Art of Gerogerigegege
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Just out of morbid curiosity, I played some snippets of theirs songs just to see what’s the deal
Most of the songs are dial up connection sounds with the most obnoxious voice filters that sound like an asshole bully child on playground
TW FOR SH AND SUICIDE RELATED STUFF
I cannot stand senketsuakochan and I feel like its valid tbh. Its mostly the fan base and Hiro but their music is also an assault on my ears, though i do like that little ”nya nya nya nya nya nya” snippet from one song. The fans are always just encouraging Hiro’s mental decline too, and I get that he’s a grown man but also why are we laughing when he stripped completely naked on stage completely unprompted? I’ll also mention, and this could’ve been him just acting, but he looked almost dizzy in that video? Anyways, he didn’t look sober to me at least. The main defense of that I’ve seen is “it was an 18+ show,” but since when is it ok to flash an audience just because they’re of age? Is it insane to say that perhaps it isn’t ok to flash anyone? Also I’ve heard Hiro SHs at live shows, of which I haven’t seen footage, mostly because it isn’t something I want to look for, but I’ve had the misfortune of seeing the stripping video and that’s quite enough for me. I see tiktoks about him all the time too and the fans are like “Hiro chan~~~~ so kawaii” and the video is him (30+ years old mind you) tweaking out or cutting himself or wtv tf. I feel like the fanbase does not even care about the music and just has this weird parasocial relationship with Hiro, and whenever I’ve brought this up before it’s just been met with “well its menhera kei, you cant treat it like k-pop.” or “Oh you just don’t get menhera kei…” And yeah, I guess I don’t get it because if you are cutting yourself and encouraging others to do so just to feel included in a subculture and to feel like a real fan of a below mediocre vkei band, I guess I don’t get that and I don’t see how any sane person with some sense of morality could.
Menhera kei as a whole just really rubs me the wrong way and it doesn’t help that so much of the music the subgenre produces just sucks. And about the k-pop thing, thats such a poor excuse so many of them hide behind. Just because you’re a mega edgelord who harms yourself and others doesn’t mean that people who say “hey maybe this isn’t ok” are “soft idol lovers,” Maybe they just have some sense of right and wrong? Thinking SH is cool doesn’t make you edgier, it doesn’t make you better, it makes you someone who needs to get off of twitter and get some serious therapy. And I know thats what they want to hear so they can be like “yeah im so mentally ill, I need help, im so kawaii sugoi wwwwwwww (^_^***)” which is so honestly insane. One day, these kids’ frontal lobes are gonna develop and they’re gonna look back on the way they’re behaving now with complete disgust, that is if they live long enough for their brains to develop seeing as they’re constantly being encouraged to become more and more mentally ill and cut deeper and deeper again and again. It’s honestly so depressing to watch because most of these fans ARE kids and even the adult fans egg on their mental declines. I know that when you’re in that mental state, your judgement is blurred, and I know because I’ve been there before. Putting yourself in an echo chamber of self hatred can temporarily feel so good when you’re at a real mental low but it is NOT HEALTHY. And thats what most of the menhera kei fandom is, an echo chamber of kids telling each other to cut more and cut deeper just so they can feel valid in their mental struggles and “really menhera” instead of trying to improve those struggles. I have a feeling that some of those menhera kids are gonna hop in the replies of this post but at this point I don’t care. Part of them knows this is wrong and someone needs to say it louder, because this isn’t a new take. I am not the first person to say this but I think it needs to be repeated over and over because whats happening is just that wrong.
Senketsuakochan and their fanbase is obviously not the whole problem because it extends way past that but they are a prime example of what’s going on and that fanbase just keeps growing and getting worse. The music sucks, but that isn’t even the real issue, its this parasocial relationship with not just Hiro but mental health as a whole and these kids are always reaching to get worse and nobody is stepping in. I really dont get why people are so intent on preserving a subculture that is so completely toxic and thrives off of child self harm and suicide attempts.
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I can’t say that I like this trend of kids hopping on a band that they can’t fully understand for better or worse, and using that to trivialize self harm.
