saiko

15 hours ago, Seelentau said:

Because it's idiotic.

They could sell so much material if they wanted to, like, I would pay mad cash for some old live shows or so. Instead they do the bare minimum to get some more cash in.

I know these are dire times for bands, but it's not like DEG has nothing more to offer than one song split into 30+ parts. It's like "here, have some random track, now give us streaming income pls". It's insulting to those who actually wish to support the band and would be willing to.

Same. But at this point I'm starting to suspect that every live performance they did back in 97-03 actually sucked so much that they fear their ~legendary~ beginnings as an iconic band would lost all of that status whenever that stuff sees the light any day lol

That, or I find no reasons why they would ram us with footage from everything 07-onwards and then when the time comes to record an anniversary commentary on their '98 Budokan gig they would fucking show you NOTHING while at the same time you see the members actually watching the footage on a notebook turned upon you...

My true gothic prince of darkness. He sure embodies VK as nobody else.

2 hours ago, WhirlingBlack said:

wish they would've released his covers of Nakigara wo and ain't afraid to die instead, those seemed amazing from the samples on his twitter.

Can you bring in here the link for the samples? I can't find it anywhere.

18 minutes ago, shiroihana said:

Oh man CAT5 and chem discussed a topic that's very relevant to me.

 

Despite being a mixed race black guy myself I remember falling down the stupid reactionary rabbit hole back during my teenage and early adult years. These were the days where the skeptic reactionary community proliferated on Youtube and such, to such an extent that these sentiments basically dominated the platform. Videos bashing feminism, black lives matter, mixed market capitalism, and pro LGBTQ content would receive around 95-100% approval ratios from the community, inundated by circlejerk reactions, where lefties often fell prone to being too timid and afraid to express their voices, and high quality lefty content would be heavily censured and bashed simultaneously by the community.

 

I was involved in it, to an extent, and while I was still  fairly open minded compared to many of my younger reactionary companions (this is how I managed to get out of that shit) I was definitely one of those typical reactionary centrist types you'd see on Youtube , debating with people in comments sections, often to the extent of seeing views heavily backed and supported by spectators, while the 'social justice warrior' types would receive the short end of the stick due to the disproportionate ratio of reactionaries to lefties that persists within the social political Youtube sphere. Seeing my views validated only encouraged me to continue engaging with people. I even uploaded a few videos here and there, and had even engaged with Lauren Southern several times (before she exploded in popularity). I could easily see why so many Youtubers became grifters. 

 

While I certainly did believe that racism was a valid issue in the united states, even during that time, I still failed to see the extent to which it persisted, despite bein a brown person myself. At my worst, which thankfully didn't last too long, I believed that black people were disproportionately targeted by cops because they simply committed far more crime. But eventually I realized  some of the nuances involved. You cannot make excuses for racial profiling, because racial profiling is fundamentally wrong. It's not something you can so easily justify and it's a dangerous belief to have. This can lead to innocent people being persecuted, and even beaten or killed. Unarmed black people are murdered at a rate much higher than unarmed white people. There are also better ways to handle criminality. Rehabilitation, investing in social programs, infrastructure, etc.

 

This may sound incredibly dumb but there is some truth to it - But I also believe that one of the reasons so many people 'swallow the red pill' is because they're young and somewhat rebellious kids who feel suppressed by a left leaning society. I say this because I felt that way, and I knew others who felt that way. When you feel like you're not allowed to express or believe certain things because it'll 'trigger' others, and you see the way that people flip the fuck out as they hastily label you as prejudiced for expressing your views, whether ignorant or not. This is harmful. You can't teach someone the proper way simply by calling them names and refusing debate. This is part of what shaped my views as a 19 year old. There are better ways to open someone up to more healthy and utilitarian views. I could have benefited from that.

 

 

This is one of the most enlightening things I've read in a long, long time.

1 hour ago, Total Saikou said:

Apologising to fans for getting a deadly virus, how Japanese of them. I'm hoping they get better and stay strong!

This awkward Japaneseness reaches new levels every day omg

And don't have any plans on moving onto other things if the ball continues to roll like this, he.

Still so unlisteneable and so unwatchable that it starts to grow its own charming in me. Is this the reason behing putting up such artistc garbage?

What the actual fuck... 2020 please, stop it right now.

I'm not Japanese, but I always have this kind of weird ethnic betrayal feeling when I notice Japanese artists looking for the West to get better in any feature of their projects. Absurd feeling, but lol.

Anyway, 2020 and still Japan has less developed theory and technology musicwise? I'm surprised.

10/10, definitely will look forward your next releases, and hope you save VK from its current misery state. 

These aesthetics are not the first thing that I would associate with Glay, but there you have them.

Btw, does this classic from Kuroyume count as Y2K?

Also, I think Pierrot had an interesting approach to Y2K, twisting it with magic and decadent, gothic tones (making their best era, imho):

Lastly, I dare to say that Y2K is one of the key aspects of softvi aesthetics.

11 minutes ago, Ikna said:

I am worried that VK, which is already meaningless and super niche in japan, will just completely dissolve and assimilate into this big pot of "hip" pop and  microgenre stuff. 

