Japanese school boys: 'We're no longer little kids!'
Think "herbivore boys" are extreme? Wait until you've seen this lot.There is a moment in everyone's lives when they're overcome with adolescent urge to be different, and to announce to the world that they're no longer a kid.
Sinkan JP recently featured an upcoming book titled "Gakkou no Kuuki," penned by sociologist Yuki Honda. The book, which is written in Japanese, provides insight into what goes on in the lives of teenagers attending Japanese boys schools, focusing on 14-year-olds in "chu-ni" (中二).
They won't stay this innocent for long. Thank God. Hierarchy
within the school
According to Honda, chu-ni is a period when kids start to search for their identity and demand to be free from their parents, while their childish immaturity lingers on.
In his book, Honda explains how chu-ni students are "ranked" in their school community according to the number of friends they have. The more friends they have, the better chance there is of them being recognized as a "first-class" member.
Boys also score major points for participating in sports. Those in non-athletic clubs, on the other hand, are likely to score high… on the loser scale.
"I don't care what adults say!"End up laughable
Teenage rebellion isn’t news. You might be wondering why Honda has taken pains to write a book about the obvious.
But Japanese chu-no take defiance to a new level, according to Honda.
Not content with insubordination, some chu-ni children, especially boys, like to escape into a fantasy world in their heads where they're "somebody." Kind of like the characters in Zack Snyder’s upcoming movie Sucker Punch, only these kids aren’t contained in a mental asylum.
The buzzword "chu-ni byo," or chu-ni illness, alludes to chu-no's tendency to indulge in laughable fantasies.
Some, for example, believe that there will be a magical beam of light emanating from their hands if they wish for it strongly enough. Others convince themselves that mere scratches on their arms were sustained from battling an imaginary secret crime organization.
Like the Japanese teens who were arrested last year for committing petty theft in the same way the villains in anima series "Detective Conan" did, the chu-ni byo phenomenon can probably be attributed to kids taking anime too seriously.
The list below outlines common chu-ni byo symptoms.
15 chu-ni byo symptoms:
1. Drink coffee even though they find it bitter
2. Start listening to Western music
3. "I've always known about this band!"
4. "I don’t understand what good factorization will do in your life. How lame."
5. Think there's nothing they cannot do if they try hard enough
6. Carry Zippo lighter even when they don’t smoke
7. Make know-it-all comments such as, "Man, do you know how nasty America is?" despite extremely limited knowledge
8. Start working out as only way to release sexual frustration
9. Brag about how many adult videos they have
10. Pretend to be food critic -- even when eating ramen
11. Dismiss anime cards or plastic models as childish, after years of obsessively collecting them
12. Admiring selves in mirror while bathing, with wet hair slicked back in a pompadour style. The haircut, also known as the "regent," is a symbol of young hoodlumism.
13. Hop on bikes with great flourish, a self-consciously cool, but unnecessary gesture
14. "I don't want to be a salaryman in the future."
15. Write original lyrics for songs that they haven’t composed yet, and probably never will.
