gekiai

I've seen this occur ever since I got into visual kei, and that wasn't long ago. I've always appreciated indie bands, but I think many people have their reasons for disliking certain vocalists, bands, etc. (me included). But I understand what you're saying. 
 
Some harsh critiques are really out of ignorance, but let's remember art and music is  all subjective. I can see why some veterans have much higher standards for these newer bands, and I wish a lot of people can write the positives and negatives they see in something rather than bash, bash, and bash more. Even if bands lacks skills or have mediocre vocals (like many vk vocalists have actually....I mean. let's be real here), there is usually something good there for somebody.  So those people that truly enjoy their music, despite the lack of skills that may, objectively be there, should speak up a little louder. 
 
Also I think some of this blatant bashing is just because a band does not pander to someone's taste, and unfortunately, I may fall into that pit sometimes...but I'm in no way a snob. 
 
Generally, I think with any fandom were people have been in it a long while or are super serious, as most of us are here, they tend to come off snobbyish or close minded. So I think this phenomenon is unavoidable, and people (like me) with soft hearts should endure better and still talk freely about this music. Support these musicians with your money and your comments, likes, whatever, so they are not discouraged :))))
 
I'm a little emo that you mentioned Jui because I've seen him bashed here a ton and I love him to pieces.
By the way, who's that cutie in your sig?

br̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃r̃a
pretty damn good for their first (pre-debut) song as one unit *_*

No "Douke no hana", no like

OKAY. 
So I've been dying over this band for the past 9+ months and I'm just now posting in this thread :') With these guys I don't even know where to start. The first song I heard by them was Fiedel from their Fourth Wall album  (thank  to an 8tracks playlist) and I was like "holy shit who are they I have to look more into them". I then listened to Fourth Wall, Elegance, then Hallelujah (thanks to everyone's hooblah about it here) and that's when my love for this band had fully resonated. Over the months I listened through their entire discography backwards and got real, I mean real familiar with their sound....
 
To the point that I cannot choose a favorite album by them. Right now it may be Rhapsody in Beauty because I just love how much distortion they implement into the tracks on that album (and most of my favorite favorite tracks on it). Or Zeitgeist because that album is so perfect and concise to me.
I do agree that their pre-2010 releases have not grown on me fully just yet, and to (melt) into/holy are my least favorite post 2010 releases. There's definitely gems on that album but I don't know. There's something that they've developed in the most recent years that I am utterly obsessed with. I love these guys. I have to see them live. That is my mission.
 
I'm also going to add that I adore Yusuke. He's brilliant and I love his voice and screams. His very occasional English (loved that someone mentioned that infamous ice cream line, it gets me everytime) I enjoy too. They are simply fantastic to me.  Also squeeing at those pictures of Sho and him, they have to be my favorite bromantic pair (along with Kent from LR). I think that's enough of my idiotic fangirling for now, until the next release! 

GOTCHAROCKA: A less rainbowy version of Spiv States ft. Jui's voice
 
Purple Stone: *shattering glass in the distance*
 
Sukekiyo: Chill music with Kyo crooning like a baby
 
Arlequin: Band with mildly bizarre outfits and even weirder "screams"
 
Pentagon: How long can you one go on making spoopy music that doesn't sound much different than the last single? Let's find out.
 
UNiTE: Music that deserves to be in a video game
 
Vidoll: Another semi-emo band of the 2000s 
 
Sick2: More video game music with a weebish touch
 
The 3rd Birthday: L and the others
 
Avelcain: The emoest of the emos with traditional ornamentation randomly mixed in
 
I'll most likely add to this if anything comes to me

Nothing than A9. Get help
 

I feel like 2017 is going to be shit and I'm gonna cry a lot but whatever. Don't have many predictions because I haven't been keeping up with much.
 
GOTCHAROCKA go on a hiatus or disband near the later end of 2017 (I will fall into crippling depression because of this) sukekiyo is going to snatch my edges again with a new release.  So will THE NOVEMEBERS Dir En Grey will go on hiatus??? Maybe?? Pentagon will continue to disappoint me (and probably go major) Arlequin will come out with another bomb album Initial L will be okay, but they won't have as much popularity as they previously had MEJIBRAY will continue to vomit out releases near the first half of the year, then lose steam (and I will still continue to dislike them) Someone else is going to pass away (let's hope not) KISAKI COMES BACK Purple Stone gets a HUGE boost in popularity Another band will come out of nowhere and rock and everyone's socks off An AINS band will disband

Look I was no fan, but how the fuck is TBS crumbling before The Thirteen?!

