colorful人生

If you're atheist like myself, and believe we're casted into "eternal oblivion" after death, the moment you die is the end of everything. Perception of time is limited to those who are living, but I take comfort in the fact that our remains become part of the earth. We are dispersed back into nature like the way we were born into it. 
 
It's scary, but aside from doing the "wrong" things, death is something you can't really control. So, just keep having fun, and be mindful of others who are also trying to have fun in life.
 
There's my r/im14andthisisdeep explanation, lol.
 
 

OPs/EDs sans-what's included already
 
HERO - Tenohira (Fairy Tail)
DaizyStripper - Zetsubou no Freesia (Yu-gi-oh! ZEXAL)
vistlip - Nearly Equal (Yu-gi-oh! ZEXAL II)
vistlip - BLACK MATRIX (Senjushi)
ViViD - ~Yume~ Mugen no Kanata (Level E)
ViViD - Blue (BLEACH)
Sadie - Toge (Togainu no Chi)
An Cafe - Kakusei Heroism ~The Hero WIthout a Name~ (Darker than Black)
Chrome Shelled - Yasashii Uso (Chrome Shelled Regios)
 
I could mostly pull those from the top of my head. I forgot "Level E" existed... Pretty forgettable series, lol. 
 
---
Wow, I forgot about a lot of these
https://matome.naver.jp/odai/2145301774341937801
https://matome.naver.jp/odai/2145414214323123501
https://matome.naver.jp/odai/2146840574849138401

The two I'm thinking of are v[NEU] and DIV.
 
I followed DIV from start-to-end, but they kinda left on a mellow note for me. I always kept an eye on them and was super enthusiastic about each single/mini-/album, but none of their material (imo) got to where NEXX did. Even though I used to wait for their midnight releases on iTunes, I haven't listened to DIV in over a year. Since ACME has dug the knife even deeper, I've just been listening to NEXX.
 
v[NEU] was fantastic, but I haven't been inclined to listen to them as of recent. While I also felt pretty involved w/ them, my preferences have shifted to Jun-era NEU and HeaRt. 
 

"Any publicity is good publicity." 
 
Gillette knows damn well what they did and the context that they did it in. It's all about raking in those dollary-doos from exposure, ad-revenue, and new customers who want to "stick it to Trump/alt-right" . (How many customers do you really "add" if Gillette is already the go-to for cheap to mid-tier manual razors? 🤔) Pepsi did this by trivializing BLM and earned a shit-ton of money from the ad. Gillette, BiC, Harry's, Philips and Dollar Shave Club all win here. 
 

I actually really liked The Black, but Denis does seem to have an unhealthy attitude.

I liked the black i just wish denis wasn't such a prick he has good talent in his voice i just wish he would use it for singing and not money

Nothing wrong with the message, but I'm not really a big fan of using subjects like this to cash in on. And the way I see it, they don't exactly give the subject matter the respect and attention it truly deserves here. Feels like they're actually taking a serious subject that should be addressed further, and make it a lot smaller and less relevant than what it is.
 
It doesn't exactly help that the commercial itself is pretty bad. Looks like a cheap, no-budget and embarrassingly mediocre school project made by teenagers who's only done something like this a couple of times before.

The fact that we're talking about shaving cream on a visual kei forum means they win.

"Any publicity is good publicity." 
 
Gillette knows damn well what they did and the context that they did it in. It's all about raking in those dollary-doos from exposure, ad-revenue, and new customers who want to "stick it to Trump/alt-right" . (How many customers do you really "add" if Gillette is already the go-to for cheap to mid-tier manual razors? 🤔) Pepsi did this by trivializing BLM and earned a shit-ton of money from the ad. Gillette, BiC, Harry's, Philips and Dollar Shave Club all win here. 
 

@platy Ah, I see. I'm not surprised. I agree with @WhirlingBlack - this is a clear attempt by Gillette to cash in on a prominent social issue, but that's what corporations do. Marketing and propaganda go hand-in-hand, so appealing to people's emotions and desires to effectively sale products is par the course. Whether you're for or against the commercial makes no difference - Gillette has successfully planted themselves in the minds & mouths of many people who, previously, weren't thinking about their asses at all. 🤣

According to the comments of life long customers never buying from Gillette again: it's sjw propaganda, virtue signalling, condescending, soy boy shit, promotes "cuck behavior", feminist propaganda, toxic femininity,... 

Actually, all the best visual kei is made between 2079 and 2119. The addition of Tibetan Throat Screaming and Post-orgasmoclavier Dronestep really made the genre. Everything else will be shit.

Actually, all the best visual kei is made between 2079 and 2119. The addition of Tibetan Throat Screaming and Post-orgasmoclavier Dronestep really made the genre. Everything else will be shit.

