I sure was being ironic, but looking back, maybe not entirely. Unfortunately eating disorders are still considered 'cool' in certain circles, here in the west. And I'm not even talking of those very sick kids who blog daily about their food restrictions and share what they call "thinspo" (pictures of scarily thin models and celebrities they consider pretty - just do a #proana or #promia search on tumblr, you'll see what I'm talking about). I have a bunch of (fairly sane and normal) female acquaintances who lowkey brag about their methods for maintaining their underweight silhouette. They don't make a big deal out of it, but will occasionaly mention how they stuff their faces with a huge brunch every Sunday, then puke it out. Some people seem to find this cool, considering the ladies in question are total glam dolls. Similarly, hard drugs were considered cool in Germany back in the 1970s-80s. A kid called Christiane F. wrote a book about her heroin habits and they made a film starring a pretty and scarily thin model in her role. Then they added in David Bowie, lots of shots of the kids shooting up to 'Heroes' and lots of Berlinesque eye candy. As a result, European kids started to think heroin was cool and the 'junkie' look became a form of aesthetic.
TL;DR: I can totally see young kids thinking bulimia is a cool/cute thing to have. But I have no idea if that's the case in Japan. (heck, I hope not)