Total Saikou

That's hard! 
 
PSY･S 「Lemonの勇気」
堕天使「月色した太陽」
NOISY CROWDS「殺意」
ROSES OF DEAD ESSENCES「WISH」
BAISER「Dementia」

I hope Elon Musk launches Yoshiki to space and doesn't let him to ever come back

Talking about another interest of mine, while looking up for old VK dedicated web sites, I've found a translation done for an interview with SOFT BALLET. Here's a quotation that put me into deep-thinking, in which Ken Morioka (their keyboardist/guitarist and, I suppose, their leader), when asked about his thoughts over his flamboyant looks and stage performances, talks about his interest in gender-trascending aesthetics in spite of him "not being gay". 
 
When I saw the stage I thought of how you were the weirdest one Ken. Is that because you were thinking of that visual aspect?
Ken: Ah, well...(laughs). A large part of that comes from where I'm a narcissist and I'm all like "Lookie, lookie! Look at Meee!". And then there's the part of me that really loves and adores appearing to move in a state that's transcended gender, so I suppose that's where I'm coming from....
 
Meaning?
Ken: It's that I've gotten a lot of influence from various people, but I've been like this from a long time ago. I really wanted to become a woman, and I never really thought to deny that feeling. It doesn't mean I'm gay though. There's a sense that I was building up and developing my own preferences.
 
(If you don't know who Ken Morioka or SOFT BALLET is, next I'll leave a video of them performing live:)
 
 
This quotation made me revive an old interest of mine on how gender or sexual orientation identities circulate particularly within the people of the VK scene. Till today, there's enough been written about that topic, but taking Japanese society as a whole or some of their products (as anime/manga) as the unit of analysis, but I've never came across something related to VK although I've defintely did a specific search. What always triggered me is that, if we keep in mind the obvious fact that VK aesthetics rely essentially over challenging gender/sexual orientation performances, then it can't not come weird or suspicious that 99% of band members since VK was born --that 1% goes for Kaya and Ao Sakurai-  don't actually talk about the matter, while at the same time they are always straight-supposed within the logic of selling out as idols for their gya. And the few times they do so they have the urgence of make clear that they are actually "not gay" -and then in the commentary section fans support this statements by remebering the doubting fans that said bandoman actually has a kid "so he is definitely not gay!!!". Actually, I've read very, very few comments of Japanese fans supposing/acknowledging the LGBTness of their favorite bandoman and nontheless supporting them as artists, but maybe that's because I have a hard time looking up into Japanese web sites and translating. (Also, perhaps many bandoman actually talked enough about the fact in a serious way, but I  still don't have the chance to read them since only 5% of the interviews made up being translated).
 
Of course, I've been aware since the beggining of my stay in the weeb fandom that Japan, while not having serious persecussion issues towards LGBT people -at least in their last 50 years of history-, definitely don't finish to get politically open about it, and that's why society decided to treat the matter in a don't-ask-don't-tell fashion. I'm also aware that this fact takes place in a more general tendency of Japanese people to obssesively keep their lives and relationships actually very private, too.  But I can't not ask myself if it isn't at least a bit fool of someone, fan or not, to assume that naturally that every bandoman is "not-gay", in a scene where artistic creativity emerges from fantasies of "men" transforming into "women", or even into un-gendered beautiful creatures, even involving into sex with/as them?  (On a personal note, although I don't actually know their reasons behind, I always liked @nekkichi and other users attempt here to call every bandoman by "her").
 
What are your thoughts on this topics?

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:
 
 

A easy example about how the looks don't necessarily reflect the person of a visual kei artist is the usage of the hakenkreuz by the earliests bands. We don’t see as much nowadays, but the SS caps always appears, sooner or later.
Of course that there was some classic japanese punk nationalism in some bands here and there, but core of V系 was about shocking after all. So, the imaginary of the nazism is aesthetic, therefore should be used. 
 
As @薔薇の末裔 pointed out, understanding Kabuki is a good way to understand this theatrical musical scene. 
 