Being realistic, this is not a valid subculture. It’s impressionable kids from the other side of the world who have never even been to a “real” VK show before, thinking that they understand what “the subculture” is based on some TikToks.
A lot of them like to try and twist VK into something it isn’t (like no, fans do not have an expected way to dress, they aren’t restricted from listening to more than one sub-style, they don’t have to emulate their “honmei” in everything they do, etc).
When it comes to the SenketsuAkochan crowd in Japan, the age range isn’t much different than it is for any other given newer VK band. There are, of course, going to be the occasional unstable people. A domestic fan decided to cut herself at a show a couple months ago, iirc.
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Yeah, I remember the issue with the fan cutting herself at the show. To me at least, the menhera-kei fandom is like the equivalent of shedtwt. It’s a lot of impressionable kids encouraging each other’s downfall to validate themselves. I don’t really know how fans of menhera and SenketsuAkochan in Japan act because I don’t speak Japanese so I mostly interact with English speaking V-Kei fans, but I assume its different considering Japanese fans tend to be older and therefore, I assume, think more critically about things.
A lot of bands that are considered menhera are not that extreme. I agree with @GreatNorthernVK that this is not typical for the local scene. Surely menhera bands do have SH and suicide as themes of their songs. These themes can be cartharic, so I don’t think there should be no art touching them. But that is diffrent from encouraging fans or doing SH at lives.
Also selfharming ist not exclusiv to the genre… cough dir en grey cough 
That does not mean that I disagree about senketsuakochan. I don’t know enough about them to have a real opinion but from what you said, it does sound concerning.
Yeah I agree. I don’t have any issue with music about sh or suicide, especially since music is art and it comes from lived experience and what not. My issue its the actualization of it, especially by young fans. Menhera also tends to lean too far into romanticization for my liking.
They’re dependent on alcohol, some of them use drugs, and if you say anything negative about them, they threaten to sue for defamation. And that’s not even mentioning the promiscuous relationships they have with each other and with band members (a lot of them are underage btw)
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Ahem…
What?
I second this, COME AGAIN?
wait genuine question, how do i square this with the other poster who said hiro was 30+?
I know zero about this band but this is painting the strangest picture
My association w/ menhera has been a sense of “this condition / way of being / etc sucks, here’s art made about struggling through it” - case and point being tzk posting on ameblo about a BPD diagnosis, and that being mentioned by name in at least one track of Meji’s. But i never got a sense of wallowing or anguish olympics from Mejibray, not lyrics, PVs, etc
I guess “bad” menhera would be anything with a feeling of can’t escape, who’s got it worse, or suffering unique in the world, but i don’t know if i’ve heard a band that fits that - but i don’t listen to many bands in that corner of the scene lol
Tho to what that other poster said, that kinda describes pre-MoaB Kyo doesn’t it? Who (allegedly) made a joke to a fan w/ ideations, who then went through with it, and Kyo wasn’t the same sort of edgelord since?
Idk esp as someone who feels mentally pretty stable i have no idea how to guess what’s helpful catharsis / validation / solidarity for others and what’s rumination / depressive nihilism.
I remember a time when sentiment against Mejibray was one of “corrupting the youth” meanwhile all the actionable messages i heard from Tzk were “don’t smoke, you sing better if you don’t" and “consider asking about a diagnosis, could be helpful maybe”
Pretty sure she meant that this subsection of fans are sometimes underage.
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is mejibray menhera? I guess the menhera-kei stuff I’ve seen is a lot more on the extreme side, like shed twt v-kei.
I think it’d be nonsensical to call them that now! But back when they were releasing 420 theatrical roses, around that time, iirc that’s how they were talked about on MCH / twitter, at least as far as my spotty memory can remember
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I meant menhera bandomen are tending to use underage fans as their partners, like, lolicon is a common thing here lol
(yes forum rules this is a complete sentence)
Lolicons are pretty common amongst bandomen. It’s a bit scary to be quite honest. What was that one group that had and actual little girl in their mv? Most of the groups songs were about liking kids, I think Sui was the vocalist.
For the whole Menhera talk
We got a whole thread for it
(I am raising that thread from the dead 
)
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