GreatNorthernVK

In order to finance it, they’ll charge $1200 for a M&G, where all of the guys wear sunglasses and stare at the floor, behind a barrier.

Hoodie is going for $50 USD

I just noticed the “with love,” in the tramp stamp area. I wonder if he tattooed his ass cheeks with his signature

I bet “Richard” is Koichi’s sugar daddy

Hide deserved the real biopic. Get Miyavi to play him? C’mon, Miyavi. Get Angelina Jolie to help get this off the ground.

I’m reminded of the recent South Park episode where the boys are trying to form a band, only to be approached by a manager telling them that they need an epic biopic first before they do anything else.

Part of it may be tied into private money, part of it might be pandering to the Japanese market. Part of it might just be Yoyo’s relentless networking, and his ability to pull of the “tragic artist haunted by the ghosts of his past” narrative. Edit: I agree that he’s waiting for more buzz to release the album, but the way he’s going about it is terrible. Trying to compete in the mainstream space with the Coachella faux hipster crowd is a fool’s errand. He needs to actually go where the rock/metal fans are to gain any traction. Talk to Marilyn Manson about getting an in with the large festivals. Try and get on 70,000 tons of metal. Then he doesn’t look like such an opportunistic try-hard.

I mean, to me, back in the day, Angura was typically referring to non-traditional VK that was still a part of “the scene”, but made a point of distancing itself from some of the more superficial aspects. Examples of what would have been called angura back in the mid 2000s would have been MUCC, Cali-gari, Merry, deadman, Nookicky, Metronome, etc

X Japan *were* a good band. The new album is probably my least anticipated album of all time, because I’m already feeling second-hand embarrassment for how YOSHIKI has hyped this up, only to find out that their latest songs have mostly been the pap that prevented Dahlia from being a perfect album. I don’t know how much cheese the world can handle.

It’s hard for me to really pick a favourite MM era. They recorded both some of their best *and* all of their worst songs with Gackt. I think most fans can at least agree on that.

6 types, and not even an LP? Weak

Or at least on Finch Liqueur. Or better yet, on their BandCamp

Edgelord-kei

Code Vein features a few VAMPS songs, but I’m not sure whether that counts as Visual Kei.

That much I can agree with. The international fandom has never been deader. Aside from MH, and some low quality conversation on Twitter and Facebook, there isn’t much online presence anymore. Websites dedicated to providing VK news go ages without updates. Traditional fan sites have been phased out. Podcasts and YouTube channels have dried up, if you’re looking for anything other than React videos. Even still, I’m still grateful for the react channels, because it might inject something back into the fandom. The only regular streaming show about VK stopped abruptly eight months ago because of butt hurt fans on their discord that couldn’t handle some shitposting.

Part of this is a combination of nostalgia, selection bias, and increased access to the scene. Sure, I’ve done it too when I’ve gone through discographies of the prominent 90s and 00s bands, and thought “Wow, I don’t think the scene will ever produce classics like this again”. But then I remember that there were probably tons of cookie cutter, derivative bands back in the day that didn’t even reach the West, because no one gave a shit enough to keep and upload their discographies. Now that we have access to the entire scene by means of the internet, and social media in particular, we see all of the shit that the OG hipsters would have left behind 15+ years ago (except perhaps to mock it, see: Glam Japan). Because most of us don’t live in Japan, nor regularly attend Japanese lives, it can be hard to really gauge where these bands fit in the hierarchy of the Japanese fandom. Having access to the entire fandom now also means that we have access to all of the cringe that the fandom has to offer. How much of the observed idolfication of the scene is “new”, and how much of it is just innovating the sentiment that was already there is difficult, because most of us have no real clue of how Japanese fans acted on a daily basis in the 1990s. We can make observations on how the Western fandom has evolved, because most of us have over a decade of experience with that crowd. The only thing I’ve noticed over the years is the increasing openness to pop music, especially J-pop and K-pop. Also, a slight trend towards fixating on one band in the scene, or even one member (specifically, from the fans who also listen to K-pop).

Just as a side note, I love the fact that crossover bands like dimlim and deviloof can play metal shows and have videos taken of their performances, and no one gives a shit. Call it a “VK show” and replace most of the dudes with girls/women, and suddenly it’s “so disrespectful” to take photos/videos.

Dimlim has generated some buzz from a selection of western React Youtubers reviewing their singles. So it wouldn’t be unheard of to try and get a showcase or two either in Europe or the US. It would be great if Japanese bands actually did multi-band tours to sweeten the deal for casuals on the fence. This whole business of one-man tours with only a 70 minute set list is only for die-hards, and people who just happen to be in the same city with nothing better to do. But realistically, most Asia-obsessed people have moved on to K-pop, and the marginal base of casuals who would attend a multi-band event (but not a one-man) is probably not enough to justify the travel costs of additional bands. It could have worked in 2007-2009, but the hype fizzled out when bands couldn’t tour as far and wide as the fanbase wanted.

I think it’s the tendency of some VK fans (at least in the introductory stages of fandom), to shut themselves off from other genres/scenes. And because a lot of this might happen when they’re young, they might not have had any experience with other types of music fandoms. They usually either grow out of it, and start listening to additional types of music, or dump the scene in favour of K-pop, or whatever is trendy next.

Well, I’ve been paying attention since early 2001. The online presence back then was higher than it is now. And access to physical media wasn’t anywhere near as good. Sites like Kazaa and Soulseek has tons of files from popular VK bands. Most bands didn’t even realize we existed, until fans started traveling/moving to Japan to make themselves known. It was a little after this time when indies bands that got picked up by these fans started coming to Anime conventions.

While I’m sure that some expats/kids of expats were involved, the actual spread to the western side was heavily facilitated through file sharing. The “word of mouth” between friends outside of Japan occurred after file sharing had already made the music accessible to foreigners.

And for gay cis guys in relationships with trans guys, sometimes it’s not even the dick itself.

Yup. Handshake and a hand towel. The early entry wasn’t even that worth it, as the merch selection had already been picked almost clean by the US fans. About 75% of the people opted for VIP.

I’ve heard about the barricade before, from people who went to the last Toronto show. I get it, they want to protect themselves from the occasional nut. For me, it’s worth it if I at least get a picture, and early access. An autograph would be great. I brought Miyavi’s Firebird LP to get signed in Toronto last year, and it was announced the day of that only fan club members would get an autograph. I would bring my Uroboros LP with a silver sharpie if I thought I had a decent chance of one.

Quick question: I’m seriously pondering a stop on the NA tour this time around. In the past couple meet and greets, were there any photos or autographs allowed? I sprung for the Gazette meet and greet and was disappointed that they allowed neither. Just wanting to know if it’s worth it, especially because I’ve heard that Kyo and Shinya just go through the motions.