I mean, it wouldn't be all too bad by itself, but the pain is just amplified so much from me and the protagonist being unfathomably similar. Her hair style, her bland dress code, her wallflower social behavior, her obsessive nature, her green thumb, the way she likes just sketching about to kill time, and that's not even getting to the lascivious bits. There have been multiple times throughout this anime where in my adrenaline-dazed, barely self-aware trance I mumbled out loud the exact same sentiment as she said, at the exact same time, and it's fucking surreal. I'm going through my second, 'normal' watching and it feels like it was a dream. Like my brain is telling me that didn't actually happen but somehow I still know the story beats.

How could I even go about explaining this even to people who fundamentally, emotionally get it, letalone the NORPs and their 'hurting someone you love is irrational, though' mentality?