Arkady

Also taking money offers now.

Don't be shy in requesting more photos, please.

4:20 did they really referenced... 🤣

How did I forget the "n*rchia svettante tra (?)rose" (fallic shape spiring among (?)roses) cover of Lareine's Deep Forest!??

For real, can someonetell me what it is supposed to really represent?

Last week harvest (life is too short for good photos):

-Malice Mizer - Memorie DX

-Versailles - Noble (US ed.)

-Kamijo - Castrato

-Versailles - Lyrical Sympathy (Halloween lim. ed.)

-Lareine - Vampire Scream

About Vampire Scream I ALWAYS saw it without obi, can someone confirm it was originally sold that way, please?

The two CDs arrived pretty fast and all packaged with care. Thank you for all!

Thanks you both for your help.

By he way I should have been able to finalize the shipping fees by credit card with their help, since Paypal customer service and my credit card one still pass each other the fault on why I cannot pay CC through Paypal (with the very same credit card I later directly used to pay the very same order 😐).

CC customer service is very  kind and helpful ever if a bit slow and disorganized (2 days after receiving the shipping confirmation another employee answered me to help me pay shipping fees) 

-Versailles- Kakumei no Anthology (This one came 2 weeks ago)

-Versailles- Philia bonus DVD from Like an Edison 

-Versailles- Noble bonus DVD from ??? (I don't know from what shop. If someone knows please send me a pm)

-Versailles- Postcards set

1 hour ago, Zeus said:

I
EDIT: You need 30 posts in order to be able to add a cover photo.

YAY! Thank you for the answer.

EDIT: All right, confirmed.

I have the exact same problem. In fact I though the cover photo was something only senior members were allowed to have.

No drag queens, but a cute story.

3 hours ago, 薔薇の末裔 said:

as mentioned in the post above they are just doing a malice mizer session twice in september for the band's anniversary.

while former malice mizer roadies kamijo,

This it's like all my dreams coming true. If only it wasn't  only temporary.

Ok I tryed ordering directly from Closetchild for the first time, and I think I f*cked up something.

I followed their tutorial for foreigner buyers but when it's time to pay with Paypal they reject all my cards (It's not a money issue because I filled it few days ago and after it I used only a minimal part of it somewhere else). It never happened to me on other sites.

I noticed that strangerly shipping fees with e-packet in my order are 1yen instead of around 1000yen as they should be.

What did I do wrong? How do I cancel my order if there is nothing I can do to to pay it?

On 7/31/2018 at 7:51 PM, VkBrutaliaN said:

usually i don't have problems with such things but OMFG this is the WORST new bandname of 2018!

Go figure, for me it's the only thing I like about them 😆.  Connected with a different, less meh band, with a different style (and more out and pround, I suppose?) they would have had my attention.

I'm sorry, but that promo is not for sale, it's also like one of my favorite piece of my collection. I bought it like 8/10 years ago and never seen another one around here in the western market.

So theirs first concerts were in august, not in march?

About the 2ND Demo, I'm writing it that way because I give priority to how it's written on the cover (DEMO) but at the same time acknoledge that the official form is "2nd DEMO". It all makes sense in my head, don't worry. 😅 

If you have other corrections on my list I would gladly take them, send me a pm when you have time and feel like doing it, please.

It's not a bad anime song per se, but it's completely unsuitable as an OP of that kind of anime. I doubt they were asked for a ballad. I think they were given free artistic rein to entice them to work on it and now who commissioned them are kinda regretting it, maybe.

Maybe as an ending theme it could have worked much better.

16 hours ago, xriko said:

They will announce at the beginning of the video the "condition"

if privilege shop, they will announce the shop, for which release, ...

 

Sadly I don't speak japanese, but I think I found out what privilege DVD it should be. It should be from YesAsia for Philia.

Here a screen shot (with the Philia era costumes).

Thanks, I was pretty sure i was legit because the person that sold it to me few months ago was honest and sold me a bunch of juicy stuff too, but I thought it was better to ask around (it's the first promo of this kind I have bought) and maybe someone will even be able to give me precise info on the disc if I'm lucky (like in what occasion was gifted to the fans etc.)

