Stim culture: Outlining anime's appeal to the autistic community

Abstract

This article explores how anime contributes to the creation of a culture that attracts autistic individuals and supports their lives. We identify three aspects that may explain why it becomes a special interest that is both deeply personal and widely shared: visual tactility, or animation stimming; layers, or moving through estranged worlds; and unmasking, or emerging neurocultures and languages. Tentatively presenting anime as ‘stim culture,’ we uncover new directions in autism and fan culture research.