Happy Birthday to...

This week, there has been many birthdays and of the many birthdays, there were three birthdays of members or musicians that I like listening to their music. I'm going to give you hints~~~ and lets see if you guess correctly who they are and no cheating lol. 

(1)

- He was a member of Malice Mizer.

- He acted in the film Bunraku.

-He is a member of super group S.K.I.N.

(2)

-He is a bassist

-He made a mobile phone game.

- He collaborated with another person, that shares the same name as him (did you get that?)/

(3)

-He is a vocalist

-His parents persuaded him to consider a career in music, he wanted to be an engineer originally.

-He was previously in another band with one of his current band mates.

Did you guys guess who the three people are ???

3

2

1

Answers:

(1) Gackt.

(2) Kanon of An Cafe.

(3) Shou of Alice Nine.

Did you guess the correct answers, I hope my three hints for each person was clear enough.

So yes, Gackt is turning 39 (although, since no one knows if its birthday actually, I can't confirm if that's his real age), Kanon of An Cafe is turning 24 (again, I can't confirm this because Jrockers are so mysterious about their age) and Shou of Alice Nine is turning 32 ... :/

Yep, I just wanted to wish them a super duper happy belated birthday and I hope they carry on making music and doing what they love the most and stay happy and healthy~~~ 

Now, I shall finish with some photos of Gackt, Kanon of An Cafe and Shou of Alice Nine.~~~ credits: None of the pictures belong to me so credits to the owners of these pictures !!!

Gackt

 

Kanon of An Cafe

 

Shou of Alice Nine

Thank you for reading and see you next time ~~~ 

Shoxx X Fools Mate X Cure

 

Jrock magazines~~~ these three are the popular ones that I have seen other bloggers read and just seen them as the most popular Jrock magazines (I thought there was another one or two but I can't seem to remember the names of these magazines), although I understand no Japanese, I would happy to buy these magazines at reasonable prices, as they usually cover a wide selection of musicians and there is usually at least three that I like. 

Usually, these magazines cover bands and musicians such as An Cafe, SuG, LM.C, Mucc, Dir En Grey, X Japan, Alice Nine, The Gazette, Gackt, Miyavi etc. Although, I'm not sure if they cover older generation of VK bands like Glay or Buck Tick :/ which is sad... 


Shoxx is a monthly published Japanese magazine which carries the slogan of " Visual and Hard Shock " on the front cover of each magazine. Each magazine costs roughly 930 yen which is about 72 Hong Kong dollars~ and is popular with overseas fans for their pictures with the majoriy being full page, a poster of the cover star is included and advertisements, the magazine itself contains 20 page interviews and profiles on the cover star, that is awesome... even though I can't read Japanese yet. Some popular cover stars include Kagrra, The Gazette and Nightmare.

Some front covers of Shoxx magazine:
  



Fools Mate

Fools Mate is a magazine that started waaaayyyy back in 1977 but sadly, has since stopped publications of their magazine, this is really sad because its always nice to buy a wider variety of different visual kei magazines, even if you are buying for the same artist. Again, popular artists featured on the front cover of this magazine includes Gackt, Acid Black Cherry, The Gazette, Alice Nine, Vivid etc. 
 

Cure

Cure magazine is a Japanese fashion and rock magazine, that offers fashion tips and styling and has also has the latest scoop on the things that are happening in the Visual Kei scene. 

 

^_^ Thank you for reading ~~~ I just wanted to ask a question, do any of these magazines, if they do, give a large selection of mini sized posters to A3 sized posters (not those massive one) in their magazine.

I would love to buy any of these magazines and just look at the pictures and pin up the posters in my room~~~




Credits: To the original owners of the pictures and also the information that I found on the internet.
  

Visual Kei

For those who don't and do know about Visual Kei, I'm going to write a short post about it from information that I found on the internet and information that I already know. (credits: to homeless visual kids website and other websites where I checked up information verify that it was correct and for having the information about the different genres). Visual Kei is predominately dominated by males, although there are some female bands gaining recognition, some famous Female bands are

Visual Kei is about music and fashion, Visual kei started from Japan and its a type of genre of rock music with pop, hip hop, punk elements etc. Depending on the band, a different "theme" or "concept" will follow and using this theme or concept, bands will dress accordingly and their music will follow this theme or concept.

Its been said that X Japan first helped to create Visual Kei, they used to have spike up long hair and heavy make up during the start of their career, Yoshiki was the cross-dresser in the group and used to have long, blonde wavy hair and wore red lipstick. 

X Japan when they first started out.

