Superflat × Yami-Kawaii

Loosely comparable: flat fills and character-led pop art, though no source ties menhera to the superflat movement.

From the research on Yami-Kawaii (Sick-Cute)

Mix them and make something Superflat Yami-Kawaii

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Yami-Kawaii, their arrangement from Superflat, the finish from Superflat. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Superflat Yami-Kawaii (Sick-Cute)

Type from Yami-Kawaii: Rounded sans
Hand-lettering
Colour from Superflat: Full polychrome
Flat fields
Form from Yami-Kawaii: Rounded & pill
Stylised figuration
Composition from Superflat: All-over field
Central symmetry
Surface from Superflat: Gloss & highlights
Flat

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Yami-Kawaii

Wow.

Zen Maru Gothic, standing in for Rounded gothic sans (maru-gothic)

Text · Yami-Kawaii

A darker variant of kawaii that keeps pastel pinks, lavenders and rounded characters but fills them with medical and self-harm motifs: pills, syringes, razor blades, bandages and tears. Drawn as cute stickers and goods, it is both ironic and sad, and observers disagree whether it opens talk about mental health or glamorises illness.

Zen Maru Gothic; Yami-Kawaii used Rounded gothic sans and Japanese hand-written pop lettering

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Superflat, with a counter-accent from Yami-Kawaii. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Superflat Yami-Kawaii (Sick-Cute)

#fbfaf5 ground · 36%
#1a1a1a ink · 14%
#ffd900 accent · 18%
#e0457b accent · 14%
#00a0e9 accent · 10%
#d9c8f2 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #fbfaf5;
  --ink: #1a1a1a;
  --accent-1: #ffd900;
  --accent-2: #e0457b;
  --accent-3: #00a0e9;
  --accent-4: #d9c8f2;
  --font-display: "Zen Maru Gothic", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Zen Maru Gothic", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Superflat: Some canonical works use explicit otaku sexual imagery, such as Murakami's My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), and associated artists engage with lolicon art: Mr. describes himself as a lolicon and Henmaru Machino parodies it; never sexualise childlike figures. The mushroom-cloud skulls of Murakami's Time Bokan works and the title Little Boy, the name of the Hiroshima bomb, refer to the atomic bombings, and critics such as Dong-Yeon Koh argue that this victim narrative obscures Japanese aggression in China and Korea; do not use mushroom clouds or skulls as cute decoration. Handle borrowed Buddhist iconography and phrases, such as Kannon, with respect, and draw original characters and flowers: Mr. DOB, the smiling flowers and the Louis Vuitton monogram are owned designs.

Yami-Kawaii (Sick-Cute): The imagery refers to mental illness and self-harm, and it is contested whether it raises awareness or glamorises them. 'Menhera' is Japanese internet slang for people with mental health problems, used from about 2001 among users of a 2channel mental health board, and often used dismissively; creators in the scene describe drawing on their own mental health experiences. Treat the motifs with care, avoid using them to mock real conditions, and follow safe-messaging practice in any commercial use.

The two styles

A densely packed, brightly coloured cartoon poster reads “HAPPYVERSE” above a smiling blue-haired character with extra eyes on their forehead, hair and outstretched palms. Smiling flowers, winged rabbits, floating creatures, stars and planets surround the character, with a smiling Earth at the bottom.

1993–present · East Asia, Global / networked Superflat The flat, saturated, cartoon-crowded look that Takashi Murakami named in his exhibition and manifesto Superflat (Tokyo, 2000; US tour 2001). It draws a line from Edo painting and prints to postwar anime and manga, and flattens high and low, art and merchandise into one plane. Smiling flowers, many-eyed characters and anime figures come in unshaded polychrome, smooth and glossy, cute and grotesque at once, sold as handbags and album covers as well as paintings. This entry follows the drawn core of Murakami and his Kaikai Kiki circle; the shows also held photography, video and sculpture. 2013–present · East Asia, Global / networked Yami-Kawaii (Sick-Cute) A darker variant of kawaii that keeps pastel pinks, lavenders and rounded characters but fills them with medical and self-harm motifs: pills, syringes, razor blades, bandages and tears. Drawn as cute stickers and goods, it is both ironic and sad, and observers disagree whether it opens talk about mental health or glamorises illness.