Oshare of the 2000's

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

Remember when back in the proverbial day oshare kei was considered by some circles as the uttermost depths of shit this scene ever delved into. If you were a frustrated male between the ages of 12 to 18 in 2005 to 2010 and enjoyed Dir en grey on more than a few occasions, such as myself, then you surely took part in this folly. 

 

Well now in retrospect I think anyone with a lick of sense has realised that we've rarely had it better. The best bands of the oshare bunch carried the torch of florid guitar noodling, big colorful outfits and nasally eccentric vocalists into their new ventures, all the while the rest of the scene was playing catch-up in black 50 dollar suit jackets with Dir en grey's angryman vocalist and nu metal stylings. Oshare's debt to older visual kei I think is often unjustly disregarded and the style largely considered as the scene jumping the shark, when I think this couldn't be further from the truth. That moment when all the Unsraw's in the world were stinking up the place, there existed a scene where one could Image an alternative reality where Japan had shut its borders in 1999 and the bandmen had to make due with their old Luna Sea and Kuroyume records. 

 

A good cutoff point for this fad I'd say could be Royz' debut ( prophetically named as "the new age". ) That kind of bijuaru did definitely exist prior to that, but I still consider it an important turning point from whence we've really hit the shits in way I'm not entirely sure we'll ever recover from.

 

I confess immediately that I'm definitely not an expert, but I know for a fact there are people on this forum who are. Some bands that were formed prior to this date, but continued after 2011, will surely apply in this topic such as Cindykate. I'd say the range is broad enough to include bands like early Dolly as well, though suppose someone could dispute that.

 

Please post and link away ( and save this thread from bombing ) because even at its very worst, this shit was at least infinitely more entertaining than all that new royzcore shite. Going to kick things off by posting some entry-level stuff 

 

 

 

Irokui never got shit in my opinion, which is quite a marvel. Stayed very consistent and their musical trajectory I thought was very logical for them, and it brought us classic tracks like Sakura Seven

 

 

Their early output was so sexy. Essential of the rainbow vomit bands that got progressively more domesticated as they went along.

 

 

Incredible from the first release until the que:sera single. They musically progressed and amassed fortunes for fancier recording equipment at a blazing speed that made me very optimistic about their future. Then the very moment they had chiseled their musicianship to almost Kiryu levels controlled chaos, they dun fuck it up with some menbas leaving and Emoro blowing his indie rock wad all over the final couple releases. Still I suppose not even at their last breaths, they never sucked.

 

 

Early Paradeis needs to be linked, not only because of what a shellacking it got on this board, but because they were unironically pretty good. If you don't like the vocalist, then you have no business listening to vk in the first place.

 

This is merely a scratch on the surface. There are tons and tons more to choose from like the earliest attempts at the style like Vinett, the more "acquired taste" like Dragonwappppper, left field like doginthepwo and the entire baroque influenced strand. 

Edited November 15, 2016 by Disposable

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

If this is some sort of intervention to get me to finally try An Cafe after 9 years of this glittery, hot glued, and ramen-stained hell, I will not stand for it

 

 

That being said, there are a lot of bands in this sub-group that I definitely ignored because I had the preconceived notion that they would be over-the-top and sickly sweet with optimism, rather than  brooding and talented like Since1889.

 

I did have a brief affair with Canzel, however. I was shook that they were oshare but screamed in one of their songs (idk)

 

 

Edited November 15, 2016 by Peace Heavy mk II

[Raburr7 1268]

Here are some of my favorites band that i consider oshare kei (if i'm mistaken feel free to correct   )

 

Juliette. I love pretty much all of their songs. Recommend to anyone that is a fun of oshare kei

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMSVvagYjQs

 

Early v(NEU) with Jun as vocalist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBT99kGUfsM

 

THE KIDDIE one of my favorite vk bands. Although towards the end they changed their style i think their early style can be considered as oshare kei

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p36RWMEz24g

 

Canzel was fkin awesome as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yytIklgo3s

[evenor 1655]

 

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

6 minutes ago, Peace Heavy mk II said:

If this is some sort of intervention to get me to finally try An Cafe after 9 years of this glittery, hot glued, and ramen-stained hell, I will not stand for it

 

 

That being said, there are a lot of bands in this sub-group that I definitely ignored because I had the preconceived notion that they would be over-the-top and sickly sweet with optimism, rather than  brooding and talented like Since1889.

