His latest musical endeavors are cosplaying Toshi and doing X covers
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Twenty-Fifth Day – 30.09
Since it’s my last full day in Japan for this trip, the first half of the day was expectedly hectic as I needed to buy plenty of presents and stuff. Once done with that, I headed to the venue.
So let me elaborate on how I chose the last gig for this trip. Initially, I bought tickets for Mama’s one-man. I like the band, so it was only fitting that we would go and see them. In the middle of the trip, I figured that maybe seeing Mama three times would be a bit excessive, so I needed some new experience for us. After that, I bought tickets for Jigsaw one man (Tobiorikun squad, where you at?!?!). Feels like a good choice, right?
But then the Khimaira fest on the 23rd came, and then the Gallo on the 24th. And I recalled one important thing. For me, there’s a musical part of VK — I like listening to so many bands. And then there’s the experience part of VK — some bands come as a whole package. The experience part is as important as the musical part, if not more.
So, on the 25th, I did what I had to do. I bought tickets for Senketsu Ako-chan. And even more, it’s a two-man with Deigan, whom I don’t like.
So, the last gig of this trip is….
Senketsu A ko-chan / Deigan @ Wildside
As you might have guessed, I thought of Senketsu the first time when I heard Mamireta (whom I love) on the 23rd. Senketsu is like a little sister to them in my mind. My first real VK concert in Japan was a Qjackthe / Senketsu last year, and boy, was it an experience. So I knew what to expect. Since my friend liked Mamireta as well, I hyped Senketsu to the sky to her that the Mamireta experience (see, the experience keyword) would be closely matched.
Anyways, it definitely did. Senketsu are amazing live. The thing is, you have to experience it. It’s impossible to get it from the live clips you see on Twitter. I mean, all those voice filters and such. They are the guys who need to be experienced, not listened to. I actually like half of their discography…? Of course, I am biased, but I don’t think I am that far off in my estimation. Just trust me when I say you need to see them live to make a better judgment of them.
Then came Deigan. I don’t like them at all. They sound insanely shitty live. Their material is mid at best to me. Yet, if Deigan needs to exist for Ten to grace us with his presence, so be it. I can’t believe I saw this abomination three times live during this trip. Gosh, they actually are the only band who I saw more than two times this trip… Well, still better than Kakumay.
I spent more than 10k yen on Senketsu merch, so that made me eligible for taking a picture with Hiro. My friend enjoyed the live as well, so she actually purchased the right to take a picture with him.
Based on that short interaction with Hiro (not representative at all), he is a very chill guy. He was happy that we were Europeans and enjoyed the show. After taking a picture with him, he noticed that I wore Senketsu merch and was touched by it. Based on his body language, that reaction was sincere. I couldn’t resist and show him my VK tattoo — that touched him even more, and he thanked me once again. Wholesome, I must say.
I do not regret one bit changing all of our plans and coming to this gig. As I said, it was a VK experience rather than a VK gig. So it’s a perfect thing for the last gig of this trip. Especially from the conceptual point of view. Damn, even seeing Deigan for the third time is a VK experience — you get your dose of shitty-kei nutrients in your body. Let’s be honest, we all need this from time to time.
So yeah, this concludes this mini-series of VK reports. There are many thoughts that I can share, but I will do so in the coming days once I get to my town.
Thank you for staying with me on this journey, and I hope you had fun. I am quite sure that you all at least enjoyed my Kakumay review, which I consider to be the highlight of my reports 
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Thank you for the posts, I always love to read reports like that 
Everytime I read what people experienced on their trip to Japan, it always leaves me on the one hand with a feeling of wanderlust, of wanting to visit Japan too and thinking about all the things I would like to do there. On the other hand, though, it reminds me of how much planning you have to do before and while being there and that stresses me out 
Not to mention the long flight and the high and relatively hard to calculate costs.
(Btw I can’t believe that you skipped lynch. 
I would looove to see them one day.)
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Great series, fun to read. Would love to read a longer writeup of what made nega so good live!
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Final VK Thoughts
If you can visit only one VK gig in Japan, make it Shingeki no Awake.
They encapsulate everything – musicality and experience – and you simply have no choice but to smile during their concert. I feel it’s also a great choice to introduce your partner to the world of VK gigs.
Top concert? No competition: Nega.
As much as I love other bands I saw, it’s impossible to overshadow Nega. And this isn’t fanboy bias – it’s just the pure musical quality they deliver live. Jin seems to care about the idea of art a lot, and it shines through Nega.
Absolute must-sees:
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Mamireta
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The Gallo
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Senketsu A ko-chan
They deliver the VK experience much better than other bands that could be musically objectively better. I mean, Damned is amazing, Hollowgram is amazing, Chaqla is amazing, but they are still in a slightly different category where music matters more, and the VK is an addition (albeit a beautiful one).
