gret

Member leaves band  after 23 years and retires from music and instead of people lamenting that it's just a bunch of shit posts trashing him and the band. I don't get it... Well, actually I kinda do since some of you are a gimmick/act at this point. Just way too damn negative. 
 
Anyway... Surreal news because I was listening to their earlier stuff like 2 days ago and looking at their earlier photo shoots and those really young pics of them in the AISHUU booklet and thought to myself holy shit these guys have longevity.  I was appreciating how they've stuck together over the years and then I wake up to this news today. What a coincidence.
 
2020 has been wild between Kenichi leaving Merry, Ryo leaving Baroque and retiring from music, and now this latest succession and retirement... Like, what is he going to do now? I'm surprised he's leaving music entirely.
 
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/d293c00d-015d-4aae-9b76-b5754c63f6d3/works
 
He composed some pretty great songs: KINSENKA, NUKEGARA, MEDIA NO JUUSEI, REQUIEM, MAE E, HOTARU etc...

DEVILbarat’s / 水鏡 響 (Kyuu Mikagami) / 君は鋭く。(Kimi wa surudoku) / DANGER☆GANG
 
 
 
UNiTE.
 
 
 
UCHUSENTAI:NOIZ
 
 
 
DAUTO
 
 
 
PENICILLIN 
 
 
 
Kaijin Nijuumensou 
 
 
 

カカトオトシ。(Kakatootoshi) has announced that Vo.Syaraku (写楽) (fka Awa) has departed as of 12/1 due to health reasons and the band has disbanded on the same day. As a result, the rest of their scheduled lives have been cancelled.
https://kakatootoshi.fensi.plus/page/news/463658683931296809

Rakugaki will release their third single on 13th Dec 2020, which is their last day before going on hiatus.
 
Tracklist:
01.ROCK'N'ROLLは右脳を破壊する 02.Good bye 03.地球外生命体2020

More information is coming out
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/efb36c125f80e468cd3f27355eedcf34c1b1526a
 
Translation of above article by codomo dragon spain: https://codomodragonspain.blogspot.com/2020/11/codomo-dragon-special-translation-to.html
 
 
Some notes:
 
There is some discrepancy between the machine translation/my interpretation and the translation by codomo dragon spain.
 
I don't think Kana has contacted anyone from Codora since 2018. Rather, it was his "bandmen friends" (who are not from Codora) who suggested that he hold a live in the future.
 
(From here: バンドマンの友だちに連絡をとったら、『ちゃんとファンの前で公表したほうがいい』『ライブを一度やったほうがいいんじゃないか』と言われました。
 
and this: 仲の良かったコドモドラゴンのメンバーたちとも会えていない。 )
 
Their profit split was originally 50:50 between the band and company but the band had to take a smaller cut due to a 2017 scandal.
 
(Chamu pls)
 
Tweet from CEO of BForest/BPrecords saying he will refrain from further comments on this matter. 
 
 
Fun fact: Kana's attorney composed a song for HKT48 lol

Some gya posted a chamu nude on tanuki in 2017 lol

Some gya posted a chamu nude on tanuki in 2017 lol

More information is coming out
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/efb36c125f80e468cd3f27355eedcf34c1b1526a
 
Translation of above article by codomo dragon spain: https://codomodragonspain.blogspot.com/2020/11/codomo-dragon-special-translation-to.html
 
 
Some notes:
 
There is some discrepancy between the machine translation/my interpretation and the translation by codomo dragon spain.
 
I don't think Kana has contacted anyone from Codora since 2018. Rather, it was his "bandmen friends" (who are not from Codora) who suggested that he hold a live in the future.
 
(From here: バンドマンの友だちに連絡をとったら、『ちゃんとファンの前で公表したほうがいい』『ライブを一度やったほうがいいんじゃないか』と言われました。
 
and this: 仲の良かったコドモドラゴンのメンバーたちとも会えていない。 )
 
Their profit split was originally 50:50 between the band and company but the band had to take a smaller cut due to a 2017 scandal.
 
(Chamu pls)
 
Tweet from CEO of BForest/BPrecords saying he will refrain from further comments on this matter. 
 
