i think the reason why people post their scars, and also why self harm is glamorized, is because people who useed to cut themselves/is cutting themselves gets a chemical reaction in the brain that stimulates the brain like seeing the blood on a picture. the way of gatekeeping self harm is just stupid and doesnt make sense
4 Likes
perhaps, maybe itâs a kind of art which we never understand deeply. 
stupid art tho.
yeah, im personally talking from personal experience but i also had done some research about it.
1 Like
Because of the self-harm topic connected here i thought i put the plain wikipedia link once in
Self-harm on wikipedia
copied out from wikipedia:
it has been suggested instead that they are using self-harm as a coping mechanism torelieve emotional pain or discomfort or as an attempt to communicate distress.
Iâd like to add for everyones knowledge, that actual selfharm is more than cutting yourself.
Well, mental illnesses and selfharm are getting nowadays frequently romanticized, maybe thats it? maybe they want to be edgy? 
And maybe,⌠but just maybe, they are actually screaming for help like thisâŚ
I do know that there are groups that plan suicide and whatever together.
I remember back when the emo-scene was a thing, they was at least in germany a lot of rumors that they would all cut themselves
Please, donât think this. Maybe you formulated it bad.
You see, seeing other peopleâs selfharm wounds can actually trigger other people with bad mental health. Trigger means, it can give them a mental breakdown or actually trigger them into selfharming themselves.
You can judge me on this, but i coped already with breakdowns by going trough mental illness memes. Its a bit macaber, but sometimes you just have to deal with your own melt downs with sarcasm. beside that i think some of them are also trying to raise awareness for mental illnesses.
IT IS NOOOOT. I know for example that XaaXaaâs Kamisori actually triggered me into a mental breakdown.
I am sorry, by the way, for throwing my own experience here in. 
5 Likes
I too did not like Kyoâs self-harm period, and think itâs problematic that being critical of it sometimes gets you labelled as someone who doesnât appreciate the artistry. Youâre meant to cheer on the suffering, because in it you will find Dir En Greyâs raw, uncompromising dark ESSENCE. Kyo is a tortured artist who suffers and sacrifices for us and thatâs just great. His vocal techniques and performances are totally safe and responsible. Heâs a professional. Yes, he might get hospitalised from time to time, but heâll get better and thatâll just strengthen his image as basically invincible. His voice is not hoarse from years of abuse. Heâs just a bit tired after a day or two of touring. Actually his voice is getting better with age. Soon his vocal range will break the laws of physics. Clap clap clap. Thatâs when I think the fanbase gets into well into the territory of toxicity and denial. Theyâre beyond just letting the art and extreme emotions get them through hard times. Theyâre actively encouraging certain kinds of behavior and culture that Iâm sure they could not actually defend logically and morally.
5 Likes
I donât think thatâs necessarily true. While they may not talk about it as frankly as members of VK bands, there are definitely some J-pop artists who have publicly acknowledged having issues with their mental health.
I donât really listen to much J-pop, but I can think of two examples:
Ryuichi Ogata from the boyband w-inds. recently announced he was leaving the group right before their 20th anniversary because he was struggling with severe anxiety and was recently diagnosed with some sort of psychosomatic illness.
I donât know about now, but Domoto Tsuyoshi from Kinki Kids had a very well documented issue with some sort of panic disorder as well - particularly around their debut. Apparently he started hyperventilating on the way to big concerts in the past and suddenly became unable to speak onstage at one point, and he supposedly mentioned becoming suicidal in his late teens~early 20s.
4 Likes
yea maybe i formulated it bad, but as someone who has been self harming a couple of years it makes me kinda calm to see stuff like this, i know my brain is pretty fucked up. i cant talk from everyoneâs experience but the reason i look at self harm pictures is to feel the euphoria i felt back when i once self harmed. i dont know if that makes any sense, but everyone has different expierences you know
3 Likes
Wasnât it the same more then 10 years ago, when there were emokids with cut wrists around?