"Psychedelic Violence of Visual Shock" - X Japan

This was how X Japan described what Visual Kei was and it was truly an explosion of colour, not just Oshare kei bands but other styles, too had colourful make up or clothes, or personalities... they were just caring as much music as about the fashion and stories they carried in their music.

Some sub-genres are (okay, I can't list all sub-genres because we would be here until next week and this post would be like 10 pages long and everyone would be bored to death) :

Oshare Kei- whilst Visual Kei is darker, Oshare Kei band members use bright colours and funky and cute looking accessories, so popular clothes in bright colours that I have seen them using include  red, pink, yellow, blue, green, purple etc. Make up is lighter so its more about enhancing thei face, and the fashion reminds me of some of the clothes the kids of Harajuku would wear. This is my personal opinion but Oshare Kei is more wearable compared to the other sub-genres. Famous Oshare kei bands include An Cafe, SuG,   Paradeis etc amongst others... some popular songs are "Smile Ichiban Il Onna by An Cafe" , " Sweet Toxic" by SuG. Also, the music has a more pop feeling to it.

  An Cafe

An Cafe

 SuG

  Sug

Paradeis

Kote Kei - Kote Kei is the opposite of Oshare Kei and has two sub genres black kei and white kei. Kote kei which is also sometimes written as kotekote, this type of kei is this most traditional kind.It is also the oldest style of visual kei. Some examples of this are "Lareine" , "Dir En Grey" amongst others.

Laraeine

Dir En Grey

Angura Kei - which comes from the English word "underground" , bands in this genre will wear more traditional Japanese clothing such as the kimono, some famous bands include "Kagrra" and "Inugami Circus-Dan".

Kagrra

I chose a few of the many different genres check out the "Homeless Visual Kids website - http://homelessvisualkids.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/a-look-into-visual-kei-sub genres/ - for more information and once again, credits for this website which gave me examples of bands and the differences between each style".

Also, credits to the owners of the pictures that are used for this post.

I'm going to finish with a few pictres with visual kei bands that I like because of their music or/and style of clothing/costumes.

 

   

 

Comment in the box below, your favourite styles ~ I don't know which style I would go with? >.< create, my own style... maybe? Good bye and stay happy ~~~ Prinxe Happiness.

Happy Super Belated Birthday to Saga!

So, if you don't know yet... Saga is my favourite member of Alice Nine with Shou and Nao being close~ I think Saga is very mysterious sometimes, on the Alice9 Channel he seems more quiet and occasionally makes some jokes.

Anyways, I liked to wish Saga, a Happy Belated Birthday. I hope all his wishes come true and he'll remain happy, healthy and joyous in each day. I thought I would share some basic facts regarding Saga, so readers of my blog, can get to understand this wonderful bassist a bit more.

 Credits: The pictures of Saga and all the facts do not belong to me, so credits to the original owner. ~

Okay, here some facts and then I'll end the post with a couple of Saga pictures:

Birth Name: Sakamoto Takashi

Birth Date: 24th of June

Birth Place: Saga was born in Koriyama, which is the Fukushima Prefecture, there is a clip when Tora visits Saga's house and talks to his parents.

Saga mother is a nurse and his father is a salary man, Saga is calm person who never gets angry, he has a dog called Chiko who is 17 years old, Saga is a gentleman and is known to give his seat up for the elderly. Saga would be a teacher if he wasn't a musician. Saga is a good cook and says men who can't cook are bad. There are loads of places on the Internet for more facts~ I just chose some.

^^ Some people say that Saga looks bit like Jui (ex-Vidoll) or Yuki (Lolita 23Q)

 









 Thank you and see you in my next post :)

Alice Nine

Hi, guys I'm back and I want to talk to you about my new favourite band... Alice Nine. They are a five member Japanese Visual Kei band. The members are vocalist Shou, guitarists Tora and Hiroto, bassist Saga and drummer Nao. From various sources, that I read Hiroto is the youngest and Nao is the oldest. Nao is also the leader of the band. Usually, drummers are the leaders of bands? ^_^ The band was also formed by Nao.

 
The cover of Rainbows, from left to right is Tora, Nao, Hiroto, Shou and Saga.

I was thinking the other day, I should check out some of other Jrock bands that I had never listened too and I decided on Alice Nine, I didn't go for bands with heavier visual appearances or music such as Dir En Grey or Gigrugamesh because I don't think I would like it as much.

The first song, I listened too was "Rainbows" by Alice Nine released on August the 6th 2008 and is their thirteenth maxi single!!!... It was really cool, Shou's singing voice reminds me of a blend of Gackt and someone else's voice but he has his own style, of course. The guitarists, drummer and bassist have lots of energy and give off a cool and mysterious vibe.

