Flowers are being used to express people’s emotions; all flowers represent an emotion. But what if those emotions caused a flower disease that signifies love, longing, and loss? Hanahaki Disease, ever heard of it?
This idea has been around in East Asia for a while But was only introduced to a larger audience in 2009 by Naoko Matsuda when she published Hanahaki Otome.
Hanahaki Otome Cover
The Manga brought the fictional disease to the world, and people have been loving the idea of this ironic death caused by loving a person. But what is Hanahaki Disease? Hanahaki Disease is a fictional disease that only occurs to people who suffer from unrequited love. Usually, the victims’ first signs of symptoms would be chest pains, followed by loss of breath or coughing. And then followed by severe symptoms like coughing up flower petals and roots slithering their way to the lungs to suffocate them to their demise. This sickness is only cured when the victim’s feelings are romantically returned. Another thing, surgery, would mean removing the flowers growing in the victim’s lungs that will also remove their love for the person they had the sickness.
I have been a fanfiction reader for so long. But I only discovered this trope three years ago. As a person who loves angst and pain, this trope has been one of my go-to reads ever since. The stories made with this trope can capture more audiences outside the fan fiction community, which still confuses me how this isn’t made into a movie or something already.
The thing about this trope is that it only has three possible endings, in which both are sad, and only one is happy: The Happy ending where the feelings are reciprocated; The Victim dies with the disease, keeping their feelings intact; and lastly, when the victim goes through surgery and wakes up with no more emotions to the person they once loved, which is very exciting because no one would expect what happens next. And that draws people into the story more.
The irony I have discussed above is how this disease can showcase the beautiful and horrible sides of love. Falling in love isn’t all happy like others say, because, in these types of stories, that isn’t enough to save a person, but it could also signify that even in the most painful of situations, love can still be beautiful.
Other authors added their touches when making their Hanahaki stories, and it is impressive how they can pull it off like it’s an actual sickness. I suggest Hanahaki Disease to be part of anyone’s to-read list. And I recommend AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org) when reading fanfiction.
Good EveDawn, Everyone!
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