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qotka

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  1. Like
    qotka reacted to Tokage in MiA (ex-MEJIBRAY) new band, "Sugar or Dry" has formed   
    ''Sugar'' stands for MiA's BR sugar daddy
    ''Dry'' stands for his bangya after they find out there's other girls in the band
  2. Like
    qotka got a reaction from Hohchicano96 in Spring '18 Trade-Off Theme   
    Not very spring-inspired, but a theme I was thinking about is GOD -
     
    How would a god manifest him/herself through music? It can be any god or deity: the monotheistic one of Abrahamic religions, one (or more!) of the many gods of faiths and mythologies around the world, or a fictional one from a book/movie/comic/anime/game. It can be one you believe in, or just fascinated with (or just read about somewhere and thought was really cool). It can also just be your personal perception of god - cosmic energy or anything else you interpret the concept as.The songs can portray anything from the characteristics of said deity, to its story or just how you feel about it or think its soundtrack should sound like.
    tl;dr: choose a god or gods and build a soundtrack around them.
     
    I think this is general enough because most people have had some sort of contact with religion throughout their lives, weather they're people of faith or atheists. Gods play major role in everything from people's daily lives to major historic events to pop culture, so it could be interesting to see how people perceive them and what they mean for them.  
     
  3. Like
    qotka reacted to ghost in Your last music-related buy!   
    My wakaremichi collection is complete
     

  4. Like
    qotka reacted to Takadanobabaalien in Do you have any VK/Jmusic inspired tattoo?   
    Bad picture because I took when it was just made but I got the AINS logo on my thigh because I'm trash
     
     


  5. Like
    qotka reacted to evenor in Do you have any VK/Jmusic inspired tattoo?   
    I got davidskullnorecords' "logo" on the top of my left thigh
     
     
     
  6. Like
    qotka reacted to chemicalpictures in Do you have any VK/Jmusic inspired tattoo?   
    Hey y'all!
     
    I've been wondering if any of you have one or have the desire of doing a tattoo inspired by a band or song. Few months ago I did my first one, inspired by FAKE?'s THE LOST GENERATION album cover:
     
     
    I gave the tattoo artist the liberty to modify the tattoo to better fit his style art and the position I wanted on my arm, aswell as doing an exclusive art. Overall I'm really pleased with the result,  it looks really unique.
     
    I still want to do another two, based on xTRiPx and bis more minimalistic logos:
     
     
    I also wanna give them a more unique feel, but this time being way more faithful to the original art. Planning on doing each one in one calf.
     
    What about you guys, any tattoos or ideas for the future?
     
  7. Interesting
    qotka got a reaction from Komorebi in Spring '18 Trade-Off Theme   
    Not very spring-inspired, but a theme I was thinking about is GOD -
     
    How would a god manifest him/herself through music? It can be any god or deity: the monotheistic one of Abrahamic religions, one (or more!) of the many gods of faiths and mythologies around the world, or a fictional one from a book/movie/comic/anime/game. It can be one you believe in, or just fascinated with (or just read about somewhere and thought was really cool). It can also just be your personal perception of god - cosmic energy or anything else you interpret the concept as.The songs can portray anything from the characteristics of said deity, to its story or just how you feel about it or think its soundtrack should sound like.
    tl;dr: choose a god or gods and build a soundtrack around them.
     
    I think this is general enough because most people have had some sort of contact with religion throughout their lives, weather they're people of faith or atheists. Gods play major role in everything from people's daily lives to major historic events to pop culture, so it could be interesting to see how people perceive them and what they mean for them.  
     
  8. Like
    qotka reacted to Ikki in Why do you think that J-rock never really broke through in the west?   
    I think when VK/J-rock tried to break out into the Western music scene in the mid to late 2000s mirrored the Japanese metal scene trying to break out into the Western music scene during the 1980s.  The only main difference is this time around, most of the groups didn't try to sing in English or try to recruit a Westerner at some point for their band to make them more marketable (looking at you Loudness and Bow Wow).  Even back during the 2000s, I knew that VK wasn't going to make an impact outside of Japan due to how the majority of them were being marketed to people who attended anime cons.  I was just excited I could buy VK albums that were released outside of Japan for a fraction of what CDJapan was selling them.
     
