jaymee

10 hours ago, jiji94 said:

when did sm get better music producers/music video directors/better fucking budgets wtf I am slayed

This is my entire FB feed ATM and not a huge K-pop fan but even I can't deny how good this is.

(Unrelated)

SEVDALIZA is a constant on my playlist D:

Straight. I can appreciate how women look, but lady parts just don't do it for me I need the D... It's a curse lol  Although I've lived with quite a few lesbians and I'm not sure I could handle the drama if I wasn't straight.

Loved the sound but all I could think is that all the songs would have sounded a million times better with Kamijo on vocals. D: But I will admit my bias of not really being fond of female vocals for VK.

With Azusa singing a couple of the tracks just sound a little too mid-2000s anime theme-ish for me to listen to on the regular.

22 hours ago, BrenGun said:

 

It was also not that expensive, so I did grab it

 

 

all shows?! that's crazy bangya touring around! 

I would never do that. XD

I love finding good deals like that!

I know, it is crazy. I know all the hard song lives on the left are going to be too good tho. And for the ones on the right it's like... "Well you're already going to be there, so..."  #yolo #noregrets 

On 2017/10/14 at 10:41 PM, BrenGun said:

[image]

 

letter, rain falls down and dessin d'combres are free CD's.

 

The rest I bought at bookoff and closet child at ikebukuro ^^" 

 

 

That Janne DVD is great 

I recently bought tix for every show on this tour (omg I'm gonna die... D: ) and these bangya planner stickers to keep track of it all lol

I feel like this is trying to be the VK version of the Cheerz app for idols (which over time has proved to be quite successful, especially for indies and underground idols) but it doesn’t seem like the same marketing and endorsements are there.

And if it is indeed a similar format to Cheerz, I don’t feel that a ton of VK guys are gonna feel like making profiles of themselves and camwhoring 24/7 to be voted up on it. It’s taken a lot of VK dudes long enough just to get a Twitter or Instagram. Although he’ll maybe they would I’m not terribly familiar with the new ways indies bands are trying to promote themselves, if any.

I don’t wish I was Japanese (ethnically) but I would apply for citizenship if Japan would allow dual citizenship. Otherwise there would be no benefit to naturalizing since no one would believe I was a citizen and it would prevent me and the hubs from being able to live elsewhere should we ever become displaced due to the next big earthquake, Mt. Fuji erupting, North Korean missle attack, etc. that the news is always telling me could happen any day now lol

Expats in Japan have a saying: “The only thing worse than being a foreigner here is being Japanese.”

9 minutes ago, jiji94 said:

Oh man, I remember friends telling me how babysitting isn't a thing in Japan. My best friend who is Japanese is stressed because she's not sure she ever wants children or even to get married. She absolutely hates the idea of becoming a housewife although she admires them because of her mother. I know she's definitely not the only J-girl friend of mine in that boat. One of my J-dude friends and I talked about how he thinks the social pressure is so unfair on women and how it ends up affecting everyone, and how better options for childcare need to exist. I think that unfortunately influenced his decision not to become an English teacher despite having the qualifications and taking a higher paying corporate job. 

Yeah, there are a growing number of DINKs (Dual Income No Kids) like my husband and I. With lower take home incomes for men forcing women to work as well,  people getting married later or not at all, and women or men just generally wanting to bow out of this social pressure, not a lot of the younger generation is eager to take on the task. Just the work culture here alone is enough to make you dead inside if you let it.

I was somewhat on the fence in my teens about not wanting children. I'm in my 30s now and over the years have gradually moved into the "never having kids" zone. The only exception being that should I ever change my mind (not likely but just entertaining the possibility) I would adopt. But, at this point I don't even want that.

There are few j-guys that don't want kids, and my husband and I are both only children. The social pressure to have kids here is insane with the declining birthrate and all... Because of outside peer pressure sometimes my husband entertains the thought of having children, tho he pretty much reverts to "ah hell no" status the rare times we babysit for our friends' kids. He tires out easily and gets irritated when he doesn't get a full night's sleep and his free time is taken away from him, so I figure he'd get stressed/sick of parenting really fast. Also ultimately in Japan, the child rearing responsibility would fall fully on me, and so he doesn't try and force that burden on me knowing I'm not interested. However, we discussed all of this before marriage, and still check in that we're on the same page from time to time.