 

 

 

About An cafe I dare surmise that their very earliest output was more fitting to what I linked in the first post, but they changed rather swiftly. Candy holic slightly has that macabre timbre in the guitars that I think is characteristic of oshare of the period that is definitely not happy or whatever else attribute was ascribed to oshare. Changes were afoot from the very first EP onward though, and what from I call tell is a distinct baroque influence did start to gain ground early on, and before you knew it they were sexpot clad and positive rock certified.  

 

Everything linked here definitely counts, even if it's representative of a different period and sound than what I linked. I think all of this shit rules and murks all that recent garbage any day of the week . 

 

13 minutes ago, Raburr7 said:

Juliette. I love pretty much all of their songs. Recommend to anyone that is a fun of oshare kei

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMSVvagYjQs

 

 

Dressed like oshare royalty in that pv. I miss this look so much

 

1 minute ago, evenor said:

 

Them intro and verse riffs are all oshare 101 class. 

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

These are basically the 3 oshare kei bands I like (and early an cafe), so im def. checking this thread again for more oshare goodness.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2016 by Takadanobabaalien

[saishuu 3220]

24 minutes ago, Disposable said:

Remember when back in the proverbial day oshare kei was considered by some circles as the uttermost depths of shit this scene ever delved into. If you were a frustrated male between the ages of 12 to 18 in 2005 to 2010 and enjoyed Dir en grey on more than a few occasions, such as myself, then you surely took part in this folly.

 

this accuracy lmao

 

In all seriousness though, 2005~2007 was a rough period given how many insanely colorful and bad oshare bands were popping up like unnecessary screams in a DIR EN GREY song. But there were some gems along the way. To this day, I still don't think anyone's ever done oshare better than しゃるろっと. They were the perfect blend of bubbly pop-rock with the occasional serious and emotional music in the scene. An example of the latter:

 

 

Clavier was right there with しゃるろっと in the top-tier of oshare too. Their music was sharp and super polished for such a young band, it was ridiculous. There were some duds here and there, sure, but most of their (sadly small) output was honestly stellar.

 

 

Vinett comes right behind them for me. It's such a shame they lasted like two years and their album fell just a little short - while it still has some great songs, their singles were still a step above it. And I swear to whatever god there may be that this is one of the best visual kei songs of any period ever:

 

 

HeaRT was also quite fun - they had one of the defining songs of the scene too, Daidai. Too bad v[NEU] sucked through all of their career, but once Jun wasn't involved any longer, it was bound to happen.

 

 

And then we had the funky, jazzy, art-kei portion of the scene with mostly MELLO, 華族 (plus early THE KIDDIE) and ドーリスマリィ before they decided to turn into the third coming of LAREINE (RIP IZABEL VAROSA). 華族 was my favorite out the of bunch, but unfortunately they didn't last long after their main songwriter left (so long, Azusa-san). As for MELLO and ドーリスマリィ, I've lost hope their members will ever come back full-time. Thanks KAMIJO!

 

Here are some of their best songs:

 

 

 

 

[Delkmiroph 1649]

This post bring me so much nostalgia, I still love some old oshare kei bands.

 

 

 

They are great and i loveed <3

 

 

ファジログ/fuzylog was so enjoyable in my teenage time. 

 

 

 

 

These bands did my teenage time so great, thanks @Disposableto make to remember me XD

Edited November 15, 2016 by Delkmiroph

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

god how could i forget sharurotto. i even have 2 of their cd's in physical copies lmao. love those guys

[returnal 543]

i love Juliette so muuuuch

 

anything Icchi and/or Rinku were involved in I love (Milphinne, Hoshi no House, Me'syu Dear, and Canzel tho i need to listen to the latter more), but their session band from 2004-05, Parade, has some bangers. super-bright, nearly-overwrought earworms and 電脳恋愛パラダイス's little orchestra hits are SO PRECIOUS. love love love

11 minutes ago, Disposable said:

Them intro and verse riffs are all oshare 101 class. 

and "To You..." is definitely like, the most generic oshare song title ever. sounding nice tho and the bg vocals in the chorus are a nice touch

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

2 minutes ago, Delkmiroph said:

 

This is a legit find for me. Never heard of them before and I'll have to make a request topic if I'm not able to find their stuff anymore ( this is a lowkey request for someone to upload ) 

 

7 minutes ago, Takadanobabaalien said:

 

Can you share any info on them? never heard of them either and google gave me jack shite

 

I think the blockbuster popularity of this thread in its infancy goes to show that it's time we as the collective visual kei fandom start to deify the 2000's oshare in the same manner as we do the turn of the millenia stuff, and give it the time and respect it's due. 

