Tanuki rumors (about vk artists)

[platy 3018]

Whoever runs that page is either a damn hypocrite or a super previleged kid who assumes everyone else also has enough money to never pirate vk. Where's the tea? 

[GreatNorthernVK 183]

She probably believes that the fandom happened entirely through osmosis, where Patient Zero Weeb went to Japan, bought thousands of cds and DVDs, then moved back to their home country and spread the VK virus to all of the friends they could show it to, who all did the same thing. Like some bizarre chain letter.

 

You know, kind of like what Dada believes, but with a random weeb spreading it around instead of Kiwamu.

[riyusama 79]

Oh another active Tanuki thread!! Yay!! I love threads like this cuz I'm a sucker for gossip lololololol

 

But i guess this started out a bit un-wholesome? I see people still lurk around the tumblr translating tanuki mistresses lololololol

 

But on a side note, I saw from the first posts about Tanuki speculations and such coming true and I wanted to shed some light on that part:

 I can't remember the name of this tanuki translating tumblr, but when SCREW disbanded and I was heart-broken as fuck, I messaged one of the few mistresses in tumblr that were still active and asked about them. 

 

Please ignore the Manabu part since we all know that he recently came back to play as a support guitarist for Sarshi of Hero lololol but, if you read on the bottom they stated there that in Tanuki there were rumours about Jin joining Nihilizm and somehow, that's rather close to what's happened now! Byou and Jin made a band with former members of Nihilizm Iru and Quina and seriously, I somewhat forgot about this ask since as ya'll can see that was 3 years ago but, in a way, like everyone says, just take the words there in Tanuki with a grain of salt and a lot of skepticism.

 

Most of the time, I read Tanuki for the juicy gossips I can use for fanfic writing lol the rest is just to know how the members are and if their band were to separate, I'd like some smol updates if they're going to continue on with music or not ouo I remember this message I got and how happy I was and hopeful that I'll still get to support Jin in music (he's my inspiration for trying to continue to be a muscisian even tho I know it's a very bleak career path lol). And maybe alittle sad in those days cuz I was too shy to message them more info and if there were talks if Jin and Byo would still be together XD  (cuz of course my fujoshi yaoi loving ass wants my OTP to still be together ya'll)

 

So yeah anyways, somewhat wholesome? reply to this thread cuz I love how this person helped me out in that small translation of where JIn is heading and it really made me happy back then ouo

[meikyoushisui 51]

 

On 3/17/2019 at 4:31 PM, riyusama said:

Oh another active Tanuki thread!! Yay!! I love threads like this cuz I'm a sucker for gossip lololololol

 

But i guess this started out a bit un-wholesome? I see people still lurk around the tumblr translating tanuki mistresses lololololol

 

But on a side note, I saw from the first posts about Tanuki speculations and such coming true and I wanted to shed some light on that part:

 I can't remember the name of this tanuki translating tumblr, but when SCREW disbanded and I was heart-broken as fuck, I messaged one of the few mistresses in tumblr that were still active and asked about them. 

 

Please ignore the Manabu part since we all know that he recently came back to play as a support guitarist for Sarshi of Hero lololol but, if you read on the bottom they stated there that in Tanuki there were rumours about Jin joining Nihilizm and somehow, that's rather close to what's happened now! Byou and Jin made a band with former members of Nihilizm Iru and Quina and seriously, I somewhat forgot about this ask since as ya'll can see that was 3 years ago but, in a way, like everyone says, just take the words there in Tanuki with a grain of salt and a lot of skepticism.

 

Most of the time, I read Tanuki for the juicy gossips I can use for fanfic writing lol the rest is just to know how the members are and if their band were to separate, I'd like some smol updates if they're going to continue on with music or not ouo I remember this message I got and how happy I was and hopeful that I'll still get to support Jin in music (he's my inspiration for trying to continue to be a muscisian even tho I know it's a very bleak career path lol). And maybe alittle sad in those days cuz I was too shy to message them more info and if there were talks if Jin and Byo would still be together XD  (cuz of course my fujoshi yaoi loving ass wants my OTP to still be together ya'll)

 

So yeah anyways, somewhat wholesome? reply to this thread cuz I love how this person helped me out in that small translation of where JIn is heading and it really made me happy back then ouo

That profile pic reminds me of tanugya, but I'm not sure.

