I’ve noticed a new trend among my students. While most trends used to stem from a pop icon on TV, film, or music, this new trend is an incoherent smorgasbord of various influences online: influencers on TikTok or Instagram, fashion crazes from past generations or other countries, and above all, Japanese manga and anime.
What would have easily marked a person as a social outcast when I was a student in the ’90s is now cool (or “tough” as the kids say). Instead of being bullied and shamed, sexually ambiguous introverts who style themselves as magical pirates from the manga One Piece, boast about their neurodivergence, and base their whole worldview on Nintendo products now represent the social avant-garde. By contrast, the conventional social set who play sports, host parties, and show charisma are dwindling into a negligible minority.
