Japan-O-Vasion

Third Edition : The Muses of J-Pop Invade! (run for your lives!!)

Holy pop stars otaku! Japanese musicians are just cropping up everywhere these days. You can’t crack open your favorite manga with out catching some artist making a sneaky little cameo, or watch your newest anime without hearing some J-Rocker (or Popper) crooning the background. And have you ever had the sneaking suspicion you’ve seen your video game character in a J-Pop fansite gallery before? No you’re no imagining it, Japanese artists are everywhere, even on that milk carton you’re drinking directly out of. Gross dude, you can make people sick doing that. Didn’t anyone teach you manners?
Okay so maybe Hyde and Yoshiki aren’t on the missing photo of your milk carton, but they might as well be! (And no it’s not because they were kidnapped by crazed fan girls you silly nave!) But Japanese pop and rock stars seem to be everywhere you look now and days. I’ve noticed recently how saturated my mangas, animes, and video games are with Japanese singers. I don’t know if anyone else has notice this interesting (and cute!) trend but if you haven’t I have one question: WHAT ROCK HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING UNDER FOR THE PAST YEAR?!
Let me give you all just a brief description of the artists I’ve noticed cameo in my favorite mangas. We’ll start out with the most blatant use of a J-Rock in a manga, Ko Ya-Seong’s Under the Glass Moon. Anyone who’s even peeked at the book and has any working knowledge of Malice Mizer (shame on you if you don’t!) can quickly guess who I’m talking about. Madame Batolli is clearly, undeniably, and unmistakably modeled exclusively after our loveable (*cough* and frightening *cough*) Mana-sama. (I dare not use “Mana-chan” lest he hunt me down and whip me. I’ve seen the Illuminati PV people and I know he won’t cringe from a little bloody work!). Ko Ya-Seong confessed that the Madame was definitely Mana, the former guitarist of Malice Mizer and more recently Moi Dix Mon. When I first saw Madame B. I totally cracked up. I thought it was awesome to see that even in a Korean manga, or mangwa, there was so clearly a J-Rock influence. But as I went on in the series (sadly only two books L ) that J-Rock artists were popping up like daisies all over the place! In the first book on page 32, the Christmas party, check out the hotdog vender and hum this little ditty to yourself, Les Mizerables. BINGO! We have a confirmed Gackt sighting! That’s right my Camui fanatics, it’s your musical god all decked out in his ‘Dark Prince’ outfit from the Mizerable PV. And if you scan page 32 again you’ll catch the elusive Izam, heart inscribed with name included, chatting it up with Madame Batolli. Oh my little lovelies, it doesn’t conclude there. Hohoho, oh no! We still have book two! Unfortunately, with all my J-Pop stalking I could only find you one obvious J-Rocker. Madame Batolli’s forbidden love, Hakuei from Penicillin. On page 68 of volume two, Madame confides in Leila Franks that if a love potion really existed, Hakuei would be her’s already. Aww, poor Hakuei! But Ko Ya-Seong isn’t the only manga-ka spicing up the manga scenes with cameos from J-Pop looking doppelgangers.
Check out The Wallflower by Tomoko Hayakawa sometimes. In her authors blurts she writes she model her four bishonen characters after several Japanese musicians, a couple of which are from the indie band Risk. Granted none of the characters personalities are based on these musicians, just some of their looks. And if you like awkward hijinks, macabre humor, and enough bishonen to give you a nosebleed I suggest a box of tissues and The Wallflower for anyone!
Wait, wait, wait you say? There’s still someone in The Wallflower I’m forgetting? No way I’m forgetting that classic cameo baby! Once more the God of Music, aka Gackt, appears in Wallflower. He appears in volume two during the school festival. First on page 15 where he’s teasing poor Kyohei for causing an explosion. It’s not Kyohei’s fault disaster follows him around constantly! Bad Gackt! Stop picking on Kyohei! But Gackt couldn’t just pop in once and be done with it, no way. Try page 39. He flexes his history muscles and gives us all a quick and creepy fact about the school once being the sight of Edo executions. (It’s because you see dead people isn’t it Gackt? Stop it, you’re creeping me out!)
And while we’re on the subject of Gackt, and because I sold my soul to him for a bag of gummy bears, I have to mention Absolute Boyfriend by Yuu Watase. And I also have to admit that I think Absolute Boyfriend is incredibly adorable! But anyways, back to Gackt, if you’ve ever read Absolute Boyfriend you all know who Night is. And for you who haven’t (first you didn’t know Malice Mizer and now you don’t know about Night?! Shame upon you and your family! Shame, shame, shame, shame! The Gackt Goddess will smite you for your blasphemy against the Camui!) Even though you’ve all probably already figured it out I still have to say it: Night is modeled after Camui Gackt. And isn’t he so hot? I think Night is totally kawaii! And the fact he’s always undressing suddenly is hilarious! I couldn’t stop laughing the first time I read Absolute Boyfriend in Shojo Beat Magazine. I’m addicted now and my sides hurt real bad from all the giggling.
Let me apologize and warn those of you reading on from this point who aren’t Gackt fans. I realize a lot of people out there can’t stand Camui Gackt’s music, voice, movies, face, whatever and I don’t hold it against you. You’re decision, your life, I won’t try and convince you otherwise. Personally I think Camui Gackt is a great singer and I feel inspired by his music. Please just stop reading this right now if you can’t stand another minute of Gackt cause there’s going to be about a gazillion more mentions of him from here on out. For the rest of you who are intrigued or are Gackt fans I encourage you to continue reading this article and join this group started by the Gackt Goddess, Nora-san: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/gacktnights/ . Okay that was my warning / plug for Gackt Nights. Back to my intensive stalking, err, I mean J-Rock spotting.
I haven’t actually seen Gackt or a Gackt look alike in any animes, and if there is go ahead and give me a shout out! But I know of two animes that have Gackt openings and closing. The opening for the Fist of the North Star series is and the closing is Oasis, both by Gackt. As well the closing of Texyholica is Uta no Tsuki, or “Song of the Moon” by Camui Gackt. If I’m missing any just drop me a line and remind me.
Finally we come to video games, one of my favorite topics! I know you guys probably don’t believe me but I am a huge girl gamer. If I had the chance I would so join the Frag Dolls, though I doubt I’d be on par with most of them. I love gaming but I’ll be the first to admit I’m not always the best gamer. But still here’s my record is Bujingai: Forsaken City beaten in four days (most likely something like 26 or 28 hours but I had to take time to go to work, eat, sleep, and go to school so it had to be broken up into four days) without cheats or strategy guide. And wanna know the coolest part? Yep, it had Gackt! The main character of the game, Lau, is not only modeled after Gackt but Gackt did all of Lau’s voice acting and motion capturing. As an added bonus you can collect gold coins throughout the game to unlock certain goodies like an interview with Gackt, the press conference to announce the game’s release, Gackt’s motion capture session, and a clothing change from Lau to Gackt. That’s right Dears, you can play as Gackt! I did and it was so hilarious. I found it very amusing, and a tad bit ridiculous, to be running around defeating Ice Dragons and zombie demons dressed in leather pants, a snake skin shirt (isn‘t it snake skin?), and sunglasses. (Personally I thought it would be really great if they had a second wardrobe change to Gackt’s character Sho from Moon Child. Running around in a white trench coat would have been much more convincing then the actually wardrobe change in the game.)
But I can’t mention video games and Gackt without the obvious gamer double that’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Final Fantasy 8’s Squall Leonheart. Even Gackt thinks he got ripped off. When Gackt calls a game character ‘Gackt Two’ you know it look like him!
So there it is, your quick education in Japanese musician cameos in mangas, animes, and video games. So the next time you think someone looks a lot like your favorite singer it could just be a possibility that it is. So keep your eyes open and your ears. Good luck and good night from your favorite Voodoo Doll, Mysse.
Ps: BTW- I realize that I didn’t Gackt’s name a gazillion times in case you were counting but I mentioned it enough to give me a hand cramp! So nya!

