How Mental Illness Became "Cute" and "Sexy" 

OK FR, DOWNLOAD HONKAI STAR RAIL USING THE LINK: hoyo.link/b5KhF6BL&aff_sub=UC4YSogGVXHZOOBbavfzn9rA&aff_sub2=65ee6fc35108b372822c729d&aff_sub3=Depressed%20Nousagi And use these Redemption Codes! Acheron: ST3SHPNLNTN3 Aventurine: BTKBH6P47B77

Meanwhile, fans of a certain green necromancer: *“It wasn't an act boys, she was actually mentally ill.”*

Bro forgot Honkai Star Rail counts as menhera so he decided to add it to the reupload LMAO

The "BUY BUY BUY/ SELL SELL SELL" voice of Parrot will forever be funny for me and will live rent free in my head lmao

Bro forgot to include the sponsor in the OG vid lol

DN: "Shiori is extremely attractive" Me and every other Novelite: " You god damn right she is"

"...And though most people would have given up, only one thought crossed my deranged mind: "I can fix her."" - The greatest technician that's ever lived

I'll forever laugh at the idea that people think Shiori is the poster-child of menheras when every interaction I've seen of her on the bird app has only been kind to random people of her community. Unless she's doing GFE on the side, I wouldn't know why people believe she's one of the people of Michael Gato's caliber.

Rushia, Nazuna, and Mikeneko are the holy Trinity of menhera.

Novellites when they discover Shiori is actually sane despite her appearance: 😭

As someone peripherally involved with menhera culture/the subcultures surrounding it, I’ve come to realize that, for a lot of girls and women, it’s a way to romanticize, dramatize, and almost justify difficult emotions and states of mind. It’s easy to define yourself and create an outward identity based on your mental illness- it’s something you experience to varying degrees on a daily basis, and really, it is an intrinsic part of you. Making it into something cutesy, desirable, and relatable is a way to sort of incorporate it into your life in a more outwardly appealing way. Because it’s also an external and ‘fashionable’ expression of these things, it also serves as a sort of cry for help and needed attention- often times resulting in this self-sexualization and internal need to be viewed as desirable. It’s a really complex topic that’s shown up in a lot of different ways for a lot longer than you’d expect (consider the emo/scene subculture that took off in the West during the early 2000s), and it’s hard to say whether or not it’s simply a harmless coping mechanism or something that can have profoundly negative effects on the way a woman views herself. I’ve seen this happen to other girls as well with things like self harm, risky sexual behavior, drug abuse, self isolation, etc. When you aestheticize self-destruction, you begin to treat suffering as a way of life rather than an undesirable experience which can be put into remission or overcame. For me, personally, one of the specific ways I delved into the subculture was through the pro-eating disorder side of the menhera aesthetic. It allowed me to glamorize my suffering and habits as something that made me a tragic, sexy, broken, manic pixie dream girl. I felt like getting help would make me lose this intrinsic part of myself that made me a hot, quirky irl anime girl. Ultimately, though, the pain this has caused me and all of the moments I’ve lost because of it outweigh the short catharsis of taking hot post-cry selfies with smeared mascara and posting anime girl th!nspo. I promise recovery is worth much more than the smoke and mirrors of this alternate reality we’ve built ourselves to make suffering feel more compartmentalized and comfortable. Cope, but don’t embrace.

Shiori MODEL is the flagship of what people imagine whe ln they imagine Menhera but in reality she has been a bundle of joy when i see her streams and to be fair the model doesnt determine the person Great video DN honestly we where expecting it for a while now and it didn't disappointed great job Also StarRail sponsor ayo? 👀 our boy is back on business

i think a lot of girls who are into this sort of fashion like it as a way of expressing themselves rather than to hide mental illness. for a lot of us it feels good to be open about those feelings while still being cute both because being cute feels nice and we like cute things. it’s kind of comforting to be honest and also to find good or appealing parts of these problems because we already have to live with them. for me personally there’s a big difference between menheras basically with and without empathy so i relate to the ones with it and love them a lot, but the ones without it are just scary to me. the same actions and feelings can exist with both types but it’s cute when it comes from a good place and really disturbing when it comes from a bad one i think.