Reasons I don't want kids:

- I just don't want them

I actually like kids, but only in measured doses. I don't have a ton of free time as it is, and I know I would be miserable having to give that up for someone else. I also enjoy having the freedom to travel, going to lives, go out with friends, etc. with what little free time I do have, and that would be hard to do with kids since babysitting (like calling a babysitter) is an foreign concept to most Japanese people and the in-laws don't live nearby. My (girl)friends with kids hardly ever go out, hardly ever have any time away from their kids alone with their husbands, never have time to care for themselves, their houses are always a mess, and it just feels like they live the same day over and over. Their roles are limited to "mommy". Also they hardly ever sleep and look tired all the time. I mean they're happy so I'm happy for them, but it's just not the life for me. My husband and I have two cats. They provide the same cuteness and affection and are only a fraction of the work.

- They're expensive

I would have to work completely from home (instead of partly), and even then for the first couple of years childcare is pretty much a full time job in itself, so I doubt I'd get much done. My husband doesn't make enough money for me to quit my job. (Thanks crippling student loan debt D: )

- Overpopulation

This is the biggest one, even if we did actually want kids. There are already too many people on the planet and we're killing it. The way things are going, it's unlikely the earth won't succumb to global warming or war over lack of resources before any potential kids would grow old and pass on. I couldn't have them knowing that, just for vanity's sake of having a mini me or two running around.

Deciding not to have kids is frustrating because most doctors will refuse to tie your tubes or do anything permanent if you're young and/or haven't had kids yet, because they always assume you will change your mind.

Psycho le Cemu without make-up/very light make-up:

Daishi

AYA

Yura-sama (on the left)

seek and Daishi

Daishi, Lida, and seek

Old Synectics photo set of the rest of the band post Daishi's arrest (top: Lida and AYA, bottom: Yura-sama and seek)

Recent pic

Also recent, PLC appeared on a variety TV show and they did a "what if PLC looked like normal businesspeople" segment (seek, Lida, Daishi, Yura-sama, AYA)

Been on repeat since they came out D:

On 10/10/2017 at 12:45 AM, saishuu said:

 

• Kiryuin Sho is actually a super knowledgeable guy. Who would have thought that someone from Golden Bomber would be the best and biggest spokesperson for VK in 2017?

Sho is super talented and was an avid VK fan long before Golden Bomber came on the scene. Seriously the amount of instruments he can play probably rivals Gackt at this point. No one else in GB has musical talent tho lol

Better him to present than some nobody current band or Yoshiki, who would turn it into an X bragging special.

15 hours ago, Saishu said:

I’ll throw my guess for re-recordings out there

 

Garden

Mazohyst

Fukai

 

A re-recording of "Garden" would be amazing, but I pigs would fly before it ever happened, I'm sure.

I used to listen to Jurassic a lot years ago but ugh no thank you to this. D:

On 2017/10/7 at 8:24 PM, nostalgia said:

Tinnitus has been with me for two years now. It's not getting worse, so I don't fucking care about it anymore. I have other health issues to worry about though.

That's good! I hope it stays that way (not getting any worse).

My mom's has gotten worse to the point she should really get hearing aids, but she won't because she has crappy insurance and doesn't want to spend the money. The US healthcare system is all kinds of screwed up :/

Yup, all the time (when it comes to VK).

Some people don't like furi, and sometimes a band's furi is just boring like waving your arms and stuff, but I think when either the band or their gya have done it the right way, it's kind of another way of "feeling" or interpreting the music.

I agree, I don't think it's dumb at all! Sometimes I see girls that make their own shirts and/or do casual cosplay or costume-themed outfits, which they can then wear every time they go to that band's live (instead of spending lots of money on tour merch or rock/goth/etc. style clothes) to not look out of place, especially if they don't normally wear those kinds of clothes.

On 2017/10/3 at 9:50 AM, Kyo_Toriko said:

About YT link ... I don't know , it didn't appear after I paste the link lol xD"

It should appear if you copy/paste the link and then hit the return key after.