    I decided to compile a list of Japanese artists that have released albums in the West that charted on the Billboard charts. 
     
    There is a few things to note right off the bat:
    The following Japanese metal groups that only released in Europe during the 1980s: Anthem, Earthshaker, Vow Wow The following Japanese metal groups that had albums released in the USA, but did not chart: Dead End, Gastunk The following VK groups that had albums released in the USA, but did not chart: D'espairsRay, MUCC, Kra, the GazettE, Alice Nine, Versailles, Mix Speaker's Inc, L'arc~en~Ciel Albums by Loudness, EZO, OK ONE ROCK, and Utada Hikaru that charted in the USA on this list were recorded in English. I listed everything from highest charting spot to lowest charting spot.  I did not include record sells since a lot of the older releases, I couldn't find what the sales were for the date when the record charted at that spot.
    Sakamoto Kyu - Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits (1963) [Billboard 200: #26]
    BABYMETAL - Metal Resistance (2016) [Billboard 200: #39]
    Loudness - Lightning Strikes (1986) [Billboard 200: #64] Utada Hikaru - This Is the One (2009) [Billboard 200: #69] Loudness - Thunder in the East (1985) [Billboard 200: #74] ONE OK ROCK - Ambitions International Version (2017) [Billboard 200: #106] EZO - EZO (1987) [Billboard 200: #150] Utada Hikaru - Exodus (2004) [Billboard 200: #160] Loudness - Hurricane Eyes (1987) [Billboard 200: #190] Dir En Grey - Uroboros (2008) [Billboard Heatseeker: #1] Dir En Grey - Dum Spiro Spero (2011) [Billboard Heatseeker: #2] BABYMETAL - BABYMETAL (2015) [Billboard Heatseeker: #4] Dir En Grey - The Marrow of a Bone (2007) [Billboard Heatseeker: #8] ONE OK ROCK - 35xxxv Deluxe Edition (2015) [Billboard Heatseeker: #17] Pizzicato Five - Happy End of the World (1997) [Billboard Heatseeker: #32] Shonen Knife - Rock Animals (1994) [Billboard Heatseeker: #39] Dir En Grey - Withering to Death (2006) [Billboard Heatseeker: #42] From what I've posted, I do think that not singing in English could have hurt any success Dir En Grey and other VK-related bands could have had in the Western music scene.  I also think the type of music Dir En Grey did also hindered them in some ways.  Before someone brings up BABYMETAL sings in Japanese and  managed to sell well; I view them in a similar light as Steel Panther, a group that's not super serious compare to a group like Dir En Grey.
  9. Like
    qotka reacted to indigo in Spring '18 Trade-Off Theme   
    Cycle of Life
     
    Make a mixtape about the four seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter). Choose songs that represent or remind you of different seasons. For example, if you want to make a mix that consists of 12 songs, you could choose 3 songs for each season. Or just choose whatever number of songs you want. Be creative.
     
    The problem with this is that there's already been a spring theme, and also winter/christmas theme.
     
     
    In Dreams
     
    This is open for interpretation. It could be about a dream you had, you could come up with a story, or just make a mix of dream-like songs. Or nightmarish ones.
  10. Like
    qotka got a reaction from CAT5 in Spring '18 Trade-Off Theme   
    Not very spring-inspired, but a theme I was thinking about is GOD -
     
    How would a god manifest him/herself through music? It can be any god or deity: the monotheistic one of Abrahamic religions, one (or more!) of the many gods of faiths and mythologies around the world, or a fictional one from a book/movie/comic/anime/game. It can be one you believe in, or just fascinated with (or just read about somewhere and thought was really cool). It can also just be your personal perception of god - cosmic energy or anything else you interpret the concept as.The songs can portray anything from the characteristics of said deity, to its story or just how you feel about it or think its soundtrack should sound like.
    tl;dr: choose a god or gods and build a soundtrack around them.
     
