ambivalentideal

This should be interesting! I'm seeing people say they don't like his voice. I guess his voice is either love it or hate it lol. I love Sui so I'm definitely looking forward to what they'll do!

Nice!! I'm glad you like them! I agree, I'm obsessed with his vocals. Both his clean and harsh vocals are so diverse in what he's able to do, and interesting too. They have a ton of great songs, so I don't blame you at all for having a lot of favorites. Mine are probably Malformation and Shigarami, but the entire CHEDOARA album is my favorite right now haha. I agree with that too, I think they're definitely inspired by DEG but they're also doing some cool new stuff of their own, imo. Same here!

I read on another thread on here that Natsuki (ex -OZ-) now runs an avocado farm which I guess is his family's business. He was on TV about it and everything.

ah, I see. I have a feeling they will be world touring again at some point in the future, so hopefully you can catch them then! True, I hadn't though about there being a blu-ray but I hope there will be one. Yeah, they're amazing! Hope you will like them

Welcome to MH!! I'm also 24 and have been in it for 10+ years so maybe we'll have something in common. :') I'm also a really big fan of GazettE! Were you able to see them during the world tour this year? I saw them in Dallas in May and they were amazing. I'm a huge fan of lynch. as well, as you might be able to tell from my username haha. Glad to see another fan here! If you're looking for newer bands to try, and you haven't heard them yet, check out DIMLIM's album CHEDOARA. They were one of the first newer bands I checked out upon coming back into vk and they absolutely blew me away with this album. Maybe you'll like them too!

Wow, I was just thinking about this shop yesterday and how I used to go there. I was even thinking wow, I'm so glad brick and mortar vk shops are still open. This is really sad.

All VK pickups from this year so far. Super happy with all of these! From left to right: the GazettE: MADARA STACKED RUBBISH DIM Ltd Edition Tour 2006-2007 [Decomposition Beauty] Final Meaningless Art That People Showed at Yokohama Arena DVD TOXIC Ltd Edition DIVISION Ltd Edition NINTH Ltd Edition Box A CD&Blu-Ray Dir en Grey: Withering to Death. CD&DVD US Pressing The Marrow of a Bone US Pressing UROBOROS US Pressing The Insulated World EU Pressing lynch. 10th Anniversary 2004-2014 The Best DIMLIM: CHEDOARA 1st Press (Extremely happy about this one. Paid a lot to get it [5845 yen total shipped] but ...worth it lol. My new favorite album) Rijin MALICE MIZER Bara no Seidou Canzel NeO PRESENCE E.P.S. AND -eccentric agent-: 1st Full Album -&- AGENT FILE

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/MDN-141771593?s_ssid=e335705d2fdb9855d7 CDJapan has pre-orders up for a new batch of the Blu-ray. Here is the info about it they provided: "[Important Notes for Orders Placed After July 16, 2019] Pre-order Deadline: July 31, 2019 (Japan Time) Orders of this item placed after July 16 will be shipped after the release date, and there is a possibility that your order might be shipped in early August or later." Seems like they are manufacturing more on a made-to-order basis. (?) Price is: 15741yen (US$ 146.12)

That's true, you don't exactly get to choose where to go but you can always travel. It might be expensive to get out of the inaka and with time constraints and stuff but I don't think it would be completely impossible to go to lives occasionally. Not in Tokyo or anything but in the closest major city or something. I think it makes more sense to go through JET because of what you said about the benefits. Definitely. Everyone always asks me why I don't want to teach in Japan or work there and that is exactly why. 😕 I'm not a woman but as an LGBTQ person I feel like that would be another added thing that wouldn't exactly be great for me.

I like obi! I've always kept them over the years. I used to keep them all together tied with a rubber band lmao but now I usually just keep them inside the CD along with the booklet. I feel like they're part of the release as a whole so it's nice to have them so it's complete, but it's not 100% necessary for me. I'll still buy a CD even if it doesn't have the obi. Just a nice bonus to have them.

welcome!! nice candy spooky theater avatar, I used to be obsessed with Peggy back in 2008 lol...

