50 Fun Facts About Visual Kei

Visual kei band Nightmare's songs The World and Alumina were the first opening and ending themes of which anime?

Death Note used Nightmare's The World as its first opening and Alumina as its first ending, across the first nineteen episodes. The exposure made the band from Sendai a major name in visual kei.

In 2009 Sanrio launched a merchandise line blending X Japan's Yoshiki with which famous mascot character?

Hello Kitty and the drummer merge in Yoshikitty, the first Sanrio character modeled on a real person. In 2018 it out-polled the original character in Sanrio's own popularity ranking.

Visual kei guitarist Miyavi played a brutal prison camp corporal in which 2014 film directed by Angelina Jolie?

Unbroken cast Miyavi as Mutsuhiro Watanabe, the corporal who singles out Olympic runner Louis Zamperini for beatings. Back home he is known for a finger-slapping style of guitar playing.

Cross-dressing visual kei musicians are often likened to onnagata, the men who play women in which Japanese theatre?

Kabuki has relied on onnagata since 1629, when women were banned from its stages. In visual kei the look rose to prominence with Malice Mizer, whose guitarist Mana performed dressed as a woman.

X Japan's 2007 reunion single I.V. was the main theme of the fourth film in which horror series?

Saw IV got its main theme after the studio asked Yoshiki to compose one, and he chose to record it with his newly reunited band. The single arrived a decade after X Japan had broken up.

L'Arc-en-Ciel, which began as a visual kei band in Osaka, has a French name meaning what?

The Rainbow is what the French name means, and Japanese fans shorten it to Laruku. The band has had no association with visual kei since its major-label debut in 1994.

Shazna singer Izam, famous in 1990s visual kei for his feminine look, was inspired by which British pop star?

Boy George and his band Culture Club were Izam's main influence, and in 1998 he recorded a whole album of their songs. Shazna's major-label debut album sold over a million copies.

The band X became X Japan in 1992 to avoid confusion with a punk group from which American city?

Los Angeles is home to the punk group X, whose prior claim on the name mattered once the Japanese band signed an American deal with Atlantic Records. The planned US album never came out.

Golden Bomber, the visual kei act behind the hit Memeshikute, is famous for doing what on stage?

Not playing its instruments is the whole act: the members dance and stage comic dramas instead. Only singer Sho Kiryuin plays anything for the band.

Gackt, once the singer of Malice Mizer, voiced and co-created the character Genesis for which video game franchise?

Final Fantasy VII's prequel Crisis Core features Genesis Rhapsodos, a character modeled on Gackt, voiced by him and partly his own creation. His voice samples also became the Vocaloid singer Gackpoid.

The term visual kei comes from a slogan printed on the cover of which 1989 X Japan album?

Blue Blood's cover carried a band slogan that a magazine editor later shortened into a name for the whole scene. The album stayed on Japan's chart for more than 100 weeks.

Which monthly magazine, founded in 1990 by editor Seiichi Hoshiko, was the first devoted to visual kei?

Shoxx gave the scene its first dedicated publication, and its founder is also credited with coining the scene's name. Each issue put a different act on the cover with a 20-page feature.

Before the term visual kei caught on, bands like X Japan were labelled okeshou kei, which means what?

Makeup style struck editor Seiichi Hoshiko as too cheap a label for such a big band, so he told his writers to stop using it. Fans later clipped his replacement down to V-kei.

Silver-Rose, Kuroyume and Laputa led an early-1990s visual kei scene, more about music than fashion, in which city?

Nagoya gave the darker, music-first style its name, Nagoya kei. Kuroyume, formed there in 1991, went on to top the national album chart twice.

Which visual kei subgenre, pioneered by An Cafe and Kra, pairs upbeat pop rock with bright, colorful outfits?

Oshare kei grew out of the wave of bands formed around 2004 that the press called neo-visual kei. An Cafe describe their own sound as Harajuku Dance Rock.

Which label, founded in 1986 by X Japan's Yoshiki, released the first albums by Luna Sea and Glay?

Extasy Records was funded with money Yoshiki's mother gave him when she sold her business. He said he never planned a big success, only to shake up the independent scene.