    I think this is general enough because most people have had some sort of contact with religion throughout their lives, weather they're people of faith or atheists. Gods play major role in everything from people's daily lives to major historic events to pop culture, so it could be interesting to see how people perceive them and what they mean for them.  
     
  11. Like
    qotka got a reaction from ghost in Spring '18 Trade-Off Theme   
    Not very spring-inspired, but a theme I was thinking about is GOD -
     
    How would a god manifest him/herself through music? It can be any god or deity: the monotheistic one of Abrahamic religions, one (or more!) of the many gods of faiths and mythologies around the world, or a fictional one from a book/movie/comic/anime/game. It can be one you believe in, or just fascinated with (or just read about somewhere and thought was really cool). It can also just be your personal perception of god - cosmic energy or anything else you interpret the concept as.The songs can portray anything from the characteristics of said deity, to its story or just how you feel about it or think its soundtrack should sound like.
    tl;dr: choose a god or gods and build a soundtrack around them.
     
    I think this is general enough because most people have had some sort of contact with religion throughout their lives, weather they're people of faith or atheists. Gods play major role in everything from people's daily lives to major historic events to pop culture, so it could be interesting to see how people perceive them and what they mean for them.  
     
  12. Thanks
    qotka got a reaction from Zeus in Spring '18 Trade-Off Theme   
    Not very spring-inspired, but a theme I was thinking about is GOD -
     
    How would a god manifest him/herself through music? It can be any god or deity: the monotheistic one of Abrahamic religions, one (or more!) of the many gods of faiths and mythologies around the world, or a fictional one from a book/movie/comic/anime/game. It can be one you believe in, or just fascinated with (or just read about somewhere and thought was really cool). It can also just be your personal perception of god - cosmic energy or anything else you interpret the concept as.The songs can portray anything from the characteristics of said deity, to its story or just how you feel about it or think its soundtrack should sound like.
    tl;dr: choose a god or gods and build a soundtrack around them.
     
    I think this is general enough because most people have had some sort of contact with religion throughout their lives, weather they're people of faith or atheists. Gods play major role in everything from people's daily lives to major historic events to pop culture, so it could be interesting to see how people perceive them and what they mean for them.  
     
  13. Like
    qotka got a reaction from platy in Spring '18 Trade-Off Theme   
    Not very spring-inspired, but a theme I was thinking about is GOD -
     
    How would a god manifest him/herself through music? It can be any god or deity: the monotheistic one of Abrahamic religions, one (or more!) of the many gods of faiths and mythologies around the world, or a fictional one from a book/movie/comic/anime/game. It can be one you believe in, or just fascinated with (or just read about somewhere and thought was really cool). It can also just be your personal perception of god - cosmic energy or anything else you interpret the concept as.The songs can portray anything from the characteristics of said deity, to its story or just how you feel about it or think its soundtrack should sound like.
    tl;dr: choose a god or gods and build a soundtrack around them.
     
    I think this is general enough because most people have had some sort of contact with religion throughout their lives, weather they're people of faith or atheists. Gods play major role in everything from people's daily lives to major historic events to pop culture, so it could be interesting to see how people perceive them and what they mean for them.  
     
  14. Like
    qotka got a reaction from Triangle in Spring '18 Trade-Off Theme   
    Not very spring-inspired, but a theme I was thinking about is GOD -
     
    How would a god manifest him/herself through music? It can be any god or deity: the monotheistic one of Abrahamic religions, one (or more!) of the many gods of faiths and mythologies around the world, or a fictional one from a book/movie/comic/anime/game. It can be one you believe in, or just fascinated with (or just read about somewhere and thought was really cool). It can also just be your personal perception of god - cosmic energy or anything else you interpret the concept as.The songs can portray anything from the characteristics of said deity, to its story or just how you feel about it or think its soundtrack should sound like.
    tl;dr: choose a god or gods and build a soundtrack around them.
     
    I think this is general enough because most people have had some sort of contact with religion throughout their lives, weather they're people of faith or atheists. Gods play major role in everything from people's daily lives to major historic events to pop culture, so it could be interesting to see how people perceive them and what they mean for them.  
     