Oh shit. This sucks but I don't feel like they'll disband from this. Hopefully they'll be able to find new members who play well. I'm not too worried about their sound since they didn't lose any main composers. Still looking forward to what they'll do in the future!

I know this thread was dead before but just to add on...I've never taught English in Japan before, but I have friends who do or have. From my understanding if you really want to do it, go through JET. And do NOT work for an eikaiwa. You will not have a good time. And from the rest of the replies here I'm seeing the same thing. 😕 If you really want to go to Japan and don't want to teach, my advice is to study abroad. It only lasts a year but it can be a really great experience! I studied abroad in Kyoto for a year and absolutely loved it.

Thanks so much for uploading, Cantavanda! That Bel Air performance just made me cry huge tears lol... Kamijo did such a great job on vocals. I know Bel Air is pretty hard to sing but he did really well. I wish MM would get back together for a release with this line up.

What an interesting lineup, lol. It's definitely a strange project. Really not a fan of them both singing at once, it really is so Johnny's-like. o<-< I got MADARA (super super happy about this one), DIM limited edition, TOXIC limited edition and Division limited edition. Stacked rubbish is coming soon too, it's a brand new copy I ordered from CDJapan. :') Ah I know, I loved Ruki's voice back then. I have a lot of favorites!!! Shiikureta haru, kawarenu haru is a really good example of Ruki's vocal style from back then. Some might say it's a bit whiny, but I really really love it. : P This is one of my favorite songs from this era. I can listen to this song over and over. Pretty much any song from MADARA haha. Like No.[666] I also have a soft spot for one of their earliest PVs, doro darake no seishun: But yeah, I love that AND song! It's called Tokage. That and BLACK OUT were probbaly my favorite songs by them. Their music is definitely worth another listen ah thank you!!

Oh my god. I just watched some of their PVs and my first reaction is: Rui sings?! Second is: is this a Johnny's band?!?! lmfaooo what the helllll I wasn't expecting that at all. I actually like this song "VINTAGE TOWN" haha. Rui lip syncs like he has always wanted to do this lol. I can't help but noticing the band guys in the background though. is that Kazuki from Screw and the bassist from D=OUT?? wow. That's awesome, I bet it was! Haha yeahhh, Ryouga was having a great time I think. It was a lot of fun!! That was one of my favorite cons, vk band wise. Truuue lmfao, I'm glad you liked them. :') I bought them from a seller on Discogs located in my country (US), so the shipping was super cheap and he had a ton of awesome stuff for a steal. I got those two AND CDs, and four GazettE CDs. Yeah, I was really surprised to see that they credited them! Agreed! Oh, I agree with that too. I'm a really big fan of that early GazettE style and I really like what AND did with it. Here's one of my other favorite songs from them in that style:

It's alright! I know, I was worried they'd break up after that happened too, but I'm glad they managed to get through it. I haven't heard of that! I didn't know they made a side project. :0 What is it like? Oh, nice! That's cool though, I feel like taiban could be really cool because you get to see the band you like more up close and check out other bands you don't know from the safety of the back lol. I'd like to try going to one. Thanks, hopefully so! Lol I don't mind uploading them! Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/t5ZpBSA Last one is my awkward pic with them lmfao, I'm a guy with a beard now but that was me then,,, I really do like Ikuma's voice ;-; I'm sure I can find ONE of their songs I like haha. Maybe so. Agreed! I just received physical copies of AGENT FILE and their 1st album -&- which I am super super pleased about!! I noticed in the credits area of AGENT FILE they actually listed all members of the GazettE under "special thanks" lol. At least they were up front about their obvious inspiration, but I don't think it was to the point of them copying them or anything. I think AND's music was a mix of early GazettE and their own sound and the result was pretty cool!

