“Ninjas are the ultimate paradox. On the one hand they don’t give a crap, but on the other hand, ninjas are very careful and precise.”
- Robert Hamburger, REAL Ultimate Power
Leave it to the Japanese to devise another term for a nearly ineffable feeling.
Chuunibyou, or “Eighth Grade Syndrome,” encapsulates the power fantasies of adolescence: The longing to be special, mysterious and different from the common people (But surely you remember being fourteen). In anime, it’s the distilled essence of why Light found the Death Note, why Lelouch received the “power of kings,” why Ikebukuro is so crazy and random and has a psychopathic metrosexual pulling all the strings.
You aren’t automatically immature if you happen to like Death Note, Code Geass or Durarara!!, of course. But some stories are just better at drawing down the thunder of the pubescent psyche. They are chuunibyou.
This concept applies to individuals too. After all, what is Kuroneko’s “Dark Childe of the Nyght” act, or Okarin’s obsession with white-coated mad science, if not the effects of chuunibyou turned up to embarrassing levels? It works so well precisely because they’re portrayed as part of the otakusphere, and we’ve seen real people who act this way among our kind. It’s endemic in the fandom.
It wasn’t too long ago in America when “mundane” was the term of choice for non-fans. As in, “Put the D&D books away, guys, there’s a mundane coming tonight.” (The great irony being that in my experience, fandom includes some of the most painfully dull people I’ve ever met.) What is it about the scene that makes people put on such airs? And now that it’s become so acceptable, even chic to be a geek, does that mean we’re going to see more chuunibyou than ever?
Maybe. But it seems to me that the essential ingredient of chuunibyou is compensation for fear. Yes, it’s a bit pathetic to pretend you have special powers. But behind the awkward feigning is always a sincere struggle for grace. Okarin’s mad genius persona is the social armor of a sensitive, self-doubting man who’s in way over his head. Ruri Gokou is shy and bad at making friends, but when she’s Kuroneko the Black Angel, she can be above it all.
And anytime I want to, I can be 2DT. See? Like that.
Further reading
Omo (on his new blogspace) turned me on to the concept of chuunibyou in context of Type-Moon and the Nasuverse.
Chuunibyou: a comprehensive guide, brought to you by Pixiv.
June 22, 2011 at 10:42 am
The pixiv encyclopedia page is a pretty good collection of the general concepts behind the term. Thanks for pointing it out.
As for your post, I think it’s an art-imitate-life thing. After all the term was first used to describe real people, and then shows with these sorts of characters (which are appropriately different than their real-life inspirations, thankfully) become popular…
Well, you know how it goes.
June 22, 2011 at 12:28 pm
I do wonder, in a sort of chicken-and-egg way: Does fandom push people into chuunibyou-ism, or are the chuunibyou-susceptble drawn to fandom?
Some of those examples in Pixiv just describe what we’d call hipsters.
June 22, 2011 at 12:27 pm
It’s like how most vain people are actually insecure. No, wait, it’s exactly like that. Now to find a quote…
June 22, 2011 at 12:32 pm
It IS that, more or less. But you’re forgetting the essential ingredient, which is to adore a particular combination of elements that make people think “man, this was made for fourteen year-olds to wet their pants over.” Hence Real Ultimate Power taking the coveted quote slot.
June 22, 2011 at 12:28 pm
oh, hey, here. Blaise Pascal, I love that guy.
“Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, and you who read this”
You arrogant douche.
June 22, 2011 at 12:33 pm
That’s a rather nice one. Gets straight to the point.
June 22, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Chuunibyou is certainly a universal sickness, though. I had a teacher who once said all 9th graders (read: 14-year-olds) should do a year of military service in the 9th grade. It was her view that all 9th-graders were the lowest forms of intelligence on the earth, entirely self-important, and that they should do a year in the forces to slap the silly out of them.
June 23, 2011 at 6:24 am
Because there’s no chance of that spawning new neuroses…
June 24, 2011 at 9:18 am
Absolutely, I remember being this way when I was that age. But somehow, having a single Japanese term for it adds so much elegance.
June 22, 2011 at 5:16 pm
I’ve been wrestling with the term for a while, not quite understanding exactly what aspect of 14-year-olds was being singled out (and not being helped much by the examples I’d seen provided). Thanks for the clear explanation, and the pixiv encyclopedia link.
