Miku70

Shiki and Monyo from BabyKingdom are brothers too

Appears Shi wo eru imi 死ヲ得る意味
at the beginning of the MV 

King zeebra, now with 0 artists.

虹彩☆RaveL will disband this March after playing one more live in Tokyo and Osaka.
More details will follow soon.
 
 
I will update all details later on vk.gy.
Please wait a little bit more until I receive more details officially! thanks : 3 
 
 
___
Own comment; I already expected this happen since last year; almost no lives; no design requests etc. 
Also fans suggested that they will disband soon since September or so.. 
So for me it doesn't come as a shock to.. I was waiting for it... 

カルト (Cult) ex. vocalist from てんさい。(Tensai.) new project "CuxT" have formed. His first live will be at 新宿club SCIENCE on 2020/03/23.
 

 
 

I found some ~essence~ for retsu
 

Don’t know what they expected. If they’re pushing for an international audience, renouncing VK isn’t it.
 
There are basically four camps:
1) Those that will only listen to VK, because the aesthetics are slightly more important than the music.
2) Those that mainly listen to VK because of an interest in the scene, but who wouldn’t stop listening if a band dropped their image, if the music was still good. Won’t seek out non-VK bands regularly .
3) Those that listen to all types of J-music as long as it’s good. Doesn’t care one way or another if it’s VK.
4) Actively avoids VK, either because “it’s gay”, or “I hate the fandom”. Won’t listen to a band that used to be VK either, because of fandom crossover.
 
So basically, there’s very little reason for a band to drop the “VK” label, especially in the foreign market.

未完成アリス Mikansei Alice 
The single would be released on 18.12.2019, today announces postponed date 
 
New 6th Single「所業無情大殺界」(Shogyou mujou daisakkai) 2020.03.18
 
CD
1. 所業無情大殺界 (Shogyou mujou daisakkai)
2. 国分町イデオロギー (Kokubunchou Ideology) 
3. 低スペック悲観ガール (Tei Spec Hikan Girl)
4. 晩秋に、君想ふ。(Banshuu ni、Kimi soufu。)
 
 

I think we've been getting pretty much the same amount - there just haven't been very many recently with members that overseas fans have actually heard of, so I think there's just not as much of that hype going around on all the VK blogs, sites, etc.

Are we getting less new bands? I don't think so.
 
More like most of time if there's a news of a new band forming, that's all we'll ever know about them until someone does some digging to find out they disbanded few months later.

Make up boys are a recent trend in Japan, a lot of popular instagram/youtube guys are wearing (mostly minimal) make up and even doing tutorial for other boys but they 90% appeal to girls. In the US/Europe everyone would probably think you are gay but there is no such connotation in Japan. After all people who shave/trim their eyebrow/dye or perm their hair were considered gay in the western culture until few years ago but have been absolutely normal things for a straight guy in Japan for at leas 20 years. Weird hair color is a different issue, most people will look at you as weird or someone who hasn't a serious job, etc.

it's not just you & a number of people from noticeable projects retired/semi-retired over past few years, which contributes to the temporary (?) stagnation.
 

It's just you. Also, quality is the same: bad.

Personal thing that annoys me, not all bands do this but, fucking A/B/C/D types oh my fucking god. Please just release everything on a "master cd" too because only obsessed bangyas or rich fans (aka not me and most of my VK friends) buy all cd types. I already think I'm stupid for having bought two types of one cd a little while ago because I just wanted to see the making-of, which was a little dissapointing ngl.
 
Besides I too think that the whole secretive part to VK is kinda stupid, there's nothing wrong about age, sexuality nor relationships. Seriously, in the west celebrities who are in a relationship get labelled as "goals" by their fans, but eastern celebrities like VK-artists and idols too get sooooo much hate for it??? I still really hate the Kiryu bangyas for having sent all those emails to Takemasa last year telling him to kill himself after they found out he was married.
 
Also the YouTuber thing that's kinda happening to some bands, it's kinda fun, but only for the Japanese fans. I can barely follow any video because I just don't understand. Some video's can be funny if the video is obvious in what's happening like changing instruments or smth, but when they're just talking or eating, it's just... "Okay so do I just listen or what am I supposed to do?". I haven't seen many video's that actually have English subtitles, only a few, and a few on blogs with fan-made translations. Even then it's still kinda boring if you keep having to look away from the video to read the text on the blog.

Live limited releases are probably the most annoying. Especially if there is no digital release.

1.) Live limited release.
 
It is archaic and need to be left behind in the age of streaming. Elitism won’t work these days. Sorryboutit. 

 
 
2.) band name using all kinds of symbols and/or numbers that is not easy to pronounce.
 
For obvious reason.

Not really a trope, per say, but I want to enforce a strict rule that requires you look up a band name before you officially debut to ensure there aren't already 3423042042 other bands with the same name already.

all crowd related stuff
 
furi, rows and everything else that makes freaking metalcore concerts look like a kids show live audience or smh

+1

The "we're not visual anymore" cop out. 🙄

One thing that I admire about k-pop, they are open about the members' age. I was pleasantly surprised by how many K-pop dudes are nearly 30. Actually, I can't remember if this is the same with girl groups? Anyway, in Japan it's a crime to be over 18 years old in media/music/etc., which I find creepy and annoying tbh. As if people over 18 can't be charming or cute, can we stop pretending human beings don't age 
 

I can’t believe it still needs to be said that visual kei IS NOT a music genre in 2020.

I don't really understand why Retsu keeps saying that, cuz they still look/sound like a vk band to me. Yes, toned down and not into fan service etc., just like older bands often do.

These questions reminded me of this video:
 
 
Some things we can take from it:
1) It’s said that Akihabara is a “very tolerant city for men in drag”. The necessity of having to say it give me the perception of being something unusual in other places, potentially weird then.
 
2) Mostly of their clients are woman (aha!).
a) It’s more comfortable to talk with a guy in drag than with another woman.
b) A guy in drag is more special than a ordinary guy and, because of it, more attractive. 
 
3) Being in drag is fashion. It’s about clothing and looking good, not about turning into a “real woman”.
Which we can relate. Hizaki it the prettiest mother fucker, but when he open his mouth he sounds like a really big dinosaur with tiny arms  (just using some hyperbole, love this guy to the heart). That’s a really common thing with visual kei artists. They don’t try to fool you or modify their voice to match their drag character.
 
4) They keep man clothing for social stuff, like going to hospital. This one says a lot of how the japanese society functions in that matter.
For me it sounds like “You can dress yourself as you want: drag, tokusatsu, baseball mascot, but when you are doing you social role, you have to be the ‘real you’ (which is the one in your ID)”.
 
5) Three of themselves are bi, but they don’t use sexual terms to describe it, like “I am A” or “I am B” but they say “I am attracted by X and Y”.
Now, I don’t really know if this is a language thing or if japanese in general are less attached to specific terms to describe their sexuallity.
One of them just do drag to get attention from woman (loved that guy). I guess that relates with point 2.
 
With all that said, I have more questions than answers kek, but I think that these are some important lines of thinking to understand the myth of the japanese man with bra and his place in society.
 
I also recommend a movie called “Close-Knit”. Talks a lot about point 4. The director itself is a transgender, so there is a lot of self insert in it. Really interesting to see: