00:05This is so cute, but what does this say?
00:08I want to die.
00:09I want to die.
00:10Die.
00:11Oh.
00:14While I've never been afraid to take a few risks in the name of fashion, there's a new
00:18style popping up in Tokyo that's, frankly, a little scary.
00:30In Japan, conformity and rigidity inform everything, from social customs to the way people dress.
00:37Standing out is not exactly something everyone strives for.
00:41Here on Takashita Street, style is defined by defying norms.
00:45But a new look is challenging one of Japan's deepest taboos, depression and mental illness.
00:54The style is called yami kawaii, and it means sick cute.
00:59Can fashion break the silence that surrounds an epidemic?
01:03My first question.
01:04What exactly is yami kawaii?
01:07What does it look like?
01:09To find out, I tracked down Kua, an artist and influencer with over 56,000 followers on Instagram.
01:40Yami kawaii is the Japanese word for cute.
01:43Yami kawaii means cute, like a dream.
01:47Yami kawaii is what happens when yami goes dark.
01:51I'm sorry.
01:52Where is this?
01:56Is that a fan?
01:57Did she just recognize you?
01:58Yes.
01:59That's so funny.
02:00Fans are drawn to yami kawaii, but honestly, I just don't get it.
02:07To better understand the appeal, I'm going to visit a pioneer of the look, an artist named
02:13Bisco.
02:20But then it says, I love you.
02:21But then it says, I love you.
02:21I love to kill you.
02:22Okay.
02:23So you're changing your mind a lot.
02:26But it's kawaii.
02:28But it's kawaii.
02:29It's kawaii, but there's a gap between the words and the words and the words and the words and the
02:33words.
02:34I think that's yami kawaii.
02:38That's yami kawaii.
02:40Can you tell me who this is?
02:41This is Menhera-chan.
02:43It's my character.
02:46Meet Menhera-chan.
02:48The yami kawaii heroine of Bisco's comic.
02:51She gets her name from Menhera, a term that refers to people who suffer from mental illness.
02:57It's delicate.
02:59Menhera-chan is often called Menhera-chan.
03:03Menhera is not good, isn't it?
03:05It's cute.
03:05It's cute.
03:07It's cute.
03:07It's cute.
03:08It's cute.
03:21To understand why this is a look someone would want to project, I decided to try the clothes on for
03:26myself.
03:27I need a jacket and then I need a bottom.
03:30This one?
03:31This one?
03:31How's that?
03:32Kawaii.
03:33Kawaii?
03:34Okay.
03:34A jacket?
03:36What makes this one?
03:38Yami kawaii.
03:47I think I'm getting it now.
03:49I think I'm getting it now.
03:50Accessories?
03:54Okay.
03:56Kawaii.
03:57I'll go try it on.
04:00As I put on my yami kawaii outfit, I really noticed the dark details among all the pastels.
04:05The bandages around the girls' wrists.
04:08The droplet hanging off the syringe.
04:10I don't feel kawaii.
04:12I feel uncomfortable.
04:25For some, this look is empowering.
04:27But why?
04:31Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
04:35Even talking about mental illness and depression is considered taboo.
04:39So, what is Bisco trying to say?
04:41Is there something deeper going on?
04:43This is my room.
04:45Oh my god.
04:47There's so much.
04:48Kawaii!
04:50Such an interesting mix of sweetness and pink.
04:54And then, this is terrifying.
04:56Biscoです.
04:57Oh my gosh.
04:58Yeah, that's probably the most yami kawaii.
05:00I mean, when you see it, does it remind you about those who have died by noose or is it
05:04just a, again, decoration?
05:06Of course, the найд
05:07For this reason, everything is important to kill people, right?
05:10To fear, it's important to see what you have to do.
05:15Do you want to play with a person?
05:18It won't be a role if you want to play a person.
05:24In the best way, it's only a role if you want to play a person.
05:30Because it's a nightmare to play a person
05:31But, when you want to play with your parents,
05:34it's a weak story.
