Malice Mizer ESP Exhibition

I first began listening to Malice Mizer in high school. I remember they usually came up on lastfm as a similar band to Velvet Eden and I really loved the picture from Gardenia so I decided to check them up. I really disliked Gardenia eventhough they were one of the coolest bands I had ever seen (still don't like Gardenia, so boring). A couple of months later I decided to try them out again and ended up on the PV for Le Ciel and from that moment on I've loved Malice Mizer (10 year anniversary for us this year). 

Out of my top 3 favorite bands I've been able to see 2 (sort of), Malice Mizer was the only one missing. I tried to make things work so that I could go but since I was going to Japan as a student I could not go too early and unfortunately I could not attend the concert, so I had to settle with just going to the exhibition held at ESP museum in Shibuya.

Eventhough I have been to Tokyo many times and stayed for longer periods as well, I still get excited when I get to see my favorite bands. Seeing Malice Mizer shown like this felt so special, Malice Mizer has sort of been something just displayed on my tv or computer, almost as if they don't really exist. By the entrance was a poster signed by various members and a picture of Mana and Kozi from Moi Dix Mois and ZIZ (which I found a bit weird but whatever).

On a tv they played the first live DVD with Gackt as vocalist (unfortunately they did not include the N.P.S.N.G.S), and on the walls hang posters from the first era with Tetsu to the very last with Klaha.

Other than posters were also nostalgic items such as the doll Kozi had on his back during Brise at the Merveilles concert, Mana's teddy backpack and the Merveilles book.

Of course the new costumes were also on display! My pictures are rather poor though and doesn't make them justice considering the amount of details. Közi's especially incorporated much of his previous costumes doll like appearance. The chest part had a ruffle like his Gardenia outfit, and the left leg of the pants had a check pattern.

 Kami's drumset as well as other items, such as a bag he had drawn on was up for display. By the cashier was Kami's hat and gloves from Gekka no Yasoukyoku on display with the two dolls from the PV.

I really liked that they had so many random objects (even the whips Mana and Kozi used), and of course their instruments. They also had a guestbook in which you could write something in (I assume the band will receive it later?), and I saw some fans who spent a lot of time writing their messages. I went back the following day just because I wanted to spend some more time in Malice Mizer heaven, hoho, and noticed they had then changed to the last live DVD. I didn't stay for all of it, but a long while, and picked up both of Közi's and one of Mana's guitar picks! ESP also sold a keychain so you could put the pick in there, I decided not to get that because I sort of want to try and make one of Közi's picks into an earring (let's see how that goes :P).

Seeing the exhibition was awesome, but it also made me so sad I could not make it to the actual concerts. Might not happen but I can't help but to hope they'll make a new one in a couple of years. The last couple of years I haven't really listened to Malice Mizer as much as I used to, but this exhibition really made me remember why I fell so hard in love with this awesome and so unique visual kei band.

Mononoke kaizokuban もののけ 海賊盤

The downside with listening to smaller bands is that they're usually featured in a  lot of stuff which isn't related to their own band, and as a collector, gotta catch 'em all. I would say that's also part of what makes it interesting, at least for me, that you really get to hunt down certain items. This was one of those items.

I had no idea this excisted until I saw it up for bidding on the facebook page of Rarezhut. For those who aren't familiar with them, it's a US based webshop for Jrock and Visual kei. Most stuff they have are easy to find items, but sometimes some rare stuff acctually show up, like this video. They're not super expensive, but many of their items can be found for the same price or cheaper if bought from Japan (if you know where to look). However I think for US based fans it might be cheaper in the long run because of the reduced shipping costs! Also, one great thing is that with all VHS or cassette you buy you'll get a rip sent in an e-mail. I no longer have a VHS player so this was highly appreciated.

Anyway, they put this up and to put it short, it's a VHS recording of cali≠gari's guitarist Ao's birthday and one of the guests is Dada from Velvet Eden! So I cashed up around 60$ not knowing how much he'd acctually be featured, but it was worth it.The VHS is 30minutes long, featuring different session bands. It was limited to 100 copies.

Dada had been sharing photos of him particiapting in cali≠gari's gigs, but I had no idea at least one had been recorded. Some might for example remember him sharing a photo in which he had this outfit

For which they perform a cover of Italian Gazebo's 80's song I like Chopin (Rainy Days).
Dada also contributes with a cover of the enka* (演歌) song Mago (孫) by Oizumi Itsuro (大泉逸郎). I have to say Dada's voice fit enka very well.