Japan-O-Vasion

Second Edition : Vanilla, the Finest of the Flavors

Turn it up! I wanna hear that funky beat blazing out the windows when I cruise main street! Sing along with me “kimi no boku wa Vanilla” or for those who don’t know Gackt’s “Vanilla” (oh the horror!) let me translate, “ I am your Vanilla” . Yes it’s a very dirty, dirty (did I mention tasty?) song. I was once told that art is the barometer of a time period in history, the emotional map to an era. And I have also been told that music, with it’s primal origins and significance, is the art of overcoming differences and appealing to people on the deepest emotional level possible. Music carries a message, if you get it or not it leaves you with some sort of response. There’s no escaping music, it’s all around you. Pounding on your cranium and doing a salsa through your eardrums. Try and deny that the earworm doesn’t bite you and leave you humming the most annoying, tedious song all day. Yah, you know it does!! Sugar pop sticky goodness melting into ever fissure of your brain. Music connects us even when we disagree and have nothing else in common. To quote Deep Blue Something “and I said what about Breakfast at Tiffany’s and you said yah I think we both kind of liked that.” We even write songs about connecting to each other! You don’t always have to understand every word, hell you don’t even have to speak to language to know a good song when you hear it. You just have to listen and take it in, let it move you. Don’t concentrate on the words, they’re just a gurgling of syllables assembled together to represent something we like to chit chat about. It’s what underneath the words, in the voice, in the soul, in the music. It’s the raw surging emotion. That tingle you feel in your finger tips that makes them itch, the tapping in your foot, the chills down your spine as all the little hairs stand up in unison. Yah lovelies, that’s the feeling, that’s the music.
I learned this lesson one day while dredging through my routines at school. I was at a bad place in my life, dark and alone and frightened of my own existence. Yet somehow, but some saving grace, I was found by someone who cared. She gave to me a gift that teenagers had been sharing in homes, schools, dark alleyways, and high rises for years. She gave me music, music that moved me to tears. I had no clue what he was saying, no clue what it all meant, but it hit me somewhere deep inside and knocked the air out of me. A dark, beautiful voice dripping with melancholy whispering to me miserable. It was the word that described my very soul, lost in some dark shattered place. I was all alone in my suffering when everyone was waiting to me to step outside my own self loathing and return to them. Gackt, with his simple words in Japanese, ripe with longing and sentiment, broke me out of a depression that could have easily claimed my life forever and looked ready to. I took in that sensation I felt course through my body, that chilly fingers down the spine, the fuzzy electrical shock through my spirit. Deep in the core of it’s essence that’s the fundamental nature of music, a tool to help us see past our own blinded soul and into a world where our eyes burn with consciousness and revelation. Peer past the gossamer webs that bind us to our selfishness and shortsightedness. Crack down the windows, turn up that radio, strum that guitar and rub your fingers lovingly over those ivory keys. Spread the word, carry extra copies of your favorite song or artist next t you when you go for a drive. Be ready for someone to reach out with questing minds and ask for you to point to them where the path begins. Be gracious my darlings, and remember it is all in charity you open the blind man’s eyes to the world he never knew. Give us music because it is our liberty, lest we are given death before we know what sweet bliss there is for us. Sweet, sweet Vanilla….I gave my love to you. Your Voodoo doll, Mysse