Dragging up this old topic. D:

I dated my husband for a year, and then I had to move back to the U.S. to graduate so we we did a year and a half long distance while I was studying and looking for employment in Japan. Then we moved in together and got married. We've been together over 12 years.

Not gonna lie, the long distance part was really hard. We almost broke up a few times because our ways of dealing with the relationship was different... For my husband it was easier to try not to think about me and not text or write so he didn't have to deal with feeling lonely and for me I wanted more contact to ease the loneliness, so we fought sometimes about that. But having gone through that, it has certainly made us more appreciative of our relationship and we don't take our time together for granted.

On 2015/10/4 at 4:30 AM, nostalgia said:

I have had tinnitus ringing in my right ear not so long ago. I thought it was because of hearing loss, but my ENT checked it and told me I was too stressed.

I think I can still hope it's not permanent according to what caused it. Imagine your ears ringing for the rest of your lifetime though.

My mom has this. I hope it for my sake it's mostly another side effect of her stress problems and not a genetic condition, but my grandmother's hearing also isn't great so I'm not exactly optimistic. I'm sure going to concerts doesn't help. I hope you find a way to manage your stress early on! My mom's stress issues have gone beyond ringing in the ears to Bell's Palsy and it's a never ending circle because the condition just makes her more stressed and the Palsy worse. :/

As for me, I developed OCD in elementary school and later social anxiety in middle school (especially talking on the phone and taking to strangers was difficult for me until university). The OCD was brought on by stressful living conditions at the time (in my case, the OCD was my brain's way of trying to bring order to a chaotic childhood), but that got better when my mom and I's living conditions got better. Since OCD was still relatively unknown and the internet wasn't a thing at the time, I didn't find out what I had was OCD until studying psychology later. I had the kind where everything had to be in even numbers (so like if I fell and scraped one leg I would have to fall and scrape the other to make it even) and had to constantly check to make sure doors, etc. were locked. My social anxiety improved a lot post-high school when I was no longer being bullied and had moved to another state on my own, and then disappeared after moving to Japan. Like with the OCD, I've only found out in the past 10 years that what I was going through during middle and high school was social anxiety.

I feel really lucky to have recovered from both before they affected my adult life, especially living in a country like Japan where it's difficult to take personal days or even find decent clinics treating mental illness.

On 2017/10/1 at 1:22 PM, Zeus said:

I always thought that was Last.fm's job!

 

But in all seriousness, this is something that crosses my mind often. We have difficulty as a scene pinning down our roots because a lot of that information has been lost to time. There are probably all types of cheki, casettes, and photo shoots from the late 80s and early 90s that have never been converted digitally. It's important to catalog our history for the sake of fans yet to be, and my first thought for how this would be done is Last.fm. But from using the internet, I know that nothing is permanent. The biggest websites could be here today, gone tomorrow. I don't use it anymore but I don't know of a better music encyclopedia than Last.fm.

 

I've never been the type to care about visuals alone. It's the melding of visuals and audio that makes visual kei what it is for me.  The closest I get to cataloging anything is putting album artwork on things in iTunes and I've fallen off that wagon too. So, I have nothing to contribute to this endeavor. But I like reading so many people are still invested in the scene and their favorite bands, and I can guarantee you one day in the future you will be glad you saved all those pictures. Keep preserving history everyone!

I agree so much has already been lost... Strangely I feel like there was way more material in the way of scans, bootleg lives/off-shot or special videos, etc. when visual kei was harder to come by. YouTube has deleted at least half of the stuff I watched, and I don't know anyone that has that stuff anymore unless they own the original it came from or kept the original files. This also applies to releases and looks of a lot of lesser or no-name bands. The same is especially true with out of print magazines like Vicious and Fool's Mate. You can somewhat easily buy older editions of these in Japan, but I'm sure some day even that time will pass.

Tho isn't cheki a more "recent" thing? The camera film itself has been around for quite some time, but I feel like only in the past 10 years have bands started replacing photo sets with cheki. I suppose the latter is also more economical for bands just starting out, rather than pay for a professional photographer/studio time and printing. I feel like in the "old" days I didn't see a lot of cheki besides the lottery drawing signed cheki prizes offered by VK magazines.

