I guess this was a major reason. I was into VK right at the height of its popularity in the West, ca. 2004-2009 and if I recall my memories from back then there were just as many if not more young teens who were extremely cringy about their obsession with VK (and Japan in general, this was the era that birthed the “weaboo” stereotype). Depending where and when entire schoolyards were populated by kids with badly attempted VK (or alternative) fashion, wearing their bags fully adorned with Mana and Kyo pics. I admit myself I had a binder at school with all my kewl Veekay musicians and even brought a MdM album to school so that the other alt kids would notice me, lmao.
Even then a lot of people were insufferable in that they couldn’t shut up about their creepy fantasies regarding their fave bandomen. The difference was that social media wasn’t as big and the online fancommonuity was scattered, as you say. Our embarrassing behaviour was thus safely contained within walled forum spaces, livejournal diaries and chatrooms. At that time there wasn’t an international site like twitter where you could actually communicate with your “heroes” - japanese musicians hang out on japanese social communities and websites. I have a feeling the japanese gya back in the day probably pullled the same shit that gaijins do now on insta and twitter, since they had the possbilities much earlier. I know if we had the ability to annoy our faves online we would have. I am just glad that FB, insta and twitter only rose to prominence when I was long out of my cringy teen-age.
When it comes to annoying fandoms right now… I don’t really know. I personally tend to avoid sites and communities that thrive on drama, gossip and slander and I mostly don’t seek out other hardcore fans of any band. All I know about the craziness on Tik Tok (and VK Tik Tok in particular) I did against my will.
I am surprised to hear that the obsession and idealization of “Mana-sama” had a revival with young Gen Z folk - Mana cultists who will shut down anyone who dares to speak ill about him were such a 2005 thing (when MdM got really big in Europe). I thought that died out once the hype around MdM died down (and the band started to not give a shit anymore by not releasing anything new).
I only remember how crazy some of the German Diru fans were. That they were stalking the band on their Europeean tours (and some group even managed to break and sneak into their tour van…). And how at most Diru concerts female Diru fans wouldn’t shut up (ever) to “profess” their love for Kyo-sama. Then the shitload of badly written ship-fics of the bandmembers. Oh and the petty wars and rivalries between Diru and Gazette fans…
Not sure if I said it but at least this is coherent enough for others to understand.
But I really have no fucking idea what bangya is and I don’t wanna know.
Kids hyping about something isn’t cringy, they’re fucking kids they’re meant to be stupid what’s their excuse? We got a couple here now and everyones silent treatment doesn’t work or excessively flagging hell even if nekkichis idea of dislike is put in it wouldn’t work.
You all misunderstand do you think places like these are for music advocates? No, mostly they’re for people who have nothing better to do, some show their true selves, get called an asshole and hide behind the great excuse that is ‘‘trolling’’ fight with strangers online because no one can carry their shit irl.
I want to believe that maybe love can change them irl but I’m not sure, maybe its in their blood, being like this, maybe they’re too far gone, maybe it’s my fault for giving up so easily. But like the rest of us, they work, they have their own road and no one would care otherwise. In their apartment nothing else matters, close the door and your own world opens. Spew out whatever insanity they kept in to anyone foolish to heed their 3 dollar bill words.
All of this because people can’t spend a day alone. Everyone’s getting restless, 7 second videos of degeneracy flowing into our daily lives, soon these people will eat each other alive.
And this is for people who spend hours of their day with phones glued to their hands.
Instead we should cherish our time for something better. Nothing lasts and who cares what you post here? better out then in shrek say’s.
I don’t mind, as long as there’s a sky so true blue and clouds shading me, the sun giving me warmth. Raising up our hands, white flag high
in a day you can say you own it, draw the line and define your behavior, I’m not like you, I won’t be you. And realize all the lies they’re promoting.
Early 2000’s and Diru fans. It’s annoying when they act like every band thats not them like, NEGA, Unsraw, llll-Ligro-, ect, were always “tRyInG tO bE lIkE DiR eN gReY” or every loud-kei vocalist was “iMiTaTinG kYo SaMa.”