I think this synthesizes pretty much my own current state of mind with VK.

Also, great analysis overall!

Wow, interesting aesthetics!

5 hours ago, Jigsaw9 said:

I've read lots of stuff/speculations/vague half-sentences over the years, but just by a glance it totally seems like a "No Doubt" situation, i.e. the major label trying to court Gackt (and succeeding) to ditch everyone else and go solo. But this being a very niche part of the already secretive Japanese music industry, I doubt we will ever get a clear-cut fact of what actually went down.

I agree. Perhaps they tried to court everyone, but in the end failed to get them. Perhaps they withdrew behind Mana's artistic direction, and thus all MM less Gackt were dropped off Columbia; I can't imagine him, even Kozi or Yuuki playing pop, putting up 00s 64 bits softvi rockers aesthetics, surrounded by group of dancers, etc. They are artists, I think that's clear. Kozi, like Mana, even at the cost of losing their mainstream status (a thing that history has reserved to less than 10 bands in Japanese music history, even Dir or the Gazette never had the attention MM received from the media in the late 90s), decided to move on and run after a consistent artistic project within their own worldview. On the other hand, Gackt brought iconic moments to VK and J-rock (Mizerable, Vanilla, Redemption) but generally speaking he did the stuff that would attract masses.

1 hour ago, Anne Claire said:

I'm planning on reading NYNY after AkaBoku because just by reading the synopsis it sounds very interesting  AkaBoku is also very relatable. At least from what i've read so far, it depicts human emotions so damn well i can't even.
I haven't read a lot of old shoujo manga but i've watched a quite amount of oldschool shoujo anime xD 

Old manga, specially old shoujo manga, is my favorite field. Everything about it feels very serious, like compromised. I imagine mangaka being in a very position of treating their audience in a mature way, trying to deliver always fresh and clever stories and visuals. I guess the inmense anime industry, with all its idols, constant massive output and exitist ideology, was in diapers at that time, so I think everyone involved with creating comics and animation (from illustrators, scripters, producers, to musicians, etc.) had less commercial pressure and thus experimented more creative freedom. 

Also, like in VK, I crave for the overall melodramatic, tragic and sexual ambiguous aesthetics from the manga from that era, lol.

What old shoujo anime would you recommend?

2 hours ago, Anne Claire said:

Currently reading Aka-chan to Boku (Baby and Me). Loved the anime so I decided to read the manga as well. Just as good as the adaptation so far.

I've read New York New York from the same author. Very short and very well done series, very pleasant reading. One of the most human and touching manga readings I've had have so far.  70s, 80s and early 90s shoujo manga was a very interesting field of experimentation, which I feel it has been recently lost.

7 minutes ago, sutululu said:

Going from 1 million yt views to 20k takes its toll

I was thinking about the same... Guess who will be the next newcomer to reach that numbers again...

I remember being really enthusiastic about them at that time, "Ojamashimasu" was a fresh breathe blowing all over the scene... Then they started to rely on formula after formula like everybody does nowadays, so I dropped my care of them. I wish them the best.

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

Let's see

Hikari ni furu ame -> Laputa / Masquerade
Mikansei to guilt -> Laputa / Jakou
Nil Frontier -> BUCK-TICK / JUPITER

Pixy False -> Pierrot / Finale
Kami uta -> Malice Mizer / N.p.s N.g.s

Neo Ark -> Malice Mizer / Illuminati

Material Pain -> D'espairsRay / Murder Freaks

 

something else?
now mind you, stealing in VK is pretty common

i'm just sayin'

I won't call this "stealing" at all. Once again, "stealing" is something like Grieva's style, and I don't find anything like that in the examples you give. For instance, what in "Neo ark" is stealed from "Illuminati"?

1 hour ago, Leviathan said:

what has become of Kayas and Kamijos split anyway

 

Are they in bad terms now?

3 hours ago, Arkady said:

 

 

That or Cage from DeG just to teach Kyo who is the real alpha.

She could just made herself a Patreon so I could pay for it!!!

@Jigsaw9 I think that everybody enough in love with VK itself holds a special place for worshipping Shazna's hit songs, and thus a good grade of toleration for Izam's voice... Combined with the natural credits for his influential stage persona. But that does not make us overlook the fact that he was a terrible singer! 

At least that's how I feel about it, lol.

IZAM's vocals always irritated me. I never understood why he or anybody else decided it was a good idea for him to sing such a challenging melody with almost no vocal capacity. Whereas Kaya does it smoothly and smartly. Now I can finally enjoy this classic!

In spanish we say, "qué tiene que ver el culo con pintar", which could be translated as "what [the fuck] has ass to do with painting".

We've been blessed. Oh my God, I'm speechless! Kaya is one of the very few VK singers that actually has an outstanding voice. She deserved to sing those classics in the anniversary concert... I wonder if Mana ever contacted or considered recruiting her for any of his projects...

Surprisingly interesting. Very off-today's boring standards, music-wise. Gonna chack them in the future!