[Second image submitted by anonymous!]

Welcome to the TWEWY Autism Showdown!

Please vote based on the character's autism, not how much you like them! I will be including a brief description of what autistic traits each competitor has, so make sure to read those before voting. Propaganda is encouraged!

Round one of the tournament starts Friday, March 24!

[ID: A transparent background with the rainbow autism acceptance infinity symbol, the sprites of Kaie Ono and Nagi Usui face each other with a red decagram with a yellow "vs" between them.]

TWEWY Autism Showdown Final Match: Kaie Ono VS Nagi Usui

What Autism Swag propelled these two to the finals?

Kaie Ono:

Is nonverbal and communicates through text messages, even when talking face-to-face. He prefers it because it's easier for him to convey what he means and prevent miscommunications.

Has a flat affect in person but frequently uses emoticons while texting, and his language is very formal.

Is a programmer, data analyst, and fortune teller.

Nagi Usui:

Has a Special Interest in Elegant Strategy. Her backpack is covered in EleStra merch, including pins and plushies, and she was literally willing to infiltrate someone's mind as payback for her being unable to get a rare EleStra pin. Even when she thinks she's dead and in a death game, her primary concern is with the newest chapter of EleStra and avoiding spoilers, and reading it is one of her biggest motivations for winning.

Is hyper-empathetic, which manifests in her Dive ability. She is very uncomfortable doing this, and always apologizes in advance for the breach of privacy.

Can tell when people are being fake and is severely put off by it.

Speaks in an overly-formal way, has a large vocabulary, and calls people "Lord" or "Lady" before their name as a sign of respect. She also frequently makes incomprehensible blubbering noises.

Likes eating a whole grilled alligator, which everyone else hates.

"I am simply aware of the importance of communication. And I take great pains to ensure my interactions with others remain as peaceful as possible. Asking questions. Gauging responses. Reacting aptly. I leverage every element at my disposal—actions, words, emojis, anything at all—to ensure everyone feels welcome."

[ID: A transparent background with the rainbow autism acceptance infinity symbol, the sprites of Sho Minamimoto and Nagi Usui face each other with a red decagram with a yellow "vs" between them.]

Round 4 Match 2: Sho Minamimoto VS Nagi Usui

What gives these two Autism Swag?

Sho Minamimoto:

Special Interest in math. Can recite god-knows-how-many digits of pi, refers to people with math terms, and just randomly shouts out math words sometimes. Managed to access the Imaginary Numbers Plane through this, something that is never really explained but seems pretty impressive! Also figured out an attack that could kill god if it landed (it did not land).

Makes public trash sculptures as street art and writes poetry on them.

"So zetta slow." "Where's your beauty?" "CRUNCH! I'll add it to the heap!"

Yells through a megaphone. Saw a "zetta sexy" mic and figured it would be okay to take it as long as he left his megaphone behind in its place.

Polarized tastes: likes sweet things, and none of his favorite foods have meat (he's the only character who can't get a tasty bonus from meat).

Nagi Usui:

Has a Special Interest in Elegant Strategy. Her backpack is covered in EleStra merch, including pins and plushies, and she was literally willing to infiltrate someone's mind as payback for her being unable to get a rare EleStra pin. Even when she thinks she's dead and in a death game, her primary concern is with the newest chapter of EleStra and avoiding spoilers, and reading it is one of her biggest motivations for winning.

Is hyper-empathetic, which manifests in her Dive ability. She is very uncomfortable doing this, and always apologizes in advance for the breach of privacy.

Can tell when people are being fake and is severely put off by it.

Speaks in an overly-formal way, has a large vocabulary, and calls people "Lord" or "Lady" before their name as a sign of respect. She also frequently makes incomprehensible blubbering noises.

Likes eating a whole grilled alligator, which everyone else hates.

"I am simply aware of the importance of communication. And I take great pains to ensure my interactions with others remain as peaceful as possible. Asking questions. Gauging responses. Reacting aptly. I leverage every element at my disposal—actions, words, emojis, anything at all—to ensure everyone feels welcome."

[ID: A transparent background with the rainbow autism acceptance infinity symbol, the sprites of Sho Minamimoto and Joshua Kiryu face each other with a red decagram with a yellow "vs" between them.]

Round 3 Match 3: Sho Minamimoto VS Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu

What gives these two Autism Swag?

Sho Minamimoto:

Special Interest in math. Can recite god-knows-how-many digits of pi, refers to people with math terms, and just randomly shouts out math words sometimes. Managed to access the Imaginary Numbers Plane through this, something that is never really explained but seems pretty impressive! Also figured out an attack that could kill god if it landed (it did not land).

Makes public trash sculptures as street art and writes poetry on them.

"So zetta slow." "Where's your beauty?" "CRUNCH! I'll add it to the heap!"

Yells through a megaphone. Saw a "zetta sexy" mic and figured it would be okay to take it as long as he left his megaphone behind in its place.

Polarized tastes: likes sweet things, and none of his favorite foods have meat (he's the only character who can't get a tasty bonus from meat).

Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu:

Believes it's impossible to truly understand and connect with another person.

Speaks in a formal, sing-songy manner. Sometimes seems to be following a script, repeating phrases to deflect and avoid deeper conversation.

Gets frustrated and annoyed when things don't go exactly to his plan.

Has a Special Interest in Shibuya, and spends an entire day infodumping trivia about its history with absolutely no prompting or greater reasoning.

