(un)helpful guide to tanuki (and the problem with the visual kei fandom)

[@callachuchii]

as a new international fan, i went from "how does a raccoon influence a whole community" to "oh..."

[@lustgut]

Lmaooo you get it

[@kimy5352]

I've been into visual kei for more than 10 years and this video is so necessary. VK has a big dark side that some people aren't ok to see. It's literaly a world apart of the world.

[@lulumo9337]

as a western fan, I would never have known what tanuki is without you explaining it. ty babes xx

[@mirushiroi]

i'm really happy to know that this helped! thank you so much for watching ☺️

[@Virgules]

Tbh this video was a need , You explained things really well, when I was talking to my friends about vkei I couldn’t find the words to explain to them what’s different from other musical cultures. But now I think I could explain them better lol!! I completely agree with your comments towards the end btw, vkei is really special and cannot be appreciated by everyone that’s why i don’t promote it

[@sparemedea]

was trying to find a guide for some friends i'm dragging into the vkei scene with me and your video was more than enough for me. thank you so much for this, the visual kei community needs more people like you.

[@radio_cooking_ghost]

tbh, saying this as a total newbie to the fandom, i kinda like how blunt vkei songs can be about such startling topics. it's refreshing in a sense. *tl;dr at the end, wall of text ahead* a lot of people treat such topics like the devil himself is gonna crawl his way up to grab you if you do so much as mention them. i stumbled on one of Gackt's old concerts while scrolling through youtube, and have been falling down the rabbit hole ever since. when trying to describe it to my (completely confused) friends, i often equate vkei to hardcore punk rock: both put a focus on things considered too taboo or sensitive to be discussed in typical life. it's disturbing. it's depressing. it's perverse in more ways than one. but sometimes it becomes someone's way of venting everything that makes them want to scream and cry. sometimes it's startling for pure shock value (think games like Little Misfortune). you can't know what's going through the bands' heads as they're writing these. what's terrifying to one may be a weight off their chest or a feeling put to words for another. it's basically raw, unfiltered emotion. i mean, he||, i'm a teenage transmasc surrounded by people who think genuine, near-su!c!dal depression is peak comedy. vkei feels like a godsend sometimes. *tl;dr: vkei isn't afraid to shout taboos from the rooftops and as someone who's practically a walking taboo, i appreciate it.*

[@coni3901]

I'm a new south american fan and I been expose to people talking very explicit to suicide violence abuse etc since a really Young age I think people should talk their things without being interrupted(? And I agree to that vkei is a very problematic and sometimes toxic community but I think I can handle with it Idk and I really aprecciate you for making safe places to people.

[@maria-9544]

We have more thicker skin than gringos and that's those things don't scare us, but it scares them away

[@lustgut]

Lmao you said gringos

[@Jilukapedia]

Tsunagari are anyone connected to a bandmen outside of the fanxartist dynamic. Family, friends, stylists, etc can be tsunagari

[@D00m3r3tt3]

I haven't thought about Tanuki in so long bro I'm shocked anybody remembers🤣

[@ktgrnhig]

As for K-pop fans being what’s “wrong” with the VK fandom? No, I wouldn’t agree overall. Yes, the international fandom is maybe a bit more sensitive than in the past, but the domestic VK fandom developed some toxic behaviours all on their own with pretty much zero gaijin influence. I think the bigger issue is newer international fans becoming obsessed with how the Japanese fandom operates, and trying to emulate that (combined with said increased political sensitivity that is largely absent from the Japanese fandom). By saying that, I mean becoming obsessed with only one band, getting angry if they find out their favourite band member is dating or married, etc.

[@voyager_-gi3dc]

Kiryu fans were saying that they were going to boycott the band after Takemasa revealed that he had gotten married. He didn’t even want to reveal it, but he had to because the fans were harassing him and his wife over social media. It’s really quite sad, VK bandmen should be able to live and enjoy their lives just like everyone else.

[@ktgrnhig]

@@voyager_-gi3dc Yeah, that’s a big example I was thinking of. Also, I think Fuck Yeah Tanuki translated a few threads where some of the Japanese fans would follow band men out in public while they were on dates and try to take photos without their knowledge (Minpha, Tasturo and Kyo were among those being followed). A lot of people like to pretend that the problem with the VK fandom is all about foreigners, but both sides of the fandom have their own issues. They just tend of get riled up and overreact to different things.