Oh really. Yeah personally that's fine if he looks 46 because well, he is. : P I was just looking at recent pics of him and yeah he doesn't look as baby as he used to lol but I still think he looks really good. Yeah, exactly. Some people (me included) just like older men too. Ohhhh agreed about Sakurai. He's going to be a foxy grandpa pretty soon lmao.

Now that I'm older myself (aka not a teenager) I just find older men attractive in general. Like I just genuinely like a sexy dilf lmfao but even back when I was younger and thought someone in his 30s was old, I've always been oddly attracted to Hakuei. I know he's old af but damn. I don't know. He's just really hot to me. Oh and for another vk man who is old af but has never looked his age is Arimura Ryuutaro. Even in pics where he has very little makeup. It always blew me away how young looking he was. I've always found him to be really beautiful.

wow, very interesting! Just listened to the lyric video posted above, and I think you can definitely tell it's a song by him. It has a bit of An Cafe flavor to it. I actually really liked the song. It's cute and his voice is not bad. He was always my favorite in An Cafe so glad to see he's doing stuff again.

hey no prob! oh is that right about vistlip? I didn't know that. I'm glad Tomo got better. I was referring to when they got into that car accident where they were all unhurt but unfortunately their manager passed away. They were really affected by it and decided to go on hiatus for a while. It was so sad. But I'm glad they're doing stuff again. I still have their album THEATER, I should relisten to it! Lmaoo yeah, born were pretty good on the record but 10x better live. Oh that's awesome! Have you seen a lot of vk bands in the past? I've seen so many. .__. but it's been a long time. Funnily enough, when I lived in Japan (I studied abroad for a year) I wasn't really into vk anymore except for Mejibray but I was too intimidated by the gya live culture to attempt going to any lol. I really wanna try going to some vk lives now though if I get the chance to go back. Kifumi was a lot of fun, he had a ton of energy. I think a few of them stage dived and he might have been one of them but my memory is fading, it's been 10 years lol. I have a ton of pics of them from this weird table meet and greet thing they did if you're interested, but the flash was on so they look terrible lmao. They were having the time of their lives tho cuz girls kept asking for kisses on the cheek and they kept fuckin doing it. RIP. I remember I even e-mailed (e-mailed!!!!!!) some girl a pic I took of Ryouga kissing her on the cheek AHAHA. God. But oh SAME, all my pics with vk bands are so embarrassing I die,, luckily that's not really a thing anymore ha. But yeah, pretty true about AND. When I opened that first video you linked most of the comments in Japanese say something like "the melody is really similar to Gazette's 'sumire'" or something. Which I guess they're not wrong, they were clearly inspired but I thought they were doing some cool stuff! Oh wow, I had never seen that last song, BLAZE. I think I fell out of listening to them in their last few years. I didn't know they had an edgy phase haha. It's a cool song tho. HOO BOY, yeah it's really disappointing for me because I love Ikuma so much, but I just tried to listen to those two REIGN songs again and I just cannot. :' ( If they just got their shit together they could really improve,,,there's just zero cohesion in the songwriting, like everything just sounds all over the place and slapped together. The bridges don't make any sense with the choruses, it's like two different songs together in one song. No idea who the main songwriter is, but damn. The second song is a bit better composition wise but I cannot get over that over the top chorus haha. Also I think they're just throwing in way too many unnecessary elements, which results in the composition feeling both too busy and missing something at the same time. I really am dead. o<-< I wish I could like them but I don't think their songs are for me. One thing at least, I really like their look and aesthetic! They look really cool but at the end of the day the music is just not there for me. I think Ikuma's voice is probably their best asset and I kinda can't help feeling it's going to waste a bit. ;;

Right, why was this a thing?! My favorites have to be the Malice Mizer ones, Bara no Konrei and the Bel Air movie. Oh also I remember at one point Versailles had a whole ass TV drama with some random little girl. Idk exactly what it was about but they had to take care of her or something? Kinda weird lol. Never actually watched it so idk.