Actually, all the best visual kei is made between 2079 and 2119. The addition of Tibetan Throat Screaming and Post-orgasmoclavier Dronestep really made the genre. Everything else will be shit.

Haha, the first thing I thought of was "Outside Castle" by H.O.T (Intro isn't Mozart, tho)
 
The whole financial crisis/political rap-rock stuff from the late 90's to early 2000's was dope tho. Combine that with vk's regional presence in the 90's and the "avant garde" fashion obsession, and you got yourself some wacky cool stuff.
 
Also #DB5K ;_;

Haha, the first thing I thought of was "Outside Castle" by H.O.T (Intro isn't Mozart, tho)
 
The whole financial crisis/political rap-rock stuff from the late 90's to early 2000's was dope tho. Combine that with vk's regional presence in the 90's and the "avant garde" fashion obsession, and you got yourself some wacky cool stuff.
 
Also #DB5K ;_;

And there was also this from 1999. This album sold 1.3 million:
 

Haha, the first thing I thought of was "Outside Castle" by H.O.T (Intro isn't Mozart, tho)
 
The whole financial crisis/political rap-rock stuff from the late 90's to early 2000's was dope tho. Combine that with vk's regional presence in the 90's and the "avant garde" fashion obsession, and you got yourself some wacky cool stuff.
 
Also #DB5K ;_;

Haha, the first thing I thought of was "Outside Castle" by H.O.T (Intro isn't Mozart, tho)
 
The whole financial crisis/political rap-rock stuff from the late 90's to early 2000's was dope tho. Combine that with vk's regional presence in the 90's and the "avant garde" fashion obsession, and you got yourself some wacky cool stuff.
 
Also #DB5K ;_;

Well, lets look at it this way:
 
From a gaijin standpoint, Visual Kei is much harder to stumble upon now v. maybe a couple years ago. Most download aggregate sites are defunct or host dead links (unless you're on that aptly named slav social network "VK"). I only found this forum via UKJrockUpdater which is now just the news aggregator "J-rock News", and it took me two years of vk to actually realize that this forum existed. 
 
Combine that with how a majority of the current scene SPECIFICALLY caters to live attendees/night-life/host-culture. Most people aren't going to get host, bangya, or menhera culture, it's just going to look and seem really weird. VK has always been pretty exclusive, it just seems worse because there's now less of an incentive to cater to international fans. 
 
In the larger scope of things, rock, in general, is at a decline (albeit momentary.) Emo and scene culture is largely gone, which acted as a gateway to vk. Being xXedgyXx isn't cool anymore. (This could be expanded)
 
----
 
Yes, there is a post-new year slump, but I reckon active users have been on a slow decline for several years. Is it really that much of a surprise though? The same thing happens to most internet communities.
 
TL;DR: stating the obvious
 
*Forgot to include that this hobby is expensive b/c of nip cost-of-living and shipping. Also the multi-type CDs, live-limited CDs, etc. I've gotten burnt out before because vk is fucking expensive.

"Also, most of us are kinda getting old, needing to spend more time with work/family/study and etc"
 
Also forgot to mention this. Peak gaijin vk fans are getting older, and have less time or inclination to peruse or participate in the forum.
 
Didn't know where to fit this in my previous post since it had a more negative slant + more overarching, but I forgot to mention that it's not really that bad that there's a decline. The goal was never to be uber-big, but to maintain a sizable community of vk fans. 

Well, lets look at it this way:
 
From a gaijin standpoint, Visual Kei is much harder to stumble upon now v. maybe a couple years ago. Most download aggregate sites are defunct or host dead links (unless you're on that aptly named slav social network "VK"). I only found this forum via UKJrockUpdater which is now just the news aggregator "J-rock News", and it took me two years of vk to actually realize that this forum existed. 
 
Combine that with how a majority of the current scene SPECIFICALLY caters to live attendees/night-life/host-culture. Most people aren't going to get host, bangya, or menhera culture, it's just going to look and seem really weird. VK has always been pretty exclusive, it just seems worse because there's now less of an incentive to cater to international fans. 
 
In the larger scope of things, rock, in general, is at a decline (albeit momentary.) Emo and scene culture is largely gone, which acted as a gateway to vk. Being xXedgyXx isn't cool anymore. (This could be expanded)
 
----
 
Yes, there is a post-new year slump, but I reckon active users have been on a slow decline for several years. Is it really that much of a surprise though? The same thing happens to most internet communities.
 
TL;DR: stating the obvious
 
*Forgot to include that this hobby is expensive b/c of nip cost-of-living and shipping. Also the multi-type CDs, live-limited CDs, etc. I've gotten burnt out before because vk is fucking expensive.