I'm glad that user replied you so kindly, tbh

 

[meikyoushisui 51]

Is there already a thread of tanuki pics? I was wondering if I can share here a Subaru nsfw pic I found yesterday or I should open a thread for it

Edited July 13, 2019 by meikyoushisui

[anadentone 478]

11 hours ago, meikyoushisui said:

Is there already a thread of tanuki pics? I was wondering if I can share here a Subaru nsfw pic I found yesterday or I should open a thread for it

I'm game for it  got anything on Mitsuki (Kiryu) or anyone in Jin Machine

[AnticNyappy 45]

On 7/13/2019 at 2:44 PM, meikyoushisui said:

Is there already a thread of tanuki pics? I was wondering if I can share here a Subaru nsfw pic I found yesterday or I should open a thread for it

Iv only caught a few Tanuki pics minpha nemu and (supposedly) miku(Ex an cafe) it’s a rather old pic so I can’t be sure

[platy 3018]

6 hours ago, AnticNyappy said:

Iv only caught a few Tanuki pics minpha nemu and (supposedly) miku(Ex an cafe) it’s a rather old pic so I can’t be sure

Nemu? Does it show his chin? Please share. 

[nekkichi 6043]

6 hours ago, AnticNyappy said:

Iv only caught a few Tanuki pics minpha nemu and (supposedly) miku(Ex an cafe) it’s a rather old pic so I can’t be sure

Miku's pictures were going around back in like 2007 so they were legit.

[Milayou 36]

On 3/6/2019 at 9:25 PM, GreatNorthernVK said:

She probably believes that the fandom happened entirely through osmosis, where Patient Zero Weeb went to Japan, bought thousands of cds and DVDs, then moved back to their home country and spread the VK virus to all of the friends they could show it to, who all did the same thing. Like some bizarre chain letter.

 

You know, kind of like what Dada believes, but with a random weeb spreading it around instead of Kiwamu.

...isn't that literally how it happened though? At least in the very early days of the fandom.

[GreatNorthernVK 183]

1 hour ago, Milayou said:

...isn't that literally how it happened though? At least in the very early days of the fandom.

While I’m sure that some expats/kids of expats were involved, the actual spread to the western side was heavily facilitated through file sharing. The “word of mouth” between friends outside of Japan occurred after file sharing had already made the music accessible to foreigners.

[saiko 429]

1 hour ago, GreatNorthernVK said:

While I’m sure that some expats/kids of expats were involved, the actual spread to the western side was heavily facilitated through file sharing. The “word of mouth” between friends outside of Japan occurred after file sharing had already made the music accessible to foreigners.

It would be interesting if someone 'old enough' could share his /her opinions on VK spreading before the 2006-2008 boom in the West.

[GreatNorthernVK 183]

35 minutes ago, saiko said:

It would be interesting if someone 'old enough' could share his /her opinions on VK spreading before the 2006-2008 boom in the West.

Well, I’ve been paying attention since early 2001. The online presence back then was higher than it is now. And access to physical media wasn’t anywhere near as good. Sites like Kazaa and Soulseek has tons of files from popular VK bands. Most bands didn’t even realize we existed, until fans started traveling/moving to Japan to make themselves known. It was a little after this time when indies bands that got picked up by these fans started coming to Anime conventions.

Edited August 28, 2019 by GreatNorthernVK

[BrenGun 2261]

56 minutes ago, saiko said:

It would be interesting if someone 'old enough' could share his /her opinions on VK spreading before the 2006-2008 boom in the West.

on jpop and anime/manga forums.

 

back in the days There's was a known jpop forum where a few people shared music from jrock/visual bands.

sadly that forum is down for years already.

 

[Milayou 36]

2 hours ago, saiko said:

It would be interesting if someone 'old enough' could share his /her opinions on VK spreading before the 2006-2008 boom in the West.

There are some people like Cameron Scholes whose contributions are pretty well documented by now. That's kind of what I was trying to get at in my previous comment: the same few names and places tend to come up a lot when you trace back the early origins of VK fandom in the west

[Arkady 396]

3 hours ago, saiko said:

It would be interesting if someone 'old enough' could share his /her opinions on VK spreading before the 2006-2008 boom in the West.

Back in my days (around 2001/2) if you wanted to follow the scene you either googled (band name) + mp3 and ended in some shady page with some songs if you were lucky, or you hoped someone was sharing some of them on some peer to peer program like WinMX, every song taking at least 30 minutes to download beacuse you had 56k internet and were paying every minute of it (my random Lareine 6-7 songs selfmade CD lasted me all 3 last years of high school).

 

There was also the option to buy the CDs, but the chapest ones would cost 40-50€, if you didn't live in Paris (there was a fabled used Japanese bookstore that was all Europe weebs envy) or didn't have parents/friends working in Japan.

 

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Arkady

[Milayou 36]

35 minutes ago, Arkady said:

Back in my days (around 2001/2) if you wanted to follow the scene you either googled (band name) + mp3 and ended in some shady page with some songs if you were lucky, or you hoped someone was sharing some of them on some peer to peer program like WinMX, every song taking at least 30 minutes to download beacuse you had 56k internet and were paying every minute of it (my random Lareine 6-7 songs selfmade CD lasted me all 3 last years of high school).