Kabuki in its first days was a female theater, a more accessible branch of Noh. But it was just too sexy for that confucian society. “A woman's place is in the kitchen”, said the Shogun (or it was my dad last night?). And then, the boys took the place of the woman, doing woman roles. But the boys turned out into fuckboys. “Notto disu shitto agen”, said the Shogun. And then, old man were doing woman roles. “Hmm”, long and deeply said the Shogun. Keep in mind that everyone was killing everyone in the past sengoku century, so the Shoguns could not fuck around (ha).
 
“Ok, ok, And so what?”. Well, since being really sexy was not an option, the onnagata dudes started doing their own shit to emulate the woman sexyness. First come the fancy wig, then they started showing some little skin and so on. Little by little there was no more “man” or “woman”, but onnagata. A woman that no other woman could be. 
 
At that point, Kabuki without man doing female roles is not Kabuki. Visual kei without man doing female roles is not visual kei? I don’t think so, exist†trace showed their shit and we digged it hard. But I would say that is highly expected to see a man doing female roles in the visual rock scene. D’s “Ouka saki some ni keri” is my pick for today. The contrast of Asagi manly vocals with his woman clothing is a perfectly example of why we love it the way it is. They do it with passion (or for money), and we love them for it, not because their sexual preference.
 
The whole pv setting is a love letter for their culture. And it is just one example, there is so many other bands with pvs with that scenary (and probably there is a “something-kei” for it too). The pompous and bold Glam Rock found it’s home in the japanese costumes and evolved into the coolest thing.
 
To be deeper into to sexuallity stuff we could talk about how Japan society potentially repress the sexual preference of their people in order to have things working “in the right way” and how the west really needs to “talk about it” and not let the individuals be themselves without pushing some agenda into your fuckin throat so it’s fuckin hard to understand these japs using lipsticks just because they like it, but that stress me too much so fuck it.

I think the reason the musicians don't talk about it much is because they're not thinking about their sexuality. Their look is a costume, just like other performance arts have costumes. Through western perspective it's easy to analyse and put gender roles and other analytical concepts to it, but I don't think the majority of vk performers thinks about what wearing make up and feminine clothes means to them on a gender transgression level/ as an extension of their sexuality. It's simple as "as a chef I put on my white apron" "and as a member of kiryu I wear full make up and sometimes a skirt. " of course there are queer members out there who probably enjoy the freedom of visual expression in the scene but we don't know for a fact who and how many, after all, sexuality in Japan is a taboo subject that can only be broken for the sake of fanservice bucks, horny fujoshi and temporary high school exploration storylines (hello shoujo ai). 
 

It might sound weird from a western perspective, but visual kei is like the straightest and most homophobic music scene in Japan. We tend to look at visual kei with western eyes and mix its cultural aspects with things that belong to the western culture. Fanservice and provocations used for shock value put aside, the androgynous aesthetics of visual kei band rarely expressed anything related to gender identity and especially sexual orientation. 
After all, it started with people like X Japan who admittedly were inspired by glam rock bands and way of life, which I would find hard to connect to sexual orientation. Visual kei early bandomen were mostly chinpiras, bosozokus (bikers) and the likes. They really incarnated the somewhat glamrock aesthetic of riding bikes getting drunk, banging girls, etc. Of course X had their own decadent/romantic taste that made them different, and a lot of influences changed the scene over time. However, visual kei is still remains 99% driven by social outcasts looking for pussy and very rarely by something else.
In Japan we also have onnagatas, who are kabuki actors specialized in female roles that are again 99% straight. Bandoman with feminine looks call themselves onnagata, not josou (crossdresser), implying that the cultural source behind their looks is not connected with crossdressing but just playing a female role in a band,  but again this something that might be hard to completely understand it taken outside of Japanese culture. For example Izam, the king of all onnagatas, married more than once and has more tha one child, and outside of his role in Shazna he rarely did anything ambiguous, just like the kabuki onnagatas out of stage. Both media and fans are everything but respectful of privacy, but I've rarely seen Japanese articles or message board questioning bandomen sexual orientation. That's because the number 1 reason people do visual kei is because the girls like it (well, liked it, I am not sure this is the trend with young girls anymore). 
Soft Ballet/Ken Morioka are closer to Soft Cell/Marc Almond so I would not even count them as visual kei even though they had some influence on it. And of course, there are exceptions as you mentioned. The chinpira bandomen of the 90's almost extincted and younger generations bandomans are usually anime/game otakus. They grew up with different influences and values, and it would make sense if the current incarnation of visual kei instinctively appealed to more people with sexual orientation/gender identity concerns, especially after Japan started talking about these issues in a less obsolete viewpoint.

