Honestly, I’d love for the scene to hold out long enough to actually get enough female-fronted bands to diversify enough to see the same distribution of skill and style come through. Sure, the current fan environment can be hostile but there’s at least some interest, which can only go up when there’s more bands to choose from.
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Oh, really? When I spoke to them for a couple of minutes, they sounded male. If that’s wrong, then disregard.
Yes, I can understand the mistake! But she does specify in her Twitter bio and she’s clarified in a video before.
I’m in Matenrou Opera’s fan club but have never met them and while they’re awesome I don’t care for them to know me as a person. I’m too awkward 
I was coming from the metal scene so this whole cheki thing was so weird. I first saw it with Jiluka then saw girls standing to trade with others and was like wtf. I do like a lot of visual kei bands musically and for the ones that don’t got it like Matenrou (while vkei their fanbase is pretty even and they have their fanbase locked down to where they don’t have to worry about crazies) I will buy cheki to support if they don’t have any other merch to buy. Just hope no one comes to my house and asks what all these polaroid photos of random guys are 
Aldious has a lot of male fans that are in their 50’s and I want to tread lightly on what I say but it was just such an awkward scene. I’m sure they’re not bad people but I also felt uncomfortable getting pushed around by a lot of men. So I never went back.
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fwiw i’ve shown cheki to the most cishet of metal guys and no one’s said anything but “oh yeah i can see how that’s a cool way to connect with fans”!
whenever we overseas talk online about cheki, there’s always a funny angle to it like you’ve got to have a particular interest in the guy or else why would you buy them.
But even myself being in Dallas Texas, i think it’s not too much of an assumption, or too hard for people to wrap their heads around, that buying cheki is more like a memento of a fun day at a liveshow in exchange for supporting the band w/ a donation, rather than anything perverse or parasocially lustful.
just saying bc at least where i am, around the people i’m around - it doesn’t seem like the culture of metal & vkei crowds are so opposed that they can’t see value in eachothers’ practices. But granted, i’m saying that as a cishet guy myself, so i imagine it doesn’t speak much for experiences that aren’t mine.
i can completely relate to this tho; one of the reasons i like vkei so much better is bc i imagine i could be plopped into a random live’s audience and even without sharing a language, make better friends & have a better experience w/ who i’d be around than from metal shows here. Even when guys go to shows, they act more humbly like they’re in a mostly womens’ scene - and myself hoping to do the same, it’s a nice community to be in. at least for me & my preferences!
Personally I don’t see anything weird about that anyway.
From when I’ve been a teen up until I don’t know when photo cards or whatever where a thing to collect or buy in sets. Cheki are the even more special version of this since each is unique. But basically it’s nothing different.
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oh, same, i feel similarly!
but i think we in Dallas TX have a pretty cis/masculine culture compared to the world at large, at least in a sense of averages. Things like this, i’d assume my surroundings wouldn’t be as accepting of.
But at least in my personal experience, i’ve been proven wrong, which has been reassuring!
On its face value, wanting a cheki or two, or one of each member, certainly isn’t beyond comprehension to most people.
It’s when bands start encouraging people to buy to excess in order to earn 2-shots, some bands even not letting you take them unless you buy 10 cheki from one member per order.
I think most people would then come to the “Oh, you must be obsessed with this person, then”, conclusion.
exactly my thoughts. I’m in like 5 fanclubs for the early tickets, but i don’t want them to like remember my name and stuff, even if i do like the members a lot.
I’ve met a few (foreign) gya who bragged about having the members remember their name or twitter account and I was just like “ok great, I don’t want that” lol.
I think it’s less of “respecting women’s spaces” and more like “bangya can be really crazy and scary”. I definitely think older men, like 40-50s ojisans, at major vkei bands can be less respecting of the general vibe and the “air”. Like sometimes they will mosh too hard/in a metal way and push people around when the vkei “mosh” is just lightly jumping from left to right. It gets annoying when the guy is like 180cm and all the people around him are 140-160cm women and he’s just pushing us around because he can.
So I was treading lightly on talking about Aldious fans…a lot of them seemed like they were special needs and there’s a lot of mental health problems in Japan that go undetected but that’s a whole other story I’m not getting into.
I effing love mosh pits, crowd surfing, and all that jazz. I’ve had way more fun at metalcore concerts than I ever had at a vkei concert and met the nicest people there.
Looking forward to Jiluka’s Mad Pit Fest this Sat 
Not even for them but I love Knosis, SBTW, Sable Hills, Prompts, Nokubura, Dexcore, TCIP and it’s cool Damned is gonna be there (def can see them blowing up in the future).
Yasss this. I don’t follow a lot of Dominor bands but ended up at a few concerts and was like…10 cheki 
omg
I prefer it more when they just make you pay for a 2-shot.
I see.
I don’t know, if I’d do that (I’m too far from being in that situation anyway). To me that moment of taking the cheki together could be the reason, not because I want the person to remember my name or whatever but just for the moment itself. So yeah, it might seem obsessed while it’s actually just the way to a certain goal.
But even when explaining that, lots of people don’t feel the same/similar, that’s why they can’t empathize with the sentiment and therefore judge by their own standards instead of shrugging things of with the mindset that it’s just someone else’s way of experiencing things.
personally, i think it’s fine that both genres have different kinds of crowds. I wouldn’t go to a metalcore concert and expect people to stand in perfectly spaced rows like we do in vkei, or not bump into me, so it annoys me when the old dudes (or non vkei fans) come to vkei lives and ignore how the vkei scene works.