 

There was also the option to buy the CDs, but the chapest ones would cost 40-50€, if you didn't live in Paris (there was a fabled used Japanese bookstore that was all Europe weebs envy) or didn't have parents/friends working in Japan.

 

 

Wow, now that's a feel. I played out my home made copy of Aliene Ma'riage's Les Soirée in high school and it was a shock to hear some of these songs again at a quality above 96 kbps when I revisited the album almost 10 years later.

 

By the way, you mention you're french, are you familiar with Tanja? She used to have her own website with live reports going as far back as 1998. That place was a goldmine for me back in the day and it still remains an exclusive source of info outside of Japan for some of the more obscure bands she covered.

 

EDIT: found it again, here's a link for anyone interested https://web.archive.org/web/20120427161556/http://lasteve.free.fr/blog/autres/listeconcerts01.htm

Edited August 28, 2019 by Milayou

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

Damn. Y’all are making me feel bad. I was unfortunately not there for the VK boom of the mid 2000s and it’s kinda of a shame since I was like 5 or 6 at the time lol.

 

 

[Arkady 396]

5 hours ago, Milayou said:

By the way, you mention you're french, are you familiar with Tanja? She used to have her own website with live reports going as far back as 1998. That place was a goldmine for me back in the day and it still remains an exclusive source of info outside of Japan for some of the more obscure bands she covered.

Oh no, I'm not french. I was one of those other envious european weeaboos.  The maximum I was able to score at the time were two overpriced (still MUUUCH cheaper than importing originals from Japan) taiwanese bootlegs with X-Japan and Lareine PVs from my comic book shop. It was before the Youtube era and PVs were not so easy to find and download.

 

When in 2004 I discovered Cdjapan I recuperated all I could from Lareine discography (adding M10M to), tho.

 

The fact that around 2007/8 some bands did get EU editions you could actually find in music stores blew all our 1st-wave minds. It was a surreal experience to go in a store and find them among other western music and at the same price (true story).

 

 

Sorry mods for the OT, but my old ass didn't resist to tell when back in our days we got our VK uphill with 3 meters of snow on the ground.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Arkady

[Milayou 36]

17 minutes ago, Arkady said:

The fact that around 2007/8 some bands did get EU editions you could actually find in music stores blew all our 1st-wave minds. It was a surreal experience to go in a store and find them among other western music and at the same price (true story).

Does anybody remember this band that was put together in Japan to be marketed in the west? They folded immediately after failing to garner interest and instead of listening to the fans telling them "this is not actually what we meant when we said you should bring VK overseas" the promoters blamed piracy culture for the death of their little experiment.

 

The whole period was a hilarious trainwreck on many fronts but that tiny bit of visibility still felt like such a ray of sunshine, little things like the PV for Saku getting voted all the way up to #1 on some european MTV chart really testify to how large and optimistic the fanbase was around then.

[saiko 429]

7 hours ago, Milayou said:

Wow, now that's a feel. I played out my home made copy of Aliene Ma'riage's Les Soirée in high school and it was a shock to hear some of these songs again at a quality above 96 kbps when I revisited the album almost 10 years later.

 

By the way, you mention you're french, are you familiar with Tanja? She used to have her own website with live reports going as far back as 1998. That place was a goldmine for me back in the day and it still remains an exclusive source of info outside of Japan for some of the more obscure bands she covered.

 

EDIT: found it again, here's a link for anyone interested https://web.archive.org/web/20120427161556/http://lasteve.free.fr/blog/autres/listeconcerts01.htm

Oh, my, god. I can't believe that there actually WAS western people coming to Japan for, like, a tour final of Syndrome or even Dir's 2001 Budokan?! What kind of weird anime crossover is this?!

 

This is such gold to the guys interested in vk culture besides its music. We should start a thread (or even a board?) for you the aunties/uncles of the '1st wave' to tell us with as much detail as you want your antics back then!

 

Thank you SO much for this!

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

15 minutes ago, saiko said:

Oh, my, god. I can't believe that there actually WAS western people coming to Japan for, like, a tour final of Syndrome or even Dir's 2001 Budokan?! What kind of weird anime crossover is this?!

 

This is such gold to the guys interested in vk culture besides its music. We should start a thread (or even a board?) for you the aunties/uncles of the '1st wave' to tell us with as much detail as you want your antics back then!

 

Thank you SO much for this!

It still shocks me that people got into VK during the 90s and early 2000s. I always thought it was a MySpace era thing but seeing all the poorly aged blogs was such an eye opener.

