Adolescence Syndrome

Adolescence Syndrome, also known as Puberty Syndrome (思春期症候群, Shishunki Shōkōgun), is a term used to describe abnormal experiences during adolescence as a result of sensitivity and instability. Although considered an urban legend, this occurrence is experienced by each of the main characters.

Contents

• 1 Occurrences
  • 1.1 Mai Sakurajima
  • 1.2 Kaede Azusagawa
  • 1.3 Sakuta Azusagawa
  • 1.4 Tomoe Koga
  • 1.5 Rio Futaba
  • 1.6 Nodoka Toyohama
  • 1.7 Shoko Makinohara
  • 1.8 Uzuki Hirokawa
  • 1.9 Ikumi Akagi
  • 1.10 Sara Himeji
  • 1.11 Nene Iwamizawa

Occurrences

Those who have Adolescence Syndrome are susceptible to various events or experiences that would be considered abnormal and irregular. These effects happen whenever the individual goes through a distressing or agonizing event, such as Kaede Azusagawa being bullied online or Mai Sakurajima being overwhelmed by show business.

Mai Sakurajima

Mai's effect from Adolescence Syndrome is that she became invisible and that her existence had been subconsciously forgotten by nearly everybody. This stemmed from a previous wish to be forgotten by the world as a result of being forced to do a swim-suit photoshoot by her mother, and Mai realized that her mother was just using Mai's success for money.

This effect was subdued once Sakuta publicly confessed his love for Mai in front of the school; effectively forcing the students and teachers to acknowledge her existence.

This occurrence is much like the concept of Schrödinger's cat; unless one opened the box to check on the cat's existence, their consciousness will not acknowledge the existence of the cat at all. Thus, if people do not acknowledge the existence of Mai, they simply will not perceive her existence to their consciousness.

The case of Mai is based on observation theory and the concept of Schrödinger's Cat.

Kaede Azusagawa

Kaede is susceptible to spontaneous physical injury if she constantly receives slander, hate speech, or defamation through social media; the hatred in those words will transfer into physical injuries. These injuries can range from a mild paper-cut to a full-sized scar and a bruise.

Along with receiving injuries, Kaede experienced amnesia as a way to sever herself from her traumatic experience, gaining a new personality as a result.

The known counter-measure to receiving injuries is to isolate oneself from social media and the internet as a whole, which is why Sakuta threw his phone in the ocean for Kaede's sake. As for her amnesia, it was subdued once Kaede completed her list of goals to be more social. She regained her previous personality and memories, but lost the ones she had as an amnesiac.

Sakuta Azusagawa

Much like his sister, Sakuta is also susceptible to sudden injury; in his case, he suffered three deep cuts to his chest a day after witnessing Kaede suffer from Adolescence Syndrome herself. These injuries were severe enough to send him to the hospital.

Once Kaede reverted to her previous self, Sakuta's wounds reopened as he grieved the loss of Kaede's recent memories. It is unknown specifically what his adolescence syndrome is caused by, but it can be noted that Sakuta's wounds appeared and reopened in times of great emotional distress (such as Kaede's adolescence syndrome occurring).

Sakuta's Adolescence Syndrome eventually evolved when his mother started entering his life again. Since he had distanced himself from her, and the two barely acknowledged each other, this eventually spread in a manner similar to Mai's Adolescence Syndrome, where nearly everyone, except Mai, couldn't see him. He also developed a scar stemming from his belly button, symbolising their connection in the womb. This was eventually resolved when he vowed to let his mother back into his life.

Tomoe Koga

When Tomoe is unable to accept her current circumstances, she is capable of eliciting the future from an earlier point in time (a concept based on Laplace's Demon) and is able to rewind and repeat the current day in the simulated future. Once time is rewound in the simulated future, the only people who can perceive the time loop are Tomoe and Sakuta. All other events would occur exactly like they previously did, provided that Tomoe and Sakuta don't alter them.

This effect was subdued once Tomoe admitted that to Sakuta that she loved him, while accepting that his heart was with Mai. Time then rewound and started before the simulation was ever elicited.

Rio Futaba

• The first Rio.
• The second Rio.