Greatest positive surprise:
Singularity. I didn’t expect them to sound so heavy live, but they did — and it worked beautifully.
Worst bands (avoid at all costs, especially for one-man/two-man):
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Kakumay
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Tsukishigure ni Hanataba wo
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Deigan
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Revaless
Quality stuff
Many bands matched expectations – Damned, Hollowgram, Arlequin, etc. – but they’re less interesting to highlight here. Like come on, going to Codomo Dragon or such is just a no-brainer.
Final Japan Thoughts
First of all, the fact that I spent two weeks with my friend going to VK concerts. She’s been into VK since 2008, me since 2009. We both grew up in the same town, and it’s safe to say we were the only VK listeners there. Time moved on, and we live in different countries now for many years, but we’ve always stayed in touch.
If you told our teenage selves that one day we’d fly to Japan and even more, see Nega live — we wouldn’t have believed you. This trip was a kind of homage to our younger selves. And it was worth it.
The VK itch.
I think it stopped itching. If I had done only the originally planned two weeks, I would have come back still wanting more. But now – it feels done, complete. Why? Because I got to see things that can’t really be replicated. Nega revival - done. I got to see Maru from Bis and it was his first stage appearance in 17 years. I got to hear AND - Trigger with Ikuma and a bunch of other stuff. So this feeling of uniqueness is what satisfied the itch.
Would I go back to Japan for concerts? Yes. But now it’s “nice to have” rather than “I must do this at all costs.” But it either has to be a band that I absolutely want to see (OZ, Phantasmagoria, Aurora, Awoi, DI3SIRAE) or there needs to be some other reasons that would motivate me to go to Japan once again.
Toyama changed something, too.
Toyama kind of revitalized the idea of visiting Japan not only for VK. I don’t like huge cities. Tokyo and Osaka simply suffocate me. Having so many people around me is not necessary. So when I went to Toyama, I saw no people and tourists, and it felt nice. So yeah, maybe I will go to Japan and explore something not so obvious, like Toyama.
So yeah, no regrets.
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It was so great reading you, thank you for updating us 
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Yes thank you for taking the time to write this!
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Thank you for the reports! Reading this and Katie’s thread earlier makes me kinda wonder if I count as a vkei fan at all 
I have my favourites and some others I enjoy live but I just don’t really have much interest in most of the dominor scene or (what from my perspective are) random taibans. But it is interesting to read about your experiences 
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Reading your daily reports makes me smile every time. Thanks for sharing your trip with us! Now I feel more encouraged to go to different kinds of gigs instead of only the bands I like.
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To be continued…
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Quoting myself, I really expected that much more time would pass before I came back to Japan. There were no plans – I kinda expected to spend more time in my country of residence. But then my wife applied to a couple of sports competitions in Japan and China, got accepted, so obviously, as a loving husband, I had no choice but to say: “Of course I’ll come with you.” As you can imagine, it was an insanely easy decision.
Which means… almost 1.5 weeks of visual kei gigs for me again.
Today itself was hectic.
15 hours on planes, hotel check-in, then immediately running to Ikebukuro for:
14.03 – Sugar oneman @ Ikebukuro BlackHole
I’d say there were around 150-200 people. Since I’m exhausted, the notes will be short:
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The more Nea tried to hit notes outside of his range, the more my desire to buy merch faded. It was that bad. When he stayed within his range, though, it sounded relatively good.
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Last time I saw them, Nea relied way too much on backing vocals. This time, there were noticeably fewer of them, which I appreciated.
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Kyounosuke Jr. is still my favorite member.
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The oneman was very short – the shortest I’ve attended. Exactly one hour, no encore. No idea why, but to be fair, they managed to play through basically their entire discography since they don’t have that many releases.
Overall, it was still an enjoyable show. There are a few Sugar songs that I genuinely like, and I got to hear them, so all is good.
Time for some well-deserved rest, I guess.
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Good to see you back so soon. 46 days and counting until I go back.
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Different time zones are not pleasant. I woke up at 5 am and started working so that I’d have less to deal with in the last days before my vacation begins.
After that, I went hunting for VK CDs and DVDs – Little Hearts, Like an Edison, Pure Sound. Unfortunately, nothing worthy this time, but that’s fine.
Then it was time for:
15.03 – Sick² / The Gallo / Kumori Nochi / The Devil Inside / Jigsaw / Soranaki / Tsukishigure ni Hanataba wo / Machina / Yukue Fumei @ Ikebukuro BlackHole
The first band was supposedly Yukue Fumei. If that’s true, I’m disappointed – I expected much more from Miyuki. It was the epitome of shitty-kei.