I've heard that in 19th century tuberculosis was considered romantic and aesthetic. It was associated with pale and weak aristocratic women, so many poets dreamed of dying from that illness

Honestly, I've gotten exposed to so much unhinged shit that vanilla is looking like the exotic, more interesting option.

Let me put my two cents as an actual menhera. I have been diagnosed with severe depression and schizoaffective disorder.... What we, actual menheras, don't like are those who are not doing the bare minimum to control their mental disorders and pass them off as excuses for their bad behaviour, not causes. We also hate those who are FAKING mental illnesses. Several Tiktokers did this and many claim those who are neurotypical cannot take us seriously anymore because now they will doubt if we are actually ill or not. Some menheras actually do consume menheras content, MALE AND FEMALE, because we RELATE to it. We feel lonely sometimes so when we see a fellow menhera who shares a story we have or do some "quirk" we do while we're mentally ill, we say "that's me fr," and that takes away the loneliness even if it's just for a while.

Two words: PHASE CONNECT! Although Shiori from HoloAdvent also counts

Damn, my man getting sponsored by HSR? Nice, get those gacha bucks! 👏

Shiori expectations: goth gf sadistic menhera. Shiori reality: "If your butt be itchy in the middle of the night OH BOY! You got the pinworms~ (8)"

"BUY BUY BUY" even not in his channel and I can hear it perfectly Grande parrot

I knew a girl with such severe abandonment issues that her reaction to her boyfriend breaking up with her was to bite him into submission and lock him inside the bedroom, then she called me to try to "talk sense into him." I helped him get out instead. So, trust me when I say mentally ill and abusive people need PROFESSIONAL help. It is not your job to "fix" them, nor is it in your best interest to try. Please, for your sake, discard any and all fantasies you may have about being the one who will heal someone who is severely ill, or being the object of their obsessions. Take care of yourself, stay safe, and seek healthy relationships.

Ah yes. Shiori "eats with scissor (?!?!), intrusive yabai thoughts, bullying Henmama" Novella. 🤣🤣

Shiori my beloved Even if shes not that menhera crazy her gentle and sweet personality got me Shes not menhera shes just unhinged and its perfect

As a diagnosed and long term mentally ill person, everyone pretending to be ill because its fashionable makes me paranoidally doubt myself, basically giving me like a mental illness imposter syndrome. Please stop. My brain being fucked is actively ruining my life and having doubts if I didn't just make up my problems really aint helpin.

i never simp someone as hard as i simp with shiori, the girl hit all of my strike zone.

id never thougt that ive would see a video of u talking about menhera and jiraikei lol, i just can say RELATABLE LMAO

you frogot to include the sponsorship part in the first upload didnt you?

Phase Connect is the home of the sad girl and the menhera.

As someone who's Neurodivergent and had mental struggles and trauma, it's nothing to romanticize and if you were to date one, be prepared for your patience to be tested. However, in when it's romanticized in Fictional Media, it feels endearing and makes us feel less of a burden in society. Sometimes I do my best to mask my mental instability but many times I'm like fuck it and let loose without giving a shit.

On a serious note i think you did a great job at also explaining the real life problem. Nowadays being just normal and content isnt enough. It always need to be extreme and stimulating. And thats a bad direction we are heading into. You are right that there are truly people in need and that their problems are being idealised. People need to distinct fiction from reality more. Nice video!

"people who like menheras don't want them in the real life" is a cope. mafumafu could have (almost) any woman he wanted, but he chose rushia.

