So, it’s really late, and I’m really tired, so hopefully this makes sense.

The Invisible Storm is a metaphor for in-group persecution of an out-group, and for societal pressure to conform and the harsh treatment of those who refuse (hence “storm”). It’s the embodiment of the Japanese saying “the nail that sticks out gets hammered”. Invisibility means not standing out, not drawing attention to yourself. To do so, you have to stifle your self, your individuality. Because of the larger societal context of Yurikuma, I’m pretty sure being invisible also has to do with adhering to certain rules regarding feminine and sexual expression.

In Yurikuma, the Invisible Storm is generally presented as mean, vicious, uncaring, manipulative, and sometimes just plain bad and evil. However, via Kaoru Harishima, we get a glimpse that, individually, these invisible girls are miserable. They’ve been told again and again to not stand out, to stifle themselves. They’re afraid to become visible out of fear of what the rest of the group would do to them, as well as out of fear of being eaten by bears. They’re immensely grateful if someone gives them a helping hand that allows them to rise above their predicament even just a little bit. Individually, they’re somewhat sympathetic, and entirely understandable. However, that doesn’t excuse what they do as a group. As a group, they do downright terrible things to people. I think they’re portrayed this way to show that, despite being sympathetic individually, the things they do as a group (a mob, really) are plainly inexcusable.

The girls in the Invisible Storm have come to internalize what they’ve been told about the need to be invisible. As a result, they’re prejudiced against and persecute those who break from their group. I think they’re also afraid, not in the sense of being afraid of those who break from the group, but in the sense that, if someone who breaks from their group really is able to find happiness in being visible, it’s a direct, strong challenge to their entire worldview. It shoves their own lack of courage to even try to do the same in their faces, and would probably cause a pretty high level of cognitive dissonance. They’d also be jealous of someone who’s able to do something that they not only didn’t have the courage to attempt themselves, but that they didn’t even believe was possible. Now, this is a generalization, and individual cases probably vary somewhat. For people like Chouko, who have internalized what they’ve been taught so strongly, regardless of whatever their own feelings may be, they cling to their belief of the entire thing as terrifying and revolting. It’s the most unbelievable and abnormal thing in the world. It’s unthinkable. “How could they? Why would they?” For people like the pig-tails girl, who haven’t internalized what they’ve been taught as strongly, who are at least a little bit open to the possibility of breaking from the group and being true to themselves, and who see where the actions their peers condemn lead, they might just be moved to attempt to do the same.

In general, though, the Invisible Storm reinforces its members’ state of collective unhappiness.

Invisibility also has another meaning in Yurikuma. The way that “unsavory” things are dealt with in a highly collectivistic culture like Japan’s is different than how they’re dealt with in the West. In the West, there’s more confrontation, with different ideologies butting heads. In Japan, because of the immense pressure to conform, issues with the perception and treatment of LGBTQ aren’t really aired, at least not in a way that gets to the heart of the matter. As a result, the people who oppress are free from responsibility because they aren’t really told that they’re oppressing and that it’s wrong, giving them plausible deniability. In that sense, the people who oppress are invisible. On the other side of it, as a result of the oppressors’ invisibility (which, again, is at least partly due to the way problems are aired by the oppressed and/or their advocates—I don’t intend that statement to be victim-blaming in the slightest; the way I mean it is in the sense that it’s just the current reality of how things stand) and the general cultural conformity, the people being oppressed aren’t acknowledged as such, meaning that they’re invisible too (in fact, Japanese lesbians don’t even have a word for themselves in their native language). This is quite possibly the reason (or is at least a reason) that lesbianism is never explicitly mentioned in Yurikuma.

(Note: The stuff about Japanese culture is what I remember reading from a post someone made at some point on one of the numerous blogs of people who have been talking about the show as it’s been airing. I don’t remember who or where or when. I think I remember the gist of what was said, but if I don’t quite have it, by all means please correct me.)