Zetsubou Billy and the Badass Girl on drums

Hello everybody,

Again, I decided to write a post related to the topic "women in Visual Kei". I´ll probably make a break after that for a while, though...
Anyway, when deciding on todays topic, I had one particular ladiy in mind. She appeared in a PV together with an indie VK band I´ll introduce to you as well. You might know them if you are a fan of Death Note.
The lady I´m talking about is the drummer of a quite popular band among Japanese (and also non Japanese) metal fans.
Her name is Nao Kawakita and she is the only female member of Maximum The Hormone!
What I find exceptional about this band is, that they don´t care about the visuals at all. I mean, if you look at Versailles, D or many other japanese metal bands, you will always see guys with lots of makeup, contact lenses and fantastic clothes, but these guys just literally don´t give a f*ck.

I always wonder why there aren´t more girls on drums, since it is said that women are more capable of multitasking. And saying that, Nao is not only a perfect drummer. She also sings while drumming!
Together with vocalist Daisuke Tsuda she was one of the founding members of Maximum The Hormone, which is a band existing since 1998. And seriously, the band is her elixir of life.

Just look at her being badass!

Nao Kawakita

In 2009, poor Nao had problems with her pregnancy and had to stop doing what she likes the most for a while, but it looks like she´s up to the mark by now!


Now, let´s change over to the "gothic" Visual Kei band in the Zetsubou Billy video, which was "Parfait".
Never heard of them? Well, I can´t hold it against you. The band was indie, like really, really underground indie, ya know. They were only active for two or three years (2005-2007).

In fact, I have no idea how they managed to get together with Maximum The Hormone and make such a great PV for Death Note. Or rather I wonder, why they didn´t get more popular after it was released. They even looked quite professional there!
Oh well, the truth is, they actually were an Oshare Kei band. I was wondering why they chose the name "Parfait" as a goth band, but now I understand they only decided to change their look for the PV...



Oshare Kei, Parfait

 

They titled their songs "Toy Box", "Little Baby" or "Nyan Nyan", you know...

I think this confrims that Zetsubou Billy and Parfait are two bands which are as different as chalk and cheese. And yet they managed to make an awesome PV!

I hope you found this interesting and/or helpful.
Thanks for reading, guys!

 

Kurenai

Nene/ Amadeus

Hey people,


So recently, I stumbled about a band called Amadeus. (Such things often happen when I klick on some video on the "related videos"-list on Youtube)

Anyway, it's not the reason for my post, but those of you who are fans of Moi Dix Mois should know that Moi Dix Mois' vocalist Seth was also on vocals for Amadeus. But in these days, he was called Seiji.
Back in the 90s, Amadeus were quite popular in the indie scene and I believe they influenced many artists who joined or started (gothic) symphonic metal bands like for example Versailles, Matenrou Opera and obviously Moi Dix Mois.


Now, here is what I actually wanted to write about:

Nene

It's a lady called Nene who was the only female member of Amadeus and another band called Art Marju Duchain.
I only found out that she was born in Kanagawa on April 8th and that her blood type is AB. She also claims to be able to talk with animals.
Anyway, what I actually find fascinating about her is her beautiful soprano singing and the fact that she played cross flute. I can't think of anybody in the japanese Rock/Underground/Visual Kei scene who does or did  that. I mean, there are some sopranists in the scene, but Nene´s voice is very unique.
Unfortunately, Nene hasn't been active since leaving Art Marju Duchain in 2002 and I would really like to know what she does now.


Here are some songs where you can hear Nene´s beautiful voice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DVXTF5zwWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZZYl0MSiXU&feature=youtu.be
and here we have their official web site: http://www.fantasiaweb.com/~amadeus/index.htm
God, I love these simple cheesy 90s web sites...

Anyway, that´s all for today!~

 

Kurenai

Women in Visual Kei/ Inugami Circus Dan

Hello everyone,


Today I´m gonna introduce a japanese band to you that is called Inugami Saakasu Dan (犬神サーカス団), which means something like "The Dog God Circus Troup".
There are rumours that they chose to have the word "Inugami (God Dog)" in their band name because the main chracter of the manga series "Wolf Guy", which was written by Kazumasa Hirai in 1970, is named Akira Inugami .

Inugami Circus Dan have a very unique and original style and definitely get too little attention from oversea Visual Kei fans. After all, they've already started in 1994!
They mix Eroguro with Angura Kei (Especially the vocalist Inugami Kyouko is always wearing a Kimono) and their music ranges between Enka and Hard Rock/ metal.
I  really love how they successfully combine all these things and how Kyouko has that obvious "I don´t give a shit about being fat"- attitude.
Seriously, I think her attitude and also her voice is freakin´ awesome.

Inugami Circus Dan

Anyway, the reason why I actually chose to write about this band in the first place was that they have a female vocalist. The Visual Kei fans among you for sure know that there aren´t really any successful female Visual Kei bands. Okay, maybe Exist Trace or Yousei Teikoku, but that´s about it.
So that´s why I badly want to approach this topic and show you guys that there are really cool female or mixed Visual Kei bands out there. In fact, it makes me sick that there aren´t more.
Why? Probably because all the creepy fangirls don´t want women in Visual Kei and wouldn´t buy their CDs. Sad fact.

I also realized that there aren´t many lyrics translations of Inugami songs, so I decided to translate one of my favorites by Inugami. - Hakobune (箱舟, "Ark").
It´s quite a calm song and there´s not much eroguro in it, but maybe I´m gonna translate some of their eroguro stuff at some point, too.

It looks like Kyouko describes a scenario where our world goes down while all the people dream together for one last time and realize that they actually love each other.


Ark
Extinguish the light
of the sun and the moon at once
Are you burying the shadows in the dark
that have been pursuing you?

The two of us are riding this boat
And we´ll go to that faraway star
When I close my eyes and cling to you
I´m not afraid of anything

Above the bloodied raging sea
A shower of stones is pouring down
As people lose their senses
They obstruct the parade

The two of us are riding this boat
And we´ll go to that faraway star
When I close my eyes and cling to you
I´m not afraid of anything

These suffering, drowning people
They cling to each other
While they declaim what god tought them
They get swallowed up by waves and sink

The two of us are riding this boat
And we´ll go to that faraway star
When I close my eyes and cling to you
I´m not afraid of anything

The two of us are riding this boat
And we´ll go to that faraway star
In a world that is starting to break apart
There is nothing to think regretfully of

I will also uploaded a subbed version of the song on Youtube soon. Enjoy~


 

Kurenai

  

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog everyone!


Before I post my first little article, I´d like to explain to what purpose I plan using this blog.

Firstly, I want to show you guys that there can be so much beauty off the beaten track and beyond mainstream culture in general.
I´ll be writing about music, interesting places and probably also about fashion, but I´m not sure what I´m going to write about the most. The only thing I do know is that I´ll deliberately avoid writing about popular stuff. Cause this is something you can read everywhere else on the internet, right? :p
You also might wonder who I am.
Well, I consider myself to be goth and I´m sure you´ll notice that once I start posting . I currently live in Vienna, but I love travelling and thus I´ll be trying to present you interesting stuff from other places, too. And since I´m a total Japanophile, Japan is going to be another place I´ll be writing about a lot.
And no, I´m not an Otaku. I just really love the japanese traditions, the music and the original, flamboyant fashion, as well as the gorgeous nature. There are plenty of other awesome things in Japan, but I will only write about the ones I mentioned.
Please understand that my mother language is not English and hence I might make spelling errors now and again.

I hope you will find my blog helpful and enriching!~

Kurenai