jaymee

Really liking this... That song in the first clip was certainly channeling a lot of The NOVEMBERS.

A lot of "rarer" video stuff came out before YouTube and the like, so there was no choice but to save it on your hard drive and/or burn it to disc. I still have some discs I burned from back then of things I watched often. I'll occasionally save stuff from Nico Nico Douga using a video capture program, but otherwise, not much besides shelving any VK-related books and keeping any tour pamphlets in their plastic wrap. I sold off most of my magazines long ago and don't buy new ones because I'm not that interested in preserving photos. I have trading card/sticker and cheki files, and then a binder for pins, keychains, etc. (Even then, I only collect some AYA stuff.) A lot of girls now like to save their guitar picks they've caught with these: And some girls also preserve their keychains and badges with stuff like this: They sell all kinds of sizes at anime goods shops/in Akihabara.

Things I'm proud to own: - First press of Malice Mizer's Memoire, Ma Cherie, and Bara no Seidou. I have other first presses of theirs but these are the ones I'm most proud of. - All of Kozi's solo (non-band) stuff. I was still living overseas and a lot of it was terribly hard to get when it was released. - All of Psycho le Cemu's tour pamphlets. (Tho I pretty much have everything they've ever released including demos, comment CDs, etc. prior to their hiatus in 2005, the tour pamphlets have taken me longest to collect.) Things that have been well-worn/treasured by me over the years: - First presses of Dir en grey's Gauze and Macabre, and PIERROT's Private Enemy and Heaven ~the Customized Landscape~. - Malice Mizer's Merveilles... I've had many opportunities to upgrade my copy with a first press one, but I've always kept the original I bought, which was the first VK CD I ever bought and probably the most played out... - Old issues of Malice Mizer's fan club mag - Dir en grey's Osaka-jo Hall, Malice Mizer's Merveilles and Bara no Seidou, and Lareiene's Metamorphose VHS - The two Sweet Trance DVDs Sweet Heart released - Psycho le Cemu first press Frontiers CD - Bunch of old Due'le quartz maxi-singles - Baiser's Hana CD

I agree with Metronome! Dare I say their newer stuff has rivaled or even outdone some of their older stuff. Still wish I'd been able to see them with PLC. As for PLC, I agree they've had a few not-so-great songs post-reunion (but they've always had random filler-ish stuff in their past albums so I guess that's par for the course), but what's wrong with "Mirai Shounen x Mirai Shoujo"? The lyrics are cute and the MV is about a queer/trans couple where the trans girl (played by trans personality Haruna Ai) finally gets her sex change operation at the end. It makes light of the "hospital/major illness" drama trope, is cute, and overall pretty progressive for not only starring but showing trans people in a positive light. Other VK bands I don't think have lost their "spark": - D'ERLANGER - Their last album was great and they rocked live. Looking forward to whatever they come out with next. - BUCK-TICK- Some people might disagree, but I've enjoyed them expanding into different genres over the years. While I don't always enjoy their new music as much as their older music, I've never hated an album they've put out. - LUNA SEA - They've given some great performances, even rivaling some of their older ones, since they got back together and I feel like "Will" was one of the better post-reunion albums by a VK band to straddle the hard line of old sound vs. new. - sukekiyo - I see so much potential in this. I don't think they've had a bad release yet. - lynch. - Every time I see them live they're been better than before. My live impression of them over the years has gone from "every song sounds the same" to " I would actually consider buying a CD of theirs/keeping up with them more". I think musically/technically they have room for improvement but I see them sticking around and only getting better. - Considering how I never really was a Nightmare fan, I'm surprised at how much I've been liking Jakigan Meister and Gremlins. - Visually Zombi/Zombie doesn't do much for me, but I've enjoyed a lot of their releases so far, and think they have potential.

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.

Welcome! I love me some TWO-MIX (Gundam Wing) as well! Hope you enjoy the forums~

What a nice little Kagerou reunion D:

Glad she's not pulling an Ayu or Madonna and instead retiring before she gets too burnt out and all her songs sound recycled.

That line-up would make for an amazing show. Whatever it turns out to be, I hope it is actually "Nagoya-kei" and not some cover night featuring semi popular bands now with "guest" appearances by a few random old school musicians.

Also! Last night PLC did a short acoustic cover of "DARLIN'" on their subscription-based Nico Nico Channel, and omg it was really good! Like... the version on the CD wasn't bad at all but I would have loved to have had this one on there instead. D: (Fortunately someone did a screen recording of it, minus the last few notes.)

Bottom Line is bigger than ELL size by at least 500. It's bigger than ELL, too. Think the next livehouse up in size from Bottom Line is Diamond Hall. So I guess they have at least one band they're betting on doing pretty well that day.

