(pronounced ‘mare’ like the end of ‘nightmare’ in English, めあかわいい)
Short for ‘Nightmare kawaii’. It’s intended as a counterpart to Yumekawaii (‘dreamy kawaii’) and is kinda pastel-goth-kawaii with some vaporwave thrown in, but is very loose and free with the colours and motifs you wish to use to express it. The aesthetic has been described by some people as “having a nightmare, but it’s a cute nightmare”. Additionally it seems to focus more on black+pastel colours that are not pink “because pink was overused previously”.It has been created by the Japanese community to replace ‘yamikawaii’ so that it is a word free from Ezaki trademarks and drama. Also in the hopes of less stigma towards the menhera/‘sick’ community by not using the word ‘sick’ (yami) itself. The community brainstormed ideas for a replacement term and settled on Marekawaii.
Also note that it does not particularly use medical motifs, and there is a suggested new term for a focus on the medical motifs for people who really liked that: Medikawaii (めでぃかわいい)
To see examples of marekawaii unfolding check out the hashtag on twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23めあかわいい
Sources for my info:
https://togetter.com/li/1329235
https://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E3%82%81%E3%81%82%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8F%E3%81%84%E3%81%84
(via cosmomoore)
