Total Saikou

Well I'm glad that someone else actually remembers and likes NOISY CROWDS. They're so underrated imo

Tricky, but I can do it! 月下の夜想曲 by MALICE MIZER ト・キ・メ・キ by Missalina Rei マグロ by cali≠gari ASCENDEAD MASTER by Versailles Metamorphose by LAREINE If I could shove Fat December (Guniw Tools), Desperate Angel (X Japan), Ever Free (hide) and ヴェル・エール～空白の瞬間の中で～ (Malice Mizer) in the list I would, but to the honourable mentions they go.

Yeah, Smash has always been in a precarious situation. I remember when everyone said that Smash 4 would be the last one... Marth is a good choice for a main! He's always been pretty consistent. As for Byleth, I wasn't particularly interested in her because I'm not a Fire Emblem fan (actually tired to get into the game and wasn't big on the gameplay tbh) and we have so much FE rep already. That being said, I'm not upset or anything about her addition, she seems to have a cool gimmick for her moveset so she's not just another sword wielder. Aw man, 8 player smash is wild. Yeah, sometimes I play on The Great Cave Offensive (love that stage as a huge Kirby fan) and Palutena's Temple with 8 other people. Usually just CPUs because I'm lacking in pals but one time I was at a friend's house and we managed to make it 4 people versus 4 Amiibos. It wasn't too chaotic until we got switched to Smashville and had no clue what tf was going on or who was winning. It was fun yelling at the screen confusedly as everyone went flying in all directions... Good times. My favorite stages are Hanenbow, Halberd, Pokemon Stadium, Fountain of Dreams and Dracula's Castle. How about you?

It's probably my favorite Smash entry to date. I grew up with Brawl and I personally have an attachment to it, but the series really does get better over time. You're totally spot on about the growth thing; I wonder what the series will be like in the next decade or so? Probably too big and flashy for the imagination lol. The huge amount of stages and characters are definitely a big appeal point. I mostly play a mix of Bayonetta, Cloud, and Corrin. My old main back in Smash 4 used to be Toon Link, I had a half decent win streak with him but after I went through a really bad online losing streak I gave him up. What's your main? Do you have one, or do you drift around like I do? My favorite thing to do in Ultimate is to make dumb stages and try to not get eviscerated on them. I also play "real fighting games" (Street Fighter, KOF, GG) but they don't have anything to do that's nearly as fun as Ultimate. Playing with items on a dumb stage like Hannenbow beats practicing tech any day of the week! Even if I do find tech practice personally fulfilling.

Ultimate! I'm so glad that everyone came back. Sometimes I play Smash 4 on my old 3DS and I used to play the 64 version a lot on an emulator.

He really is GG's best waifu, I swear. Low-key hoping that he'll be back in StrIVe since my main has been booted out and I need a new one but one can only hope.

Dunno if VN count but I've managed to read up to Higurashi When They Cry: Minagoroshi these past months. Amazing series really, the best psychological horror experience I've ever had. Every chapter has been great so far (chapter 6 was a little weak though) and I'm excited for what the grand finale will bring! Other than that, been playing some Smash Bros., Guilty Gear (XRD and Accent Core), and Jojo modded M.U.G.E.N. too.

When I was 13 I was watching music videos like Nicki Minaj's Anaconda and now that I'm actually an adult I watch music videos like this. Also, ベルト slaps.

I enjoy both tea and coffee; interestingly, I prefer them without any milk or sugar in them (I know I'm a minority). I buy pre-ground beans and brew in a French Press. Usually I buy medium-blend and brew it strong. I'm not big on weak/watery coffee. Sometimes I buy flavored coffee, my favorite flavours are chocolate, raspberry, and French Vanilla. I'm fairly caffeine resistant so I don't drink coffee for the caffeine but merely because I appreciate its bitter and deep taste. Usually I just skip it in the morning and my energy levels don't get any worse (vice versa for benefits). I've only gotten coffee jitters once in my lifetime but that was from drinking like 10 cups in 5 hours because the new beans I got were so tasty that I just kept making new pots (it was those raspberry ones btw). The only stuff I drink from Starbucks are their frapuccinos because damn that shit good. As for tea, I drink black, green, white, rooibos, herbal, Matcha, Chai, you name it, I drink it. I love earl grey and fruit tea the most! Specifically strawberry and raspberry flavours (I can see a pattern here). Usually just stick to tea bags but my family often buys loose leaf green tea from Asian markets. We often brew a big pot of green tea for afternoon snacks, tea is important to my family because of our cultural ties.