  15. Like
    qotka reacted to TokyoBandGirl in Ohayo~ ٩(*´ ꒳ `*)۶   
    Hello (⌒‐⌒)/
    I’m Alex from Germany (Munich) but I’ve been living in Tokyo since 2015. In Germany I worked as an UX Designer for about 5 years but here in Japan I've been working as a teacher at a private conversation school. I have also just started a small business.
     
    I've been listening to Japanese rock music since 2004 or 2005 and I've been to countless concerts in Europe and here in Japan.  My favorite band at the moment is DEZERT ( ˇωˇ )♡ but I love the music and lives of アルルカン, RAZOR, BORN, DIR EN GREY, MUCC, and DADAROMA...and many more. 
     
    Besides music I'm totally into Japan and Japanese culture. In 2014 I have traveled through the whole country for about 6 months and nowadays I travel around to enjoy delicious local food and lives, of course!
     
    Alex (⌒‐⌒)♪
  16. Like
    qotka got a reaction from meat in Why do you think that J-rock never really broke through in the west?   
    I think the comparison with the anime industry reveals one of the reasons why Jrock/vkei is not a thing in the west - Cool Japan has a top-down/soft power/blahblah approach that utilizes pop culture to draw people to Japanese culture and thus make Japanese endeavors outside of Japan (not just in the west) more profitable and attract more business and tourism. The Cool Japan fund will invest in any sort of content/media that will make Japanese culture stand out, but only if it sees the potential, ie organic interest in the content/subject matter, like big anime/cosplay conventions -  quantifiable receipts that I don't think Jrock had even in the height of its hype overseas. 
     
    Plus, I think music is more than about understanding lyrics. It's culture, it's being able to relate to ideas and sentiments expressed there and catch cultural cues that you'll miss if you don't spend hours digging around the internet for reference. If it takes a lot of work to actually 'get' a song, less people will wanna do it. This is why Kpop companies train their idols to speak and sing in Japanese and Mandarin, and why the AKB franchise 'translated' itself by forming local units across Asia instead of selling the Japanese content as is. I don't think Jrock can be localized the same way, nor that it should be. 
     
    At the end of the day, as was already said here, Jrock had its 15 minutes of being an almost international thing thanks to anime, but it didn't hold because you can't translate and sell it as well as you can with anime. 
  17. Like
    qotka reacted to colorful人生 in Why do you think that J-rock never really broke through in the west?   
    Zeus breaks it down pretty well.
     
    To add a smidgen of my opinion, I think that Visual Kei's western popularity (U.S from my experience) greatly paralleled the interest in emo/counterculture in the mid 2000s. They both had similar aesthetic and garnered similar fans w/ plenty of overlap. That interest has largely died out and has re-surged into -core genres and melded itself into other indie acts. Visual Kei, being a physically distant/foreign genre, in-turn became a niche interest again.
     
    Additionally, Japan is still the premier example of Galapagos Syndrome and is pretty self-reliant. K-pop, on the other hand, is dependent on a global audience and embraces Western interest which reciprocatively affects its own music industry. Also "Cool Japan" hasn't helped jack-squat with well-known figures like Gackt being critical of it (it's futile when the industry at large is isolated.)
     
    Finally, Japanese music just sounds different. I try to link to this reddit thread w/ nonotan's comment when I can b/c I've always felt there was some underlying music-theory reason why J-Music attracts and repels certain groups of people. There are a lot of people that I've met that have thought Japanese melodies were cheesy so this helps explain that a little. 
     
    -
    As an aside, I'm a bit more on the pessimistic side about anime becoming more popular (rather than just accepted). I still think the combination of the "nostalgia factor" and internet culture have drawn more (perceived) attention to it than genuine interest... But, the $$$ points to it growing so we'll see. Maybe I'm more of a skeptic w/ the rate at which recent boom in interest has happened.
     