The Gazette fans were the same if not more annoying and cringe.
Visual Kei wattpad fanfics are pretty cringe rich.
in most cases reaction videos mean nothing.
You have either people simping for everything a band is doing or rage about anything.
They are complete waste of time
I disagree on that.
Reaction videos mean exposure. Exposure means new fans.
And new fans will lead to new people to buy your shit.
Of course, they are humans, they have prejudices, they prefer certain stuff over other stuff etc etc
And of course there people that follow those YouTubers religiously and agree to every bullshit they say, but you can find that everywhere. (Oh wait we can find these people for bands too )
But i also have to admit, i prefer twitch streams over YouTube usually.
That’s the same for any type of media no matter where you go in Vkei. Simps help create a dedicated fan base to that band or bands and will hype up anything such as single, album or one-man announcements that helps the band get more exposure and a lot of simps will buy merch. Rages is going to exist no matter if your in Vkei or not everyone is human and we don’t always agree on something.
Don’t take it personally, but the whole international Visual Kei scene is kind off toxic.
(And in adjacent I’ve heard my fair share of japanese fans too)
Look, I have never seen so many dumb meaningless and petty fights other than in the VKei scene.
And it’s somehow never musicians actually fighting with each other or bands fighting.
Nah it’s fans fighting each other, being petty with each other.
Why are there whole Twitter accounts to trash or call-out one person?
Why does tanuki has to make threads on problematic fans?
Why are there people who think they have to pretend to live in Japan, when they don’t?
Also those fights pull over several social media plattforms often.
You could think r/metalcore is bad, because it’s reddit, but you know what people fight about there?
Whose music taste is the better one, or if that band now is metalcore or not and once in a while we trash on bands that have done some serious shit that was not ok. And the worst we have it, when it gets political.
This was after I changed Ruki’s membership of the Gazette to former members… on Wikipedia…
That said, DEG’s Twitter fanbase seems to be equally as toxic. I tend to stay away from them, but recently I was talking to someone in DMs regarding them buying some stuff from me, only to later find out that they dissed me a year or so ago. Like, come on, you don’t like me, but want to give me your money? Make it make sense xD
That is why you want reasonable moderators. That is why you need reasonable moderators. That is what happens when you allow people to say and do whatever they want with no oversight. It is why JRO is rather muted and tame in comparison to The Thunderdome™.
I quote myself again without the /s because I am not kidding this time.
That’s wild but I think the problem is not “gaze fanbase” but “twitter people”.
I was relativly active on twitter in a very diffrent fandom (Hannibal TV Series) and there were a lot of nice folks but twitter is twitter… there is no nuance to anything there. It became so bad at some point I barely open it anymore.
If you wanna measure a fandom’s cringe level you should measure it offline.
What I always find funny is the projection prevalent in these fandoms. They are so crazy about their band that they see everything through a lense of craziness, which turns even the most mundane acts into the workings of a person as crazy as them.
They can’t imagine that I would make those changes for any other reason than being “jealous” of their fanbase and am “going crazy” because of it (or whatever they meant), because they themselves are so crazy about it.
Reminds me of two people we banned not long ago, I knew that both were shitting on JRockOne on other plattforms, funny though, they both delivered a Speedrun into a permanent ban.
(One of them was shitting on me recently on Twitter, tagged me from her closed Twitter account knowing very well I won’t see what she is saying)
I also even accounting that that person is reading along here.
So I guess I am serving twitter content now.
Strong point there, a tons of problem I’ve seen came from Twitter (or TikTok)
Don’t get me wrong by the way JRO is a echo chamber like so many other groups/forums whatever, it’s normal to a certain extent.
But in comparison to twitter there are people who moderate between people and to keep the climate of the place not too toxic or to help when shit goes off the grid.
That shit isn’t happening on a place like Twitter.
So maybe I have to correct myself here and say the most toxic fandom is vkeitwt or Vkei TikTok.
)
