Chunibyo

Chunibyo (Chūnibyō / 厨二病) is Japanese slang for the cringeworthy, self-important phase that many teenagers go through around 8th grade. The name literally means “middle school second-year syndrome.” The 病 (byō, “disease”) part is tongue-in-cheek; it frames the awkward posturing of adolescence as something you “catch” or “come down with,” not an actual medical condition.

The stereotype most people picture is the fantasy-delusion type: a teenager convinced they harbor a sealed supernatural power, a cursed eye, or a secret organization on their trail. But the term originally covered a much broader range of adolescent cringe, from trying too hard to seem mature to loudly rejecting anything mainstream. It works equally well as self-deprecating humor about your own embarrassing past or as a lighthearted jab at someone else, regardless of age.

Chunibyo characters have become an established genre in anime and light novels, making the term widely recognized among overseas fans as well.

The term was coined by Japanese radio host Hikaru Ijūin. On January 11, 1999, during his late-night TBS Radio show “Deep Night Idiot Power” (Shinya no Bakajikara), he joked that he was “still suffering from chūnibyō.” The following week, he launched a recurring segment roughly titled “Think You Might Have Caught It? Chūnibyō” (Kakatta ka na? to Omottara Chūnibyō), inviting listeners to submit their own “symptoms.” Classic entries included suddenly questioning the point of factoring in math class, forcing down black coffee to seem grown-up, and going on a quest to find a “true best friend.”

Ijūin later said the idea came from a chat with fellow entertainer Jun Miura, who remarked that boys in their second year of middle school are at their most entertainingly awkward. The joke was to name it like an age-related ailment, the way Japanese uses “forty-shoulder” (shijūkata) for frozen shoulder. The segment ended in March 1999, and the term stayed within the show’s listener community for several years.

Around 2005, chūnibyō resurfaced on 2channel (now 5channel), Japan’s largest anonymous bulletin board, but with a shift: it was now used less for self-deprecation and more to mock others. The defining moment came in 2006, when a user confessed to an elaborate middle school fantasy in which they possessed a secret third eye called the “jaki-gan” (邪気眼, evil eye), wrapped their arm in bandages to contain its power, and acted out dramatic scenes of losing control, all inspired by the character Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho. The post went massively viral and became one of the most famous copypastas in Japanese internet history, permanently linking chūnibyō with delusions of supernatural power.

The alternate spelling 厨二病 comes from 2channel slang of the same era. On the boards, middle schoolers were mockingly called chūbō (厨房), a wordplay on the similar-sounding 中坊 (“middle school kid”). The character 厨 was borrowed from that insult, giving this spelling a sharper, more derisive edge than the original 中二病.

The three types of chūnibyō

Online discussions commonly break chūnibyō into three types. The classification was formalized by light novel author Hyōya Saegami in his 2008 book A User’s Manual for Chūnibyō (Chūnibyō Toriatsukai Setsumeisho, published by Kotobukiya) and remains widely cited.

The DQN type covers wannabe delinquents who romanticize rebellion. Pointless defiance of school rules and declarations like “I hate people who follow the crowd” are typical, but they are usually too well-behaved at heart to follow through.

The subculture type rejects anything mainstream and chases niche interests to feel superior. “Once it gets popular, it’s over” is the typical refrain. The driving force is less a genuine love of subculture than a need to stand apart from everyone else.

The jaki-gan type (evil eye type) is the most iconic. These are people who believe, or half-believe, they possess sealed supernatural powers or belong to a hidden fantasy world. Wrapping an arm in bandages, wearing a pointless eyepatch, and inventing original special-move names are the telltale signs. When people say chūnibyō today, this is usually the type they mean.

中二病 vs. 厨二病: the two spellings

Both spellings refer to the same thing, but they tend to appear in different contexts. 中二病 is more common in dictionaries, news headlines, and official titles such as the anime Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions (中二病でも恋がしたい！). 厨二病, rooted in 2channel culture, is favored in casual spaces like social media and message boards. In practice, both are understood and there is no strict rule for choosing one over the other.

Connection to “dark history” (黒歴史)

Chūnibyō often comes up alongside kuro rekishi (黒歴史, literally “dark history”), slang for past actions so embarrassing you wish you could erase them. Looking back on a chūnibyō phase and calling it your “dark history” is a well-established pattern, along with phrases like “dark history notebook” and “dark history poems.”