  18. Like
    qotka reacted to Zeus in Why do you think that J-rock never really broke through in the west?   
    It's not in English. I don't play Japanese music for my friends often, but when I do it's instrumental or with good English vocals because the minute they hear Japanese, I know 95% of them will stop listening. People want to understand what the song is about and you can't do that with Japanese music if it's all in Japanese. The vocals that are in English still have a distinctly Japanese quality to them, and that turns off a lot of native speakers. That leaves a very small group of people to make a big impression for everyone. Not a great way to start.
      Rock music is not mainstream in America right now. It's hip hop, pop, and r&b that runs the air waves. It's not a bad thing, but I find i digest these genres of music differently than I do rock and metal, and people that have not grown up with rock and metal may never have developed a taste for it. I've always heard that rock and metal is the closest thing to classical music in the modern era, and on the same note I don't find many people appreciate Bach and Mozart for what it is. It just doesn't "move them".
      Anime was considered taboo and nerdy up until recently, when now all of a sudden it became cool to watch Dragon ball Super and My Hero Academia and other big-name shounen. Anime and Japan are always seen as synonymous to the barely acquainted, so anime and rock music are also tied together by virtue of this rock music being from Japan. Stupid associations, but that's how it is. Considering just how bad a lot of anime themes are, I can see people associating the worst of J-pop themes with all Japanese music.
      Consider this 3.5, but the people that were first promoting the music were deep into the scene, like "appropriating parts of Japanese language and unironically dressing like a visual kei rocker" deep. They...did not make the best ambassadors for visual kei music. On the other side of the coin, the Japanese indie scene has always been a smaller group covering a wider range of music, cloistered and secluded on private servers and trackers. They wanted to preserve their culture the way it was, so they weren't exactly interested in proselytizing their music to a wider audience. Y'all gotta realize peeps like @CAT5are the exception to the rule.
      Japanese record companies in general do a pretty shit job of marketing themselves and their music to a wider audience, which is perplexing to me because the anime industry is absolutely KILLING IT right now. They jumped onto the digital distribution wave too late and by that time, the fad had already started diminishing. We have no equivalent to Crunchyroll to have a legal bridge between record companies and interested Western audiences. HearJapan was close, but in some ways I think it was too ahead of its time and never got the support it needed once everyone involved realized it wouldn't be a 1-2-3 smash hit.  
    I always maintained that I would be a sensation or "the next Jimi Hendrix" if I took a bunch of my favorite J-Rock and visual kei songs and sung them in English...
  19. Like
  20. Like
    qotka reacted to Shaolan974 in DEZERT new album, "TODAY" release   
    DEZERT new album will be released at 2018 summer (not further details announced yet)
     
    they will hold their 2-day live tour "What is ”Today”?" since 2018/08/18-19 at Osaka CLUB QUATTRO to 2018/09/23-24 at Sapporo cube garden
     
    they will hold their "【This Is The “FACT”】TOUR 2018 -FINAL" at 2018/08/11 at Liquidroom Ebisu with NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST and アルルカン (Arlequin)
     

  21. Like
    qotka reacted to plastic_rainbow in Live Report: Last Wish (envy, downy, HELLBENT, heaven in her arms)   
    On April 1st, 2016 the news of Tetsuya's departure from the influential hardcore, screamo, and post-rock band envy brought great despair to many fans. He was the heart of the band that evoked intense feelings through his raw and emotive vocals. Fans lost hope in envy's future once Tetsuya left. Still, envy continued on without him and after being quiet for two years they finally announced a live performance with a new line-up for April 1st, 2018. Strangely enough, the live performance took place exactly two years after Tetsuya's departure. And even more strange is that both occurrences took place on April 1st which, as we all know, is the day of jokes and pranks. Back in 2016 we all hoped that Tetsuya's departure was an April Fools joke, but after not hearing anything we all accepted that it was the truth. So naturally, when envy announced a new line-up this year for April 1st as well, none of us speculated that it was a joke either. However, when the day arrived everything became clear.
     