I think that maybe a lot of people use jirai kei as a way to hide their illness, but I also think that myself and others use it as a way to cope instead! It's nice to be able to be cute and enjoy cute things, and it's something that brings happiness when you're dealing with a lot of other issues. The jirai kei community is a little bit all over the place but, a lot of the people that I've met who are apart of it are actually quite kind (though there are a lot of bad apples too). I think the combination of the dark themes with the cute aesthetic isn't really meant to be a trap or mess with other people, but rather "I can still be cute even if I have problems". I think it's more like a coincidence, the people who have issues with their mental health happened to be drawn to a certain type of fashion and over time it became a community through the shared struggles and interests.

Goddammit DN, the Parrot SELL SELL SELL choked me 😂😂😂😂😂

Surprised there wasn't a mention of the Sad Girls company 😂

Good job going into the ways that menheras in the vtuber community are just a product of a much larger trend and issue, didn't expect to find you citing an academic source, but hey, first for everything

i see kangel in thumbnail, i like

You forgot to mention the actual origin of menhera and its movement in Japan. Menhera is/was used as a more negative term by people in Japan to describe someone that is open about mental health, a "Mentalhealther" (that's also where the term stems from). In a society that doesn't want to talk about mental illnesses this movement grew especially in younger generations that indulge in pop-culture. It is not originated from anime itself but it's more like it used it as a medium (the manga of Menhera-chan for example) Menhera people use these elements associated with illness to kind of normalize the presence of mental illness itself like bandaids, pills, syringes etc. I myself got invested in the movement a few years ago surely also because the opposites of cute and brutal speak to me but more importantly because I suffer from mental illnesses myself and try to be an advocate for open discussion about mental illnesses/health. If I wear my menhera stuff people tend to be curious and I think it is important to practice exposure to certain topics in order for people to become more comfortable for it to be around - in this case the existence of mental illnesses. Luckily where I am from, people aren't as reserved and more like praise me for talking openly about my illnesses compared to Japan but there is still work to be done - globally. It is sad that it appears to be perceived as a trend and a way to categorize attractiveness in characters... I get the appeal but I want to emphasize the important origin of menhera.

My best guess is that it's attractive for people who are feeling cornered by expectations and lack of options. They see themselves as losers and not worthy of love, but crave for it regardless and thus, a damaged GF or BF could feel so fitting. Plus, a wildcard who helps them release pent up urges and encourages them to go new paths is definitely another aspect.

The Biggest one will always be Rushia/Mikeneko/Nazuna hahahaha.

TL:DR: Its cool as a fantasy/persona like how people love Yanderes, but like most fantasies, it falls of HARD once it becomes real.

Damn nousagi forgot the sponser haha, i'll paste what i said in the first upload. Great video. this defintley helped me solidify that menhera comes more in variety than just one. I would like to share my outlook on menhera as an artist that discovered the trope and learned one of its message mainly through fashion. a message that nousagi briefly mentions towards the end. At around 22:23 he metions about how girls could find it relatable and be confident with themself. The way I discovered menhera was through fashion since when drawing characters or the outfits for them i research many fashion styles and get a feel for it, mainly more darker types like punk, goth, gothic lolita since this is the stuff i associtate myself with. i found menhera would be combined with them quite often aswell was the yami kawaii and harujuku style and decided to delve into it. I found menhera chan through research but not the black hoodie one but infact a magical girl seen at 14:21 created by Bisuko Ezaki. This character lead me to learning that the way they fashion stuff like bandages, fake blood, pale skin, razors and other hospital inspired accessories was them showcasing thier mental illnesses, make people more aware of it since in the east mental health is still not talked about there and usually gets ignored. Them forming a fashion style around thier health just so people would take notice, I found it to be quite powerful. I would say though this aspect of menhera does unfortunatly gets lost in translation here as people are more focused on the personalities that menhera bring which this whole video talks about. I know this comment is like an essay but i wanted to get my outlook across about a part of menhera that isn't talked about too often. But i am glad nousagi did cover this topic well overall as someone who likes menhera. Also i am a capipi so take that as you will

My man citing academic papers now. Based af

The editing is so good

The Yandere thing just comes from being extremely lonely and having trust issues the fact that a woman that dedicated and unconditionally loving, loyal is just such a nice thing to imagine. Especially when there's no real chance of having a person like that IRL.