[@voyager_-gi3dc]

I think the craziest thing is that VK artists rarely get cancelled for things that are actually worth being cancelled over. Nocturnal Bloodlust and MUCC did blackface so they should immediately fall into that category and there’s a big long line of terrible things the members of Mejibray have done, but “oh Tsuzuku has a mental illness so him beating up his gf is okay” no it’s not. It’s hard being a fan sometimes lol

[@ktgrnhig]

@@voyager_-gi3dc The members of MUCC appeared in a photo with Hiro of Nocturnal Bloodlust, while he was wearing a mask of a surprised black man (just for context for anyone reading). It was Merry who did a photo shoot that looked quite a bit like blackface (whether that was actually their intention, probably not). A lot of these stories get spread around through gossip boards and it can be hard to really verify what happened unless the story is major enough to get an actual news article written about it. So I can *kind* of understand how many fans don’t want to jump to conclusions based off of someone’s dubious Tanuki translation. As for stories with actual news coverage, those are also the ones in which the band members or management are also more likely to directly respond to, so we have a bit more of an accurate picture of what actually went on. The line *should* be drawn at actually advocating that violence and sexual assault are “no big deal” if they happen, just because they happen to like the bandoman.

[@International愚民のDIAURA]

oh yeah i remember that i read about yo-ka (diaura) that he had this fetish of during stuff at his home he wanted to be called MASTER and other kinky things at first i was like "well looking at him and his image he created i could not expect less" like i really believed that was true based on what he showed on interview, on stage, his aura etc... (toh ngl DIAURA is my favourite band, they get me into the asian music in general i even got tattooed the logo and names of the members and even spended 300€ to have his same outfit in the remake of the video "Shitsuyoku no Seiiki", my favourite song after "Lost November" - "Lily" and "Silent Majority") or another one was about Tatsuya (diaura) that he passed a disease that can be passed only by going to do stuff in bed with him or even about Subaru (royz) that he was violent, rude and other stuff but nowadays recalling this i'm like "well is not my business either is true or false"

[@auroreboreale69]

that is felt, after 15 years being away from the vk community I agree that it can be toxic, but I guarantee you the 2000s where much worse, now I feel safer coming back in thanks to peopel like you, newer fans added fruit juice in the strong alcohol mixing that is the vk community cocktail (hope the metaphor makes sense) and I feel safer to be more myself...sure as an old fan I try not to be too elitist because I knew a lot of elitist fans when I was a newbie...also I heard of tanuki for the first time only a few years ago!

[@deadlychan8764]

Very helpful video thanks!

[@voyager_-gi3dc]

Heyo! Visual Kei fan since 2016 (idk if that would make me a veteran at this point? Idk). I can vouch for what you said about the community being toxic. The VK community was so toxic on Amino that I had to leave. Also I wanna bring up the rumor that Tsuzuku from Mejibray was abusive to his ex-girlfriend. I wonder if it came from Tanuki? This was around 2017. He also had a mental breakdown live on stage. Everyone told me to shut up about it since I’m not a Mejibray fan and “had no room to talk.” Still, wondering if that’s where that came from, and can verify what you said in the video from experience.

[@International愚民のDIAURA]

i read that tsuzuku have a borderline disorder personality so who knows, it could be true because is a typical behaviour like i have a classmate that was so bad toward her boyfriend it was so sad to see it

[@voyager_-gi3dc]

The worst thing about that whole situation tho was that people on Amino were saying that it was okay for Tsuzuku to do horrible things because he has a mental illness. When the allegations came out, people were immediately bashing the ex-gf and pouring out the excuses for Tsuzuku. Like I know it’s your fave but don’t pretend like your fave can’t do anything wrong. It was a dark time for the Visual Kei fandom lol

[@ichi_san]

Great video, its very important sharing this side of the vkei culture and how messy it can be... it remind me a bit of rock/roll culture in that sense. I hope the KPOP fans stay safe, KPOP is very fabricated and made from fantasy entertainment so vkei could be a bit more dangerous.

[@widyapandupermana5777]

vk fans from 2008 and knew about tanuki-y is really "uhmm okay" and forgot all about it *lol

[@andresjaramillo-w3c]

I read on tanuki that Kamijo is married and with children I read too about yuki you can deny it but it seems the real kamijo and yuki were talking there as i read that bandomen have talked on tanuki with fans for me is real that kamijo and yuki talked on tanuki

[@maplesalt1482]

I've only been listening to vkei for a couple months, all I see around is people losing their minds about visual kei dying and how can they save visual kei. I don't know fully how the music industry works in Japan, but just looking at this I could see why a musician in Japan wouldn't even want to mess with this community. It doesn't seem like they value the musicianship that goes into it all that much, which seems pretty sad.

[@andresjaramillo-w3c]

So it means kamijo really commented on tanuki?

[@kerokerokeroppi6399]

so true