Visual Kei was a taste changer for me. It came into my life after a period of darkness that should probably be left not talked about. It ravaged me so much that I kind of lost myself… I struggled to keep a sense of self together; I felt like a collage of failed expectations if anything at all. One of these facets was music taste. I didn’t have one anymore. I just listened to whatever was popular, because I didn’t care about what I listened to anymore. But popular music no longer really gave me the spark it used to during the darkness, and after. I just listened to it to be cooler, so maybe I could appeal to people and make myself… Into something I’m not, I guess. It was just crappy hip-hop, from artists whose names I’ve blacked out, but Chris Brown and Tyga still come to mind. Anyway, one day I was watching Black Butler (only watch a few anime here and there, I am by no means an anime enthusiast) for the first time (Netflix only had season 2, so I just stuck with that), I was really taken aback by how freaking awesome that OP sounded. I didn’t just make sure to not skip it, I rewound back to it like twice an episode just to hear SHIVER by The GazettE. After I finished with season two, I made sure to properly watch season one, and the OP for it was just as amazing to me. So I looked up SID and The GazettE’s music online to hear the OPs in their full form on Spotify, I think. They weren’t there at the time, but I felt this strange urge to hear what these bands were all about. The GazettE, they were my gateway band. As soon as I heard The Invisible Wall, I felt like something clicked; as I had just came home again after walking a lonely road for God knows how long. I heard something that didn’t go in one ear and out the other, but something that actually stayed with me, like I was whispering “sorrow made you” even when I was in bed trying to fall asleep. There was something about this music that, as the kids say, hit different. I never thought that music could be like this... I didn't know that music could do that... Maybe it was the emo-ness of it, as pop music and Hip-hop didn’t really explore those kinds of emotions (this was before the trend of “emo rappers” like Lil Peep and XXXTenacion became big btw… And back when Billie Eilish wasn’t all the rage), or at the very least the way Invisible Wall did. I also did not have even a single iota of taste for rock and metal at the time. So I also listened to some of SID’s other tracks, and I liked them too. Then I began to go down the Spotify rabbit hole, listening to L’arku, GACKT, lynch., Kamijo, Kaya, you name it, I was listening to it. And I liked just about all of it, too. Soon, I tried to find as many new bands to listen to, new or old. I looked up band recommendations and once I saw a name that stuck, I’d go to Youtube and listen to as much of their stuff as possible. It was thanks to this forum (I think? Can’t recall MH by name as being one of the forums) and many others where I heard about my all-time favorite band, Malice Mizer. And after discovering the amazingness that is MM, I was naturally steered in the path of Kote Kei and began to find lots of new artists to love. I continue to search for songs that bring back that feeling of "Holy shit, I didn't know you could even do that", and even when I can't find something like that, I always find something that does something that captivates me or interests me. Now I listen to so many artists that even listing a top ten is hard for me. Also can’t get enough of Jrock chords. Like, that shit really does hit different. Someone once described it to me as a "Question and answer" sort of progression, and that's why it sounds to nice to the ears for many people, it intrinsically aims to resolve itself in the best manner possible. I mean, a lot of the music is composed in a way you won't find in the west. It's western inspired yet still follows the rules of the homeland. Not to mention the acts that literally couldn't exist as we know them if they weren't from Japan (literally any Angura band). The use of Visuals to coincide or represent the meaning within the music is something that I really like. One example I can think of is how The GazettE changed their look to something darker to show their transition to metal and an overall darker sound. Lastly, I really like the lyrics in lots of VK songs. I began learning Japanese just a few months after I got into it, and throughout the years I can definitely say that my love for VK is one of the things that have kept me going in the learning process. I went from being able to understand like one to two words in a song, to being able to understand the gist of a song and sometimes even the entire song completely without needing to see the Japanese lyrics at all. I’m still so far from being skilled at Japanese, don’t take this as a bragging session, but the amount of progress I’ve made in ~3 years is a lot more than my peers because of this (their words, not mine!). This has made me really appreciate the differences between Japanese and English lyrics. Japanese lyrics are so much more indirect and less centered on “me”. I’ve always adored the difference in focus. If I can make an example, LAREINE’s Metamorphose is about being sorry for messing up in a relationship instead of being like a western break-up anthem that blames everyone but yourself, I really grew sick of those in high school. I guess it's just individual appeal too, I've always been an oddball with gloomy mannerisms. Really, if VK didn't get to me then maybe emo or western goth would've first. Also, I love this community a lot. It’s pretty chill, and I’ve been treated really well by just about everyone in it. People have been there for me when times get tough, and I’ve been there for others when they need some support too. And so many people have shared rips and scans with me just to make me happy or make a new fan for their favorite band… I don’t know if it’s sad or moving that some of my real-life friends have done less for me than people on the internet that I’ve talked to for like 2 days. But maybe that’s the beauty of the community, we’re so small compared to others that we stick to each other and help each other out when we need it. I’ve made so many friends, and have bettered myself as a person thanks to this community. Honestly, it’s been amazing to me and I only want to be amazing back.