Get that bag DN! Glad you got a sponsor... Also you made an excellent video about serious topics! Keep up the amazing work!

The most interesting Menheras are a strange mixture of crazy, yet inspiring: a murderous girl who knows a love unmatched by anyone, or a guy who treats a prostitute like a princess because he rotted his brain with chivalirc tales. We don't (and shouldn't) want to be like such people, but they also feel more strongly about things than the hopelessly cynical among us could ever hope to, and thus bring us to ask who's living the better life.

I love menheras, I love femcels and girlfailures, because they feel do relatable, I want to make her feel better while she makes me feel better, I have a huge thing for helping others because I was abused a bit as a child

Phase connect, the sad girl company

As a wise man said once.. "There's not much of a fucking option anymore."

Shiori isnt menhera! She's just a dork! A cute dork! I shout it from the rooftops!!

It’s all fun and game until the Menhera start to abuse their lovers.

Thanks for the video!

I love these kind of videos!

As a person who has depression as well as probably undiagnosed BPD, this is a very good video DN. I do wish mental illness was approached with a more nuanced take sometimes in terms of showing it off as blanket insanity (insert deriding comment from parent to suck it up and grow up)

This is one of your most broad-reaching videos, and I appreciate it. It's not just going into my vtuber playlist, but the personal current year one I have. Also, there's a published academic study on the phenomenon? Gotta get this to Aydin Paladin ASAP!

I was a little bit thrown off by Shiori's present in the thumbnail. Tbf some people might not feel like watching the video because of that. That being said, you did a really great job on this video. Not just explaining menhara or just a funny content, but I can feel you really put your thought into this one. Well done DN.

Holy shit you hit this nail right on the head, great job!

Dude this video is deeply informative, nice job! The bad thing is, the thumbnail and the title are very misleading and leaves and inaccurate bad impression of Shiori. I suggest you to change them asap

As a wise man once said "Well we ain't got much of a choice anymore"

Love you Nousagi and your love for menheras, i feel like watching a video of myself, i feel loved by you thanks a lot

Legit hadn't heard some of this before Thanks!

Menheras and no Phase Connect mention? I think something is wrong my brain can't process the video.

She can break me. Fr though take care of yourselves out there!

I understand the appeal of menhara. Even i get that masculine instinct to protect well up inside me. But ive heard and seen far too many stories of guys going through a shit storm with menhara-type girls, especially when kids are involved. Id rather stick to vanilla and live a life of peace thank you very much.

Dang, comparing them to Ryan Gosling. Now I'm definitely interested in them. 😂👍 Great video.

Idolmaster Riamu is a HUGE one too I'd say.

i always hesitated on calling myself menhera, or even considering myself depressed but the older i got, the more i realized that there's a reason i relate to characters like ame chan and menhera chan (from wrist cut transformation girls). its kinda nice seeing characters who struggle with their mental health in really realistic ways, a lot of them hitting too close to home. i think it was around when rushia became popular that i noticed menhera becoming more of a trend and aesthetic rather than a coping mechanism or way to express yourself. i struggled with wondering if i just liked the culture, or the characters since everyone was confusing pastel goth, goth lolita, and jirai/decora with each other :/ i realized i like those characters because i relate to them and feel seen

Personally think Menhera and Jirai culture being so idolized and romanticized is a huge problem. I've seen too many young girls being pulled into the scene because of the cute image around it.

So tl;dr: its either man's sick desire to have a girlfailure all to himself, or being so devoid of affection that an obsessive psychopath is game

i'm glad someone actually put into words the 3 appeals (for the Menhera consumers): - Appeal to the need to protect someone - Appeal to actually feel not just loved, but loved to an Obsesive level - a person who's just like nobody you have really met IRL, nor probably will. Societal norms force you to hide your true weirdness

1:09 "This is Shiori" Me: ...oh nyo

"Mental illness has become cute and sexy" *Meanwhile me with depression for the last 15 years* ...what?

