00:05This is so cute, but what does this say?
00:08I want to die.
00:09I want to die.
00:11Oh.
00:14While I've never been afraid to take a few risks in the name of fashion, there's
00:18a new style 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
01:16on Instagram.
01:40Yami kawaii is the Japanese word for cute.
01:43Yume kawaii means cute like a dream.
01:46Yami kawaii is what happens when Yume goes dark.
02:01Fans 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.
02:13But then it says, I love you.
02:21I love to kill you.
02:22Okay.
02:24So you're changing your mind a lot.
02:26But it's kawaii.
02:36That's yami kawaii.
02:38That's yami kawaii.
02:39That's yami kawaii.
02:40That's yami kawaii.
02:40Can you tell me who this is?
02:47Meet Minhera-chan, the yummy kawaii heroine of Bisco's comic.
02:51She gets her name from Minhera, a term that refers to people who suffer from mental illness.
03:21To understand why this is a look someone would want to project, I decided to try the clothes
03:26on for myself.
03:27I need a jacket and then I need a bottom.
03:30This one?
03:32How's that?
03:33Kawaii.
03:33Kawaii?
03:34Okay.
03:34A jacket?
03:36What makes this one yummy kawaii?
03:40I think I'm getting it now.
03:49Accessories.
03:50Accessories?
03:54Okay.
03:55Kawaii.
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.
04:06The bandages around the girl's wrists, the droplet hanging off the syringe.
04:10I don't feel kawaii.
04:12I feel uncomfortable.
04:20This is kawaii.
04:23Kawaii desu.
04:25For some, this look is empowering.
04:28But 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?
04:44This is my room.
04:45Oh my god.
04:47There's so much kawaii.
04:50Such an interesting mix of sweetness and pink.
04:54And then, this is terrifying.
04:56Goto desu.
04:57Oh my gosh.
04:58Yeah, that's probably the most yummy 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?
05:06I don't know what does it mean.
05:08Of course, I don't know about those who have died by noose or is it.
05:14Of course, because I'm afraid I'm suffering from the dark area.
05:15I think it's a dark area.
05:15It's making it easier.
05:26I'm aging and getting it into something.
05:32I think she's like a good to know who has died by me.
06:01Yami Kawaii is fashion.
06:04But 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, an alternative beauty pageant
06:43that celebrates differences, until she was disqualified for discussing her suicidal past.
07:00What do you feel when you come here?
07:10It's nice to see you.
07:20Did you say you had multiple attempts?
07:22Yes.
07:25I was in a case of the fall of the fall of the fall of the fall of the fall
07:29of the fall of the fall of the fall of the fall of the fall.
07:34I didn't know how to do it, but it's a bit of a mistake.
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.
08:22You 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?
08:36This amazing.
08:39Sex suicide baby.
08:41Sex suicide baby.
08:45Yeah, it feels bad to hide who you are, right?
08:50What's one thing that you want people to know when they hear your story?
08:54If you fail to make mistakes, it's a bad thing.
08:59So people think that they should be better.
09:03I want to tell you what you want people to know when they hear your story.
09:08I want to say that you want people to be happy.
09:10I want people to be happy.
09:13I want people to be happy.
09:15I want people to be happy.
09:18I want people to be happy.
09:18Hanayo sees cute clothes as a form of therapy.
09:21Maybe that feeling isn't an accident.
09:24Joshua Pauldale is a professor who specializes in the impact of kawaii culture.
09:30Cute can mean clever in English.
09:32So we can look at somebody and say, oh, that's cute, or don't be cute.
09:36But kawaii in Japan doesn't have that negative connotation to it.
09:40It's simply a pure, like, happy feeling of cuteness.
09:43So instead of, like, you look kawaii, it's like, I feel kawaii because of how you are.
09:48Yeah.
09:48When you express kawaii, you're expressing a desire to appeal to other people,
09:52to get closer to other people, and expressing a desire for healing.
09:57So maybe that can help people with those dark and more difficult issues that can't be openly expressed in Japanese
10:03society.
10:04Talking openly about painful experiences feels better than keeping it in.
10:09When you talk, powerful things can happen.
10:12Because of the way you're in foreign countries,
10:14to get the nervous system and your heart,
10:16the disease and your heart, the disease, and your heart are the same.
10:21You're also talking about pain.
10:21Because of the pain, you're forgetting the pain.
10:25You're telling me that you're feeling bad about it.
10:32You're telling me that you're feeling good about it.
10:38You're telling me that you're feeling good about it.
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 of 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
11:38with doing, but 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
11:49brave act.
11:50And that's what Yami Kawaii is at the end of the day, and that's pretty rad.