1/2

Rio's Adolescence Syndrome is quantum teleportation and the splitting of two different personalities. Rio's body developed earlier than her classmates, and some boys began to look at her differently. Because of this, she began to hate her body.

In an attempt to get attention, Rio began posting seductive photos of herself online and kept continuing despite the fact that she didn't like it. This contradicting method and outcome split Rio into two versions of herself; one who wanted attention and another who didn't like how her body was used to get attention. This effect was negated once the Rio who wanted attention realized she wouldn't lose the attention of her friends and after the remaining Rio found the courage to ask her other self to attend the fireworks show, thus recombining the two selves.

Nodoka Toyohama

Nodoka's effect from Adolescence Syndrome was that she had switched bodies with Mai. This stemmed from her inferiority complex towards her sister, which began ever since her mother began comparing her success to Mai's.

This effect was nullified after Mai told Nodoka to not be like her, but be the best version of herself. After Nodoka came to this realization, both Nodoka and Mai reverted back into their original appearances.

Shoko Makinohara

Shoko's Adolescence Syndrome resulted in a version of herself from the future being able to travel back to the past. It was brought on from her wondering what her future might be like if she managed to recover from her heart condition. Her future self had the ability to give others the ability to time travel too, as she view time as nebulous.

The effect was nullified by Shoko herself, as no matter where her future self was chronologically, that was always viewed as "the future" from her perspective, meaning she could take the lessons she learned from this hypothetical time and give it to herself when she started worrying about her future. This erased most of the future she got her information from, but those connected to the events would learn about them via "dreams", meaning they were influenced to act out their futures through different means. The phenomenon was compared to String Theory.

Uzuki Hirokawa

Uzuki suddenly gained the ability to read the atmosphere, resulting in her being able to hear other people's true feelings in her head whenever she interacted with them. This was spurred on by her going to university while also trying to balance her idol career. While Uzuki managed use this new found ability to deal with her social life at university, it affected her idol career and she began to wonder if her dreams were even possible. This eventually resulted in her losing her voice during a performance one day.

This was eventually nullified by Uzuki deciding to pursue her dreams with her friends regardless of what others might thing, deciding to drop out of university as well. The effect was compared to quantum entanglement.

Ikumi Akagi

Ikumi was disappointed in herself for not standing up for Sakuta back in middle school, which came to a head when she saw that he had moved on with his life. Believing that she didn't deserve the life she had, this caused her to swap realities with another version of herself who was less successful than her. The two versions of Ikumi had a special link where the Ikumi from the main reality could write messages on the one that had replaced her, and vice versa. The two versions of her eventually swapped back after the second Ikumi talked things out with Sakuta.

Sara Himeji

Sara gained a kind of clairvoyance through quantum entanglement. After physically colliding with someone, she could see read their thoughts and see through their eyes by closing her eyes and concentrating. Those she connected to could do the same to her as long as they know about the connection. Sara used this to manipulate people in order to make herself more popular.

However, Sara lost her clairvoyance when she realized her plans to get Sakuta to like her were impossible so long as he had Mai as a girlfriend.

Nene Iwamizawa

Nene had a similar experience to Mai in that she became invisible and forgotten by everyone except Sakuta. This was derived from a deep insecurity after not obtaining her dreams of fame, particularly after Mai returned to showbiz, inadvertently overshadowing Nene. Nene tried circumnavigating by singing a cover of a song by Touko Kirishima, but when her Adolescence Syndrome started affecting her, people became unable to see or hear any videos that featured her face.

This created a second symptom where Nene started to believe that she really was Touko Kirishima, particularly when she was confronted by the fact that even her boyfriend didn't remember her, and threw out anything that told her otherwise. This double symptom of her also started effecting anyone who covered any Touko Kirishima songs.

Nene's symptoms were eventually nullified when Sakuta helped Nene's boyfriend remember her, who told her that he loved her despite her dreams not working out so far, and the other "Touko Kirishimas" were snapped out of their delusion when Sakuta injured himself trying to save Mai, overshadowing their previous concern that Mai was going to claim she was Touko Kirishima.