何か質問があったら、私に聞いてもいいですよ。
 
私もTHE NOVEMBERSが好きです！
東京と大阪はとても素敵なところです。名古屋は行ったことないけど。
 
留学で２０１４年から２０１５まで日本に行った。北海道の大学で勉強していて、いい経験だったと思う。
日本にいる間THE NOVEMBERSのライブにも行ってたよ！^^
 
@akipponまずは自己紹介をしたらどうでしょうか？
自分の自己紹介忘れたけど。^^;
はじめまして。
plasticあるいはプレインボーって呼んでいいです。趣味は音楽を聴くことや読むことやビデオゲームをすることです。
よろしくお願いします！
（とても簡単な自己紹介でした．．．）

みなさんはとてもラッキーですよ。
 
日本に行くことがありません。  旅行は高いし、ちょっと若いだろうしww.
 
THE NOVEMBERSは一番大好きなバンドですよ。（もちろん、ヴィシャル系のバンドが大好きです。）コンサートに行きたいなあ〜

Since I work as a translator I'll throw my two yen out there... A lot of it is just echoing @inertia
 
- Learn the language. My personal opinion is that you need at least N2 level. The more kanji and grammar you know, the better. Don't learn Japanese exclusively from anime, manga, or VK. Seriously no one in real life talks like that.
 
- Be well read in your own language (assuming it's English). It's difficult to  translate something well, especially poetically, if you don't know how to write well to begin with. Commercially you will probably have few or no fluent proofreaders so double check and proofread everything.
 
- Spend some time in Japan after you've become conversationally fluent. You'll get a better "feel" for how people of different personalities, genders, subcultures, etc. use the language. There are also a lot of Japanese words that are defined in the dictionary a certain way and might seem interchangeable, but really aren't, and hearing them used situationally helps. Example: "mesen" and "manazashi" both mean gaze, but the latter is almost never used in real life (but used in anime, etc.)
 
- Research whatever you're translating. I'd say sometimes half of my work or more as a translator is spent researching the topic. Unfortunately most clients fail to include essential background information or a guide of officially accepted translations of organizations, laws, company names, etc. that I then have to double check. When it comes to VK, like @inertiasaid, reading interviews or liners can go a long way. Even better if you are familiar with the band/their fanbase so you can provide tone to your translation.
 
- Japanese can be pretty vague so you'll probably have to offer up your own interpretations at times just to add subjects and have things sound natural in English. If it's a personal translation you can just mention that in the notes if you feel unsure, but for commercial translations it's better to seek confirmation from the client if possible.
 
- Be prepared to answer lots of annoying questions from clients like, "Why can't you translate this literally?" Or, "Google Translate says this, so why did you write it like that?" especially from Japanese people who only have a rudimentary understanding of English but think that qualifies them to be checking your work and second-guessing you.
 
Or people who have no idea how long translating takes nor its value, and don't understand that no, sorry, I cannot translate and proofread  10,000+ characters for you a day for 1-2 yen a character and give you a high quality translation so please quit wasting my time. Also people will want you to answer these dumb questions and edit for free.
 
If you aren't a freelancer and work for an actual translation company, be prepared to for your job take over your whole life and work crazy hours for likely not as much as you should be making.
 
- I did a lot of bad/ok translations before being able to do better ones. I still don't think I'm anywhere near the best out there and I'm still learning new things every day. If I could re-do things, I would have taken translation courses in college, studied harder, and gotten certified.
 
- It might help if you are well-versed in some of the major translating softwares like TRADOS, but honestly most of Japan is still technologically stuck in the 90s (most of their fancy tech stuff is export only lol) and you'll be translating mostly in Docs and Excel files.

