7 posts tagged “kisaki”

I want to direct your attention to this photo, not because Kaoru and KISAKI look ridiculous standing next to each other. I'm not even going to go into any rumors surrounding the breakup of La:Sadies/formation of Dir en grey, oh-no!

Kaoru and KISAKI

Ladies (and gents, possibly), take a careful look at this picture and learn from it this valuable lesson:

NEVER wear a foundation that's 3 shades lighter than your actual skin tone!

You end up looking like a half-white, half-tan two-colored clown. A fair-skined face may be valued in Asia, but having such an obvious demarcation between your face and the rest of your body looks foolish. If you must lighten your face, you better do the same to any part of your body that gets exposed too!

All right, rant over. Carry on!

I got out of work early today (*gasp*) and decided to take a walk around my neighborhood. I stopped by Barnes & Noble and picked up the latest issue of purple SKY.

Then I saw the Kra interview and after a few seconds of reading, I had to flip past the pages in disgust. Damn, how I loathe those short, one-sentence answers that Kra gave.

For example:

Do you feel anything odd when singing with women's language?

Not at all.

Care to elaborate, Mister Uematsu Keisuke?

What a waste of time and paper and printing ink.

Thankfully, the LM.C interview was freaking excellent! The KISAKI interview, to my delight, was also incredibly informative. I highly recommend getting the magazine if only for these two interviews alone if you're a fan of either artist/band.

Edit 1:

Oh, I just started reading this interview with J (ex LUNA SEA)'s ex-support guitarist and Foo Fighter's ex-guitarist Franz Stahl, conducted by Go of jrocknyc. Damn, it's turning out to be insanely awesome!

Edit 2:

And before any of you ask me to scan the pages (and I've gotten similar requests before), I'm going to just state my policy. I will not scan the magazine, at all. Because first, I don't own a scanner and second, I have no wish to rip purple SKY off. Just buy the magazine if you want to read it (at Borders, Barnes & Noble, Hot Topic, or online at the magazine's homepage).

If you can't get it at your home country, you should definitely contact purple SKY and request them to find a way to make the magazine available in your country. purple SKY is new and needs as much (monetary) support from us J-Rock fans as possible.

If you live in the US, you have no excuse not to buy it if you want to read it. Can't afford the $6? Then do what most people do, look at the magazine when you're at the bookstore and put it back on the shelf once you're done.

News credit to the Livejournal under_code community.

So yes, Phantasmagoria is indeed disbanding. KISAKI has retired from performing, but will remain the head executive of UNDER CODE PRODUCTION.

Phantasmagoria, 2004-2007

"So, Iori and Matoi are leaving. Are you guys disbanding?"
"We didn't say anything about disbanding."

"With the recent tax problem, how will Phantasmagoria be affected?"
"It won't."

"Phantasmagoria will be 'sealed'? Does that mean it's disbanding?"
"Did we say disband?"

"Oh, KISAKI's retiring? Phantasmagoria is officially disbanded, right?"
"It's sealed. We didn't say disband."

Gee, they really took a while to just tell us for sure.

The excellent suicide_gemini has posted a translation of KISAKI's sentencing for tax evasion.

Go read it if you care.

Here's a quick summary of the verdict:

• 1 year and 6 months of jail time, suspended for 4 years (meaning: he's not going to jail, but on probation for 4 years)
• 12,000,000 yen fine

This turned out to be a criminal charge after all. This is a pretty damn important detail to have left out. Ugh, I hate it when newspapers don't specify the nature of a lawsuit and make me wonder.

KISAKI got off rather easily, too. Personally, I would not have been so merciful had I been the judge. He probably got the suspension as part of a plea bargain since he did plead guity. Well, at least he's a free man now until he commits some infraction, or misdemeanor, or lesser included offense, or whatever necessary to trigger the original sentence under the Japanese judicial system.

Still, suspended jail sentence = victory for KISAKI

Here's KISAKI's blog entry the day after the court appearance (this is where you find the picture of him with men in suits with briefcases).

Due to request, I'm going to post a few highlights that particularly amused me or I found interesting from the KISAKI interview in the winter 2007 issue of purple SKY magazine. I definitely encourage you all to subscribe to purple SKY. Support the first major North American English language J-Rock magazine.

I really love the fact that a bit of KISAKI's personality came through the text and am glad to know he has a quirky sense of humor. We all know that KISAKI is by no means without flaws, but this interview made him seem even more real and down to earth. Kudos to Brian "boo" Stewart for conducting an excellent interview. Now without further ado...

On popularity with female fans

If an American band had as much of a female following as you do, it seems like there would be alot of fooling around. How about you guys, are you players?

KISAKI: (without a pause) I am.

Riku: (uproarious laughter)

K: Totally.

