The Dark Side of Anime: Studies on Chūnibyō Psychological Disorders in a Japanese Story

Cover image of Aura story (Source: https://kitsu.io/anime/aura-maryuuinkouga-saigo-no-tatakai )

Japan is a country that has the largest animation industry worldwide. Like its manufacture products and electronic goods, Japanese animation has also given substantial influence on creative industry throughout the world. The word anime is a special term to describe the work of animation made in Japan. This term used synonymously with English terminology animation.

Anime began to develop in Japan around the 1970s due to the advancement of Japanese comic industry. By 1980, anime became a global phenomenon and even so following the development of the Internet in the 1990s. Japanese anime that reached worldwide popularity includes Dragon Ball, Naruto, and One Piece.

Along with the booming of anime, Japanese youth increasingly love Japanese animation. They not only collect DVD of anime, anime figure, even to mimic the style of anime characters that they admire.  They show an excessive love to everything anime and anime world. Sometime, they forgot to their own world that is very different from anime world. Such excessive love could lead in to serious impersonation of an anime character that could bring about a psychological disorder.

Such psychological symptoms in Japanese is known as chūnibyō. The word chūnibyō consist of three kanji letters, namely 中 (CHU) 'middle / junior high school'; 二 (ni) 'two'; and 病(byō) 'sick' Literally chūnibyō can be translated into the eighth grade disease.

Chūnibyō refers to psychological symptoms commonly suffered by children in junior high school who consider themselves as if to have a supernatural power and assume the surrounding world is a world of its own with a variety of hidden strength (Hyoya, 2009: 2).

This article analyses issues on chūnibyō psychological disorder narrated in Aura: Maryūinkōga Saigo no Tatakai (Aura: The last fight of the Chosen, Fang of Light), an anime adaptation of the manga of the same title written by Kouichirou Hoshino published in April 2012. The study focuses on the characteristic of teenagers suffer from this syndrome and how they cope and freed themselves from the syndrome. It also discussed negative response given to them by their close friend at school and other public domain.

Manga, Movie, Anime Representation

The stories about characters who have psychological disorders have been widely raised in manga, movie, and anime.

One anime that picked up the story of the characters who have psychological disorders chūnibyō is Aura: Maryūinkōga Saigo no Tatakai (Aura: The last fight of the Chosen, Fang of Light). This anime is an adaptation of the manga of the same title written by Kouichirou Hoshino published in April 2012.

The main character is Satō Ichiro who had suffered from the syndrome of chūnibyō while in junior high school. He came out of his old school and bury deep the syndrome he ever suffered. He eventually recovered, but he found a friend with the same boat that Satō Ryoko. Ichiro was moved to bring Ryoko back to the real world.

Satō Ryoko dressed in anime figure that she had idolized even when attending class. Her clothes was known as cosplay (costume player). Various attempts were made by Ichiro Satō to resuscitate his classmates in order not dissolved in the imaginary world.

Saigo no Tatakai or 'final battle' referred to in the title of this anime is Satō Ichiro's return once again to the imaginary world that he had once been painstakingly left behind to take Satō Ryoko back to the real world at the same time recover from chūnibyō syndrome suffered.

Three Types of People Suffering from Chūnibyō

Each individual has integrity properties or different, diverse and unique, self-characteristics as well as the adolescents with chūnibyō psychological disorders. In the book Chūnibyō Toriatsukai Setsumeisho 中二病取扱説明書 ' Explanatory book of Chūnibyō', there are three kinds of people suffering from chūnibyō 'ie 邪気眼系 (jakigankei), DQN 系 (DQNkei), and サブカル系 (sabukarukei).

From these three categories, it is known that the chūnibyō syndrome suffered by characters in Aura: Maryūinkōga Saigo no Tatakai belongs to jakigankei type. Patients with this type tend to feel that they have supernatural powers. Patients also often fantasized into a superhero who thought that they must saved the world from danger.

The character with the chūnibyō behavior depicted in anime Aura Maryuinkouga Saigo no Tatakai is Satō Ryoko as the central figure. Satō Ichiro had once suffered from chūnibyō syndrome yet been recovered, and several Satō Ichiro’s classmates namely Kinoshita, Osamu Suzuki, Hino, Tatsuo Andou and Oda.

Not all Japanese people can accept children who cherish a fantasy figure, resulting in much ijime or bullying from classmates and the surrounding communities. The ijime experienced by anime characters ranges from beatings, theft of goods, to be locked in the bathroom. The ijime most upsetting Satō Ryoko includes the writing in the form of verbal abuse written on the desk.

Healing at the Stage of Maturity

Healing for those suffered from chūnibyō syndrome can occur by itself if the teenagers already pass the stage of maturity, like Ichiro Satō who recovered when he was already stepping high school. Yet his friends, especially Satō Ryoko after he had passed the junior high school so it was worrying and must be cured. Various groups helped, including families, teachers, and especially friends.

Satō Ryoko’s recovery process who suffered from severe chūnibyō psychological disorder was not easy. Homeroom also played a role by arranging seating and approached Satō Ryoko as if the homeroom understood the imaginary world. Finally, Satō Ryoko recovered by virtue of the hard struggle of his friend Satō Ichiro who had experienced the same thing.

Satō Ichiro advised, rebuked, and the last way was to go into the world of Satō Ryoko. He allowed himself to go back again to the dark period in order to help Satō Ryoko. Finally Satō Ryoko was able to recover and proved by his return to school wearing uniform and left his cosplay clothes. He also asked Satō Ichiro to teach how to be an ordinary man.

The anime is apparently reveals the dark side of the booming of pop culture in Japan. Youngsters who are addicted in reading comics, watching anime, too much admiring imaginary figures can fall to create their own imaginary world. This negative impact of anime, might occur outside Japan, that offer interesting research topics.

Research on the negative impacts of excessive absorbed in anime world is important to contribute to preventing the psychiatric impact that can damage anime lover’s lives, while at the same time continuing to support the advancement of anime-based creative industries.***

Note: this article based on research project entitled “Chūnibyō: Sebuah Gangguan Psikologis dalam Anime Aura: Maryūinkōga Saigo no Tatakai”, funded by Centre for Research and Social Service Institute, Udayana University, in 2016, under the early research career grant, number 1453/UN14.1/LT/SPK/2016, dated 27 June 2016 .