I'm pretty sure there's an Elfen Lied thread, but whatever.
1) There is almost certainly not just one but several illnesses which could render a person's vocal cord useless, and a high chance that at least one of these fits the symptoms listed in the series.
2) You are correct in that the illness mentioned doesn't actually exist.
3) The author probably didn't care.
Thanks. I did look for the existing EL thread first. It wasn't so much the fictional illness that threw me - that's a common trope- but rather the claim of a limitation on the Japanese throat on opera. And the illness was more of an odd throat muscle grouping that allowed the beautiful singing but would eventually claim their voice through stress of the muscle. While I'm sure many singers of all stripes have killed their voice through overuse, this again seemed to be a case of Did Not Do The Research.
Ah, I see. I'm unsure about that specific case; I don't know enough about typical biological differences between Japanese people and non-Japanese people.
In the manga's first special chapter for Volume 8, Nozomi's backstory is revealed. (SPOILERS!)
It is revealed that she faced intense pressure and even much behavior many would define as abusive from her father to abandon her dream of being an opera singer like her late mother. This had always been spoken of, but never shown so clearly as in this instance. The anger her singing would bring out in him and his actions to stop her shattered her confidence and lead to her bladder problem. It's even intimated that he authorized other family members (though they are never depicted) to keep watch over her and that they too abused her to stop her singing.
In the end, her father reveals that his intense opposition started because in fact his wife, Nozomi's mother, had killed herself when her operatic singing triggered a throat defect that ended up destroying her vocal chords, robbing her of any voice at all. The father explains (somewhat penitently) that he had sought to save Nozomi from this fate at all costs. Ultimately, seeing her strength and resolve allows him to let her pursue her dream. It is not depicted precisely when in all this she moved permanently into Maple House.
Problems : First, the throat defect is called 'Soprano Dramatico'. I can find no reference to any such flaw in my searches, and that name seems to have no medical meaning. Second, the chapter asserts that this flaw is why Nozomi and her mother can sing so beautifully, reaching notes that normally Japanese singers never can. Again, my searches have turned up nothing on this very suspect claim of limitation, and indeed, the anime of the manga features the iconic singing of Kumiko Noma in the intro, for Lilium.
IYO, and to the best of your knowledge, is this stuff something the mangaka just made up whole cloth, or are there bits of reality in there?
edited 4th Aug '12 10:07:26 PM by Gojirob