Hard to pick just 5 songs but here we go:
 
Dir en grey - Ain’t afraid to die
Girugamesh - Kowarete Iku Sekai
Gazette - Wakaremichi
Kizu - Utsukushiki Hibi
Xaa Xaa - Suibotsu

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.

Your top 5 favourite songs if you have the courage to share it
 
This time it didn't autocorrect
 
 

I would love to see what ideas Sakurai will have for the next installment of Smash (if there is one). Ever since Melee, I've tended to main as Marth simply because he held a sword and was fast (not that I was any good compared to some better players, lol). But with a huge selection of characters in Ultimate, I love playing with a lot of the characters, although I guess I tend to rotate between Link, Shulk, Peach, and Pikachu. So, pretty much a drifter as well, haha Although, I've tried out Bayonetta and she seems like a super fun character to use in battle! Same with Cloud and Corrin. How did you feel about the latest DLC character, Byleth?
 
Haha, I know what you mean. Creating absolute, insane stages where it's almost impossible to fight, let alone walk around in XD I think that's what I love about the Smash series. The items are crazy and fun to abuse and the stages gimmicks are absolutely great to screw around with friends; you can customize how you want to have fun whether that's being super big on screen or super tiny and metal at the same time. The options of having fun are endless. I also love spending time in training mode and experimenting with any of the given options available (like speed, items, health percentages, etc.). Have you ever tried the 4 (or more) players stages? I think it can get a bit chaotic especially on the smaller stages when there's so much happening at once on the screen, lol. Speaking of stages, do you have any favorites you like to play on?

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. 

Nice, same here. It's a great series. How do you like Ultimate? I love the wide selection of stages and characters. It's amazing how far Smash has come ever since its 64 days. Haha, I played a lot of Melee on the GC.

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. 

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. 

Neat! Which Smash Bros were you playing? Been a huge fan of the game ever since Melee.
 
Tales of Vesperia and Mario Odyssey - both super addicting and fun

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.

❤️

Big thanks to @Cantavanda for the band rec 👌
 

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.

Nice! I used to have a GIF of Bridget's in-game model as my profile pic here for ages.

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.

Few months ago I would have said COFFEE!!1! but I've since quit. I was heavily dependant on caffeine, to the point of headaches and dizziness if I went too long without it (too long being few hours), which is not surprising since I could have up to 5 cups per day. I first moved onto caffeine pills and then quit those too altogether.  I now only drink it on occasion. 
 
I'd been drinking coffee since very young age I feel like, 18-19? since my parents have always had this ritual of brewing coffee in the morning and then a second one at noon, I eventually joined. I was never a coffee aficionado, neither were my parents, we just had the mid range, store bought ground coffee and I then moved to mid range, store bought instant lol 
 
Now tea though. Tea I like to get fancy with. I mostly drink green tea these days, jasmine green tea is my all time favourite, but I like black and white teas too. HATE red tea with a passion, and fruit teas to a lesser extent. I also like to drink all kinds of dried herbs like fennel, mint, chamomile, lemon balm etc. 
 
I also love my beer tea flavoured :'D
 

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.

So, I used to hate it as a child, but as I became an adult and now at 30 I love the stuff. I'm talking about coffee you make yourself, not Starbucks or a percolator. So, do you like coffee? If so how do you like it, do you just buy it or do you prepare it yourself? How do you prepare it?
 
I got rid of my coffee make and use a Hario v60 and an Aeropress depending on how much work I want to put into it. I buy beans from the store, and occasionally pre-ground. I'm hoping to subscribe to a Japanese coffee subscription soon as well. Currently I go for medium roasts as it's pretty hard to find lighter roasts in the store and I'm not ready for the dark roasted traditional Japanese coffee aka jet fuel. ☕ 
 
-Also be sure to say if you prefer tea over coffee, what kind and why? I pay around $16USD for a small container of pure matcha every 3 months and it's definitely worth it. Matcha is stronger and has even more health benefits than green tea, especially if you get pure and not "made with matcha". I still need a chosen though as I just sift it and cold brew it. 🍵