thought of himself as some stupid child, while everyone else was right) in the span of under 2 years --

from ln3, to when he meets Yosano approximately a year and a half later!! That's so much growth and self-acceptance and happiness in such a small time frame and it is so good and important!

5. Comfort objects/stimming.
Ranpo’s biggest comfort object is obviously his glasses from Fukuzawa. Without them, he shows a lot of distress, gets increasingly more upset, and argues with others, as shown in the ranpo vs poe chapter.

The importance of comfort objects varies from person to person, as well as their ability to separate themselves from it, but for Ranpo, he’s always had them and always carried them. Not having them just throws his entire sense of comfort out of wack.

6. Meltdowns/ ‘childish tantrums’.
Ranpo’s meltdowns are really notable because he’s very loud and impulsive when doing so. He might not express emotions/understand others’ emotions the same way, but his own can be very loud if he’s pushed to his limits.

They don’t happen often, but when they do... It’s very obvious. His meltdown in front of Fukuzawa in the untold story, and how he snaps at the woman who is his closest and most trusted friend of a decade inside Poe’s book because he lost his most treasured item.

What I happen to find the most important about those instances is that, instead of making Ranpo the bad guy, neither Fukuzawa or Yosano actually try to make him the bad guy or demonize him for his behavior,

they are very considerate about it and talk him down easily and don’t push him into quickly 'calming down' or shutting up.

7. Stimming (I FORGOT TO ADD THE STIMMING PART AFTER HIS COMFORT ITEM, SORRY.)
There are a lot of different ways autistic people stim! For Ranpo, the biggest one is his candy — which might not seem like stimming, but it actually is!!

Autistic people often return to sensations/textures we enjoy because they make us happy and serve as a way to distract us. Ranpo is often drawn with lollipops, which can have a smooth texture to roll your tongue over. (I actually use lollipops too)

And, while brief, he’s shown an interest in fiddling around with ramune marbles in the anime. It reminded me of how people will mess around with their fidget cubes/spinners.

8. Sensory issues
Autistic people can be really particular about the material in the things they wear and touch, and how it fits on their body. Some sensations may make them so uncomfortable that they’ll feel that uncomfortable feeling like a phantom pain for extended periods

of time. This is often related to sensory processing disorder, which coexists alongside autism. Ranpo’s usual clothes aren’t form fitting and are really baggy for comfort’s sake, which I’ve always seen as Ranpo being particular about form fitting clothes

as it will cause touch sensory discomfort. Ranpo goes to parties and dresses in form fitting clothes when necessary, but seems to throw a fit about it unless distracted or appeased in some way.

Sensory processing disorder also makes you more sensitive to noises and sounds people would otherwise find normal or dismiss, which may be why Ranpo prefers making someone go with him to ride trains because of the crowds and noise and he may get overstimulated.

(Dealing with overstimulation alone is... not fun, by the way. His reason for wanting to take the train with others may also be connected to being kidnapped and almost killed in his youth - really, I don't think his reasons for it are him being 'stupid'. Because he's not.)

9. HAND FLAPPING!
When autistic people get really excited about something, or are eager to tell someone something, they’ll wave or flap their hands!! It’s a good thing & means we’re really happy & we aren’t ones for having a good cap on our enthusiasm when we get into it anyway

10. Weird/Childish interests

This one is so long so i'm gonna just slide a whole screencap in here

In conclusion -

Ranpo is an adult. He’s 26 years old, he’s only 4 years away from being 30. Just because he happens to be short doesn’t make him some helpless child, he's just autistic coded. Short adults exist, autistic adults exist, and /short autistic adults/ exist.

Ranpo has proven time and time again to be a capable person. He isn’t stupid, oblivious, or some little baby to be coddled. Just because it's coded and not confirmed doesn’t mean we can look at all these things prevalent in autistic people and use them as a way to make him

into a helpless, stupid, baby stereotype. It is very possible and for writers to accidentally make an autistic character, unaware of how many things align with that spectrum. I have done it myself upon rereading my own writing, realizing x chara so explicitly seemed to be x thing

all along, and it works and fits.
So basically, please consider what you may be actually implying when you treat autistic coded characters like this!! It's very harmful and stigmatizing.

Anyway, thank you very much to the op of this thread for allowing my brain to get on the topic of Ranpo being autistic coded and the poor treatment he gets because of it. I lowkey used your points as a template sjdkksfsg https://twitter.com/polyanthem/status/1281706528500674560

Also if you're interested in some additional meta/analysis threads about Ranpo that I've done (because unsurprising from this thread, Ranpo is my biggest and most important hyperfixation for many years), here you go:

https://twitter.com/rchimedesu/status/1163752711759773698?s=20

https://twitter.com/rchimedesu/status/1105682651032240128?s=20