June 24, 2011 at 9:20 am
It has a certain brilliance, though, right? It isn’t a fully logical connection that puts things together under chuunibyou, but now we can’t unsee it. The Mystic Eyes of Chuunibyou Perception.
You’re very welcome.
Thanks for reading!
June 22, 2011 at 9:40 pm
Is this why Bruce Wayne becomes Batman?
June 23, 2011 at 3:06 pm
It’s the basis of every Western super-hero comic book ever made. Actually, it’s also the basis of every shounen series ever made.
You have the few who try and deny their fate (Shinji in Evangelion, Simon in Gurren Lagaan, and Lee-Ditko era Spider Man) but the rest of them…
June 24, 2011 at 9:24 am
I agree in principle, but that also stretches definitions a bit thin. Just because it’s made for that audience doesn’t mean it gets that lightning-in-a-bottle effect of a Code Geass.
Perhaps it’s better to say chuunibyou is for people with the minds of fourteen year-olds.
June 24, 2011 at 9:22 am
I’m pretty sure he became Batman because his parents got shot and he was scared of bats.
But as for why Batman appeals to people for being a “more realistic, darker hero,” sure, that’s chuunibyou all the way.
June 23, 2011 at 2:53 am
I wonder how this relates, or inversely exploits the Taoist view of being “special” or standing out. Before college it came to me that many young people [in the US] tend to believe they are “special”, or unlike others. I know I thought I was pretty special when it came to math, which may have been justified, but either way silly and uncalled for in retrospect.
The Japanese have a terminological concept for this, so perhaps it’s something across culture, beyond the walls of the States where I grew up and observed. Then again, I feel like something in the culture here accepts and maybe even highlights this notion… it’s strange really.
June 23, 2011 at 6:29 am
I do not and have never lived in the States, so this is pure speculation, but I’d say it’s a socialization thing. Young people are very much encouraged to be special, individualism is very important in Western Capitalist English-speaking (etc) societies. Everyone is unique and different and that’s good – and by the same token being unremarkable is a sad fate. By contrast, in some societies being the same as those in your community is taught as a much more fulfilling thing.
June 24, 2011 at 9:26 am
I agree with this, mostly. It’s partly a function of American individualism, but also a natural consequence of the adolescent mind. Anecdotal exceptions aside, these years are when one develops their first concrete sense of self apart from one’s caretakers.
June 23, 2011 at 3:44 am
The thought of being “different from the crowd” started in middle school for me when all my classmates were into typical teenager stuff (for the girls, make-up, clothes, boys, etc.,) while I was into Pokemon and starting to get into anime. Even though I wouldn’t let peer pressure dictate what I should and shouldn’t like, I was just kinda confused and uncertain as to why I was so different rather than taking pride in it. It wasn’t until high school and onward when I started to feel good about my individuality (as an anime fan and as a person) and strived to be better than the common folk.
Not sure if you’d say I have chuunibyou or not ~_^
June 24, 2011 at 9:28 am
I don’t think you do. Chuunibyou is a concept with a good heart, but that doesn’t stop it from being godawful annoying in practice.
And becoming comfortable with oneself is a very adult sort of thing to do, I think.
June 23, 2011 at 4:27 am
But… I am different. I’m very, very smart, and I have alexithymia. This puts me well within a one percentile portion of the population. I easily got into a “top” high school with zero effort and I was genuinely surprised at how stressed out and weird most of the other kids were. I don’t have a lot of friends even though I’m a reasonably friendly guy when I’m not crazy because there aren’t many people I can relate to.
June 23, 2011 at 4:32 am
I’m always amused at how many people believe that being different is a “good” thing. I’m not so sure.
June 23, 2011 at 4:38 am
For example, when I was in school I always thought I was the same as everyone else. But I could never figure out why everyone else behaved differently. This confused me for a very, very long time. It’s only now that I can look back and go like, “oh wait!” Etc. etc.
“If you think you’re different, you’re the same. But if you think everyone else is different, then you’re different.” Something like that.
June 24, 2011 at 9:31 am
Yours is an interesting case. I’ve never met anyone with alexithymia before, but suffice to say that you ARE different. And without speculating too much, it’s possible that you never felt the kind of self-obsessed yearning that us psychologically-normative people did as adolescents.
You dodged a bullet, really.
June 23, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Interesting post! (I immediately thought of Onani Master Kurosawa and how that manga is basically about how juvenile power fantasies are dumb.)