Nao


Tora

Saga

 

Shou


Hiroto

I also watched a few of their Alice Nine Channel videos, and they are so funny, I thought that the video where is Saga is answering questions related to soccer, a topic which is meant to have lots of knowledge about. Hiroto was the referee and Tora, I assume is the host of the channel and provides comments and generally makes the episode run more smoothly. 

To answer a question, Saga must head butt the soccer ball which is hanging over him (he has to jump up, when it gets higher, he has to take a few attempts and even falls over on one of them). Anyways, his face was priceless was when he got the answers wrong, he seemed so shocked. 

Also, another funny episode is "whats inside the box?" so I believe there are four boxes, there's a slit at the top and you put your hand through and touch whatever is inside, it could be alive or dead, anything...I won't tell you whats inside the box (no spoilers here) but I can tell you that Nao, despite the eldest and the leader is the most scared and screams the most :/ Saga and Tora are also part of this game.

I also watched their short movie "Number Six" which was roughly 15 minutes long. Its stars all five members and has a girl that is in high school (~17)and is very heart warming, the kind of film that leaves a meaning embedded inside you.

Here are some more pictures of Alice Nine to end this post.

 

 

Credit: None of these are my pictures, credits go to all the owners of these pictures.

There is a lot of information about each member and the band already, so I decided to keep this post shorter with just some of my favourite things of Alice Nine. If you have any song recommendations, let me know~ I highly recommend you to check them out, if you aren't into heavy Jrock and prefer more Oshare Kei style bands, perhaps you will like them too?

Gackt's Recent New Look

Hi, sorry about my hiatus, I've been really busy as of late :( well, I'll be preparing some better posts but this was in my draft so I thought I would publish it. :D

There are no words to describe how handsome Gackt looks in his new look. His hair swept to one side, revealing one side which is braided, the ends of the hair looks pinky/redish colours.....~ I swear the fountain of Youth is Gackt. The only facial appearance change in him from Malice Mizer days to now, is he used to look more femine in my opionion but pretty! and now he looks more manly :/

He has yet to age!  and even if I don't know his real age but I'm sure, he must be late thirties or early forties right? Kamijo is like late thirties. Gackt should be a few years older right?

=.= but why is the man ageless... why?

Anyways, do you also see this picture, where Gackt dressed up as  girl, I was so shocked, he looks like a pretty girl who like Gyaru style fashion. O.o my face originally was like, who is this pretty girl that is appearing in the Gackt fanpages on facebook, I then went onto to Crunchyroll and found out it was Gackt and my eyes literally popped out =.=

Gackt was extremely beautiful in his Malice Mizer days, a different league to Hiyori (Kiryu) and Hizaki (Versailles and Jupiter) style. He was simple looking without too much make up or fancy hairstyles, this picture he has lavish make up and a big hairstyle WOW.

Useful Links to find Kpop, Cpop,Hong Kong News, Japanese fashion and Jrock information.

Its really quite diffcult sometimes to find places to find the videos, you want to watch or up to date information that is translated to a language you can read, right?

YouTube does not have full series of Hong Kong dramas and I find this incredibly irritating, I was lucky to find this link recently:

Http://azndrama.net which not only has Hong Kong dramas but Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese (?), although the Hong Kong dramas, I've watched have no english subtitles.

Otherwise, you can try www.MySoju.com (although, currently the website is under construction so its down (not working)) for Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese dramas/films. It says Hong Kong ones too but I haven't found any at the moment.

For news about Hong Kong celebrity news theres: www.jaynestars.com --> really good, written in good, readable english and has information about a lot of stars.

For Chinese/Taiwanese music updates

There is www.CpopAccess.com although it seems like they stop updating recently. If you know another site, please let me know, otherwise when I find another site, I will update it here.

For Japanese news:

If you like Jpop more then try: www.tokyohive.com although, it covers some information about VK bands but the big established ones.

If you like VK bands or Jrock bands then try: www.shattered-tranquility.net or http://jrockoftheday.livejournal.com (although, they stopped updating this site and move onto a different one, there's a link on their that tells you where they write/update now) I still find it useful as it has lots of profiles on lots of different musicians.

Almost forgot, www.jaMe.com contains a kind of bio thing about Mana, which I'm sure Mana fans will be interested in plus lots of interesting information with other Vk and non-vk musicians in the Japanese music industry.