The VHS came with a n envelope in which a photo was included, and I think the photo differs from tape to tape, so there might be a photo of Dada included in another tape. Since I don't really listen to cali#gari I'm not sure who the person on my photo is (sorry).

Dada is only featured in three songs. The last minutes of the tape seems to be footage from a completely different event.

*Enka is a Japanese music genre, the lyrics often centering around Japan, love, nostalgia or everything at the same time. This song for example is of a grandparent remembering his grandchild while still a child. It has a certain nationalistic vibe, so most often the artist will perform in kimono. The music style can be seen as a sort of mixture of traditional Japanese and Western music. It follows the Western style (intro, chorus etc) and it uses Western instruments mainly, but the singing still has a style between traditional Japanese and Western.

Visual kei bar Diabolo

I hunted down yet another theme bar! This time I felt like, if there's BL, video games, Alice in Wonderland and what not, there has to be something visual kei themed in it's homecountry. Of course there was!

I googled and stumbled across their webpage and then I convinced my friend to go with me, hohoho.
It's called Diablo and is located in Shinjuku, in the hostclub area no less, hehe. It wasn't hard to find, so if you check google maps there shouldn't be any problem!
So, what to expect?
First off, it's very small. The evening we were going they also had an takoyaki event so on their webpage they encouraged people to make a reservation. I don't remember exactly how many seats they had but I would guess between 12-20. They also have a schedule so you can see whom of the staff will be working the evening you want to go. I personally didn't care, but it might be nice to go when the staff likes the same bands as you, because we were stuck in L'arc en ciel hell. I normally don't have anything against L'arc en ciel, their old stuff is pretty nice, but not for 2 hours, and almost only new songs.

The system is basically, you pay 1500yen for 1 hour and during that hour you can drink as much as you like! That sounds all good, but they were so slow making the cocktails! I'm not kidding, my friend ordered a milk based one, and I couldn't help but to wonder if they had a cow in the kitchen. It wasn't busy or anything, besides us, there was two other women there, and the staff was two guys. To be honest I assume they're slow so that you won't order like 5 drinks during that hour, because let's face it, they wouldn't get that much money out of that.
This isn't really a hostbar, but just a bit similar, probably like the BL café I've been to, so the staff will come up and talk to you. Since I was with a friend they didn't as much though. One of them introduced himself, but besides that we didn't talk (except for when he asked how I wanted my eggs XD). Maybe if you go alone they'll be more active.

Besides drinks they had a food menu! That was one of the reasons I wanted to go acctually. The food is named after different songs by VK bands and they ahd this omuraisu (omelette with rice dish which is very popular in Japan) called Ma Chérie ~Itoshi kimi e! Yeah, as a big Malice Mizer fan I had to eat that. It was worth it. I got a bit tipsy and I couldn't stop laughing at it, because they even made a star on it, maybe we could've summoned Mana or something with the omuraisu!

We ended up staying for 2 hours, and during that time I had 3 cocktails and the omuraisu. They were very slow with making the drinks as well as the food. I normally take a bit of time ordering, especially since they had so many drinks! But if I would've known I would have to wait for 15 minutes to get my drink I would've placed an order immedietly.

It was a fun experience but not sure it's worth the money in the end since it's not really all you can drink if you only can order 2 or 3 drinks in 1 hour...
Before leaving one of the staff gave us a takoyaki each, he had an uneven number, very sweet.

Please visit their webpage for more information: http://diablo.bz/

HIZAKI Birthday Live 「Elizabeth」

I've realised that I'm not keeping up very good with updating here. I'm doing awesome things all the time and yet I never find the time to write about it. This entry is dedicated to the Hizaki solo gig on the 17th at Shibuya Rex!
I wasn't sure if I was going to go to this gig acctually. I was tempted since I really liked Hizaki's solo album Rosario but then again, I'm not a huge fan and I'm not rich so I thought about not going until when I went to Family Mart to pick up my Schwarz Stein ticket. For those who don't know, Family Mart offers a ticket service by using their machines, the Fami Port. You can search for tickets, or pay or pick them up. I was going to pick mine up, but this time it was a bit different and I had the wrong code, so I never got the Schwarz Stein tickets. However, being an awkward person I felt weird going in, especially since the machine at this store was right infront of the register, without getting anything. So I ended up buying a concert ticket! (Yeah I know it sounds stupid).
I felt kind of bad about it, even until the day of the gig, especially since my ticket number was kind of bad (C :P), but now I certainly don't regret it!