Enjoys cartoons and got distracted for a week in another dimension playing a kid's game.

Became god to avoid people, lived to regret it (RIP the aut4aut4aut4aut4aut friend group he could have been in).

Likes eating Sync Bars, which everyone else hates.

Really likes playing detective and solving mysteries.

Plays with his hair a lot, rubbing it between his fingers, twirling it, or flipping it when he's bored.

[ID: A transparent background with the rainbow autism acceptance infinity symbol, the sprites of Makoto Miki and Sho Minamimoto face each other with a red decagram with a yellow "vs" between them.]

Round 2 Match 5: Makoto "Mick" Miki VS Sho Minamimoto

What gives these two Autism Swag?

Makoto "Mick" Miki:

Absolutely no knowledge of how to behave in social situations. Literally recites phrases from a book and follows a manual because he wouldn't know what to do otherwise.

His job requires him to keep up with the trends, but he's terrible at it.

"Come get some hot stuff!"

Starts masking for a week, trying to lean into social conventions and mainstream taste to the point of becoming an unrecognizable heartless douchebag, before reverting back to how he was before.

Literally cannot fathom the idea that Neku might be a regular customer at his ramen shop because he likes the ramen, he HAS to be into him. Meanwhile he went on a date with a girl and didn't realize it. Yes, this is because he's gay and homophobic, but he's also just super oblivious.

Sho Minamimoto:

Special Interest in math. Can recite god-knows-how-many digits of pi, refers to people with math terms, and just randomly shouts out math words sometimes. Managed to access the Imaginary Numbers Plane through this, something that is never really explained but seems pretty impressive! Also figured out an attack that could kill god if it landed (it did not land).

Makes public trash sculptures as street art and writes poetry on them.

"So zetta slow." "Where's your beauty?" "CRUNCH! I'll add it to the heap!"

Yells through a megaphone. Saw a "zetta sexy" mic and figured it would be okay to take it as long as he left his megaphone behind in its place.

Polarized tastes: likes sweet things, and none of his favorite foods have meat (he's the only character who can't get a tasty bonus from meat).

[ID: A transparent background with the rainbow autism acceptance infinity symbol, the sprites of Sanae Hanekoma and Nagi Usui face each other with a red decagram with a yellow "vs" between them.]

Round 1 Match 16: Sanae Hanekoma VS Nagi Usui

What gives these two Autism Swag?

Sanae Hankeoma:

Introduces himself by infodumping a bunch of random trivia about himself, regardless of whether that was what was asked for or not (it was not).

The way he dresses. The dress pants with sandals.

The entire reason Hanekoma opened a café was because he "loved beans." Not an interest in brewing styles or the flavor of coffee, as one might expect. Just an unexplained interest in the beans themselves. Neku additionally comments on how strange of a reason this is to open a café.

Hanekoma talks in a very distinct manner from the other characters, using very dated slang that is different from that used by characters like Beat, or characters of a similar age range

He is noted to have aptitude for a variety of art mediums, even those that don't necessarily correlate, like fashion design and music videos.

Nagi Usui:

Has a Special Interest in Elegant Strategy. Her backpack is covered in EleStra merch, including pins and plushies, and she was literally willing to infiltrate someone's mind as payback for her being unable to get a rare EleStra pin. Even when she thinks she's dead and in a death game, her primary concern is with the newest chapter of EleStra and avoiding spoilers, and reading it is one of her biggest motivations for winning.

Is hyper-empathetic, which manifests in her Dive ability. She is very uncomfortable doing this, and always apologizes in advance for the breach of privacy.

Can tell when people are being fake and is severely put off by it.

Speaks in an overly-formal way, has a large vocabulary, and calls people "Lord" or "Lady" before their name as a sign of respect. She also frequently makes incomprehensible blubbering noises.

Likes eating a whole grilled alligator, which everyone else hates.

"I am simply aware of the importance of communication. And I take great pains to ensure my interactions with others remain as peaceful as possible. Asking questions. Gauging responses. Reacting aptly. I leverage every element at my disposal—actions, words, emojis, anything at all—to ensure everyone feels welcome."

[ID: A transparent background with the rainbow autism acceptance infinity symbol, the sprites of Neku Sakuraba and Kaie Ono face each other with a red decagram with a yellow "vs" between them.]

Round 4 Match 1: Neku Sakuraba VS Kaie Ono

What gives these two Autism Swag?

Neku Sakuraba:

Feels isolated and annoyed by other people. "I don't get people. Never have, never will."

Is extremely sensitive to sound, wearing headphones to muffle it and reacting to loud noises by covering his ears.

Ignores social cues in order to do his own thing, such as not responding or even listening during conversations and leaving while someone is in the middle of talking to him, mid-sentence. He doesn't care if he is seen as rude.

Special Interest in CAT. Would spend hours after school every day just staring at the mural in Udagawa and lived by CAT's words.

Dislikes lying and doesn't even understand why anyone would lie.

Can do complex math problems very quickly in his head.

Wears clothes exclusively from one brand and doesn't care about their fashion or condition.

His whole arc in the first game was about learning to expand his world and connect with people, that even if they'll never fully understand each other, it's okay. It's the clashing that makes relationships worth it.

Kaie Ono:

Is nonverbal and communicates through text messages, even when talking face-to-face. He prefers it because it's easier for him to convey what he means and prevent miscommunications.

Has a flat affect in person but frequently uses emoticons while texting, and his language is very formal.

Is a programmer, data analyst, and fortune teller.