メンヘラ (Menhera)

WHAT’S MENHERA?
That is kind of hard to explain depending on which part of menhera you mean.

Menhera (メンヘラ) is a japanese slang term derived from “mental healther” and refers to somebody with unstable mental health. In the past few years, derived from gurokawa (グロかわ), which is known as “creepy cute” in the west, it also has become art and fashion.

Note: In Japan, nonconformist thinking is considered bad mental health too.

ART
Grotesque while cute and features characters that might appear sweet and innocent but have obscure interests, are insecure about themself and prone to negative thoughts. They usually hide behind a mask in public in order to conceal their true desires due to social stigma, which isn’t good for the mental health in the long run, causing internal wounds that get reflected on the outside in order to archive greater impact. This doesn’t apply to all art though as the characters may break the facade at some point and simply don’t care anymore.
Starting from 2014, it suddenly got very popular due to the Menhera-chan satire manga series, which is about magical girls that have to kill themself all the time in order to use their magic for saving the world (which they don’t even want to in the first place) - it is a reference to the pressure of society to “fit in” in order to keep the system going which, especially the japanese youth, drives people into suicide.

FASHION
When it comes to fashion, menhera is rather a theme than anything else as it depends more on motifs than the clothing pieces on their own, something not uncommon for substyles. It was popularized by the artist and fashion designer Kuua Oyasumi who is also in charge of the designs for many indie brands. In general, it is based on “dreamy cute with a touch of sickness“ (病みかわいい) which here mostly refers to how the overall appearance makes the wearer look fragile and in need of care and protection with the usage of medical accessories. It is using mental health and nonconformist themes through prints, while putting on the facade of the pure and innocent appearing kawaii culture, in the form of clothes, for controversity.



da: fuckyeahmenhera