    The live show was titled 'Last Wish', after the name of envy's single released back in 2000, and took place at Daikanyama UNIT. I must thank @qotka for navigating to the live venue, which sits just south of Shibuya. Inside the live venue there is a floor level for lockers and merchandise, and once you go down another level you will find the live hall. The size of the hall was quite average with a capacity of 600 people. Given that most people were only here for envy not many people showed up at the beginning, but it gradually grew more packed after each band until we were shoulder to shoulder.
     
    heaven in her arms was the first band to play, which I could already tell based on the white butterfly logo placed on the back of the stage. I had forgotten what the band looked like, but when the vocalist walked on stage with a black cap on I could clearly see the envy worship. I'm not well-versed in their discography so I couldn't recognize most of the songs they played but I do know that they played a few songs from their recent album 白暈 (White Halo). I'm certain they played "終焉の眩しさ" because I remember the opening with solemn crystal bells and pianos that later led to a burst of guitar riffs and drums. The live hall felt so still in that moment with the dark blue lighting, and feeling that transition from a stillness to a violent beat was a cool way to start the performance. The vocalist put a lot of emotion into his screams, but the spoken word sections were a little quiet and hard to hear from the blasting instruments. It was not as clear as it was on CD. Also, maybe it's because everything usually sounds louder during lives but I had trouble picking out the metal sound of heaven in her arms and I had the impression that they sounded a lot like envy, as I did when I first listened to them. In any case, they were amazing live and I would like to see them again. 
     
    The next band that played was HELLBENT, which I thought was some band from the US when I quickly googled the name. Turns out that they're actually a really underground Japanese psychobilly band. I can't give a good review of them because I lost my spot during the intermission while taking a short bathroom break and did not have a good view of the stage when I came back. Their performance was quite intense though and the vocalist would pick up the mic stand every so often and swing it around on stage, at least from what I could see. They had a video playing in the background with mostly visuals of old vhs-looking forests, for some odd reason. For such a chaotic performance, I thought the visuals were not very fitting and it was just kind of strange.
     
    I got my spot back closer to the stage once downy came on. It's unfortunate that I did not get to see them with Yutaka Aoki, who sadly recently passed away. It seems like they got a support guitarist for the remaining live shows that were scheduled this year, though I'm not sure who it is. I'm still fairly new to downy so I can't speak much for how much of an effect this has on their performance, but they were quite stellar nevertheless. Their performance felt much longer than the previous two bands as they played about 8 songs. Most of the songs they played were fast and maybe only one song was really slow. Robin Aoki sings just as good as he does on CD and the bass is super thick live! I didn't realize how killer the basslines were until I heard "曦ヲ見ヨ!" live. Such incredible skill and technique. During their whole performance they had abstract visuals playing in the background. A fiery red was used for intense and fast songs while tranquil blues or black and white were used for slower songs/sections. If you've seen any of their music videos, the live encapsulates the very same kind of mood, except that you're now physically standing in that dimension and taking in their dingy world. Outstanding performance.
     
    At last, the curtain rose for envy. While standing in the darkness, I thought about their new line-up and kept on wondering what they would sound like without Tetsuya. Then, when the lights lit up and envy started playing, Tetsuya was standing right there on stage giving out his screams. The crowd instantly went wild and pushed everyone to the front. People were cheering all around and punching their fists to the air, you could feel the ecstasy and excitement everywhere. Out of all the non-VK lives I've seen this was the most energy I've seen from a crowd, but this is mostly speaking for the J-indie scene only as I'm sure some bigger Jrock bands have wild crowds as well, or maybe not I don't know. The pushing stopped after 2 minutes or so, but there were still a number of people cheering with their fists. When they performed "Footsteps in the Distance" Tetsuya cleverly declared his return during the spoken word section with the last few words being 'ただ一つ救えがあるなら僕はここに戻るよ' (If there is one way to be saved, I'll return here). At first I thought it was a message Tetsuya specifically had for the fans, but listening to the song again it's actually part of the song, therefore the cleverness in his return. Hearing him say that and knowing that he was really back was the highlight of the experience, and now as I listen to "Footsteps in the Distance" I will recall this memory every time. envy just isn't envy without Tetsuya after all. I couldn't get a view of all the members (including the new members) since the people who got pushed to the front blocked some of my view, but I did not feel that envy's sound changed much. Perhaps they'll bring in new ideas for the band in the future. I'd seen envy two times before, but I was absolutely stunned by the energy and emotion of this performance, even after I left the live venue.
  22. Like
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  24. Like
    qotka reacted to *littlelamb in MERRY (f.k.a メリー)   
    Yuu actually posted a clip of the Shiver stuff on IG. I was shocked when it showed up on my feed.
     