3 Likes
I wonât judge lol Actually, making self deprecating jokes about being depressed really helped me come to terms with the illness after years of denial. I get it.
Iâll never forget this emo kid at school who would literally choke himself with wires during lunch time in front of everyone. Like, this shit has been around for ages, itâs just cuter nowadays.
2 Likes
yeah, but I think the girls in my qzone just want to be edgy and moan for nothing but âshow offâ their coolness, to be notoriously âfamousâ lol
hmm, ĺżä¸č¨çť (plan for suicide in group) isnât fresh and not fun at all, itâs beyond menhera, itâs a kind of desperation.
Yes, Iâm 26 now and my arms are still covered top to bottom with scars from that period of time that never went away lol. Even after my severe depression and self-hatred have almost completely gone away and I enjoy living life for the most part I still enjoy seeing those themes in art for whatever reason.
2 Likes
I wanted to mention those emokids, but forgot.
also tbh i always wondered if it was really that way, or if it was more rumors
I am happy for you that you are healed, or recovered (depending on if it was only depressions or more)
This is what I was thinking - âOMG menhera is so crazyyâ yeah good thing Joji and Melanie Martinez and Yungblood and all those western pop stars are, like, perfectly sane and good vibes only â˘. Emo has been around since at least the 90s? And before that, goths. And before that. Rimbaud? Goethe? lol.
Iâd say that Japan definitely took the craziness a step further with the whole kawaii menhera culture but at the same time it feels like a very natural step. You know, itâs just Japan developing a trend that was already ridiculous when it started in the West, making it painfully obvious just how bad of an idea it is. I mean itâs why I love Japanese media after all. But I canât comment on whether menhera âcultureâ should be good or bad for Japanese teens because a) Iâm not a Japanese teen and b) the ways people in different cultures deal with the topic of âmental illnessesâ are SO radically different itâs almost impossible to debate such a topic. In some cultures mentally ill people are still regarded as witches ; this is just an example of how people from different places / eras treat the topic in very different ways âŚ
Pretty sure a lot of Japanese idols (pop, VK whateverâŚ) are mentally ill whether they talk about it or not. As in would fit some diagnostic criteria for something, although whether theyâd like to get treatment or are bothered by it ⌠idk. Just like lots of Western celebrities are, too. And k-pop too. And just average joe from all over too. Sorry I canât contribute though because I always press the big X when something like that comes up on shuffle or whatever. I REALLY donât like glorification of mental illness and even stuff by say Amai Bouryoku thatâs usually pretty tame and âwell, they didnât lieâ hit me the wrong way sometimes.
4 Likes
A while back he also had a picture up of his own selfharm. It was quite graphic. Iâm not sure if he still has the picture online though.
1 Like
I havenât checked anything from this guy for almost 2 years now, so no idea what heâs been up toâŚ
I never self-harmed myself and also never enjoyed those âaestheticsâ in the vk scene.
2 Likes
While menhera as its own aesthetic and movement may be new, the whole glorification and romanticization of mental illness in VK is anything new. There were songs about struggling with depression as early as the 80s, see some X Japan songs. I remember when I stumbled upon their Weekend PV back when I was an edgy and super angsty teen and feeling so connected to it because itâs very tragic and has the bandmembers being miserable.
Then the whole 90s Kote kei scene had a real obsession with âbeing madâ and âinsaneâ. Madeth grayâll even began one of their songs with Hisui mumbling how crazy he was in his head. Bands like LaâMule would also simulate cutting live (so many songs had âWrist Cutâ in the lyrics or even title). I think LaâMuleâs Kon even self harmed for real. If I remember correctly, he was in no good place in the NightingeiL days either and posted blog entries of his wounds⌠so this whole thing isnât new, itâs been part of VK for a long time, if not since the beginning. Hell, I would even go so far and claim VK was specifically designed to appeal to social outcasts and âweirdosâ who identify with the whole âtroubled artistâ stereotype.
