For me it will always be Masumi from Wizard.
I loved his song writing, his skills and voice and he was such a sweet person.
I miss his so much.
Iād have to say Kenichi Asai. Ever since he started playing music in the late '80s heās been constantly and consistently going at it, always trying something slightly different with his various bands/projects, but you can always tell itās an Asai song right away. Over the years he seemed to have developed his own little mythical world too (from what I can tell from the bits and pieces I could understand), from his lyrics to paintings and artwork heās done. Idk man, heās just so cool when he starts strumming his guitar, puts me in a mood that feels like everything will be alright.
Another guy in a similar fashion, Hisashi Imai from BUCK-TICK. Always an innovator, with a bit of a fuck-you attitude in his guitar playing, haha. Even if the band kinda comfortably settled into their dad rock legacy phase for a number of years now, thereās always some fun little quirk they can surprise me with, usually coming from one of Imaiās songs or musical phrases.
Like some other people said Iām not sure if I really admire anyone, but if I had to pick Iād go for Mast (ex. aliene). Iād say the guitar is mainly what keeps me coming back to their songs, but moreso the reason why heās my favourite bandman is because I feel like his awkwardness is quite funny & refreshing when youāve got kyouka and ray trying to be all serious and spooky while heās awkwardly laughing in the corner (wish heād post on sns more thoughā¦)
I might be wrong here, but iād have to say Cazqui. now, iām aware of Nocturnal Bloodlust fiasco, but that doesnāt change the fact that heās the one of the most creative composer in modern VK. itās almost like heās some sort of a magician. Early NB, Nekomanju, and especially CBO and even RotE has some extremely cool sounding songs that apparently, cannot be replicate. this is immediately apparent when he quit NB and the quality dropped quite significantly. (Still objectively a good band, itās just. not appealing for me anymore)
I would say TK from Ling tosite sigure.
I see him as the only real rockstar. The rest just rockers. A top rocker=a rockstar
He keeps the focus on his music and does not make it about how dressed up you are or about the makeup you have on. I see all that as gimmicky.
Another thing I admire about him is how decent he seems. He keeps a low profile and is not out making drama. I do not have to worry about him doing something scandalous and embarassing me though I doubt he would to say nothing of how private he is.
That is why I look up to him.