Malice Mizer, Shazna and La'cryma Christi were three of visual kei's Four Heavenly Kings; which band was the fourth?

Fanatic Crisis completed the quartet named at the height of the 1990s boom. By the decade's end major labels were backing out and visual kei slipped back underground.

About 50,000 people attended the 1998 funeral of which X Japan member at the Tsukiji Hongan-ji temple?

Hide was mourned on the warmest day of the year so far, and nearly 200 fans needed first aid. His single Pink Spider entered the chart at number one later that month.

The Last Live, the farewell concert X Japan played on New Year's Eve 1997, took place at which venue?

Tokyo Dome hosted X Japan on five straight New Year's Eves, and the farewell was the last of them. Later that night the band played Forever Love on the song contest Kohaku Uta Gassen.

X Japan's Yoshiki composed a classical piece in 1999 to mark ten years on the throne for which emperor?

Akihito's tenth anniversary was celebrated at the Imperial Palace, where Yoshiki played his piece Anniversary at the request of the Imperial family.

Art of Life, a heavily orchestrated 1993 release by X Japan, consists entirely of what?

One 29-minute song fills the whole record, which still reached number one on the album chart. It was the first release under the name X Japan, made after bassist Heath replaced Taiji.

Which Japanese prime minister, an X Japan fan, led the party that used the ballad Forever Love in 2001 ads?

Junichiro Koizumi was also reported to have helped get a museum for the band's late guitarist opened in Yokosuka in 2000. His Liberal Democratic Party ran the song in several commercials.

Yoshiki of X Japan composed the official theme music in 2012 for which Hollywood awards show?

The Golden Globes theme was later released on iTunes in 111 countries, with all proceeds going to charities chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

We Are X, a 2016 documentary about X Japan, won a special jury award for editing at which film festival?

Sundance hosted the premiere in January 2016, and Yoshiki played there with a string quartet. Stephen Kijak directed the film.

Dir En Grey crossed America in 2006 on the Family Values Tour, created and headlined by which nu metal band?

Korn created the tour and shared top billing that year with Deftones. Dir En Grey joined late, missing the first three shows.

The Gazette's 2010 single Shiver was the opening theme for the second season of which Victorian-set anime?

Black Butler chose Shiver, the first single the Gazette released after moving to Sony. Fellow visual kei band Sid had already sung an opening for the anime.

Besides guitar, Luna Sea's Sugizo is known for playing which classical instrument, learned from age three?

Violin lessons began at three on his father's initiative. Sugizo now switches between it and guitar on stage, including with X Japan, which he officially joined in 2009.

Days before Luna Sea's tenth-anniversary concert for 100,000 fans in 1999, what destroyed the elaborate stage set?

A gale wrecked the set on May 27, three days before the show, and at Sugizo's suggestion the band played on with the debris as its backdrop.

Luna Sea's first tour outside Japan, in 1999, visited Hong Kong, Shanghai and which other Asian city?

Taipei joined Hong Kong and Shanghai on the January tour, years ahead of the scene: most visual kei bands only began playing overseas after 2002.

Malice Mizer guitarist Mana's clothing label Moi-même-Moitié helped popularize which Japanese street fashion?

Gothic Lolita is the look Mana sells as Elegant Gothic Lolita through the label he founded in 1999. Its clothes have also been stocked by boutiques in Paris and the Netherlands.

As part of a long-running stage persona, former Malice Mizer singer Gackt has claimed to be what?

A vampire claim like his is the textbook example of visual kei's taste for decorative fantasy that audiences know is constructed. Gackt went solo in 1999 with a toned-down look.

Gackt and L'Arc-en-Ciel's Hyde starred together in which 2003 film set in a fictional Asian city?

Moon Child grew out of a story Gackt wrote himself, and it was filmed in Taiwan. The two singers also recorded its theme song together.

In 2012 L'Arc-en-Ciel became the first Japanese act to headline which famous New York City venue?

Madison Square Garden was not the original plan: the show was booked for the smaller theater inside the complex and then moved to the main arena. X Japan played there two years later.