I could see them doing well with some more experience/skill. "Toriko" would probably great live. What gya doesn't like a good looking VK dude singing "I'm your slave" to her lol.

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.

Gonna be really surprised if Psycho le Cemu doesn't appear as an extra guest on the tribute album. MUCC and them are so close and they still visit each other's lives. MUCC members are always really nice to the PLC fans that recognize them, too. D: But either way, it's already a great line up.

Also, the gay scene and what gay men find attractive in Japan may be different from the gay scenes in other countries? When I first came to Japan a lot of gay dudes were into cute, cuddly "big" guys. One of my gay Japanese friends is somewhat feminine in dress/mannerisms, and he's had no problems getting dudes. I also think it's important to note that your general fashionable Japanese dude looks kind of feminine by Western standards to begin with, so unless the VK guy is actually the "girl" of the band, he probably doesn't seem that feminine to people who like VK.

Yup. I mean I wish it wasn't the norm, but it is. Almost nobody sinks the amount of money regular gya do into going to VK lives just for the music. Of course they probably like the music and it may have some significance to them personally or artistically, but often you are going to support a certain member or band and be a part of the "world" they've created, be that the actual show itself or enjoying that feeling of belonging with other fans. There are lives I've gone to just to show support for a band during a taiban so they at least make a little money that night. (When your choose which band your ticket money is going to.) From a music perspective, unless you like most/all of the bands playing, paying full price for a ticket just to hear 4-6 songs at a taiban isn't usually "worth it".

Probably Die since he was the only member of Dir that showed up to comment on the album.

Ugh god IDEK why Kiyoharu is so eager to crank out horrible shit for every tribute album under the sun. He must really need that coin.

After watching the PV I would def give their new album a listen when it comes out. They sound like they have potential.

They have always been (and continue to be) pretty popular in the VK scene in Japan. Not sure why they never gained many overseas fans/stayed relevant overseas beyond their early career.

Same Admittedly the Macabre stuff was probably better for guys. Except the Macabre bag. That thing is just fugly sorry lol I use tour towels all the time to keep my head/face from getting sunburned while lining up for buppan, at music festivals, while working out at the gym or hiking, to wrap drinks in during lives so I don't get water stains inside my purse/on brand wallets, (and in PLC's case) during lives because they have a few towel furi songs.

omg lollllll If it was a foreign gya I would feel kind of bad (because she probably didn't know better), but if it was a Japanese gya then her attention-seeking ass got what it deserved lolol. I feel like acceptable places to hold handmade fans would be: L'Arc, GLAY, Golden Bomber, maaaaybe X Japan (or Janne Da Arc if they were still together). Basically a place that is not a live house and is seated (tiered seating). Anything at live house would be distracting and block everyone's view, lol.

Me, too! Any (non-Japanese) programmer I've ever known has always said Japan is always at least a few years behind, and will code things in the most roundabout/mind-boggling way possible to avoid having to deviate from the already established way of doing things. It's a sad mentality that tends to cripple new talent in the field and create a lot of unnecessary bugs, lags, etc. So in light of that I don't see Lawson really doing anything to improve its system... But even if they can't do that, if they could just stagger ticket sale start times on popular dates so the site doesn't crash or freeze during the reservation process (or become more prone to errors), that would be amazing. Even the in-store Loppi machine is prone to freezing.

What good are stickers? Just gonna collect dust in a bookshelf lol While I love cats, I hate shirt dresses. Also, after over a decade of living here, I'm kind of over Engrishy shirts. Dir only had one normal shirt, and it was a pretty forgettable design. The towels were absolutely boring and also just as forgettable. The tote was plain and ugly. Like seriously, I was looking for at least one thing that would be remotely worth buying at the live I went to (cuz it will probably be the last time I see Dir unless they perform with PIERROT again or do another rehash of Mode of Gauze/Mode of Macabre) and came up with nada except for the Deity pouch, and all it said was "Deity"... Not even "Dir en grey", "Mode of Macabre", or anything to commemorate tracking my ass 30-40 minutes in the hot sun to get to that god forbidden community plaza in the middle of Die's country ass hometown. (Seriously Dir was trolling everyone by having their Macabre final there lololz.) As for the new tour goods, the tote is cute and the garbage can is also cute/functional. I could have totally used a battery charger or smart phone case. The towel at least has the band name/tour logo on it. The teru teru bozu are cute, too, and I imagine some people will use them as car mirror decorations if they don't hang them up by their windows at home. Seriously, way more thought was put into the functionality/aesthetic of these new goods.

You can hear PLC's cover of "Darlin'" here, taken from last night's radio show: If you download the app you can hear the whole thing. If not, it cuts off 3 min. after the broadcast starts, although that's still enough time to hear most of it.