 

I know someone on the Diru subreddit who actually went to their Blitz 5Days concert during the Macarbe part of the tour. 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by psychonnect_rozen

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

2 hours ago, Milayou said:

Does anybody remember this band that was put together in Japan to be marketed in the west? They folded immediately after failing to garner interest and instead of listening to the fans telling them "this is not actually what we meant when we said you should bring VK overseas" the promoters blamed piracy culture for the death of their little experiment.

 

The whole period was a hilarious trainwreck on many fronts but that tiny bit of visibility still felt like such a ray of sunshine, little things like the PV for Saku getting voted all the way up to #1 on some european MTV chart really testify to how large and optimistic the fanbase was around then.

Are you referring to Xodiack by any change, or to something even older? They started out in association with HearJapan that was going to be the place for all your jrock visual kei jpop and probably kpop in two years needs and then obviously people just pirated it and HearJapan threw a fit. Google tells me this was 2010 so I'm not sure if you can still get to the polemic that it caused here because it might've been gone with Tainted World. Anyway, I still remember it vividly and I was surprised any of those dudes managed to have a career afterwards ( Eros/Ice )

[Milayou 36]

Yes! That's it!

[inertia 61]

17 hours ago, saiko said:

It would be interesting if someone 'old enough' could share his /her opinions on VK spreading before the 2006-2008 boom in the West.

Hi. I’m one of the really old fans. I visited Tokyo in 1995 and came back to the US (NYC) with a pile of Luna Sea CDs and VHS tapes. At that time there was nothing about Luna Sea or visual kei on the English-language internet. Actual nothing. Well, the internet barely existed, it was just transitioning to websites from bulletin boards. I made some mix cassettes and handed them out to my friends.

 

Around ’96 or maybe ’97 I checked the internet again, and now we have something: California sisters Freda and Joannie’s website Rockin’ Heaven, and the X Japan ML on cohprog. It was tiny at first, like maybe 100 people. This was the entire Western VK fandom. We had all discovered Japanese music either on a trip to Japan, or through a Japanese friend.  A few of us were so noisy about talking about other bands who were not X that the Jrock ML was formed, so we took our OT over there and it exploded. There was no file sharing or international online stores at that time. I created a page to bring something like tape-sharing classifieds online, a manually updated list of people who had stuff to trade and what they were looking for. We copied cassettes and sent them by postal mail. It’s laughably low-tech compared to nowadays, but suddenly we were all listening to multiple bands instead of just our one gateway band. The Jrock ML membership and traffic was exploding week by week. There was one loud and cynical French guy who was really into super-obscure bands and claimed that he went to Japan and was friends with bands, but nobody knew whether to believe him or not. Word of mouth was definitely a thing — I gave my little sister a few mix tapes when she went to college and she came back for break cursing me out for those tapes, because all her friends had fallen in love with them and now she had to listen to VK all the time.

 

I think it was around ’98 that we started to see some improvements in bandwidth and webpages that let us take it to the next level. There was a guy in Singapore (Paul? maybe?) where they had better wiring, who first started putting up a few tiny RA and RV files on a site, and he had one of the early message boards too. By this time I was out of school and my circle of friends and I were working in the early internet, which gave me access to equipment, software, and bandwidth that almost nobody had at that time. My friends were installing the actual wiring and servers to build the NYC internet, and uh… while they were at it, they stashed an old computer somewhere to be our own FTP server. We put up my files (I had a ton of stuff because I’d been running the tape-exchange listing, and also I bought stuff from the Japanese stores in NYC) and allowed other people to upload their own. I added a message board which was originally supposed to be for requests or whatever but it took on a life of its own as a discussion place.

 

Maybe ’99 or 2000, CD Japan opened. The fandom was growing exponentially and everyone was trying to explore new bands, and even tiny indie bands were getting fan bases. Lots of people were putting up file sharing sites, using multiple GeoCities accounts to create these huge octopus sites. We started to have meetups IRL. Go (JrockNYC) and his friends had a cover band and put together some meetups around NYC. Cameron was in Tokyo and writing on Glam Japan, and some of us were traveling to Japan too. A few people went to that huge concert that Luna Sea did, Dir en gray had fans going, me and a bunch went to Lareine’s last tour in August 2000. (I met Cameron there for the first time)

 

By maybe 2002-ish most of the file sharing was happening on the P2P networks, and Livejournal was becoming popular. I moved to Tokyo in early 2002. Go was living in Tokyo too and documenting the scene on JrockNYC. It would be nice to read it again but I don’t think his old stuff is on line any more. This is getting to the time period where there are lots of people who were around to remember, so I’ll leave it.

Edited August 29, 2019 by inertia