Might see you around
Oh, I can totally understand about experiencing the moment. And yeah, a lot of Western bands also charge VIP rates for pictures.
But it’s more so about how the business side of VK has co-opted a lot from the idol industry, kind of encouraging the guys and their fans to form these parasocial relationships using these photo ops as the primary opportunity to do so.
It’s one thing for me as a tourist to be like “oh, I’ll get a picture with this guy, and this guy, and that guy”, but for most bands, that’s not where the money is. Most of their cash come from the 20% of their listeners who are like “okay, I’ll get five pictures with this one guy, and I’ll buy 50 cheki from him and also get a bonus perk for spending 50,000 in one day.”
It encourages the obsession, in a way. So when some bands choose to set those kind of restrictions on who can buy two shots, it kind of let’s me know what kind of audience they’re catering to.
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I get what you mean.
I guess I’m just … I don’t know, I wouldn’t even say of a different opinion. I’m rather in the resigned acceptance mode of that’s how it is and if they only do these twoshots like that, keep them. (Basically I’m not fond of it for the reason that this always will be unfair to those who don’t have much money (for whatever reason, not every can be overcome, not matter how much one wants). But that doesn’t go for twoshots alone so this is just a side note nothing for discussion or whatever.)
I’ve been throwing most of my money at bands, especially when I was younger and partly even now. But I’m not doing in a way like that (what to me almost feels like uncontrolled).
But in the end I’m just of the, let them do, if they want and can afford, if that keeps the band going, that’s at least some positive outcome I also do benefit from.
I was seeing my main/honmei band that had a three man with two other bands and I really liked some of the members from both bands musically so I decided to get a 2-shot. As an American usually this is just the “pose - yay a pic with ‘insert celeb’” for me. I was surprised when both guys took my hand (one interlocked fingers), posed cheek to cheek with me, and started rubbing my back with their other hand (not in a creepy way). And i’m just like…um…I think you’re a really great musician?
Wow what did I walk into? It’s a strange form of parasocial relationship since they do legit remember you if you throw enough money. Now for my favorite band I do throw all that money and more but it’s mainly because I like their music.
Some fans have accounts just to post their 2-shots and it becomes this weird kind of host boy ish f*ckery on who got a more intimate pic with their honmei. One concert I got a good ticket to I saw girls fighting to get in front of a guitarist and while waiting one girl pulled up a 2-shot from an event last year with that guitarist hugging her from behind and was longingly looking at it with a smile on her face 
I personally don’t post any of my 2-shots online. I don’t even make them my iphone background screen.
Anyway, long explanation on why there’s few women in vkei, it’s not actually about the music.
Recommendation: Serenity in Murder made a comeback and they’re a female fronted band. The drummer Allen does support for Mucc & Kirito.
Oh and @GreatNorthernVK I’ve been to two events with you lol but I was so scarred from past experiences but i’ll say hi to you at the next concert we’re both at 
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The first part is exactly what I am considering writing/researching about for my MA thesis hahaha
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So we’re dropping casual death threats like it’s Tuesday???
For those not in the know, someone sent anonymous death threats to the vkeicc account on Twitter - a neutral third party - and those concerns got passed to the venue and all remaining venues on the tour, which resulted in a NO BAGS policy for remaining shows.
I’m not gonna hit you with the “DeAtH ThR3At5 Ar3 Wr0nG!!!1!” because you should know better. That’s not even an unpopular opinion, that’s just common sense. My unpopular opinion is that whomever is behind these death threats against Madman’s Espirit should be excised from the scene. Not even called out and shamed. Kicked out. Persona non grata. Find a new hobby. You should not be welcome here, on vk.gy, or on Melokei. They should not be welcome in any sufficiently wide circle where there are visual kei fans, and they are especially not welcome anywhere in my domain.
I’ve seen shows get cancelled for less. This kind of anti-social behavior will stop the renaissance of visual kei shows in its tracks if band men have to fear for their life because someone thinks that throwing death threats at a band they don’t like is funny.
As someone whose been a moderator longer than a lot of people have been fans, I’ve…encountered a lot of unstable people. People that need more than therapy and probably don’t even have that. People that cannot be integrated into a community no matter how much you try because their mere presence (and it seems purpose in life) is to fuck shit up for others.
This is one of those times. This is one of those people.
Even if it’s a joke, if I were you, I’d stay really quiet. With how interconnected the internet is, you aren’t as anonymous as you would think. All they really need is an IP address, a MAC address, or even a phone number, and your ass is a good as the grass you refuse to touch.
And don’t let vktwt catch you slacking either. This is one of those times where the town hall verbal beatdown is quite warranted.
And I don’t even listen to Madman’s Espirit. This shit got me heated off principle.
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I wouldn’t call them neutral, they have caused problems on Twitters vkei community again and again
The problem is that the questions are all anonymous and also that vkei Twitter jumps at any bait
And that that account was constantly used for ragebait too
(I know it, I wrote some of the bait out of joke, everyone is allowed to judge for that)
But the thing is that the constant ragebait that was already getting thrown into that account probably caused that one mod of them to not take shit serious, till they got called out by a ton of other users
Only then they ended up and gave the threat on to kinetic vibe.
Even though I sound like I want to excuse what happened, my personal opinion is that those anonym confession accounts will always cause problems and kids should stop trying to do them at all.
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