[saishuu 3220]

Also in regards to AN CAFE, I don't say this too often, but their first full-lenght (色彩モーメント) was GREAT. I'm not sure how it holds up these days (haven't listened to it in forever), but I freaking loved it back then. マグニャカルタ also had some pretty cool tunes (mostly the singles, but still - スマイル一番 イイ♀ is a gem).

 

ETA: @r...you know you want to contribute to this thread.

Edited November 15, 2016 by saishuu

[Sickle 903]

 

 

[Delkmiroph 1649]

2 minutes ago, Disposable said:

 

This is a legit find for me. Never heard of them before and I'll have to make a request topic if I'm not able to find their stuff anymore ( this is a lowkey request for someone to upload ) 

 

 

Yeah, i support you. I really want the disco them (I lost some years ago) 

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

Just now, Disposable said:

 

Can you share any info on them? never heard of them either and google gave me jack shite

Their name is delphinium, they were on Yayoi's climax label and released a mini album and some other stuff. I actually uploaded the mini this song is on a couple of months ago so check the DL-forum if you want to try them. Two (or maybe just one) of the members is in Unite. nowadays. 

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

1 minute ago, saishuu said:

Also in regards to AN CAFE, I don't say this too often, but their first full-lenght (色彩モーメント) was GREAT. I'm not sure how it holds up these days (haven't listened to it in forever), but I freaking loved it back then. マグニャカルタ also had some pretty cooo tunes (mostly the singles, but still - スマイル一番 イイ♀ is a gem).

 

 

 

Been a while for me too, but I agree with the sentiment. Unfortunately with everything past that is rather questionable imo. First album 's legit thou

 

The fucking most heartbreaking thing about this stuff is how hard it is to find. There's already like three or four bands I have to search in the morning and I'm not looking forward to that at all ( especially with either impossible to search names like *long japanese title* or generic names like charlotte and parade that'll get you all over the place looking for 'm. )

[returnal 543]

so many joints in this thread @______@ stuff i knew about and totally new stuff

that vinett song is so good omg, i need to check them out

them having two members from Eliphas Levi is brain melting to me lol

[emmny 4139]

for all the shit i talk about oshare, i actually love oshare

well if you count baroque, ruvie, kannivalism, clavier and kalvary as oshare

kind of more jazzy/smooth bands rather than disp's rainbow vomit, but similar eitherway

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

Perhaps redundant to post because how known they were for a good two minutes, but Cindykate was probably the last of the oshare keis before their native village was bulldozed under the coreriffs and other strange american exports. I can't fawn over them enough 

 

 

They did vk schlager like none's business and had dull moments only very sparsely during their decently sized discography 

 

 

 

Gorgeous vocals by the way. I must get this 

 

Edited November 15, 2016 by Disposable

[saishuu 3220]

Oh man, I totally forgot about Panikku! I like their kote/darker side more, but their oshare stuff was so fun.

 

 

 

[herpes 1597]

charlotte really were the best.

 

however the amount of music that was crap then and still is crap is incredible for one subgenre.

 

 

 

[Delkmiroph 1649]

4 minutes ago, herpes said:

charlotte really were the best.

 

however the amount of music that was crap then and still is crap is incredible for one subgenre.

 

 

 

 

 

Ohhh man, I forgot about this rarity lool

[suji 8317]

Bless this thread ✨ classic oshare is way better than that crap they have today ;w;

 

I don't listen to a lot of it, but I certainly do love Icchi (★NOハウス)'s bands before he crashed and burned ♥ his older bands were especially great~ his goth bands were certainly short-lived tho ;-;

 

I also looked up Oshare Dorobou (お洒落泥棒); vocalist was really hot 💦💦 couldn't find their music on youtubez, but I did find that they redid some songs last year.....................

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2016 by midi:nette

[returnal 543]

8 hours ago, Disposable said:

The fucking most heartbreaking thing about this stuff is how hard it is to find. There's already like three or four bands I have to search in the morning and I'm not looking forward to that at all ( especially with either impossible to search names like *long japanese title* or generic names like charlotte and parade that'll get you all over the place looking for 'm. )

aaaaahgh yeah i hate that! speaking of Parade, i have the CDs of their 始まりの唄 single and トルストイ mini-album (think that's all they put out, aside from a DVD?) and edit woah omg. prior to now i don't think anyone put any of their stuff anywhere online, save for 始まりの唄 on youtube (only a couple of weeks ago?). maybe someone did in like 2009 on some dead forum or blogspot linking to a long-dead megaupload lol

Edited November 16, 2016 by returnal

[nullmoon 784]

Not a single mention of Ayabie here?! Shame on y'all