 
Fun fact: Kana's attorney composed a song for HKT48 lol

Here's a summary of the post:
Kana was diagnosed with adjustment disorder in January 2018 and he told the president of B'Forest Inc., but the president didn't understand and told him he was sick and fired him.  In March he got an attorney and in June he filed a lawsuit against the president for power harassment and for money he was owed.  In the first trial it was confirmed that B'Forest Inc. owed Kana 3.2 million yen and that the president did indeed partake in power harassment.  The court ordered B'Forest Inc. to pay Kana 3.7 million yen.  However the president made an appeal, and at the appeal hearing in August 2020 they reached a settlement in Kana's favor of 3.3 million yen and an apology for the president's lack of consideration towards Kana's disorder.  Kana received the settlement in September. 

He couldn't write about it before because it was part of the trial, but he had been suffering from power harassment for years and eventually developed adjustment disorder because of it.  Apparently the president never admitted to power harassment.  Kana does not forgive the harassment and was initially adamant about the court's decision because he didn't want it to keep happening to his former label mates, but after the president appealed he just decided to accept the settlement.  He wants his former label mates to be paid properly or to stop working for the label.  He also made it a point to say that the president did apologize so no one should slander him or harass him because of this. 
 
In regards to how he's doing he says he is physically and mentally healthy.  The trial took a long time and he had to get treatment for his disorder but he's glad he worked so hard and was rewarded by the trial.  He didn't want to leave all the people that were concerned about him without answers, and he wanted to talk about his feelings over the last two and a half years, so this is why he made the post now.  He would like to return to the stage again some day and hopes everyone is doing well during these times. 

 

More information is coming out
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/efb36c125f80e468cd3f27355eedcf34c1b1526a
 
Translation of above article by codomo dragon spain: https://codomodragonspain.blogspot.com/2020/11/codomo-dragon-special-translation-to.html
 
 
Some notes:
 
There is some discrepancy between the machine translation/my interpretation and the translation by codomo dragon spain.
 
I don't think Kana has contacted anyone from Codora since 2018. Rather, it was his "bandmen friends" (who are not from Codora) who suggested that he hold a live in the future.
 
(From here: バンドマンの友だちに連絡をとったら、『ちゃんとファンの前で公表したほうがいい』『ライブを一度やったほうがいいんじゃないか』と言われました。
 
and this: 仲の良かったコドモドラゴンのメンバーたちとも会えていない。 )
 
Their profit split was originally 50:50 between the band and company but the band had to take a smaller cut due to a 2017 scandal.
 
(Chamu pls)
 
Tweet from CEO of BForest/BPrecords saying he will refrain from further comments on this matter. 
 
 
Fun fact: Kana's attorney composed a song for HKT48 lol

Link to post: https://kana-gt.com/to-everyone20201118/
 
 
 
What I got via machine translation is that he had adjustment disorder, and president of B' FOREST fired him.  Also he sued the president for unpaid remuneration of roughly 3 million yen and power harassment.
 
^Seems to mean that his former labelmates are still going unpaid?
 
Someone with actual japanese knowledge please summarize this.

Link to post: https://kana-gt.com/to-everyone20201118/
 
 
 
What I got via machine translation is that he had adjustment disorder, and president of B' FOREST fired him.  Also he sued the president for unpaid remuneration of roughly 3 million yen and power harassment.
 
^Seems to mean that his former labelmates are still going unpaid?
 
Someone with actual japanese knowledge please summarize this.

Link to post: https://kana-gt.com/to-everyone20201118/
 
 
 
What I got via machine translation is that he had adjustment disorder, and president of B' FOREST fired him.  Also he sued the president for unpaid remuneration of roughly 3 million yen and power harassment.
 
^Seems to mean that his former labelmates are still going unpaid?
 
Someone with actual japanese knowledge please summarize this.

Link to post: https://kana-gt.com/to-everyone20201118/
 
 
 
What I got via machine translation is that he had adjustment disorder, and president of B' FOREST fired him.  Also he sued the president for unpaid remuneration of roughly 3 million yen and power harassment.
 
^Seems to mean that his former labelmates are still going unpaid?
 
Someone with actual japanese knowledge please summarize this.