I know it contains a video message from the band, but I was wondering if it was some random homemade copy/bootleg or some legit (last minute) promo coming this way from the band.

Thanks

9 hours ago, inertia said:

I

Spoiler

 

lived in Tokyo and went to all their local shows and many of the away ones too during their second period in the 2000s. Something that I think isn’t fully appreciated among international fans is just how unpopular and broke Lareine was during that time, and how desperately and passionately they worked despite the obstacles. But every concert was magical. It had to be. There was no reason to do it otherwise, and a million reasons to quit. It felt like borrowed time, and I was always so happy and grateful to be able to see them despite the bittersweet feeling they would have been better off doing something else.

 

They always looked exhausted at events, rarely had new costumes, rarely even had new goods because I think they had trouble coming up with deposits. Cheki didn’t start to become a thing until late in their history (2005-ish?) when they’d already spent years grinding away with little return. I suspect the reason why they were able to put out as many releases as they did is because back during Lareine’s Sony days Kamijo invested in buying a bunch of his own production equipment. I think normally an indie band at that level wouldn’t have had those resources.

 

But time to write and rehearse seemed like a scarce commodity too back then. There were times when Kamijo looked half dead. And every time Lareine did a little tour we could watch Kamijo perk up day by day, at the same time as us fans with normal lives were getting more and more tired as the tour went on. It always made me wonder what on earth kind of awful schedule he normally had in Tokyo, juggling the band and probably a part-time job, that going on tour would feel like a vacation to him. (Later on when I read Versailles interviews, they mentioned that Kamijo and Hizaki first met while working at Third Stage.)

 

Unfortunately by 2003 Lareine was already perceived as old, out of date, and uncool. A ‘90s band. If they hadn’t paused in 2000 maybe things would have been different, maybe they could have built a solid base like Dir or Pierrot. But coming back in 2003 it was too late, the trends had already changed. Lareine had few fans back then, and it seemed like all of us were fans from before. I never met any Japanese fans who said they were new. (only international fans) Young VK fans didn’t care. Lareine wrote some of the currently trendy themes into their music in ways that were interesting instead of pure copy/paste, and us old fans had fun, but nobody else cared. They did some amazing experimental stuff on stage, and nobody saw it except us few old fans. To give you an idea of how young fans perceived them, there was a big outcry when Versailles was announced because people didn’t think a pansy weak vocalist with a thin high voice like Kamijo should be playing with awesome (but unknown) guitarists like Hizaki and Teru. They really got outraged when we heard Versailles was going to have a heavy sound. I got in a lot of arguments online at that time with people who clearly thought I was a delusional fangirl for saying that Kamijo’s voice is powerful enough to sing heavier music.

 

In February 2006 Kazumi announced that he was leaving Lareine and retiring from music. I never blamed him, I was thankful that he had done his best to help bring us great music for so long despite the hardships. But this was really the beginning of the end. Lareine put out big ads in the major VK magazines looking for a new drummer, and they even went out of their way to explicitly write that they would take applications from anybody regardless of age or sex or nationality, as long as they could play and would love the band. I think that would be shocking to see in a band’s want ad even today, and this was in 2006 before the explosion of international tours had happened. But they weren’t able to find a drummer, and then during the summer Mayu vanished again. Honestly I can’t even blame Mayu either for wanting to quit under the circumstances, but it was terrible that he vanished without communication or warning. The Club Citta live they did in October was originally supposed to be a Halloween Party event live with multiple bands, not their last live.

 

I went to as many of Kamijo’s anniversary tour dates as I could, since it was so special. The Tokyo final with everyone was amazing. So glad I went.

 

p.s. “Drama” was so great live that to this day I can still half-hear the performance in my memory, even though they only played it twice in Sapporo in February 2006 before Kazumi left. It was so powerful. Kazumi and Emiru were much louder than on the studio version; this song actually has a really sexy rhythm when you can hear them. Mayu took the electric part instead of the acoustic one. They came together solid and strong booming on the beat in that last chorus on the song, Kamijo singing powerfully instead of gently, and hard on the beat like the others. I regret not bringing my MD recorder to Sapporo, but I never imagined that those 2 nights would be the last times we could enjoy Lareine normally.