For Japanese fashion:

Currently, I only use one website which is popular with lots of people: www.tokyofashion.com ---> I enjoy reading their street snaps, a lot of inspiration for dressing a little more flamboyant and a little more different.

For Kpop news

There is a bunch of sites! Because Kpop is spreading~ fast! LOL. I'm cool with it because after all I'm a Kpop fan too. Anyways, here are the sites!

www.soompi.com (they also have a shop filled with kpop merchandise)

www.allkpop.com (this one and soompi are the two big sites, I believe, they have the most and perhaps detailed information)

www.hellokpop.com

Again, I'll update when I find more other sites! I'm sure, there are other sites for Kpop news~

I hope you find this useful, be sure to share me any websites you know for asian news~

Of course, credits to the creators of the websites that are used in this post.

Good Bye.... Prince Happiness :P

~Happy Birthday hide~

Today (13th of December) is hide's birthday!!! I really miss him such a kind soul that is already not in this world. Well, if you like VK you don't have to heard hide or X's music not to know who he is. This pink haired and shy smiled dressed in flamboyant costumes.

My favourite thing about hide, he helped a girl who was born with a illness, that was extremely rare, her name is Mayuko Kishi (she already passed away in 2009 :'() well hide donated his bone marrow to her, the long and short of it and she ultimately out-lived him. She was at his funeral, where Yoshiki comforted her despite his heartache.

The internet has some articles taken from her diary, floating around and you can read it. Then you can fully understand the extent the kindness that hide was.

Everyone, imagines him as a being very tough and "macho" but he's really shy and sweet, actually all of X Japan are.

Here are some song recommendations from me:

"Pink Spider" - I guess that hide's most famous song. Apparently, it was the nickname that Yoshiki gave hide, who originally didn't like the nickname but I guess, he grew to like it (?). I'm not too sure, you can correct me in the comment box.

"Beauty and Stupid"- incredibly catchy, fast-paced song, very 'hide' like.

"Rocket Dive" - again so freakin catchy, the MV of this song is cool.

"Eyes Love You" - hide has white hair and is wearing a white outfit.

"Goodbye" - is probaly the only ballad here, where hide just plays a guitar wearing simple clothes.

"Junk Story"- fast paced, guitar solo *thumbs up*. --->>>> this is my favourite song.

Thank you for reading XD My next post will be about my favourite blogs, so basically, the ones I follow but I'll share with you, why I decided to follow these blogs.... *comeback to read next post especially if I follow you*

Favourite Jrock bands and why?

Tell me your favourite Jrock bands and why? I want to see which bands are the most popular, lately I've listened to Dog in the Parell World (I was shocked by how deep the vocalists voice is), Acid Black Cherry (Yasu's blonde hair makes him look even more handsome) and more of An Cafe/SuG/The Gazette.

I'm interested in Panic Channel, Nightmare and Plastic Tree, of course I love X Japan, I love all of there songs, I also like their drive and how they pursued when they had nothing. Did you know originally Toshi was on guitar and Yoshiki was on vocals, however Yoshiki's voice was weak and high-pitched. Obviously, no records could be sold on such a interesting singing voice lol........... Yoshiki is talented in so many other areas, he doesn't matter that he can't sing. There were two other members originally and then the left the group... I can't remember their names :/

Anyways, tell me. Your favourite bands, songs and why?

In X Japan, my favourite member is either Yoshiki Hayashi, Hideto Matsumoto or Sugizo

In An Cafe, my favourite members... why don't you go on my 'Prince Happiness An Cafe's 30 Day Challenge' and find out. Its my other blog, so just go to my profile :P and choose that blog!!!

My favourite member of The Gazette is Uruha and Kai.

On a light note: It's almost Christmas and what does everyone wish for? What kind of celebrations, do you like about Christmas?

Happy Birthday King Yoshiki!

Today (as in 20th of November since I published it yesterday) is Yoshiki Hayashi (Leader, composer, songwriter, drummer and best friend of vocalist Toshi) of X Japan~ he has been part of a band called Globe and is a midst of producing Violet UK. He is also part of Super band S.K.I.N which also has members Sugizo, Miyavi and Gackt (Now, you can see why it's a SUPER band). In the same room, you can get Yoshiki, Sugizo, Miyavi and Gackt, I'm sorry but that's pretty awesome!

Check out Yoshiki's twitter to see his updates and he posted a picture of his birthday cake-->  http://twitter.com/yoshikiofficial (You can follow him here if you would like, if you have Twitter but you don't have too)

Check his official Facebook page here --> http://www.facebook.com/messages/conversation-id.363866897039508#!/YoshikiOfficial?fref=ts  (You can also follow him here if you would like, if you have facebook, again you don't have too, his fb official page includes his google (social thingy) and weibo (chinese twitter) accounts).