05:35I published a book by Menhera.
05:47I'm kind of like a therapy.
05:52It's a therapy.
05:54It's a business for a job.
05:58It's a therapy.
06:02Yami Kawaii is fashion, but it's also a coping mechanism for complex emotions.
06:09I wanted to know if other people were using fashion in the same way.
06:34Hanayo, a former teenage model, might have some insight.
06:38She was once a finalist in the nationwide Miss ID competition.
06:41An alternative beauty pageant that celebrates differences.
06:45Until she was disqualified for discussing her suicidal past.
07:00What do you feel when you come here?
07:10It's nice to meet you.
07:20Did you say you had multiple attempts?
07:22Yes.
07:25It was a case that broke down and broke down.
07:33It was a case that broke down and broke down.
07:36I had no memory of my head.
07:37I couldn't remember it.
07:40But I had a lot of mistakes.
07:43Her openness won her fans on social media and has won her a new kind of support system.
07:49Do you feel like there are a lot of people who feel the same way that you do?
08:08She uses social media to create a community where she feels free to talk about her art, her clothes, and
08:15her raw emotions.
08:16She uses social media.
08:21She uses social media.
08:22You have a lot of pink.
08:24Yeah, I have a lot of pink.
08:25Yeah.
08:26Do you dress to make yourself happy?
08:28Or do you dress to make other people happy?
08:30Like, you know, like the choices that you're being that alone?
08:36This is amazing.
08:39Seck suicide baby!
08:41Sex suicide baby!
08:43It was so difficult.
08:45Yeah, it feels bad to hide who you are.
08:48Right?
08:48Yes.
08:50What's one thing that you want people to know when they hear your story?
08:53When you're missing out of your ejaculation building, you're such an awful thing.
09:17Hanayo sees cute clothes as a form of therapy.
09:21Maybe that feeling isn't an accident.
09:24Joshua Pauldale is a professor
09:26who specializes in the impact of kawaii culture.
09:30Cute can mean clever in English.
09:32So we can look at somebody and say,
09:34oh, that's cute, or don't be cute.
09:36But kawaii in Japan doesn't have
09:38that negative connotation to it.
09:40It's simply a pure, like, happy feeling of cuteness.
09:43So instead of, like, you look kawaii,
09:45it's like, I feel kawaii because of how you are.
09:48When you express kawaii, you're expressing a desire
09:51to appeal to other people, to get closer to other people,
09:54and expressing a desire for healing.
09:57So maybe that can help people with those dark and more difficult issues
10:01that can't be openly expressed in Japanese society.
10:04Talking openly about painful experiences
10:07feels better than keeping it in.
10:09When you talk, powerful things can happen.
10:12But you're also able to use different kinds of transformations,
10:14as you run to other people,
10:14and so on your own.
10:15And, especially, my brain isn't the same.
10:20You're not a human.
10:24You're not a human.
10:28You're not a human.
10:31And I'm able to put that up.
10:32It's the same.
10:33You're not a human.
10:35You're not a human.
10:36Any human.
10:40It has a human.
10:41No human.
11:02I see now that yami kawaii can help people heal, people like Bisco's number one fan.
11:27So I came to Tokyo expecting to learn something about this new style subculture.
11:31What I really didn't expect to learn is something about love.
11:34You know, in the United States, asking for love isn't really a thing that we're very comfortable with doing.
11:39But in Japan, it's pervasive, it's normalized, it's kawaii.
11:44And especially when you have a hard time practicing self-love, asking for love is a really, really brave act.
11:51And that's what yami kawaii is at the end of the day. And that's pretty rad.
11:55I feel very happy to be, but I have a lot of fun.
11:56I am so scatting.
11:57I feel that with lack of knowledge.
12:00I feel that it is this is good for the world.
12:00So welcome to the U.S. Institute section.
12:00See you in the U.S. Institute.
12:02I am so I am so I am so I am so I am so I am so I am
12:02so I am so I am so I am so I am now.
12:02You