I braced myself before going through the thread and I've already been somewhat hurt by someone's personal scale of attractiveness (how black people are on the dead bottom of their scale) and it brings back to how the world treats the black woman as one of the most unattractive beings that have ever walked this planet. As a black woman, it's constantly thrown in my face how I don't fit into societal norms of beauty, and though I haven't had much dating experience, I'd like to date someone who shares partially the same struggle as me, or in other words another person of color.
Also remember that "racial preferences" can intersect with fetishizing (and don't even challenge me on this).

sukekiyo is heaven-sent and nobody can tell me otherwise

It is at least in the spanish speaking community, and rather good rp quality too.
 
Tumblr? Never managed to get into that one, and there's too much drama in every fandom already.
 
Ohh really? *o*

Y'know I've actually never really thought of that; now that I think about it, I see roleplaying as a sort of fanfic collab and sometimes, it's kinda cool to see what two people can come with together. I've actually done it once a few years ago for another fandom, but of course I ended up not liking it cuz I was (and still am) better off on my own.

THIS. I also totally agere on rping someone I feel comfortable with and know a lot about.
 
I always end up going with the flow, seeing whom I meet and creating crack pairing lmao
 
Are there any good communities for VK rolepay in the English speaking side of fb? I'm desperate for some RP in English, need to polish my writting skills.

I hope it's not bad if I revive this thread because HOLY CRAP how did I miss this???
 
Back when I was a fetus and probably too young to be on the Internet, I would scour fanfiction.net and quizilla (RIP) for HOURS reading anime and Pokémon fanfiction.
Hell, when I was in elementary school, I was writing my own fanfics, series and such and I would hide them from my parents and blush madly when I attempted my first smut (in middle school..god I was such a bad kid). 
 
When I first got into Jrock and visual kei, I think most of my passion for fanfiction died because I had started rping instead and I had met some of the most amazing people.
 
As far as my preferences for fanfics, I do like angst and I admit, I'm a sucker for vampires, only if it's done to my taste. The same goes for smut which I'm VERY picky about. I guess I write enough butt sex and similar scenarios that seeing it written out kinda makes me yawn. I also tend to stir away from fanfics of popular bands such as the GazettE, Mejibray, etc. because I've had so many of those pairs spewed in my face that I'm tired of it. I like crack ships (as long as they aren't ridiculous)
 
I haven't written a fanfic in ages and I just came across my old naruto fanfiction stash which is...embarrassing.

Diary has been shared. 

Let's hope that he learnt to sing.
 
Well, after listening to the song, he did not learn to sing.

Here's a recent pic in which I played around with one of those cheesy, sketch filters.
 

Well here's some of my cosplay selfies from a convention two weeks ago. :^) Bonus points to you if you recognize any of the characters.
 
 

I apologize since I don't know how to break up quotes
 
This wasn't exactly what I was getting at but I'll answer. I feel that "well there parents/family may be that way" is an excuse to an extent. Like there's liberal people my age and their parents are die-hard conservatives or the fact that my family is highly homophobic and I'm actually LGBT and have plenty of friends who associate with it (even before I discovered this about myself). 
 
Like man, it's 2016, if people are still perpetuating colorist and superiority attitudes in regards to races and their features, then I'm really not going to be lenient with them. I can say many of us in the forum are old enough to have our own independent thoughts from our families and if they think that way...well, it says a lot about as a person. I can't stand it, and I feel no need to change myself or speak up. I already don't fit into the horribly incorrect stereotype society has painted of black females (angry, loud, voluptuous, "ghetto"), I'm pretty much the exact opposite of it. I've even had men of other races hit on me saying "you're not like the others" and I'd literally not care about them from that point on because those others are my friends, sisters, and my family. It's truly disgusting. 
 
I never said I wouldn't date outside race, either. I'm saying that I couldn't see myself dating a more "dominant" race because they will not understand my struggle at all. I've already made that mistake once and I won't make it again.

Wow I can't believe I haven't posted about the album until now: I. LOVE. IT.
 
Not at all disappointed, I just found their choice for the title track to be questionable (it's my least favorite on the album). My favorite is definitely track #5. I'm always a sucker for their use of the piano   As someone mentioned here earlier, some of the tracks are definitely...danceable (namely #9. It'd be so fun to hear live!). I also hear some slight industrial elements throughout this album that I totally dig. I'm glad that they're trying some new things!
 
The collab tracks were okay, with mama being my favorite one. Gara did a GREAT job, and now I gotta look into MERRY more :^)