Menhera/ Yami Kawaii
TRIGGER WARNING:
THIS TOPIC INVOLVES DEPICTIONS OF SELF-HARM, MENTAL ILLNESS AND POTENTIAL SUICIDE/ TRAUMA.
Now that I was getting into my main for topics Menhera/ Yami Kawaii was the first. While most of the information can be read within my presentation, but I want to use the space here to show my research in whole (all links to research at the bottom of the page).
Yami Kawaii ( 病みかわいい) started it’s movement within the culture of Harujuku fashion around 2014/2015. The word Menhera (メンヘラ) is from the Japanese slang term derived from the english term of mental health. It is what particularly inspired yume kawaii as it is also known as ‘sick cute’ in rough translation.
Though Yami Kawaii and Menhera has been seen in a more positive light in recent years, in the early 90s and late 2000s, these ways to express oneself was seen originally born out of a more insulting and somewhat derogatory take on Menhera. Using Menhera as a term of identifying those they found ‘troublesome’ rather than trying to understand that those with mental health may need help with their symptoms and behaviours. This lead to those being considered Menhera to be more like Yandere’s (ヤンデレ). Yandere is the combination of the words Yanderu- to be sick and Deredere- lovestruck. Yandere’s are often depicted in Japanese media as crazy, unstable and violent.
This didn’t help with the fact that Japan was and is a country where mental illness is a taboo subject- that being seen as mentally ill is considered a weakness or attention seeking.
This is a snipet from a video called The Dark Side Of Harajuku Style You Haven't Seen Yet | Style Out There by Refinery29. This was a great way to get introduced into the world of Menhera and Yami Kawaii as it features popular icons and pioneers of the subculture being seen a more positive light.
One of the main front runners of the Menhera style is Ezaki Bisuko. Ezaki created a series called Menhera-Chan. This depicted the pink-haired heroine and her friends fighting enemies that are symbolic for mental illness, though they get their powers through self-harming. Menhera-Chan is not Ezaki romanticising self-harm though, it started as a vent character by him in 2013 as he struggled with his home life while trying to get into university. After it was published in 2014, many people saw his work as a way to be able to use art to express their emotions and feelings, thus making the Menhera and Yami Kawaii aesthetics blow up, giving those a creative way to break the silence on their suffering. He took his own struggle and put it out for others to see- to show people both in his country and out of it that it is okay to have mental illness.
It isn't just Ezaki that has developed Menhera. There are other popular figures within Japan that also display themes of this movement. One such is the band VOCALIOD. Some of their producers (Wowaka, Neru etc) have composed songs that delve into these themes of being mentally ill, going through trauma and more. What makes them more Menhera is the fact that they are hidden through a layer of cuteness, bright melodies and sparkly visuals that create a perfect sense of juxtaposition within some of their songs.
There is also a lot of influence from those who take part in the Menhara & Yami Kawaii subculture as it’s reached the West, many online cosplayers and make up artists such as Matty Em and Caspian-Keskin express themselves through this artistic way and a lot of shops on places like ETSY can really show the full extent of how in demand this way of expression is. Many shops sell things like fake syringe necklaces to t-shirts and dresses featuring medicinal and bloody depictions of characters.
I personally really like this way of expressing mental health. I see it as empowering and a way to be able to feel 'cute' or 'pretty', not letting the mental health drag you down. It also like how there is such a strong juxtaposition between the cute melodies or style with the heavy impact of mental health.
Games like Omori do this thing really well (and you can look at my review on that game here).
If I was to use this in a game sense, then it would be to do with art style- I feel like it would be interesting to make a game with cute visuals and a serious undertone- lead people in with a false sense of security and then hitting them with the hard themes and overall story.