I did not realize that グルグル映畫館 had their own rabbithole (checked out 上下左右 and 元帥・鳶丸 too) but this is a jam and I'm all for it Non non~!

Big thanks to @Cantavanda for the band rec 👌

I've always preferred my VK bands sounding like their demo tape was recorded in the vocalist's mom's basement, there's a strange charm to them. The mild white noise, the echoing, the weird thump noise in background during the guitar solo.... Now that's the good shit 👌 I don't know if I preferred low fidelity to high fidelity before I got into VK or after, because I only started to really pay attention to production elements after being exposed to VK, so it's a real chicken or the egg situation.

Smh why didn't they do it earlier, what could possibly go wrong?

It's penis music lol. Okay, I'm not here to talk shit about pop music, especially not Kpop. There's more artistic merit to it than some give it, and many perfectly sane Kpop fans get unfairly lumped in with the Stans. But man, I used to be really neutral and happy towards Kpop back when I first got into VK, y'know, being like "Hey guys, let's all get along and talk music and have fun 🤗" but then some of them got into my DMs and completely disrespected my music taste, insisted that "It's all Asian, it's the same, so you should love BTS too or something's wrong with you weeb" and I even got into a fight with one because she said some super ignorant things about--not VK or the band--but just metal music in general (didn't help that she attacked Insanity Injection whom I really like but she said "this isn't music, it's people screaming into the mic" and so I just reversed the logic with "[Kpop] is not music, it's meaningless noise created for brainless consoomers"). All of this shit wasn't even on Twitter, it was on fucking anime Instagram posts and random or VK Youtube videos. And nothing, not even saying "I don't like western pop" or "I'm not fond of Jpop myself" calms them down. I've been called racist against Asians because I don't like Kpop--never mind the fact that I'm on this forum so that says something about what I think about Asian people--I'M FROM ASIA. I don't even pass for white more than like 25% of the time... Honestly, it just makes me more and more irate as the years go by, because I was so open minded about it and willing to be friendly and actually listen to their damn band recommendations. At this rate I'll be an unironic Anti before I'm legally old enough to pour my own drinks. That background is needed to understand my current stance. I did genuinely try to get into Kpop; I started with BTS like they all tell you to and I listened to about 5 different releases of theirs. I was far from impressed. They sounded behind the times. Not in a charming way, but in a way that made me feel... Uncomfortable? I recognized the electronica-infused choruses and hip-hop inspired verses from Western pop music and even some elements from 2010s fads like tropical house production [God I hated that fad] and asked myself "Why is this any better than the white people stuff?" I don't think it is. I think it's on par, personally. I think this stems from an issue Kpop fans have. They can't just call a mediocre album a mediocre album, or even acknowledge a bad song/album because of hype. It's all got to be amazing, flawless, like the second coming of Christ. Honestly, even bands I consider to be absolutely amazing have some songs I don't hype because they're a step in wrong direction or have questionable production choices, but when I say "Yeah, this album is pretty great, but stay away from track X Y Z, they're not the best" the person receiving my recommendation often finds it funny and listens anyway, and