However, I'm eternally thankful there are places like the VK Database preserving information about the bands themselves, including discographies and the line, and many Japanese members that still contribute to it.

1. Psycho le Cemu (as if anyone had any doubts  )

2. MALICE MIZER, and Kozi's solo stuff

3. PIERROT

4. Janne Da Arc

5. Kuroyume

6. Dir en grey (up until around Vulgar)

7. Plastic Tree (up until around Cell)

8. Lareine (old school period before they first went on hiatus)

9. Laputa or Baiser (sorry can't pick one)

10. Deadman

1 and 2 are in order, and then 3 - 7 is a toss up, with 8 - 10 in no particular order. I don't follow Dir en grey, Plastic Tree, or Lareine/Kamijo now, but I never get sick of their older stuff.

Also updating with a super late 9/24 Doppelgänger ~Next Generations~ live report. 

New tour date video and flyer:

Also, October 2nd this week marked 15 years since PLC's major debut.  (On the same day, SOPHIA was also celebrating their 22nd debut anniversary.) A lot of fans posted messages, photos, art, etc. (also not my tweet):

Part of the reason this post is so late is because I've been working my butt off on a big translation project so I can lottery for all of/as many dates as possible on the new spring tour. (Omg I'm gonna die y'all D: ) For anyone interested, the Gerunika days will likely be most/all hard songs and the PLC/Doppelganger days more of a mix/pop songs.

Copying my 9/16 Abstinence's Door #009 live report from the D'ERLANGER thread.

I only went to the 9/16 live so I have no idea how Friday's went, but everyone's covers sounded a lot better live. General consensus from D'ERLANGER fans I chatted with and on Twitter seems to be that PLC's cover was best and a few D'ERLANGER fans said they cried during it. 

Band set order:  lynch.→ Psycho le Cému → D'ERLANGER → D'ERLANGER feat. 清春

Setlist:
 

Ryo from def spiral played support bass for lynch. (which I've heard isn't a rare occurrence?) and during their set, Cipher came out to play with the band on "XXX FOR YOU". Later during PLC's set, Seela came out to perform with PLC for DARLIN'. During D'ERLANGER's set Asanao (lynch) and Tetsu had a drum "battle" and he played "XXX FOR YOU" with D'ERLANGER, and after that seek (PLC) came out to play bass on "an aphrodisiac". Kiyoharu's set with D'ERLANGER was really short, and he only sang covers (no guitar). Kyo and Kiyoharu sang together for "SADISTIC EMOTION", which I think improved it a lot... Although Kiyoharu did a great job with the other two songs so not sure why he decided to go with "SADISTIC EMOTION" for the tribute. D:

For the encore of "La Vie en Rose", Daishi, Hazuki, Kiyoharu, and Kyo all sang together. Daishi was really nervous/shy the whole time because he's a big D'ERLANGER fan boy and it was really adorable because he never acts like that. I think he felt a little intimidated by Kiyoharu, too, lol.

I was really fortunate that I was able to trade up for a saizen ticket, although I switched out with D'ERLANGER fans after PLC and went toward the back of the front section to visit with some of the other PLC girls than came (not too many of us in comparison to lynch gya) and then caught Tetsu's drum stick. It was a really good show and I was really impressed at how accommodating D'ERLANGER was to all the guest bands. Like they were just so professional, put a lot of thought into making sure everyone had a good time, and I could really see why so many other artists look up to them (besides musically). Their fans were really nice, too. Lots of gyao.

On 2017/9/29 at 9:13 PM, violetchain said:

True, PLC have always had a certain percentage of filler on their releases, so I guess they've been fairly consistent in that area. 

 

Oh no, the video for "Mirai Shounen x Mirai Shoujo" is quite cute, I just hate the song. Something about it doesn't feel right to me, and I have trouble even listening to the whole thing. 

Ah, I see! To be fair, despite buying their new releases, I don't listen to much of PLC's newer stuff outside of lives/DVDs. As much as I love them, I really feel like they're one of those bands that needs to be experienced to "get", lol. (Which is sadly one of the major things holding them back in the current VK scene. They have a lot of haters at taibans that are "surprised" to find out that they're a really good band.)