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In anime when a character is chronically sick, they are said to have a "weak
body".

The first and most obvious example that comes to my mind is Clannad, but I've
seen this in other animes as well.

Is this something out of japanese culture? Or maybe a quirk of translation?

Maybe I'm looking too far into it and it's really just a plot device, and
nobody really cares about what the illness really is.

Thanks to those who reply!


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2014-01-31T20:28:51.747
7248
2014-02-01T01:47:25.510
2014-01-31T20:39:47.583
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question
tropes culture
Why do sick anime characters often are said to have a "weak body"?


It's more than likely that this so-called mysterious "weakness syndrome" is
really just as a plot device to drive the story/characters along. This
particular aim to draw sympathies to the particular character and is more
often than not, a popular way to have character die before their time, if
that's what the story demands.

So why is this mysterious weakness trope so popular, you ask? Why not always
using a real illness? Typically it's because this "weakness" is a "clean" and
"cute" illness, when compared to actual chronic medical conditions. Even in
its lethal form the symptoms are: you are weak, you're getting weaker, you
die. (coughing up blood every now and then is optional)

In contrast, an actual conditions like stomach cancer on the other hand is not
"cute" at all. As soon as you specify a real-life disease/conditions a lot of
questions pop up, something that might shift the perspective away from the
tragic fate of a character.

Additionally, there might be some actual conditions that inspired the
"weakness syndrome" since Japanese did have a lot of sick people for a long
time in certain areas. Having been a country that's been devastated twice by
an atomic bomb, the effects of radiation exposure was not well researched or
documented back then by scientists, so a lot of the long-term from direct and
indirect radiation exposure side-effects like birth defects, leukemia, anemia,
cancers, thyroid disease, liver and bone marrow degeneration, and overall
severely compromised immune systems, might have been attributed to other
things.


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2014-02-01T01:47:25.510
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