YMMV / Mysterious Skin

• Awesome Music: The heavily Shoegazing- and Dream Pop-focused soundtrack (a given since the music was co-composed by Robin Guthrie), since Araki is a huge fan of the two genres.
• Complete Monster: The coach is a seeming friend to all children, but in reality is a despicable pedophile who uses his position to molest boys in his care. The coach has subjected many boys to his depraved actions, brainwashing young Neil and forcing him to lure in other boys and engage in sexual activity with Coach. Though the coach has since disappeared from the lives of the boys he abused, his vile actions tainted and tormented them all for life.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Whilst some of it may be explained by his childhood experiences, Brian is notably quite awkward in a social sense and generally odd. He may have some form of autism spectrum disorder.
• Narm Charm: The conversation between the leads at the end regarding the coach's sexual abuse of them recount exceptionally over the top sex acts, like him asking them to insert their arms in his rectum. That said, it does help highlight how unappealing and disgusting the whole thing was, if the fact that they were children wasn't enough.
• Nightmare Fuel: The coach is made of this. Made extra scary by the fact that he never seems to be held accountable for his actions. Neil's rape at the hands of one of his clients also counts.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The final scene where Neil sits on the couch with Brian sobbing hysterically on his lap. It doubles as a very bittersweet ending.
  • The aftermath of Neil's bathtub attack, where he's lying outside at night. He utters the single word "mom."
• The Woobie: Both Neil and Brian, due to both of them being raped and sexually abused as children by their baseball coach. Neil is more of Jerkass Woobie, though the Woobie part outweights the Jerkass part mostly.

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