Next was Tsukishigure ni Hanataba wo. Last time I was a full-time hater. Not Kakumay-level bad, but still bad. This time, they were noticeably better – either they improved, or the previous band lowered the bar so much that they sounded decent in comparison.
Kumori Nochi – finally a competent vocalist. The band isn’t really my cup of tea, but objectively, they’re good. I enjoyed the set. And to the people who left after the first two bands, unless they absolutely had to – I’m genuinely disappointed in your taste.
Soranaki – last time I was also their hater. Now my opinion has changed. They’re fun.
Jigsaw – I missed them last time because I went to Senketsu (no regrets), but this time I had to see them. And boy, did I enjoy it. The setlist was a bit meh for my taste, but the performance was great. Too bad I can’t attend their one-man show this trip.
Machina – fourth time seeing them, and I will see them two more times… against my will. At this rate, I’ll memorize their discography simply from hearing it live so often. I understand what they’re trying to do, but I still feel no groove from them. Compare that to Jigsaw – far more groove there. That said, the vocalist is very capable and enjoyable to listen to.
The Devil Inside – many of us loved Everlasting from Morrigan, and I also like Issei (Nazare), who is his support drummer. Honestly, it felt like Morrigan never disbanded, which makes sense since they share the same composer. And we got BRAIN PINK.AD, which was a nice surprise.
The Gallo – I love them, so I’ll keep this short: go see them if you can.
Sick² – I’ve already seen them twice, so I’m good. And since I was hungry, I left early to grab some ramen.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
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The day was very busy – work, meeting my wife at the airport, and then running to Shibuya for:
16.03 – Xaa-Xaa oneman @ Shibuya La.mama
Well, what can I say? I have more than 30 of their songs in my Spotify favorites, so whatever setlist the guys played was bound to be something I’d immensely enjoy. Which I did. The second half was slightly meh to my taste, but I liked everything overall.
Kazuki is simply amazing – he delivers everything vocally. Zero reliance on backing tracks, just pure live vocals.
The band’s energy is fantastic. If you ever get the chance to see them live, I highly recommend it.
And then I needed to do more work, as bills can’t pay themselves
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Once again, a very busy day. Work in the morning, then my wife and I hit some shops like Reflem (highly recommend this one). After that, she went back to work (her vacation hasn’t started yet either), and I headed to:
17.03 – Mizukami CLINIC / Souka / Kaihouku / Torikabuto / Akai Yurei @ Holiday Shinjuku
Before I begin, I had three options.
The first one was a two-man with Damned and DazzlingBad. I decided against it because I already saw Damned’s oneman and DazzlingBad’s two-man last trip. I would’ve enjoyed it, sure, but it would’ve been more of the same – and that’s not what I want from this trip.
The second option was a Neth Priere Cain oneman. Two reasons to skip:
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It was in Saitama (more than an hour from my hotel)
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While I respect them (tanbi-kei saviours, after all), their material isn’t something I’d listen to daily
So yeah – interesting, but not that interesting.
And then there was this festival. I enjoy Torikabuto, was curious about Akai Yurei (respect for Sennou Tokyo and Kakatootoshi), and Kaihouku seemed worth checking out. So the choice was obvious.
Souka opened the gig.
Imagine the most generic menhera band inspired by Kebyo, Avelcain, and probably Zetsumei – that’s Souka. Not bad at all, just exactly what you expect from this niche.
Mizukami Clinic were next… and completely forgettable.
There are plenty of bands doing kirakira-adjacent sound well – this wasn’t one of them. On top of that, the guitars were basically non-existent in the mix. All you could hear was drums, bass, and vocals. I was honestly glad when they finished.
Kaihouku – this one is just sad from a results perspective.
You’ve got members active since ~2004. Kana from Codomo Dragon, who used to pull 1k attendance for tour finals even before leaving.
And now ~30 people in the room.
That’s rough.
Maybe they enjoy the process, and that’s what matters, but still… from the outside, it’s hard not to feel it. Especially since the material itself is actually good.
Kuromitsu came next – apparently a secret appearance.
And wow… they were better than all previous bands combined. Everything — vocals, sound, presence – just several levels above. I loved them. Took me three songs to realize who it was, until I figured out that it’s Noah from Avanchick and Nameless.
Akai Yurei followed.
Two words: artsy and dreamy.
Their whole concept works as a complete package – visuals, stage design, music. Remove one element, and it wouldn’t hit the same.
If they ever do a two-man with Chaqla, that would be insane synergy.
I’m genuinely impressed.
After that, I had to hurry to the hotel as, once again, bills don’t pay themselves, so even if I miss something – that’s fine.
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A very busy day – we had a lot to take care of in the first half. After that, I headed to Ikebukuro for:
18.03 – Senketsu A ko-chan / Deigan / Souka @ Ikebukuro BlackHole
Deigan opened.
