Weak Girl Syndrome
Japan is currently in crisis. Adolescent schoolgirls all over the country are suffering from what has become known as Weak Girl Syndrome. Every young women’s educational institution in the country has at least one student suffering from this tragic but ill-defined malady. While the pathology is not well understood, it appears to be a congenital condition with two or more variants. Sadly there are often complications for sufferers of Weak Girl Syndrome and the disease can escalate into full-blown Dying Girl Syndrome. Naturally such a serious problem is reflected in anime; in fact, if it wasn’t for watching anime I wouldn’t even be aware of this terrible epidemic.
Some of you may find the following images disturbing (not to mention spoilerific), but I think it’s important to highlight this tragedy. Hopefully you will be moved to donate money in order to relieve a little of the suffering of these poor sickly girls and, importantly, to aid Japan’s medical research program in its attempts to end the proliferation of this pernicious condition for once and all. Please email me if these sad images of beautiful young women struck down in the bloom of youth by tragic weakness move you enough to donate. Rest assured that I will make sure that all monies donated are transferred from my bank to the relevant authorities.
Juujou Shion of Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru is one of the luckier ones.
Despite her condition almost mutating into the fatal variant she recovered and now leads a comparatively weakness-free life.
However, sometimes the syndrome flares up if she pushes herself too hard, leaving her incapacitated for an indeterminate time.
Strawberry Panic’s Sakuragi Kaori was not so lucky.
Her congenital weakness escalated into Dying Girl Syndrome.
Tragically her weakened body was never able to recover.
Shimazu Yoshino of Maria-sama ga Miteru was initially diagnosed as having standard Weak Girl Syndrome.
Though it seemed that it was mostly under control and not likely to lead to Dying Girl Syndrome.
However, it was discovered that she actually suffered from the lesser known variant Actual Real Medical Condition Syndrome. After a successful operation to close a hole in her heart she went on to make a full recovery and now lives a full life as a non-weak-bodied girl.
Don’t let the happy outcome of the last case fool you though. Rarely is this little-understood condition cured, and it will continue to blight the adolescence of Japanese girls for a long time to come unless action is taken.
Please donate as much as you can to the Help Anime Girls With Weak Bodies Fund, or HAGWBF as it’s sometimes known.
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December 2nd, 2006 @ 2:51 pm
Ha!!!
I thought it was a real illness in Japan at first.
You must be watching different anime to me. There’s not that many sick girls.
Funny though.
December 2nd, 2006 @ 7:46 pm
I actually became slightly paranoid after posting this entry that people would take it the wrong way and might be offended. Glad someone found it amusing at least.
It wasn’t so much sick girls in anime that I was poking fun at (though I certainly seem to have seen a lot of them since getting into anime) so much as it was the vague nature of their illnesses, which usually seem to be explained away as “I have a weak body”.
Just struck me as amusing. :)
December 3rd, 2006 @ 5:11 pm
Lol, good post. Thanks for the blogroll - good to know I have a few fans ^_^
December 3rd, 2006 @ 7:44 pm
You’re welcome. I always do my utmost to support yuricentric endeavours. ;)
December 4th, 2006 @ 11:23 am
Heh, the illness striked this season too (see Kanon, Shiori).
December 8th, 2006 @ 2:55 pm
Hi, it’s the firts time i’m posting here (found your site via animesuki).
Well, to be frank, I thought you were serious until I reached the part about Yoshino ^^;
I noticed many times too, this “weak condition” stated in anime and mangas.
Other than that, I do have the impression that Japanese people really have weaker bodies…it is also not rare to hear about “do eat your breakfast if you don’t want to faint at school” being told to a healthy person… and I always thought : “like that could happen just because you don’t eat breakfast!”, but well, I’ve heard it so many many times, I’m wondering if Japanese people really are that weak?
There’s also the case where somebody gets a runny nose on mornig, rapidly have a fever by noon and faint… I don’t know about you, but I find that surprising! I’ve had fevers in my life, but never fainted. (and do fevers appear that suddenly?)
I’ve grown up in a well preserved environnement surrounded by nature, and I wondered if people growing up near big cities with lot of pollution end up being weaker? that’s the only logical thing I could come up with…
so what do you think?
December 8th, 2006 @ 6:15 pm
Hi Noriko. Welcome to the site. :)
My knowledge of Japan is pretty much limited to anime and horror films - so minimal, to say the least heh - but it seems to me more likely that it’s a meme rather than reality.
Certainly environment has an effect on people’s health. People living in cities are more likely to suffer from asthma (here in Britain anyway) for example, but… I dunno… I just find it hard to believe that a developed nation suffers significant problems with its people having some kind of generic weakness. But if I’m wrong, I apologise to any Japanese readers who may have been offended!
Either way it’s a convenient way for an anime/manga to avoid exposition, not to mention limiting questions the viewer or reader might ask such as “why is that girl dying of cancer not in hospital?”.