I know this post is late~ but Yoshiki and X Japan are truly great!

"Born to be free, no one can steal my life away," -X Japan

Also, I feel some people say that X Japan's new stuff after they reformed isn't that great. I think they are expecting too much. They are no longer young, they can't be screaming and shouting, druming and playing for ages.

Yoshiki has a hernia disk thingy and has to wear a neck brace when he plays the drums :( he did this because he loves his fans and music, he completely destroyed his neck. Although, I'm glad he's not as skinny as he used to be. He looks healthy and musclar now!!

There aren't really words to describe how much I love Yoshiki Hayashi! so thank you for being born and being here today~ thank you for pursing your dream and making X Japan real.

I look forward too all the projects and music you'll do, I will keep supporting and loving you as a dedicated fan!!! <3

~Be Strong, Be Pop (LM.C Quote)~

Actually, I haven't got any drawings to show you but I wanted to draw some pictures of what I want my future band (Art Of Life) to wear, I like all the sparkly, jewel stuff that bands like Versailles where especially Teru and his white cape, I love Kamijo's shoes though!

I'll post the drawings once I've drawn them, any suggestions are welcome~ but I don't want anything too boring, after all I draw my inspiration from old and current VK bands~ always so dramatic and theatrical in their visuals.

Of course, music is most important aspect so people will buy your CD's and Concert tapes etc, right? BUT us VK fans love seeing their new costumes, new concepts and different hairstyles, I know I feel the same~ even for bands that I do not know very well like Ace or Paradeis, I enjoy seeing their new styles.

An Cafe's Amazing Blue clothes are really awesome, I think they look very hmmm what's the world, it kinda reminds me of clothes that a prince would wear, because it's elegant and sparkly ~ and I love Miku's hat. I guess Japanese people are very fashionable!

What about you? what kind of VK bands styles, do you like? >.<

Anyways a recommedation of a song that I really like 'Ghost' by Gackt !

Don't say I didn't warn you, when the song lyrics become really catchy and the dancing, well lets say that Gackt has his own style of dancing? shall we?

Please be patient and wait for my pictures, I'm very busy at the moment lots of sporting activities like swimming, tennis and squash :)

~My Discovery into Jrock~

So basically, lately I've become a huge Jrock fan, lately as in last six to nine months before I was a truly dedicate Kpop fan (I still am) to bands like Super Junior, actors like Jang Geun Suk and Lee Jun Ki, but with Lee Jun Ki entering military service and Super Junior members, my music switched towards Jrock, also during any stressful period listening to music that was too cheerful all the time didn't help~ please don't get me wrong, I'm still a dedicated 'ELF' and 'eel '(SJ+JGS fan club) and Lee Jun Ki etc.

I came across the Pink Spider (hide) through Kim Heechul of Super Junior, who is a Jrock fan himself (I'm not really sure what bands he likes) and he sang Pink Spider at one of SJ's concerts, although I haven't been able to find a clip of him singing this song, anyways I clicked on hide's page, this bright-haired, cute young man dressed in a red attire immediately I was intrigued by him.

I actually gasped when I read the personal information bar and it showed the day of his death underneath his date of birth, just 33 years old, hide had already gone, he spread his wings and left this world in 1998.

About six months later, I started listening to X Japan's song's Silent Jealously, then I stopped listening to any Jrock music for about a year? I think...last year I focused on a lot of pop, hip hop and rap music from Korea,  Taiwan and Hong Kong, then in the end of last year, I started listening to hide and enjoyed all of his songs, none of them left me any disappointment from the slow, paced simple PV of Goodbye then the fast movements, bright colours and fancy hairstyles of Dice and then in Jan-Feb, I started listening to X Japan's music and I really liked Endless Rain, Born To Be Free, Jade, Tears, Kurenai etc...beautifully composed songs~!

Now, I'm venturing into other bands and artists like Gackt (Vanilla, Ghost, Love Letter), The Gazette (Filth In The Beauty), Versailles (Reverant Choir), An Cafe (Ryuusei Rocket, Smile Ichiban Ill Onna, Snow Scene etc), SuG (GimmeXGimme), I hope I can listen to more bands in the future and also widen my knowledge, next on my list to listen too are Nightmare (Hitsugi, he's so cute and sweet despite his fierce makeup and numerous piercings), Buck Tick, Glay (got to listen to some of the legendary bands in this scene).

Any suggestions and songs? Everything is welcome! >.<