It’s my fourth time seeing them against my will, and they are still as bad as ever.
Didn’t stop me from spending 10k yen on them though – cheki with Ayuto (Savage were my guilty pleasure back in the day) and Kururu (since I’m not seeing Blaze this trip). Plus photos with them and the bassist because I loved ZeroCre.
So yeah – at least I got something out of suffering through 30+ minutes.
Souka were next.
Saw them yesterday – nothing changed. Still fine. And, comparatively, better than Deigan.
And of course, the highlight of the day for me – Senketsu A ko-chan.
As lively as ever, as enjoyable (for me) as ever. Honestly, I don’t even know what to add – they just deliver.
And then some more errands to finish the day.
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lmao 
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Like, if a bangya’s favourite band tends to always play with a certain group of bands and one of those bands happens to be terrible then someone could hypothetically end up seeing their least favourite band almost as much as their honmeiban.
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Very busy morning with errands and sightseeing, and then once again I ran to Ikebukuro for:
19.03 – Tokyo Hanayome / Shingeki no Awake / Machina / Tokiya Project / Fukusyuya -Darma- / CHAOSS / Sai no Kawara / Yukue Fumei @ Ikebukuro BlackHole
Sai no Kawara opened.
Nothing much to say – quite underwhelming. Not bad, they seem to have potential, but nowhere near realizing it yet.
Next was CHAOSS.
It’s… fine. I understand why they have some followers. Not my cup of tea, but since I loved the only release of Deathfina, I give them a pass.
Then Fukusyuya -Darma-.
I have a feeling they’ll become relatively successful within their niche. They’re fun, they’re competent – perfect fit for pulling numbers at venues like BlackHole.
Yukue Fumei came next.
I have to say, I changed my opinion of them for the better. Not surprising, considering this time I could actually hear both guitarists instead of zero. Now it’s clear what they’re doing – and they’re doing it quite well.
It’s not Miyuki, but the band name matches his solo project, so it feels like they’re keeping things low-key for now. The voice reminds me a lot of Hitchcock – so we’ll see. But it’s definitely someone familiar.
Machina… no choice but to sit through them.
I’m slowly changing my opinion for the better. Maybe I’m just getting used to them after seeing them four or five times already. I can say they are much better than Deigan.
Shingeki no Awake – as usual, they’re the reason I pick certain festivals.
Still as great as I remember.
Kuromitsu showed up again as a secret band.
And once again, they were excellent. I’m really looking forward to their releases.
Also, as a former relatively horrible bassist, I have to say – the way Sam plays is just incredibly satisfying. He actually uses all 6 strings and moves across the fretboard. Best comparison I can think of is Deviloof – technically impressive, but often stuck on the lowest string. Sam actually utilizes the instrument’s full potential.
They are also much heavier than on their only lyric video available.
Then came Tokiya Project.
This time, instead of Dir en Grey, they covered Sadie. It was a nice experience, although his voice doesn’t quite fit the material.
After that, Tokyo Hanayome came on, but I decided to leave – not interested in their material, and I was getting hungry.
So yeah, that’s how it went.
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It was an insanely packed day.
First, we went to a matcha tasting – 10 kinds of matcha and 6 kinds of matcha latte. Then, a capybara café, followed by a bit of shopping, and after that, we headed to Ikebukuro.
Originally, I was supposed to go to Dezert’s tour final in Chiba. But I decided I wanted to spend more time with my wife. Still, I couldn’t skip visual kei completely – so I opted for something shorter and more manageable.
So today’s menu was:
20.03 – improvised mini two-man: Blaze vs Dokubari @ Ikebukuro EDGE / BlackHole
First, we went to see Dokubari.
I missed them last time because I had to pick up my mother and sister from the airport. Not seeing Dokubari sucked – especially since I had no idea when I’d get another chance or if the band would even still be around.
The festival they played at didn’t interest me at all, so coming just for them made perfect sense. In short, I liked them. The only issue was the lighting – it was way too intense, to the point where we had to keep our eyes closed for at least a quarter of the set.
Still, 5 songs, and I got to hear pretty much everything I like from them – so I’m satisfied.
Then we rushed to EDGE to catch Blaze.
And yeah… I really like them live. I don’t even know what else to add.
I never got the chance to see Nazare, and Blaze – while being their own thing – feels like a perfect replacement. Again, 5 songs, all stuff I have saved on Spotify – so I was very satisfied.
For my wife, it was… a weird experience, for obvious reasons. I don’t think she’d survive a full festival. And, well, visual kei live is an experience – so she definitely got to feel something rare.
So you can see why I call it a mini two-man – 10 songs in total, all wrapped up within one hour. But since both bands are ones I genuinely like and was looking forward to, I’m more than pleased.
Insanely packed day, but absolutely worth it.
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