Last menhera (Amano and Ise, 2016) has a masculine protagonist whom drops crazy about an excellent menhera girl

A different sort of popular sad girl narrative comes from a few visual narratives i beneath the username (menhera girl). Due to the fact 2013 Momose have tweeted that illustration 24 hours, offering a beneficial mouthless girl inside a sailor fit (college uniform). In the place of Kotoha (2012) manga that is consumed in a comic strip structure, Momose’s work is an individual committee comical one portrays an effective girl suffering loneliness, sadness, and anxiety. Most pictures are accompanied with a number of verbal contours of your own menhera girl’s monolog or an initial talk between her and you can private individuals that seemingly don’t understand precisely what the girl try struggling which have. Though it isn’t demonstrated if the menhera girl keeps an effective diagnosable mental disease otherwise what is causing their unique angst, self-injury (wrist cutting) was illustrated as a way for new menhera girl to cope that have internal discomfort or to create good dissociative perception and then make yes she’s still live (Figure step one). As of , Momose’s Myspace membership provides more than 85,000 supporters and also the type of their particular illustrations are composed for the a book called “The fresh Voice away from a gray Girl” (Momose, 2016).

Shape step 1. “Cannot wrist-reducing hurt?” “It does not hurt (as much as my personal cardiovascular system).” A graphic story we (). Picture recreated with permission regarding author.

This type of unfortunate girl narratives indicate that brand new slang provided the new founders which have a relatively neutral as well as-related label to help you portray contemporary Japanese girls suffering from the pain sensation away from life style. It deserves focus that sad girl menhera embodies stereotypical Japanese womanliness, like submissiveness, self-handle, and you may free of selfishness. Momose (2016) mouthless profile eloquently implies that the new menhera girl suffers in silence; what we should select and you will discover their is by using their interior monolog filled up with anxiety and you can distress, but she’s got no voice to raise. Self-burns off try depicted as a means to externalize and you can cope with their inner problems, in place of interacting their anxiety to someone else. Momose’s depiction of the menhera girl since the an excellent “grey girl” is particularly advising in connection with this. Within her study on media portrayals out-of restaurants issues and you can mind-harm among Japanese female, Hansen (2011) asserts that ladies when you look at the contemporary Japan will deal with “this new contradiction of navigating contradictive femininity for the a grey area between the typical together with disordered” (p. 57). As “the favorable and clean girl” need Japanese female to work out rigorous care about-power over their bodies so you can “prevents the latest evil” in themselves (Hansen, 2011, p. 61). Regarding unfortunate girl narratives, self-harming methods such as thinking-caused regurgitation, starvation, and you will worry about-cutting try portrayed as the a good borderline disordered act did by the more youthful women wanting to navigate the latest contradictive womanliness.

Intriguingly, in lots of manga, cartoon, and you can online game, menhera girls try earliest introduced once the adorable, loveable, and you can nurturing to their love passions

Paradoxically, the web link ranging from menhera and you will stereotypical femininity have resulted in menhera’s abrupt rise in popularity, such as for example within this manga/cartoon centering on male visitors. Such, Last Menhera (Amano and you Cuban bruder can Ise, 2016) is actually an effective seinen manga (young men comic) you to observe a high-school boy losing crazy about a great stunning classmate whom notice-incisions (Contour dos). In the facts, new woman engages in repeated hand slashing so you can “survive the pain from way of living” and “postpone the brand new , p. 56) that leads other characters to help you identity their unique menhera. The male protagonist pretends he, as well, self-injures to draw their own appeal and you can love. Through the protagonist’s male gaze, the heroine’s scarred human body will get the thing away from affective practices in which self-injury presents their susceptability, helplessness, and you can deformity, and that completely constitutes a twisted sexual notice (Seko and Kikuchi, 2020).

This new Mad Woman

Whereas, new sad girl story domesticates feminine insanity once the vulnerable and you may probably sensual, brand new crazy lady exaggerates their unique abnormality and you may derangement, especially in this new framework from intimate relationship. Within this story, the fresh new menhera was enthusiastic about their like focus and you will helps make devastating jobs are using this type of people. not, whenever a third people goes in the fresh equation, its low self-esteem exhibits because the possessive viewpoint and you can methods, overprotectiveness, and you can high envy that looks peculiar and you may scary so you’re able to anyone else (Kato, 2018). Instead of the unfortunate girls whom walking a good tightrope between your typical and also the disordered, this new annoyed woman solidly inhabits the field of madness.