Arkady

AT LONG LAST I RECEIVED THEM!
 
The Ghost inside of Me- photobook
The Ghost inside of Me/Crucifixion-Behind the Masquerade I
The Ghost inside of Me/Crucifixion-Behind the Masquerade II (autographed with dedication<3)
 

I agree. Perhaps they tried to court everyone, but in the end failed to get them. Perhaps they withdrew behind Mana's artistic direction, and thus all MM less Gackt were dropped off Columbia; I can't imagine him, even Kozi or Yuuki playing pop, putting up 00s 64 bits softvi rockers aesthetics, surrounded by group of dancers, etc. They are artists, I think that's clear. Kozi, like Mana, even at the cost of losing their mainstream status (a thing that history has reserved to less than 10 bands in Japanese music history, even Dir or the Gazette never had the attention MM received from the media in the late 90s), decided to move on and run after a consistent artistic project within their own worldview. On the other hand, Gackt brought iconic moments to VK and J-rock (Mizerable, Vanilla, Redemption) but generally speaking he did the stuff that would attract masses.

I think a lot of that feeling of people coming and going stems from the western boom years and like other people said, from the fact that it has somehow been hogtied into the same brain rot caravan with Kpop and therefore people tend to become aware of both simultaneously, allowing for lateral movement between the two. Then there's that other breed of us getting into our 30's finally coming to grips with mortality and that this is a very fruitless endeavor, so now there's also these existential crisis' going on with the older guard. This basically goes a long way to explain why everyone in this scene is so fucking stupid, you were either into a dumb fad when you got in or you were dumb enough to stay for too long. 
 
But like, about the psychology of people who come and go, being gya one day and rastafari the next — I never got that. I have, my entire life more or less, liked the same things and I never really dropped out of anything. There's some faux pas you'll find from the times when I was like exploring stuff like western metal when I was 16, but everyone goes through that one way or another when you build your frame of reference and refine your taste and ideas of what music should be about. The people who change every word in their bio on an yearly basis with only the words "I stan" remaining in place can't be counted on for anything. How do they even finish meals is beyond me let alone stick with something when everything they do is so dependent on if the weather is fair. They're the same people who'll abandon their folks into a home, but take a taxi from another city once the inheritance is on offer; just picking the carcass of cultural capital that other people worked for, that other people laboured to put out there. I'm in this shit for the long haul and this relationship will end only when one of us dies, either me or the scene. No matter how reprehensible I think the scene operates or what I think of the fucking people in it, it's still important to me. 

I think one of the reasons VK might have such a high turn over rate is that a lot of people who listen to VK seems to listen to VK only. That's not an healthy way to approach an "hobby", and one is bound to get tired of it. It's also hard to follow bands for a long time since the lifespan of a vk band is shorter than average, so that might be turn off for people after a while. 
 
Also the way VK is "marketed" is closer to idol music than it is to """normal""" music, and just like how people stop following idols at some point, the same happens with VK. I dont consider the visual kei > kpop passage to be moving from one thing to another, but moving to a different version of the same thing. 

Depends on why you were drawn to certain bands in the first place. I was into indie rock, alt rock, and death/black metal before I was a vk fan, so that coloured my taste in bands (nagoya kei + DEG), once [most] of those bands became inactive, I went back to the indie and alt rock I liked before. I'm sure if someone got into the scene with DIV or some cute oshare shit, that Kpop wouldn't be too far off from that sound. Kinda depends on ideology too--if you're an oshare fan BUT you're a weeb--you'll stay into that; whereas if you were into vk for the cute boys, kpop is the next logical step lol.

In spanish we say, "qué tiene que ver el culo con pintar", which could be translated as "what [the fuck] has ass to do with painting".
 
 

Per quanto riguarda me, credo di no. Frequentavo un forum italiano, ma si trattava di qulacosa di più antico, parliamo di 15/20 anni fa😆 (mi pare si chiamasse J-Rock Italia, ma non ne sono sicura al 100%)

AT LONG LAST I RECEIVED THEM!
 
The Ghost inside of Me- photobook
The Ghost inside of Me/Crucifixion-Behind the Masquerade I
The Ghost inside of Me/Crucifixion-Behind the Masquerade II (autographed with dedication<3)
 

Bumpone a caso perché sono tornata nel forum dopo millemila anni, mi si è riaccesa la passione per il genere lol
 
Ciao a tutti!

Really, really love my precious limited version, but finally got 通常盤♡

National Italian News speaking VERY positively about Kpop stans and their involvement in the BLM protests. ❤️
 
(This is like Italian BBC1, not some secondary tv channel)
 
 

First case confirmed in my small town today. Time to grow our own vegetables. (My father is 65 and my mother is very at risk)
 
Meanwhile hordes of teens and not are thirsting over our prime minister. 😆
 

"All will be alright, we will get through this together." (from his last discourse)


"Today let's stay far apart, to hug more warmly and run faster tomorrow. We'll make it all together." (still from his last discourse)
Source
 
 
Sorry for the shitty english.

I am a simple man. I see Kisaki's name, I click to see the comments.
 
 
 
🦋

Concerning Lareine, I also had some wishful thinking (what has become of Kayas and Kamijos split anyway) but turns out, the next round is actually Femme Fatale ❤️
 

IZAM's vocals always irritated me. I never understood why he or anybody else decided it was a good idea for him to sing such a challenging melody with almost no vocal capacity. Whereas Kaya does it smoothly and smartly. Now I can finally enjoy this classic!

Sadly the guy is too well established in the VK scene, despite his shitty behavior. Imo it's not just that japan thinks differently of people like him, but guys like him have so much support behind their back they really can get away with a lot of shit. See also Marilyn Manson or Chris Brown. They too did some horrible, abusive shit and still have so many people cheering them on and excusing their acts. 
 
And this is why idolizing people, really any people, in the media and entertainment industry is wrong.

Seems like there's no stopping Kaya with the VK covers!  Just yesterday he covered MALICE MIZER, and now a SHAZNA classic!
 
 
 
Curious to see what he will sing next~

cancel moix diś moisse and give us femme fatale with Mana taking over iori 😭

Since Közi has been uploading quite a few acoustic MALICE MIZER cover snippets on Twitter in the past year or so, I thought it'd be fun to try to gather them here in one post. I've put the videos under individual spoiler cuts so that the page doesn't become too bogged-down/media-heavy.
 
claire～月の調べ～
 
Ju te veux
 
Garnet～禁断の園へ～
 
...okay I thought there was more, but actually the other vids are him doing ZIZ or solo tracks, heh. Still pretty cool.  
 
btw all these songs were credited to him, so I guess he might be only playing his own MM stuff. Based on this logic, hopefully he'll do some of these in the future:
 
seraph
APRÉS MIDI～あるパリの午後で～
偽りのmusetté
Madrigal
COLOR ME BLOOD RED
ILLUMINATI
Brise
月下の夜想曲
鏡の舞踏 幻惑の夜
地下水脈の迷路
 
The more poppy/laid-back stuff would translate really well to a stripped-down acoustic arrangement, but what I really wanna see is ILLUMINATI or COLOR ME BLOOD RED, haha.  

Finally, after many years... :'D
 

I hope they don't miss the golden opportunity to call their last live inTheEnd.

I hope they don't miss the golden opportunity to call their last live inTheEnd.