I got there right after school, and I had not been at Shibuya Rex for quite some time so I felt a bit nervous about finding my way, I really don't want to get lost, I have the worst sense of direction. I did find it, and I even saw the people who sat next to me at the Versailles concert! (Not that I talked to them, the guy next to me stared at me like I was an alien, I just remember him because he looked like hide). I assumed Rex would be all full and I'd stand in the back concidering my number, but oh no. Most people stood in the back and either the ticket's were limited in numbers or some people never showed up because I can't believe that I had a C ticket and the club was that "empty" when I got in. I checked the merch and they sold some photosets, a pamphlet, Rosario of course, clearfiles and then they had this paper in yellow stating 1000yen and then lots of Japanese. I began reading what I could read and finally I understood that you could pay 1000 yen to take a cheki with Hizaki! I got so excited because I've never been to a gig where they offer that, usually it's limited to either fanclub or instore events. Not a huge fan, but Hizaki's been with me since high school so obviously I wanted a cheki with him! I didn't quite get when and how this would happen, so I went to buy something thinking I could ask the woman at the merch table. Before me however was another foreigner, who did not speak Japanese, so they tried to tell her the rules in some simple Japanese/English, and I finally understood that everyone was welcome to participate and that you'd pay after the gig and also take the photo then.

The gig was a bit late, but hey most are. Hizaki and the support members got on stage while Elizabeth was playing, and I really love that song so I got so excited! Hizaki was really pretty, he wore the Rosario dress (same as the one he has on the photoset below) but with another hairstyle. He basically played all of Rosario except for Presto, and I really got to appreciate songs that I haven't payed that much attention to while listening to the cd, such as Silent Knight and Church Candle. Seeing Hizaki play in itself is an event. I really admire how awesome he is at it, he is so skilled! Seeing him play live was such an experience, it was great to see how carefully he plays to get certain sounds and how many different techniques he really uses! As a special guest for the day of honour, being his birthday event, Teru joined in and played with Hizaki for a couple of songs. I thought there would be even more people there especially since Teru would be a guest, I mean if Versailles could play Budoukan, how could not more people come when two of the members play a smaller venue?
Anyway, Hizaki did some MC inbetween and at one point they talked about the previous touring in Europe and said it was nice to be back, and then Hizaki pointed out that there was a lot of foreigners in the audience today, so he said welcome to Japan in English X). I didn't really notice until later that there was A LOT of foreigners, perhaps many came to Japan just for the Versailles concert? Also Zin came in on stage with a tiny cake and some flowers for Hizaki. It was kind of funny, because at first I didn't see it was him, I don't listen to Jupiter so I don't keep up with his looks, also he wasn't in costume. Hizaki pointed that out as well, how different he looks without make up.
Before the gig a fan handed out those crackers which explode into strips of paper (no idea what they're called), I was kind of suprised but it was a cute gesture I think. Well, by the time for the cake and flowers we all used those, I was unfortunatley a bit late, hehe. One fun surprise was that Hizaki acctually played a cover of Sara Brightman's Time to say goodbye! He said it was the first time he did it, and it was really nice made as a guitarcover.
When the gig was over it was time to wait for the staff to start the cheki taking. Basically we just waited until everyone had left the floor, so we who wanted to have a photo with Hizaki got to wait in line outside. I was a bit late so I ended up outside for real, and it was cold :P When I got into the club again I saw that they had put up some walls to create a more private space and I could spot Hizaki in there. You were allowed to take several pictures and you could also pose with his guitar! When it was my turn I wished him happy birthday and I decided to just have the photo taken with him, so I had my arm around his waist and he acctually got close enough so that our heads met X) I sort of expected him to be a bit reserved so I wasn't sure I could even tough him but he was totally fine with it. I got my picture and left. The sad thing about polaroid pictures is that they develope slow, I went to pick up my stuff and when I look at it I notice that I closed my eyes! How could I f** do that, I get 1 photo with Hizaki and I'm not even looking!!! XD I'm so pissed at myself.

I had a very nice evening though, and I'm super happy I went! I'm really looking forward to the live DVD he'll be releasing and also future albums! (he mentioned a mini album) Might not be able to see him live again though, since I'm working on getting my ass to that Schwarz Stein/Közi gig in June X)

In contrast to the modern

The reason I got into japanese culture in the first place was because of popularculture. I loved to watch anime and play japanese video games as a child, and then I was introduced to music which made me hooked and also what made me decide to study japanese. BUT, to be completly honest, I don't think that would've been enough because I've had some huge difficulties with the language and I'm pretty sure that I would've given up long time ago if I didn't have any interest in the society, and also traditional japanese culture. A combinaion of all of the above is what makes me keep going and makes me love Japan as a country.