I LOVE JIRAI KEI AND THE CUTIE TROUPE SO THNAK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHEDDING LIGHT TO THIS😢😢😢

Goths, emos, geeks and nerds paved the way in the west before the menhera of the east flew en masse and started taking their place.

Sometimes I forget how good you are at this youtube thing

I can fix her and she can fix me.

Internet culture is what drove me to seek out a "normal" relationship with a well put together person that had an even temperament and understandable life goals. I am a big fan of vanilla and it's what I actively looked for after having enough crazy in my life.

lmao that Extra Menhera Shiori edit always gets me, same with Parrot's Sell sell sell/ Buy buy buy!

Funny how there was like 3 therapy ads popped up in this video lol. Also that one section of Nousagi without the alcohol bottle is kinda cursed, even more so than one part he just straight up disappeared. But yeah, menhera is basically just for mental BDSM.

During the Sad Girl segment you also described someone who is nihilistic. Nihilists are usually the Mad Woman type, because they all kinds of 'crazy' stuff due to their view that it won't matter anyway. The 'Sad Girl' who gave up would be more along the lines of hopeless and inactive rather than careless and active. And the 'Cutie' description is pretty off. At their core they're just someone that likes and surrounds themselves with cute things. That's just the aesthetic they feel most comfortable with. The dark themes come from someone who thinks they're broken. That's just how such feelings are typically expressed. It's like with people who enjoy metal rock music. It's themed after violence, brutality and suffering, but fans are typically the most well behaved concert goers. They're actually stand-up people. They just need to express their feelings and frustrations from all the junk life throws at them. What you're describing is really just #2 again, the 'Mad Woman' who is deceptive and manipulative and purposely uses camouflage to approach their interests, and actually do it in part because they're insanely jealous of the attention and care that the real 'Cutie' gets, and due to their nature as psychopathic or sociopathic nutcases, they don't understand that the 'Cutie' is genuine, and that just fuels the hate, thinking that the 'Cutie' is just as duplicitous as them but unfairly seeing more success despite the 'Cutie' showing poor skills in the things psychopaths and sociopaths typically focus more on. It's a pretty common phenomenon, grossly apparent in not just vtubing but regular female social life.

Kyoresu aka former riroron 4 20 debut

Oh as composed as girlbosses can be, I've seen them IRL melt down, regain composure, then silently obsess about revenge for at least 5-10 years. I would categorize them as Narcissist/Borderline type menhera. Instead of obsessing about you like the yandere, they're obsessed with themselves and see you as both a trophy and a threat. You're right, they manipulate you into behaving in line and it's SUPER subtle. BUT if you slight them in the least or break out of their web, they will discard you at best or destroy you at worst.

Its all fun and game until you have relationship whit them irl... My friend had one, and he need 4 year just to "Escape"

congratulations Nousagi, people are trying to cancel you again lmao

I didn't know a thing about it before I watched this video. Feeling proud about that

