I guess, technically, mine is マチルダ (Mathilda), but they didn’t really get me into vkei, just into that band. When my friend introduced me to this genre last year the first band I listened to was MEJIBRAY and Malice Mizer but I cant remember which was first. I wonder if there are many similar first artists?
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Malice and the Mizers, in yt I saw a thumbnail with a pretty individual and got interested.
then got into vkei
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L’Arc~en~Ciel through osmosis through FMA.
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Same, except it was SID
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Incidentally it was likely LM.C (88) or another band like SID that did anisongs, but this was what really started it for me:
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omg this took me back to being friends w this girl who claimed she “dated kangta but broke up with him for miyavi whos real name is actually kaito”. girl was DELULU glad im not friends w her anymore
on topic my first band was X then dir en grey!!! 240px youtube baybeeee
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DIR EN GREY with Macabre in 2002. 
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Obviously the GazettE with Filth in the Beauty
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Well, you know, I recently broke up with Miyavi because of his music - I’m in a relationship with Hazuki now. But don’t tell anyone, we want to keep it a secret 
His real name is Jereminato, as he is secretly hafu and his parents tried to compromise between an english and a japanese name, btw.
( ← I think this is the first time that I used this emoji in my whole life 
)
But, to answer the question: I think it was Malice Mizer 
It’s been so long and there were a lot of bands all at once so I’m not sure. But there were the ones who had the most impact.
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I think it was Dir en Grey’s obscure MV when I was about 12ish that got me into the scene? A friend showed it to me for ~le shock factor~ and I was like 
MV aside I obviously came back for more! Addicted to that Visual Shock fr
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LOL that story about your friend is wild
H.O.T isn’t vkei for sure, but I think they were my intro to dramatic style and performance, which kinda paved the way for me to get into the vkei aesthetic later. It’s cool to see how everyone has such a different “entry point” into the scene!
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X. Finding out that hide had passed was a rough start, haha.
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Same… 
Also started with X read about hide… devastated…
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It all started with a local vkei band whose frontman tried to pursue vkei in Japan as well.
I remember seeing the frontman’s first band on TV and running from the bathroom during a commercial break to catch them. Those were the days.
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My first vk-adjacent tune was the “Sacrifice” music video by Atsushi Sakurai, followed closely by some videos of Dir en grey, BAISER, Kagerou, BUCK-TICK, Noir fleurir and Dué le quartz (idk the order anymore but this was in one afternoon, haha).
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Seikima II if they count. Malice Mizer if they don’t
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In 2014 I saw Royz-Lilia on my Youtube recommendation list.
This song made me fall into this endless ‘‘rabbit hole’’.
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