June 24, 2011 at 9:33 am
A fascinating connection! It so happens that I wrote about Onani Master Kurosawa, many moons ago: http://2dteleidoscope.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/onani-master-kurosawa-and-the-human-tradition/
Good to see another fan!
June 23, 2011 at 2:52 pm
I think I still have that desire to have something special about myself, and I’m already 19 *-*
June 24, 2011 at 9:36 am
I think there’s healthy desire to be special, and then there’s the eye-rolling quality that defines chuunibyou. You can have the former without necessarily falling to the latter.
A comment from you! A first! Such a delight.
Thanks for stopping by.
June 24, 2011 at 11:14 am
“And anytime I want to, I can be 2DT. See? Like that.”
Loll. We bloggers I suppose are chuunibyou of a sort.
June 24, 2011 at 12:06 pm
And any time you want to, you can be Yi.
… Except I always got the impression that “Yi Hsieh” is your actual, for-really-real name, which complicates things.
June 29, 2011 at 10:31 am
A mistake on my part when I first entered the blogosphere… I really shouldn’t have used my real name nor my real email.
July 5, 2011 at 2:18 pm
No doubt you guys know that I’ve made it my personal mission to see behind those veils with the little group I’ve established.
And I wonder if I may come across a little too over-eager to peek into the lives behind “2DT” or “Yi”, but it’s my curse for being both extroverted and curious I suppose.
June 25, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Harry Potter anyone? Makes me think of Sailor Moon too. And in anime there are some interesting responses to Chuunibyou in shows like Haruhi, Madoka, and the aforementioned Evangelion.
We do have a term in the West that covers a similar idea from a different angle: Mary Sue.
To tie this article in with your last one, it often seems that our anime protagonists are made to be younger than they really should be. For example, to me Okabe from Steins;Gate felt like he was in his mid-twenties until it was mentioned that he was a minor, too young to legally drink. Kurisu too, seems older than 18. I also find this interesting because I think of the median age of the show’s target audience as probably being in their early twenties. Adventure, heroics, and greatness seem to require youth, even in the eyes of older fans; look at Naruto; he’s aged three years in a real life ten-year period. A fan that started the series the same age as him (12 iirc) would now be in his early twenties while Naruto is 15. Honestly, it’s something that bugs me, because I am of the firm opinion that the reverse is true; people don’t even *start* to become hero material until their late teens. Recently, I have found Tiger and Bunny refreshing for its more realistically aged heroes.
June 27, 2011 at 9:15 am
You know, I’m ambivalent toward Harry Potter for just this reason. It’s great to have kids exercising their imaginations and getting really into a fantasy world, and I’d never want to take that away. But the whole “you funny little Muggles and your common blood” thing kind of creeps me out (I know characters like Hermione and Snape are there to even out the perspective, but it’s still there).
Mary Sue is an interesting comparison. I’d say it’s not quite the same, but it draws from that same well of fantasy mixed with insecurity. Excellent point!
June 26, 2011 at 10:50 pm
I remember when I was 14, I thought that I was special and could do anything. One of my goals was to become a millionaire by the time I turned 22. Well, lets just say the world sure showed me.
June 27, 2011 at 9:21 am
I know this very well.
Some people actually do it, is what makes this so bittersweet.
July 27, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Hmm, to throw a quote from To Kill A Mockingbird into the midst:
“People in their right minds never take pride in their talents”.
Assuming you have any talents, of course. Either way, Miss Maudie’s words (regarding Atticus and his hidden talents and how one shouldn’t boast of these etc. etc., in case the reference is was new to anyone) indicate that being special comes from being taught right from wrong and then simply being allowed to be yourself. To generalise: everyone wants to be special, that’s a given, and yet everyone is encouraged to be true to themselves… I guess in this sense, anime (and a lot of fiction/ associated media) offers an escape where ‘ordinary’ main characters are often seen to be special or become so due to circumstances in which they find themselves. And that idea of ‘escape’ is certainly not a new one, but what fascinates me is the way this idea co-exists with the ‘just be yourself’ idea. They should be, and yet they are not mutually exclusive. Perhaps the/ another idea is to be yourself, to be ‘personal’, in the hopes that your ‘uniqueness’ is what makes you special…
…along with everyone else.
November 23, 2011 at 1:57 am
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October 13, 2012 at 6:34 pm
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