Well, lets look at it this way:
 
From a gaijin standpoint, Visual Kei is much harder to stumble upon now v. maybe a couple years ago. Most download aggregate sites are defunct or host dead links (unless you're on that aptly named slav social network "VK"). I only found this forum via UKJrockUpdater which is now just the news aggregator "J-rock News", and it took me two years of vk to actually realize that this forum existed. 
 
Combine that with how a majority of the current scene SPECIFICALLY caters to live attendees/night-life/host-culture. Most people aren't going to get host, bangya, or menhera culture, it's just going to look and seem really weird. VK has always been pretty exclusive, it just seems worse because there's now less of an incentive to cater to international fans. 
 
In the larger scope of things, rock, in general, is at a decline (albeit momentary.) Emo and scene culture is largely gone, which acted as a gateway to vk. Being xXedgyXx isn't cool anymore. (This could be expanded)
 
----
 
Yes, there is a post-new year slump, but I reckon active users have been on a slow decline for several years. Is it really that much of a surprise though? The same thing happens to most internet communities.
 
TL;DR: stating the obvious
 
*Forgot to include that this hobby is expensive b/c of nip cost-of-living and shipping. Also the multi-type CDs, live-limited CDs, etc. I've gotten burnt out before because vk is fucking expensive.

I agree with all the reasons mentioned above. The state of MH is affected by a multitude of factors. The state of filesharing, the state of the VK scene, the season, aging fanbase, and so on.
 
However, one thing I've noticed that has had a serious effect on our community over the years - and something that rarely gets mentioned - are the individual attitudes of our members. Now no community is perfect, but I've noticed that there's a subset of users here who seem to pride themselves on being "bitchy" and "petty", and seem to have set their hearts on being divisive - the kind of users that would rather talk shit about other users than discuss music with them.
 
Most probably don't think of themselves as part of a community here, but the fact is - we're a community because we all have a common unity - J-rock and Visual Kei. So when you have users injecting divisive elements like the ones I just mentioned, it becomes cancerous to the community as a whole. I've seen users here continually hold other users in contempt for shit they did YEARS ago. I've seen users start shit with other users for no reason. I've seen users intentionally set out to "burn" other users just to seem "cool". I've seen users intentionally stalk and harass other members. I've seen A LOT being staff here for over a decade.
 
Hell, even I've been thrown under the bus by certain members here - and if anyone knows me, I've always strived to be as understanding, agreeable, and diplomatic as possible - as a staff member, fellow fan, and friend. But regardless, there are people who are purely intent on being divisive - even when you approach them with good intents. But for what? Who does that help? Who does that serve? It definitely doesn't help the community at all. 
 
I can't tell you the amount of times people have come to me personally and explained how they want to participate here, but they're afraid of getting bitched at for having a different opinion, or attacked for any odd reason. Many people have left the community for these very reasons as well. I'm pretty sure some people get off on being an asshole or a "sassy bitch", but that shit ain't cool to people who just wanna come here to fellowship with other J-rock fans in peace. We all got lives outside of here (which are difficult enough as is), so the last thing any of us want to do is log on to see some GROWN-ASS ADULT with the maturity of an emotionally neglected 13 year old project their own misery on to others. That shit ain't it.
 
And yeah, lest anyone want to call me out as a hypocrite -  I READILY admit that I've played my part in the divisiveness and the nonsense in times past as well, and I take 110% responsibility for it. I'm not innocent either and I'll be THE FIRST to tell you that I ain't perfect. Far from it. But the point of this post is not to place blame on anyone or to call anyone out. It's simply to call awareness to the fact that we all contribute to the state of this community on an individual level as well. Our individual contributions have a resounding effect on the whole, like a ripple effect. As staff, we can enforce certain rules here. But we cannot dictate the attitudes of the members here. We can't dictate how you choose to interface with the community here. We cannot dictate the state of your heart. Nor would we want to do any of that.
 
I simply want to point out that the actions we take here, no matter how meaningless or miniscule they seem, DO have an effect. And based on those actions, the state of our community will either be tilted in a better direction or a worse direction. It's up to yall to decide.

Regarding MH, which is the only place I actually care and visit on a daily basis, I don't think that's true. I've seen the same 30~50 faces for the last I don't know, ten years, with newbies joining now and then. Sometimes oldies take a break, just to come back a few months later.
 
Also, most of us are kinda getting old, needing to spend more time with work/family/study and etc
 
Now if you meant the western vk culture in general yeah, I kinda agree. Rap is the new rock, and the most interesting musical innovations are happening there, besides all those problems @colorfuljinsei mentioned above.
 
But don't worry, as long as zeus wants, we'll have MH to bitch and complain about the shitty vk trend of the year