     
  25. Like
    qotka reacted to Zeus in PV Review: Dir en grey's OBSCURE   
    "OBSCURE" is one of the most graphic and notorious music videos ever crafted within visual kei, catapulting the band back into the spotlight after a sudden stylistic shift sent their fans into a frenzy. It's famous for both its shock value and its strong anti-abortion stance. Abortion isn't a dinner table conversation in any country, but I've always sensed that there's an extra level of taboo attached to this topic in Japanese circles. So naturally, Dir en grey went the extra mile with some of the best CGI 2004 could buy. Is there some actual meaning behind this imagery, or is it all shock value?
     
    Watching it back now, this video isn't as extreme as a younger, more impressionable me thought. I discovered that there's mostly memorable segments, but most of the video is the band rocking out in a dingy room with bodies hanging from the ceiling. These also are the least offensive parts of the video too, unless you have a particular hate for vomit, leather, or white contact lenses. And if you do, how are you a visual kei fan? Anyway, the room resembles a hospital or a jail, although it's probably the back of an old fishing warehouse. There's nothing else to really discuss here.
     
    I tried my hardest to weave together a story that makes sense. The closest I can get is depictions of their anguish over this topic and how it's treated, which could be all they were going for. The main scenes cycle throughout the course of the video, and each of these scenes seem unconnected to the others. To sum it up: there's a demon orgy, robot cocks, a monk ripping a baby's head apart covered in ofuda screaming to the Lord of Light, a dissected half robot/woman creation on a table with a mad doctor, circus performers, depictions of the band as monsters mutilating themselves, and of course the infamous demon geisha eating the apple baby head. The meaning of some scenes are obvious: the orgy depicts sexual irresponsibility, the circus is about how the topic is treated as a joke, and the doctor and robot is supposed to resemble abortion and the act of playing god.  Several elements appear in different contexts, such as the geisha and baby heads. The woman on the table is shown as not in control of her body, the doctor with the huge forceps symbolizes the invasiveness of the procedure, the ofuda which covers the monk is meant to ward off evil, and the constant depiction of monsters and demons is meant to associate abortion with bad omens. The rest of this music video is pure shock value and there's no real meaning to anything.

    One thing I should mention before wrapping this up is that Dir en grey threw some serious shade at men in this music video. During the orgy scenes, the women have bare faces but the men are all covered with masks. I have several interpretations of this. One parallel I immediately noticed was to (surprisingly) porn, where it's all too common for the woman's face to be visible but the man is a secondary figure, and videos are associated with the woman and not the man. On a deeper level, it's also commentary on the unequal burden pregnancy puts on women. The men literally "don't see" what happens when they orgasm (hint: the women stop enjoying the orgy and start bleeding out their mouths with pained expressions on their faces), they don't have to deal with it, and they can carry on not caring, mouths transfixed in a smile. I dug deeper into the whole mask angle, and discovered that in Japanese mythology, oni masks refer to the belief in a spirit world in which demons carry out their roles of punishing the unjust and evil, as well as spreading disease. Double dip on the whole "spreading disease" = "venereal disease" bit if you want, but I don't think it goes that far. I think Dir en grey feel that men who do this and don't care are literally demons and worse than the women, but clearly the whole eating the baby's head idea also associates certain kinds of women with demons too. The band themselves aren't exactly human either, with Shinya's deformed body and Kyo's lovely tentacle mouth, so perhaps the band thinks everyone is a demon and that everyone is responsible?

    As far as PV's go for visual kei bands, this one is near the top in terms of effort and production values, even for today's standards. I'm sure there's more left to be discussed. What do you think?
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