This is kinda what I expected. They do lots of WW2 imagery, they went to get their WW2 flag blessed at a shrine where WW2 soldiers are enshrined. Was it tone deaf especially towards the non-Japanese audience? 100% Does it show that they’re secretly fascists imperial Japan glorifiers? No, if anything they seem to have an anti-war thing going on, but as is very common with V系, they go about it with shock value, which these days resonates very poorly with the foreign audience, and the wider context re: what V系 represents is often missed. (Side note, but I do often wonder if the overseas audience would be different if the songs were in English… I’ve seen teens at V系 lives with their parents who I am entirely sure would not be allowed to be there if the parents knew what the bands were signing about.)
@JaneLK 's quotes are very relevant (although mainly from a Japanese perspective, from a non-Japanese perspective it’s a lot more controversial for those who do know something about the shrine. As evidenced here.)
Idk man. Most bandmen are pretty backwards. And Japanese society is pretty socialist nationalist. VK dudes not being the smartest people in general makes it even worse, because they only use 2 out of 4 braincells when making these decisions, I think.
There was literally a VK band applying for b7klan festival whose furi was doing the Hitler salute for a whole ass song.
Citation needed, and information on what that has to do with anything would also be appreciated ^^’
There was literally a VK band applying for b7klan festival whose furi was doing the Hitler salute for a whole ass song.
Yes, back in the day Calmando Qual/Twisted Clock got banned from Germany for that. The thing is, the furi was for a song called “March of the Apes”. If you can’t guess, it wasn’t exactly glorifying nazis, and most often these things are not, they’re just there for the shock value.
Also, if you didn’t know, a little-known obscure V系 band called D’espairsRay actually got chosen to play at the festival and they have a song with the nazi salute furi, it’s even called fascism!
Japan did handle their war past very diffrently than germany did. The average japanese person, does not see Japan as the bad guy that commited war crimes. You can’t really be sure this is the same kind of person who would collect german WWII devotionalia.
And if we are honest, most countries look at their past and their wars more like Japan does. Pretty sure not everyone was a fan of Genghis Khan when he conqured half of asia, still Mongolia named an Airport in Unlan Bator after him. This is probably only accepted because it was long enough ago.
After how many centuries do war crimes become cool history, is the real question. The British Museum surely knows.
Which doesn’t make it better. Imagine a US American band using imagery with a cowboy killing a Native American or just the Confederate flag even.
Japan still refuses to acknowledge the Nanking massacre and is actively trying to make other countries (!) putting “comfort women” statues down. Ignorance is not an excuse in my opinion.
(Btw, watch this thread getting deleted because this forum “is not political” lol)
I think the question has been sufficiently answered. Come to your own conclusions on how this reflects on Kizu. I’m going to lock the topic before it goes off-topic.