then we can have a laugh about how weird it was for a VK band to do Ska or for the vocalist to think that now's the time to try opera vocals for the first time in his life. Sometimes I even completely shit on a band I love because they're an acquired taste or have an endearing charm and originality that lacks any and all technical savoir-faire. Personally, I don't understand how anyone from any counterculture/alternative music group (wassup punks and Goths) could be really into something mainstream at the same time, I thought we gathered around this stuff because it was alternative and had messages in it that differ from the mainstream. Sure, you could remark on all the Oshare bands that aren't particularly deep or meaningful to say that VK in general is artistically bankrupt but it also wouldn't be fair if I pretended that this whole scene is just deliciously layered social/political commentary like Diru or idiosyncratic cultural experimentalism like Guruguru Eigakan. On the mainstream aspect, I mean, the mainstream kind of defines the space that creates a counterculture. It's not what they are. Well I mean, what's not mainstream is the they, and mainstream is the us. I think this sense of othering VK bands and fans experience is central to the culture's structure, as something that exists as a byproduct of failed standard conformation. I don't know how some VK fans can up and leave for Kpop so quick. Maybe they just liked the Oshare stuff, I guess, but I can't believe they would leave behind all the great post-punk, experimental, speed metal, alt-rock, etc. groups behind when Kpop doesn't offer anything similar. When I listen to pop music, I long for that missing guitar solo, or lack of Jpop chords (if it's Western pop music). Also the PVs are completely different--least from what I see. Every Kpop group I've seen is good at dancing. Hella good. And I've been doing dance for 8 years of my life, I know good technique and stage presence when I see it. When I say that, you might be shocked to know that I still prefer VK PVs where the bandomen just stare at the camera and sulk, or dance around while playing guitar or something. There's been masterful executions of this simple formula, like in cali≠gari's 歪んだ鏡 which legit gave me nightmares of Hage Shuuji staring into my soul. Might be a false positive because that song dredges some mental trauma other than his face but my point still stands. There's also a lot of PVs that don't have killer dance moves but have a lot of creative spirit to them, like BUCK-TICK's EMPTY GIRL or literally anything Malice Mizer filmed, and that's the stuff I like the most. I've lost interest in big-budget MVs, and prefer a smaller scale spectacle.

Thank you so much for your hard work! This is the answer I needed and was looking for, it's thorough, well-researched, and passionate. So he really is doing this because he doesn't want ZIGZAG to be seen a novelty/alter-ego/poser indie band to something more mainstream like WANDS... It's great that ZIGZAG's getting more attention from this rumour but unfortunate that some of it rides merely on WANDS' success/popularity and not the talent of ZIGZAG itself.

Oh, I see! So Mikoto-sama was Sasaki, and appears to also have been Daisuke, but there's no solid link between those two identities and Daishi. Daishi might be a fake name because Daisuke's name is very similar to Daishi (Haihara Daisuke and Uehara Daishi), but that isn't confirmed. If they are merely relatives, that would make this a less complex situation. They would obviously be two different people and maybe Mikoto-sama wouldn't want to be nepotistic towards Daishi, or maybe vice versa by mentioning/promoting him.

