For plain formality i am gonna say now TW, TRIGGER WARNING (for the whole topic probably?)
Lets talk about Menhera, mental illnesses etc in VK. There are a lot of bands that pick up those topics in Songs, etc, also there are known bandomen will mental illnesses.
What i personally wonder, has anyone come across it outside of VK? Maybe not inside songs but any musician openly admitting any mental illness??
Genki ex-Mejibray i know has a borderline personality disorder.
Dimlim’s Sho has a dissociative disorder. Its the ones i know about.
Is this just for Japanese bands? If not, there are tons…
Kurt Cobain. That disgusting guy from Lostprophets. Kanye West. Just to name a few famous examples.
Western Bands have less problem with it, because mental illnesses are less stigmatized as in japan. (At least that’s the official version, but i can assure not all mental illnesses are fine to have, according to the public)
you should know menhera isn’t only about mental illness now but also a kind of meme which Japanese like to talk about. for vk scene, there are strange fan bases related to menhera mostly girls. they act very crazy with bandmen, which we Chinese understand but I have no idea about how westerners think of it. the info is from one of my Chinese friends who was once in some Japanese vk bands now retired. (she’s a vocalist in some session bands, never heard they released something though lol…)
also, the biggest sarcastic menhera “hater” should be 甘い暴力 (amai bouryoku) whose lyrics have the most intriguing and strange way to be ironic. those words also make me laugh hard and my friends and I often like to talk about and have fun lol.
in general, this is a kind of sub-culture anyway, don’t regard this as a kind of illness, and don’t be serious about it, it’s just very usual in eastern asia.
I’ve been to lives of a band where it wasn’t just in the lyrics and videos, but the vocalist would actually show of (fake?) cutting scars on stage, cutting was part of a song’s furitsuke and I saw quite a few of their fans clearly show their cuts too. It was glorified.
The vocalist would also post pics of his medication (pills) on Twitter often. This in combination with unhealthy amounts of energy drinks and lots of smoking.
I’m not entirely against menhera, but all this made me uncomfortable and I stopped seeing them and don’t listen to them anymore either.
Some bands (+fans) go too far imo.
D.I.D kinda disbanded due to akane being hospitalized for schizophrenia, he also planned on murdering someone though it sounds like whoever it was would have deserved it.
karma would post his cuts on twitter and do it on stage, and one of avelcain’s songs had wrist cutting furi. and obviously the constant “i want to die” tweets. i don’t think an outright illness was ever mentioned though, and well more than likely was part of the menhera shtick.
it might be because of my own history and struggles with mental health and self harm that menhera doesn’t bother me as a subculture. i even like seeing the menhera tag on IG and seeing the makeup for it and stuff, and characters like menhera-chan i love.
i can understand why it would bother other people though.
yeah, just count how many times they mention the word “menhera” and fangirl actions. they just intentionally and deliberately write those to let ppl know the real side of the vk scene, or maybe J-rock scene in whole. the music itself has no guilty, but some ppl who are involved, both musicians and audience side.
they’re almost a parody rock band for me, perhaps they make the band just for fun, but they’re different from other parody bands cuz their lyrics are so true and let ppl think. I’ve never read their lyrics but while listening to the songs, I always burst into laughter and sometimes say “oh, okay, so it’s like that, hmm, know something interesting and new…” to myself.
I mean they have parody lyrics like Amai Bouryoku. I remember they have at least three songs like that.
forgot to say, the menhera meme is related to kusomen meme, whose translateration is, “shit noodle” lol, cough cough The Black Swan cough cough. the funny thing is, there’s a product of instant noodle simply called Kusomen, but it doesn’t taste like shit of course lmao. the info is also from that vocalist friend.
l’arc first drummer is a heroin addict which ended his major career back in the day idk if it fits the subject
Junno (ex-Sinners, ex-boogieman, DAV (?) ) is on some sort of medication, but idk if specific diagnosis was ever made public - he withdrew from boogieman when his condition worsened
Ryo (baroque, kannivalism) retired, mentioning his adjustment disorder struggle in the past
umm like murdering God or an actual homicide??? spill???
I wonder if so many are struggling or we feel like it, because they say it more open
I can’t think of any jpop- artist, or idol that ever said, or would say open that they have any problems with their mental health
Alternative we could also wonder, how many bandomen have beent traumatized from any stuff going on in the VK scene? Meanwhile the pop-artist have probably easier access or are “forced” by their contracts to go to frequent therapy to prevent anything “bad”.
I am sorry for being a smartass here, the illness is called Dissociative identity disorder (the multiple personallity disorder is the old name of it) Sorry, for that, i just realized i got confused with the old name of, sorry.
The same for me. I have a Borderline personality disorder, around 18 years of selfharm. I dont mind if you can see anyones scars of it, but i do mind if they do it in a “glorifying” way.
I remember reading somewhere about a singer actually selfharming on stage and thats the part i am complete against. It gets some of these girls just to imitate it, because their bandomen does, so they have to do it too
Well, Kyo basically selfharmed on stage too. (Its a reason i couldn’t stand dir en grey that much for a long time)
i wonder a bit about the wrist cutting furi,… hmm, i am not sure what to think of it
Someone from MH said they went to a Yumeleep gig and apparently the menhera vibes were strong in the crowd, lots of visibly unwell people lol Also The Raid has played around with menhera themes and wrist cutting furi.
Just some random thoughts on the subject: I really don’t like the whole kawaii wrist cutting thing, however I do consume media/content which is dark or has themes of depression or abuse. I think it’s the whole beautification of it that seems wrong. I’m not familiar with physical self harm, but I have dealt with many other issues. I’m lucky to be in a really good place mentally now and it makes me wonder if kawaii wrist cutting and romanticised suicide PVs is a good coping technique and what kind of message it really spreads, especially in a culture where I imagine barely any help is available. Maybe mental illness is rife in VK because it’s one of the few platforms where these themes can be sung/spoken about in JP.
Looking away from VK and going a bit off-topic, if you’re on Twitter, or god forbid, Tiktok where all the gen Zs hang out, there’s this sub-culture of constantly talking about depression, anxiety, etc. and making fun of the daily struggles with these mental health issues. Then you also have Joji and Lil’ Whatever rappers who sing about pills and being drugged to cope with reality. Isn’t that the western equivalent of the menhera movement? Except without the sparkles and pastel colors.
I know Miku (ex An Cafe) has a depression for a long time ago because he talked his fans for this. He took medecine for this and he stopped because he felt better.
believe it or not, my qzone (facebook equivalent in China, kind of) is full of self harming girls who like to make scars on their arms deliberately to be cool or pretend to be melancholic, which is very stupid. posers perhaps.
posers perhaps.