YMMV / With the Light

• Anvilicious: With the Light is by no means subtle about its message of accepting and accommodating autistic people, almost to the point where it makes characters unsympathetic towards Hikaru's plight into mustache-twirling villains (at least until they come around). Even so, the heavy-handed approach is understandable: ignorance and misinformation concerning autism remains rampant and it's very hard to secure proper accommodations for autistic people in many places. This is especially true in the manga's native Japan, where ableism is exceptionally commonplace.
• Funny Moments: For such a melodramatic series, there are a few moments that stand out, but the Kaleidoscope Incident (where Sachiko finds herself scrambling to keep Hikaru from hurting himself or Kanon with the glass bits inside of the toy, while everyone keeps giving Hikaru more kaleidoscopes) tops them all.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: "With The Light" manga seems to be exceptionally popular among American fans due to the "Autism and Special Needs" theme throughout the series.
• Ho Yay: Happens a lot in Volume 3 (Volumes 5 & 6 in Japan). Nobuaki blushes when he leans on Hikaru's desk, saying "I hope he can stay forever!" Kanata lays on a P.E mat next to Hikaru, and they just kinda nudge each other. And for a class play, Kanata plays a female role. Very well. Also a Toy Ship.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • This may be a bit of a stretch here, but Masato's mother definitely qualifies. Even though she frequently berates Sachiko and Hikaru on a regular basis and favors Kanon, even she had her own problems (like not being congratulated when she gave birth to a girl, as her family really wanted a son).
  • Oki and the kid who bullied him in the orphanage also apply.
  • Mrs. Katakura also qualifies. She and Sachiko fell out after she'd once badmouthed Hikaru behind Sachiko's back, then later indirectly put the boy in danger twice: once by deliberately giving Sachiko the wrong time for the school students to meet up, and when Sachiko confronted her on it, acted callous and indifferent; and later through her eavesdropping daughter Eri, who chose not to inform the teachers that Hikaru was in a locked shed where he suffered an accident. However, Katakura's attitude toward Sachiko stems largely from jealousy that Sachiko appears to have a better life than her despite caring for a disabled child; we're soon shown that Katakura's (older) husband is abusive, chauvinistic, and disaffectionate toward her, and had refused to let her return to work after she had Eri.^note Eri, for her part, witnessed her father beat her mother after they were confronted on wrong-time incident. While she and Hikaru weren't friends, after Eri saw Hikaru's blood stains on the floor inside the hot shed, she felt horribly guilty about her role in his accident, and is terrified that her father will beat her too if he found out about it. After confessing to Wakabayashi-sensei of the state of her home life, she breaks down in tears once she returns home, scared of her husband, and thinking no one loves her.
• Moe: Hikaru Azuma definitely has his own way of being cute, Even Kanon.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Sachiko's mother-in-law blaming the poor mother for Hikaru's outburst in the funeral, complete with a shot of her raw hate.
  "It's all your fault!"
  • The bullies robbing Hikaru on his way home, taking away his GPS while Hikaru panics. Not easy to watch for victims of bullies, especially autistic victims.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: For all of the struggles that Sachiko and her family go through, you can't help but just feel as happy as they do when things go right for them. Hikaru and Kanon are just adorable, too.
• Tear Jerker: Has its own page here.
• Values Resonance: With subject matter like this, you'd think it was made just recently. But nope! The manga was first published in 2000, just 20 years after autism finally got to be recognized as a neurological disorder and only six years after the APA first started recognizing how broad the autism spectrum actually ran. Not only does it treat its subject well, it also addresses (and berates) common Japanese stereotypes related to autism, such as the Japanese's words' meaning.^note They literally mean "self-closure syndrome", giving the false impression that it's the autistic person's fault, or the mother's fault that someone has autism. This manga's messages become more and more relevant with each passing year, especially now that the majority of people on the autistic spectrum are becoming adults who may very well need support in a world that feels they either need to be fixed or that they're incapable of anything.
• Woolseyism: The Japanese children's songs were replaced with ones that would be familiar to Western readers, like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

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