Deeply sorry if anyone has discussed this here before, but I've seen this rumor pop up countless times in -真天地開闢集団-ジグザグ 's (Will refer to them as ZIGZAG from on for brevity) comment section saying that 命様 (I'll refer to him as "Mikoto-sama" for brevity) is actually the new vocalist 上原大史 (Uehara Daishi, just Daishi for short after this) from WANDS. Everyone in the comments section either completely agrees or disagrees and I'm not really sure what to think. Here's the points that began the rumor: Facial Similarity: Now, I have mild facial agnosia so I'm really bad at recognizing the differences in faces, but so many other people have said that they do look very alike so I don't think I'm just seeing things here It doesn't help that Mikoto-sama is essentially a masked singer due to his peek-a-bangs. Hiding his identity like that in the first place might just be evidence in itself. Vocal Similarity: In some songs, both Daishi and Mikoto-sama have similar sounding vocals. Here's a prime example I can find: Mikoto-sama's performance in 優しい人 at say, around the 0:10 mark Sounds similar to Daishi's voice in 真っ赤なLip at around the 0:45 mark Tour date differences: As noticeable on ZIGZAG's site, they began touring after WANDS did live events (In description of the video above, WANDS stopped in late February and ZIGZAG started in early March) This isn't Mikoto-sama's first rodeo: These identities have been confirmed as Mikoto's previous aliases by the Visual Kei Wiki. He was also the vocalist from OTOROIHA, Aiku Sasaki: ^this dude and Haihara Daisuke of Ray℃. ^also this dude Odds and Ends: Did you notice something about Daisuke and Daishi? Yeah, their names are preeeeettty similar (Haihara Daisuke and Uehara Daishi). Daishi and Mikoto-sama appear to be similar ages and height. The drummer of ZIGZAG, 影丸 (Kagemaru) did a drum cover of 真っ赤なLip; I can't say if he's poking fun at the rumor or low-key confirming it with this Evidence against the rumor: Vocal differences: Could my example earlier just be confirmation bias? If you compare Daishi's performance in 真っ赤なLip to say, Mikoto-sama's in 臨兵闘者, they don't sound even a smidgen alike This is the main reason why people don't believe the rumor, because... Yeah, it's like night and day Mikoto-sama's denial: Mikoto-sama has actually denied these rumors in an instagram post where he tagged a post with "I'm not Uehara Daishi" [私は上原大史ではなく] "I am Mikoto-sama" [命様だ], see below for evidence Is he being honest because he's frustrated with this dumb rumor? Or is he joking around because it's true? This video here was my source of information on the situation: I really shouldn't have stayed up 'till midnight researching these rumors... Quarantine boredom is getting to me. While it's a mild and tame rumor that isn't shocking, my main point of bringing this here is that I'm wondering what Mikoto-sama has to gain from hiding his identity (if he is)? The result of some weird NDA? Other than keeping the bandoman magic alive or or trying to keep ZIGZAG's authenticity (as a Shintoist religion rock band?), I don't see a point in not talking about it, other than maybe he's worried that ZIGZAG will be seen as a lolecksdee alter-ego band for his lord-type caricature when it's actually his main project and he's just moonlighting for WANDS.

It doesn't help that my response to helpless situations is by listening to music

Gackt begins selling his bath water Maria Cross and Tekashi 6ix9ine begin a collaborative duo project (after he gets out of jail) New X Japan album comes out but it features BTS on every track YELLOW FRIED CHICKENZ REVIVAL Kamijo comes out as transracial. "I was born in za wrong body. Je suis Furansuman desu" Kisaki is a guest feature on the new chris brown single Klaha comes back. Not to reunite with Malice Mizer, but to do time for his 15 years of tax evasion Hizaki quits music to become a full time E-girl

Can someone please help me with my cali≠gari addiction https://www.last.fm/user/MetaKnight999

So sorry for the ridiculously late response! I was caught up by my studies. Thank you~ and no, I didn't draw this one, I'm crap at art. I'm actually not sure who the artist is.