 

 

I'm not crying it's only onions raining in my eyes.

Back then I knew Lareine weren't very big in Japan, but I didn't know they struggled so much, and had so much passion for what they did

(And that we could have had them still if someone would have responded to those ads! 😡)

Now I'm even more glad I started to stan them so early and spent so much money on their new releases when I started to be able to buy original stuff (I know that they got only a minimal fraction of the ¥¥, but still), before they disbanded.

Thanks for sharing this and fighting the good battle versus the Kamijo haters, for us too (non japanese speaking western fans). Luckily here in Europe I don't remember much negative reactions at the news of the birth of Versailles and its members. On the contrary.

Just to clear things a bit for me after (my) hyatus. Is this still the same new album they announced some years ago after the reunion and was never out?

IF ONLY! (about the demo)😆

No, my collection is much smaller because even though I collect Lareine material since like around 2005, I'm on a budget and I did not have direct access to the japanese second hand market till now, so I needed to be VERY patient to wait for the right occasions (=sales with NOT too overinflated prices). The list is full of errors because I don't speak japanese, so I must rely on cross-checked informations from different western sources sadly (When I find different dates for the same item I put two differen versions when I'm not sure it's an error or they are speaking about two different prints), but I'm always open to corrections. 

I don't lie to myself thinking I'll be able to complete it (not with my budget), but I like to see what I have and what I still need looking for, and I like that sensation when I mark down some more difficult to find item.

Congratulations over your collection! I know it was very hard work for you.

Hello!

During all this years I accumulated a few spares that now I'd like to trade for stuff I'm looking for (instead of leaving them forgotten on a shelf) NOW TAKING PRICE OFFERS TOO.

What I have up for trade:

Kamijo - “Louis” single reg. edition first press (with obi, card and autograph card) almost mint condition

Kamijo - “Louis“ single limited ed. type B first press (with obi, card and autograph card) almost mint condition

-Versailles group postcard from CDJapan

-Lareine “Metamorphose“ (missing obi) gently used condition

-Lareine “Reine de Fleur II“ (with obi) *SOLD*

What I'm looking for: Lareine,New Sodmy, Versailles, Kamijo. All the stuff NOT underscored in purple on my Google doc plus: flyers, cards, postcards, fanclub magazines, buttons etc. If you have something you don't see mentioned in the document feel free to ask anyway because I might be looking for it and don't know/forgot.

I'd prefer to swap inside Europe, but might consider overseas offers depending on the case.

FEEL FREE TO REQUEST MORE PHOTOS if you need them.

7 hours ago, The Moon said:

edit: also their western fanbase as a whole back in the way was super chill & very welcoming. wish we could have that now uwu 

This I think was (partially?) thanks to the fact that in those day Lareine wasn't one of the cool bands to stan (too pop-rock and kitsch), so pretentious *ssholes stayed away and in the fanbase there was people enjoyin them  and very happy to see someone else doing it, since there was not very much of us around. Or at least this is the impression i got from the italian VK fanbase pre band disbanding. 

28 minutes ago, Haru Kasu said:

Welcome my friend ❤️ 

You don't happen to be italian, right?

I know that the "friend" thing is more likely to be a friendly thing, but I know people that like the illustrator in your avatar and since it's not a very famous artist in the western fandom, I thought better to check if you might be someone I know/knew for real. 😆

On 4/2/2018 at 3:56 PM, SakuraFox512 said:

That aside, +1 for the recommendation of Zenmarket.jp. Best deputy service I've used thus far -- 300 yen per order, no consolidation fee for multiple orders, 45 day storage period, a ton of different shipping options, and relatively quick answers to messages.

 

In their site they say that 300yen are per item not per order though. (If you subscribe now they give you 300yen coupon)

Does FromJapan accept to write a lower value on the package? I searched on their site and they say nothing against it, so I'm hopeful.