So, first semester of studying japanese I had to take a class in japanese history and I can honestly say that I'm pretty bad with history, western or japanese so when it started, what I knew about old Japan was most likely that samurais are japanese warriors.

*sound of echoing silence*

Yeah, probably just that (like I said, I barely know any history, and funny thing is that today japanese history is the one history I know the best).
Because it was so different from western history I was quite amazed, and when we then had a lecture in old culture, as in entertainment, I was hooked.
Our teacher showed us short videos of the 3 main traditional theaterforms from Japan; Noh (no idea why we spell it like that when the kanji is read Nou, but whatever), Kabuki and Bunraku, and I was so fascinated by all 3, but most of all Kabuki.

I know that among westerners...okey, among everyone, japanese or not, the main audience is middleaged to old, and people who are into popular culture (of today) is very rarely into this (that is probably why most people laugh at me when I say I like visual kei and Kabuki, very strange combination). But I couldn't help but to see some serious recemblances between Kabuki and visual kei culture a week ago when I went to Asakusa Public Hall.

Posters of this month's program

This is not some groundshaking, new information, as a matter of fact people have compared Kabuki and visual kei for a long time, but I don't agree with that kind of resemblence because some people are trying so hard to make it sound like visual kei has Kabuki as some sort of rolemodel which is obviously wrong since most people who are into visual kei, including the performers, are not fans of Kabuki since they usually want to represent something "new" and not old culture.

So here's some basic information about Kabuki, in case someone would like to know more about it or just isn't familiar with this form of theater.
It was first performed in the 1600's, by a woman! She and some other females began performing dances (dances usually tells a story in Japan) and the women danced as males aswell! The thing was that these women were involved in prostitution so the government didn't aprove of this and banned them from performing. Instead young boys began to do it, but later it turned out the same way. They did prostitution on the side and was banned so left were only older men and since the tradition has kept going. Certain families perform, and all parts are played by men no matter what age! So, a young boy by the age of 10 could make his first appearance playing the part of a 30 year old samurai. It's not common, mostly kids has kids parts, but for a first performance the family might want to introduce their new star in a ravishing role. The more common it is to see a 70-year old man playing the part of a young woman. It might feel a bit weird, but if you have a seat in the back you wont notice the difference (hehe). Well, seriously speaking, the art of Kabuki is to capture the character completly, bodylanguage etc, so it should not matter if a 70-year old plays a young girl.
The thing people love to compare with visual kei, except for men dressing up as women, is the "kata". Kata in Kabuki is basically steps, but it is way more fixed than western theater or dances! There's certain ways certain characters are supposed to walk, stand, talk, fight, etc, and it doesn't change, EVER! Among those kata, there's especially one that fascinates me, it's called "mie" and that is performed whenever the story reaches some sort of climax, when something important happens and what's happening is that the actor, or several depending on the scene, will just paus and place himself in a pose and at the same time role his head slightly and then just fix his position and head until he's completly still! This might sound weird so if you want to see how this might look you can see it in this video (0:21)


There's also "kata" for the audience, at least if you want to. I was very suprised the first time I went to see Kabuki because all of a sudden some man just shouted something out. Weird, I thought, I didn't think the actors made one of those weird public entrances from the audience seat you can see sometimes in western theater. But of course it wasn't. By the end of that performance I had heard so many people all over the venue who shouted that I understood it was the audience. The thing is that you just don't shout randomly, you usually shout the performers name and also during some special moment, like a mie or when the character enters. That's usually what people like to connect to visual kei since many bands has the same thing, like I mentioned before you're supposed to do different hand movements, sing a long in certain parts or even dance.

What I did realise and found funny this time at the Kabuki theater was that the fanculture is very similar! Kabuki really is the middleaged woman's visual kei scene. They didn't just sell the progam which was full of nice pictures of these young boys both in make up and without, they also had a 2015 calendar with them, and of course the traditional photos from the play (I find them to be almost like the cheki's you can get at concerts, just bigger and better quality...for the same price grrrrr).

For the first time I acctually bought 2 of these photos being sold. 

When I walked out from the theater there were groups of people taking pictures infront of the building togheter with the pictures which are supposed to look like old ukiyo-e (woodblock prints made of geisha's, kabuki actors etc). Not that different from exiting a club in Shinjuku after a visual kei performance I thought.

The posters meant to look like ukiyo-e.