Nagisa Personality Analysis- Victim of a Narcissist

I have always been fascinated by Nagisa's personality. It was intriguing to me how such a shy and timid person could turn so lethal and deadly in a matter of seconds. This definitely made for many intriguing moments in the show where we see Nagisa in action, this is when we learn that he has a natural talent for assassination. We see that he has an enormous amount of hidden blood lust and an interesting ability to "read" people by their expressions. 

However, normally, Nagisa is described to be a calm and collected indivisual. 

The most interesting trait about him though is his androgenous appearance, which is on the feminine side (to be honest, I thought he was a girl when I first saw him). He has a rather petite frame with large azure eyes and long hair that is usually styled in two pigtails. 

This is how I would describe Nagisa in a nutshell!

However, lets look deeper.............(because that is what you are here for)

Later in the series we see the reason for Nagisa's appearance. We find out that his mother always wanted to have a daughter but ended up having Nagisa, which disappointed her extremely. Due to this, she would force him to never cut his hair, buy feminine clothes for him and we see that she expects Nagisa to go to Keisatsu University, where she did not make cut, and work in a famous corporation like Hishimaru, who did not hire her. 

According to him, "It's chilling how determined she is, I don't think I'll ever be able to get out from under her......" 

This is almost like she is trying to live out her life through Nagisa, shaping him and making him who she never was. She projects her dreams and ambitions onto Nagisa, never treating him as though he is an indivisual but as a projection of who she wants him to be. 

We are shown that whenever Nagisa tries to share his own perspective, he is met with anger. We see that she continously tries to guilt-trip him, saying that she raised him and she is paying for whatever she is doing. We also see her throw temper tantrums every now and then when someone disagrees with her. All of these are common behaviors of people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. 

Now you must be thinking, do you have any proof of that? Why, yes, I do. Studies show that children of Narcissists display these personality traits:-

• Deeply insecure

This we see with Nagisa who seems to have overall pessimism and lack of goals for his future. We see that he often questions his abilities, referring to himself as "invisible"

"A creature like that wouldn't understand what it;s like being unworthy of anyone's expectations or fear, or even their recognition..."

"This teacher cant see me either!"

"None of you looked out for Nagisa, not even Nagisa himself."

All of these statements display that he has low self-esteem as well as the fact that he refers to himself as a "nobody" several times throughout the coarse of the show. We also see that he is continuosly being teased by his classmates and many times, instead of refusing their pleas, he prefers to stay silent and do what they want. Examples include: dressing up as a female and letting himself be the decoy in Terasaka's highly dangerous plan. We also see that he is unsure of what he wants to be in the future. 

• Deeply afraid to speak up and challenge others  

It is to be noted that most of the times Nagisa voices his thoughts inside his head rather than saying them out loud. We also see that Nagisa speaks in a very low, soft voice with others. He is nervous about what he says in important situations and becomes hesitant, harboring a slight stutter. We also see that he is afraid of confrontation as he prefers to listen to his mother, rather than saying anything to her. He stays quiet, instead, accepting that, "I am not and never will be the hero of my own life, not even close, it's her RPG I'm just turned in play through."

At another point he also admits that "Nothing I say will make any difference."

• Very attuned to what everyone around them is feeling

This is one of the defining characteristics of Nagisa, he is always keeping a notebook and observing Korosensei, noting down all of his weaknesses. Aside from Korosensei, he can also tell if people are not being entirely truthful to him. Another place we see this skill is when he is handling the real knife against Takoaka- sensei, effectively stunning and shocking him. He is able to guess his mother's mood just by looking at her while talking to her. After being on the end of the God of Death's improved clap stunner, his ability grows and, later, he can analyze people just by looking at them, by observing their breathing, line of sight, facial expression, body language and more, allowing him to find a "gap" in the person's conciousness or openings and effectively use them to stun them before attacks etc. 

• Being a doormat

In most of the series, we see that Nagisa is unable to refuse anyone and is always ready to do things for others regardless of what he feels. Examples of this can be seen in many instances. Him dressing as a girl, him agreeing to Terasaka's suicidal plan and him agreeing to his mother's demands.

I believe that his "blood lust" is just suppressed anger due to years of mental, and , sometimes, physical abuse at the hands of his mother. I believe that he does not know how to express his anger in a healthy manner which is where his blood lust kicks in. This blood lust metaphorically takes place in the form of a large snake with it's fangs bared. Now, snakes usually do not attack unless they are provoked and instead choose to retreat. However, when they do hunt their prey, they are known to deliver deadly strikes to unsuspecting prey. This is a lot like Nagisa's methodology.