Since this video was reuploaded, I'd like to describe and maybe coin a term for a subcategory of Menhera that I've seen but no one has properly acknowledged yet. --- Vantablack is the blackest shade of black in human history. It absorbs all light and leaves viewers wondering if a portal to the void was left open on someone's paintbrush. If the nuances of human emotions could be put into a spectrum of colors, there must be an emotion to describe the mental sensation of having hit rock bottom and feeling the warmth in your body finally beginning to fade. *Vantableak* is defined by the protagonist's mental state being so dark and the outside world as being such a hostile and inhospitable environment that the happiest, most virtuous solution is to commit a successful suicide to escape from it. The Protagonist may be a shut-in HikkiNEET or the most popular social butterfly in school but the point still stands that death is the only thing that makes them happy anymore, not even fantasizing about death but taking the steps needed to commit, and often they will commit as many attempts as necessary to ensure their last one will succeed. No one can change their minds. Sometimes, they will even desire to drag someone else down with them. With or without consent. Examples of Vantableak: Hizumi Rei's Metha Luminol See-kun's Take-Out Suicide Nekobolo's Nonsense Speaker The Mandela Catalogue (so far) Happy Sugar Life(?) Jin's Additional Memory Most of Kairiki Bear's songs Picon's I'm Not Human Silent Hill 2 Torikago 7 Days Those are all I can think of off the top of my head, but there are more examples out there. Vantableak is not Grimdark. In Grimdark stories, the world really IS that hostile with the characters within being forced to make do and die trying or they enjoy being just as evil as their world. While with Vantableak, it's largely irrelevant, the protagonist wants to die regardless.

Oh look at you, Reading research paper, that bunny grow a lot 😊

I watched this video when it came out and thought it was interesting. Came back and liked it because of twitter freaking out despite not even watching it.

Thank you for writing/recording this video; it helped me re-evaluate my relationships, and how I view relationships. Do I really want a crazy person as a spouse? Do I want to deal with the mental issues of someone truly mentally ill? Should I actually get into a relationship just because I want to help someone with mental health problems I can appreciate? Or is a relationship something we should be more careful with? Should I be looking for someone who can relate to my own derangement? Or look for someone more stable that will actually pull me OUT of my insanity? I think I'll always love the aesthetic of Yandere and Menhera, but it's definitely more healthy to not allow that interest to apply to real life. Perhaps, stable, traditional, and mature are more attractive after all. Thanks again.

Very good video.

17:36 "Because some people genuinely think that mental illnesses are fashionable" Oh my God yes! I cannot tell you how many girls I knew in junior high and high school 7-12 years ago that would claim to have all sorts of mental illnesses or to be neurodivergent. Legitimately almost every girl in my social circle claimed to have one or more mental illnesses, and I was friends with a ton of girls in junior high and high school (not trying to flex or anything, it was actually kind of odd and at times frustrating as a guy having more girl friends than guy friends, especially being a mostly typical weeb/gamer). Sure, some of them were very real, some of them absolutely did have some of these issues. I remember one of my friends had severe PTSD and androphobia (it took years before she was comfortable with me physically touching her even for something as simple as a tap on the shoulder) due to being sexually abused by her uncle as a young child, which, in retrospect, I met her when we were 13 so it was a relatively recent memory for her. But one girl in particular I knew claimed to be bipolar, autistic, have DID (which from my understanding isn't even a real diagnosis), be schizophrenic, have depression and on top of that claimed to have a lot of physical disorders such as diabetes, Celiac's disease, and sickle cell anemia. The *only* one that she had any behaviors, habits or anything of the sort that would be consistent with any of those conditions being Celiac's disease, as I recall her taking some sort of medication before eating anything with gluten.

Menhera was made to lighten up the will of the white knight inside the lonely man.

Ah yes, my beloved Shiori.

LMAO. Sponsors DN. Don't forget the sponsors.

Honestly this will sound controversial, but yandere is honestly relationship goals and a wifey material (unless shes the ,,i want to crawl into your skin/i want to drink your blood" type of girl).

I come and watch this video, because twitter got so mad about it.

Oh boi, I am finding out I am an anxious girl....

What the heck!? I literally just saw this video a few minutes ago.

Greay video. Though I find how different people see the word menhera. It can be used in an insult, it can be used to describe a mentally ill person like in the video. But what I associate it most with is the movement and jfashion community. That is what you showed in the cutie category. You might wanna look into yami kawaii.

The mention of V-tubers is quite interesting, as there seems to be an over representation of: ADHD, Asperger, stunted growth, frail health, etc. Speaking of humanity on a larger scale, I see the growth of entitlement and at the same time people are exposed to harder times, more stress and less support resulting in many ticking time bombs...