Glay's name deliberately misspells gray to suggest rock, as black, blended with which genre, as white?

Pop was the white to rock's black in the official story of the name. Guitarist Hisashi has also said the spelling came from Jun Gray, a punk musician he read about in a magazine.

Atsushi Sakurai, Buck-Tick's singer for 38 years, first joined the band in 1983 playing which instrument?

Drums appealed to Sakurai because he thought they would be cool, but he had his mind set on singing. Toll Yagami took over the kit, completing a lineup that lasted until 2023.

Penicillin's 1998 single Romance, which sold over 900,000 copies, was the opening theme of which gag anime?

Sexy Commando Gaiden gave Penicillin its biggest hit: the single spent six straight weeks in the top ten of the Oricon chart.

Penicillin is named after Penicillin Shock, a fictional punk group in which 1980s manga by Atsushi Kamijo?

To-y ran in Weekly Shonen Sunday from 1985 to 1987, and its author later drew the cover art for a Penicillin album. The band's first album is titled after the fictional group.

Which vocalist, a fan of flashy hardcore punk, has fronted visual kei band Penicillin since its debut album?

Hakuei took the microphone from Chisato, who moved to guitar before anything was recorded. Hakuei recalls that the term visual kei did not yet exist when the band formed in 1992.

Kamijo and Hizaki formed which symphonic visual kei band in 2007, known for rococo costumes?

Versailles is billed in North America as Versailles Philharmonic Quintet. Kamijo had first asked Hizaki to start a band years earlier and was turned down.

Yoshiki, Gackt, Sugizo and Miyavi debuted the supergroup Skin at which American fan convention in 2007?

Anime Expo, held that year in Long Beach, California, hosted the debut. Yoshiki had struggled with the writing and finished only one song in time.

Ex-D'espairsRay drummer Tsukasa became known as the first visual kei singer of which Japanese music genre?

Enka became his new career after D'espairsRay disbanded in 2011 because of their singer's health. A visual kei journalist cited him among newer acts combining the style with other elements.

X Japan's Yoshiki took up drums after discovering which American hard rock band, a major visual kei influence?

Kiss hooked him as a boy, and in 2019 Yoshiki joined the band on stage in Japan, playing piano for the ballad Beth. He had earlier arranged Black Diamond for a tribute album.

Visual kei fans perform synchronized arm waves, headbangs and dives known together by which Japanese term?

Furi means movements, and each one has a name: hedoban is the headbang, tesensu the arm fan and gyakudai the reversed dive.

Japan's 2009 V-Rock Festival, a huge visual kei event, also featured which American shock rocker?

Marilyn Manson was one of a few Western guests among more than 50 acts at what was reported as the world's largest visual kei festival. A second edition followed in 2011.

Yohio, a visual kei-styled singer who twice competed in Melodifestivalen, comes from which country?

Sweden produced one of the few non-Japanese acts billed as visual kei. Yohio speaks Japanese and reached the Melodifestivalen final in both 2013 and 2014.

Which early visual kei band, fronted by Morrie, had two albums released in America by Metal Blade Records?

Dead End even had videos airing on MTV's Headbangers Ball. Singer Morrie went on to shape the look and vocal style of later stars such as Hyde and Kiyoharu.

Siam Shade is best known outside Japan for an ending theme from which anime about a wandering swordsman?

Rurouni Kenshin picked the song as its sixth ending theme in November 1997, pushing Siam Shade into the mainstream. The band had begun as a visual kei act and dropped the look by 1995.

Dir En Grey's name strings together a French word, an English word and a word from which other language?

German supplies the first word, dir, in a name once taken to mean grey silver coin. Guitarist Kaoru has since said it no longer means anything specific.

Glay Expo '99, a single concert that drew 200,000 fans in July 1999, took place at which Japanese convention centre?

Makuhari Messe hosted what was then the largest ticketed concert ever held by a single act. Glay had released their first album only five years earlier.

Yoshiki and Toshi, who founded X Japan, grew up together in Tateyama, a city in which prefecture?

Chiba's city of Tateyama now uses Forever Love as the departure melody at its railway station. The two friends formed their first band there when they were 11.