Itâs also partly due to VKâs musical ancestry going back to Punk (in some parts). I am befriended with many punks (though I am personally more into Goth and Post-Punk). The amount of self destruction via drugs, alcohol and physical harm is something that kinda puts me off, even though I like the music and the people are otherwise really cool. But being miserable is still seen there as kinda âcounter-cultureâ. Ironically, Goth has since long moved away from that and is mainly about music these days. In the end it depends; as long as mental illness will be considered out of the norm there will be scenes, movements and fashion trends that try to make it into a trendy thing or a statement, because itâs easy to brand as âanti-mainstreamâ.
9 Likes
Interestingly, he was from Mejibray. Wasnât he Tsuzuku back then? 
drumroll preparing for hate from girls who glamorize japans menhera culture and follow tons of crappy hosts on sns~~~~~
The whole menhera thing in VK is not so much an admitting of personal struggles these days as it is an appeal to girls with social stigma and lots of money to spend on their host-tantoesque band members sadly it seems.
This is a really weird cultural,social thing to touch on, hard to explain maybeâŚ
So of course counter culture people, any artist having mental quirks is a normal thing.
Lord knows I have enough crazy in meh to last a lifetime.
But the whole menhera appeal thing in VK, itâs ties to the main areas where shops and livehouses of the genre (were) and still are, you start to go down the rabbit hole of things that tie VK with the cultures surrounding the night world and night businessâŚ
has always been tied to VK but never to the level it is at of recent (even yoshiki, gackt, and yomi are ex. hosts and hide even talked openly about those âangelsâ that help bandmen so)
The most blatant example for just straight up menhera appeal is maybe The Raid, the vocalist and his ties with the host business and his band also coining in on all those types of practices and appeals is really a shining example of the current menhera vk thing.
But how a crap bandman would be viewing this audience as an appeal pointâŚ
If I were to give the main example of what the whole menhera term is from someone who actually worked as a host for years and later as someone who trained newer hosts to where I am now as a designer for the top company that makes host/kyabakura event original champagnes, posters, etc. you name it, I basically get paid to design for menhera appeal pretty much. soâŚ
You have a girl who falls into various levels of menhera and you want to make money off of them: soft menhera would basically just be a normal day job girl who is basically a super lonely type, normal mental issues, if you were a hosts or a crap bandman who plays women you would say there is a limit to what you can get from them so they do not focus on them. Going onto a higher level, girl who works normal level nightjob (girlsbar, snack, kyabakura, lounge, oppabu<-this one is crossing the line a bit! etc.) these are the types that are sadly the bread and butter for host type eigyou bandmen, these types who end up working these jobs end up with a kind of social stigma on them, they cannot work normal jobs because of how they want to dress, do their hair, or maybe they just cant handle mentally that stuff and hey hats off to them for that! do you. But they end up in what can be a black loop-> they end up spending all their money on hosts or mistuge with a bandman, and then maybe even move up to the higher level of crazy menhera sh"tâ> highest level menhera is basically that girl you always see with a carry case going around, gurll aint going on vacation all the time haha: Prostitute workers (soap, deriheru, AV, freelance etc.) the deepest of the stigmas and menhera crazies~ can often graduate to this level after a host type bandman wants more money out of them so they move up from just kyaba style work to this.
Of course not all bandmen are trying to focus on appealing to these types but I do know 100% some production of young bands is just basically a menhera idol mens group, they do not even make their own songs, and the top will tell them âtry to get as much mitsuge as you can.â So the whole menhera appeal thing, while it can seem cute outwardly, is actually pretty dark in many ways.
In short: Menhera girls are target audience, you know they have money, so appeal to their crazy lives and cash in~~
Not my views or my aims in music but just what I know from my crazy experiences!
I just hope troubled people find a time to rest in music ^v^
19 Likes
I donât know why, but I didnât expect the raid. to have those connections lol.
Saw rumors that Kebyoâs vocalist runs a bar with some dubious practices too
1 Like
Yes. Yes he was.
1 Like