Link to post: https://kana-gt.com/to-everyone20201118/
 
 
 
What I got via machine translation is that he had adjustment disorder, and president of B' FOREST fired him.  Also he sued the president for unpaid remuneration of roughly 3 million yen and power harassment.
 
^Seems to mean that his former labelmates are still going unpaid?
 
Someone with actual japanese knowledge please summarize this.

Link to post: https://kana-gt.com/to-everyone20201118/
 
 
 
What I got via machine translation is that he had adjustment disorder, and president of B' FOREST fired him.  Also he sued the president for unpaid remuneration of roughly 3 million yen and power harassment.
 
^Seems to mean that his former labelmates are still going unpaid?
 
Someone with actual japanese knowledge please summarize this.

Link to post: https://kana-gt.com/to-everyone20201118/
 
 
 
What I got via machine translation is that he had adjustment disorder, and president of B' FOREST fired him.  Also he sued the president for unpaid remuneration of roughly 3 million yen and power harassment.
 
^Seems to mean that his former labelmates are still going unpaid?
 
Someone with actual japanese knowledge please summarize this.

Link to post: https://kana-gt.com/to-everyone20201118/
 
 
 
What I got via machine translation is that he had adjustment disorder, and president of B' FOREST fired him.  Also he sued the president for unpaid remuneration of roughly 3 million yen and power harassment.
 
^Seems to mean that his former labelmates are still going unpaid?
 
Someone with actual japanese knowledge please summarize this.

For some reason this completely flew under my radar, but it appears RAKUGAKI has released their 1st digital single under their alterego moniker 羅苦餓鬼 (also read as "Rakugaki") on 2020/10/31, titled 『殺意二満チタ貴女へ…』("Satsui NI miCHITA kijo E..."). As you could guess from the stylization of the title, it's more of a dark kote-kei influenced record compared to their usual eclectic pop-punk rock style.
 
This comes as too late now, but they were also taking pre-orders for a special made-to-order cassette version of the single until 8th November (i.e. the number of copies are limited to the number of preorders). So that slipped us by now, but at least we can listen to the tunes online.
 
TuneCore link
 
Here is the Youtube playlist of the single for those who don't have Spotify and want to have a quick listen:
 
 
I thought this was quite fun! Still sad to see these guys go so soon...

RAKUGAKI will suspend its activities after their one man live on 13 December.
 
 
 

RAKUGAKI will suspend its activities after their one man live on 13 December.
 
 
 

Someone who knows better about kpop imitating black culture should tackle this but yeah, it's a thing. Thankfully a thing that my Shinee boys don't do. Hopefully? 
 
I live in south east asia so kpop is unavoidable for me. I can only speak for myself, but what I noticed around me was that the people who first got into kpop weren't into jpop.
 
They were 'mainstream normies' so to speak, so 2000s kpop being more accessible from the start meant that they had much greater exposure to kpop than jpop in the first place. My general impression back then was that kpop was seen as 'fresher',  'more polished' than jpop which has been around for a few years already. So there was the general public getting into kpop + jpop/vk/etc fans getting into kpop but little to no fans gained for jpop/vk. So that was that. Though it was obvious that kpop was taking trend cues from japanese music, like how early dbsk had visual kei hairstyles lol. But they quickly found a style that simply appealed more to the foreign public than jpop/vk did imo. I mean, they had government backing, so....
 
What I dislike about kpop is how they pigeonhole members, like oh guy 1 is the singer, guy 2 is rap and so on. It's weird how they introduce themselves explicitly like that. Of course they have their own strengths but why do that?
 
I don't know about 2010 kpop but I think the surviving groups and artists from 2000s kpop are still quite good and are beginning to have their own musical input.
 
I specifically like songs (partially) written and composed by Donghae of Suju for some reason:
 
Also key's solo albums are prime kpop goodness. 
 
Odd eye best kpop album of the decade tbh, bts can't compare
 
 
 

You can try Minyami: https://github.com/Last-Order/Minyami 
 
Otherwise you can try youtube-dl:  https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl
 
There's full instructions here for minyami:
 

Oh right, sorry! Changed it now. Thanks for telling me!