R: (laughter continues)

On La:Sadies (pre-Dir en grey)

Is Kyo the same man he was then?

K: You mean as a person? No, I think he's changed, but he's always been an individual. He was an intense guy and I can kinda imagaine how he got like he is.

Do you stay in touch with him?

K: Not anymore. I only stay in touch with Kaoru and Die. Kyo and me are (making buzzing noise and raises hands in the form of an X)

Is that right? Did you have a fight?

K: We didn't have a fight really, we just aren't on good terms.

So, why did La:Sadies break up?

K: Why did we break up? It's like I was telling you, yeah, I wanted to get to the top but I didn't want to go to Tokyo. I wanted to keep the band in Osaka.

On fan service

Does Phantasmagoria do fan service?

K: We do our fair share.

Is that to express your love for one another or just for show?

K: No, we do it with love. Well I do. Riku's another story....

R: (giggling)

What does he mean?

K: Riku likes men.

Is that so?

R: Yes, I'm bisexual.

Oh I see. Well how about it then? You two kiss right now, right here.

R: I would be totally OK with that.

K: I, would not. (laughing)

On music vs. sex

If you had to give up one of these things forever, which would you choose: Sex or Music?

K: (small voice) Sex.

Ah, you're a contender!

K: What about you, which one?

(smaller voice) ... sex.

R: Well then put me down for sex too.

That was just a small sample of the interview. There were a lot of other... juicy details I left out (I cut the bit when KISAKI elaborated on the La:Sadies breakup, for example. I was too lazy to type it all). You should go buy the magazine at a Barnes & Noble bookstore if you want more. :D

Has everyone had a good Christmas? I feel so scatter-minded and lethargic, must be the holidays. This post will be a collection of bits of J-Rock news because it doesn't require me to think.

One.

D will release their Tafel Anatomie Tour Final at Shibuya Koukaidou DVD on March 14, 2007. Isn't this their first live DVD? I look forward to seeing "Leukocyte" and "Glow in the sun" performed live.

Two.

alice nine. will release their new maxi single on March 21. I haven't been too pleased with their two post-Zekkeishoku singles. Yes, that NUMBER SIX. movie was endearing. I admit I was pleased at seeing Saga acting like a bitch <3. But dudes, while it's important to make your fangirls happy, focus on your music a bit more please. I hope the band can step it up with the new songs.

Three.

Ah yes, the Danger Crue "DANGER V" all stars concert at Budokan was yesterday. Danger Crue has quite a number of high profile artists (high profile in my book, that is) in its lineup, like SID, girugamesh, MUCC, Creature Creature, plus L'Arc~en~Ciel members' solo projects (Ken, tetsu, S.O.A.P.). According to a lovely member of the SID LJ Community, HYDE performed too. What? I don't remember seeing his name on the set list! And isn't he on another sub-label of Sony, Haunted Records?!

Now Danger Crue, be smart and release a live DVD of this concert. I guarantee you that this DVD will be a hit among the fans. Don't let this opportunity to make even more money pass you by! Besides, I want to see that fanservice between Aki of SID and Miya of MUCC. (All I know is that they got "reaaaaally friendly", but details man, I want details!)

Four.

This is completely trivial, I know. But, Gazette has revealed their new look for the Hyena single (coming in February). What can I say, Ruki's pimp look rocks. But after that photoshoot, Ruki got rid of his dreads. Uruha has returned to showing off his thighs. Poor man, even though he doesn't like exposing so much of his legs, he's pressured into dressing that way anyway because he has to meet fangirls' expectations.

Five.

As a follow-up to my previous post about KISAKI, he apologized on his blog and reassured fans that UNDER CODE will be fine. Yada, yada, yada. Since I had a week to cool down and it looks like the penalties only apply to KISAKI, not UNDER CODE, I'm not so upset over this anymore. VIDOLL, rock on!

Random and Unrelated:

Ahh! America's Ballroom Challenge just finished on PBS. It freaking ruled. I still think the smooth dance couple should have won the final championship though.

KISAKI prosecuted for 46-million-yen tax evasion

I. Don't. Fucking. Believe. This.

I'm so pissed, disappointed, crushed right now. GOD DAMMIT!

Tax-fucking-evasion?! Transferring earnings from music sales and lives into his own family account?

What the bloodiest of bloody hells was the man thinking?! How will this affect UNDER CODE and Phantasmagoria's future? He's probably slammed by both criminal and civil suits, and I don't even know by how many counts. He better hire a good lawyer (assuming he can also appeal, how the heck does it work in Japan anyway?) or this incident might screw over a lot of people. I hope the penalties don't bankrupt him. Compensatory damages (46 mil. yen), punitive damages (64 mil. yen), attorney fees (whatever that is), maybe even prison time and/or fines (if the criminal suit also applies), what a fun picnic.

PS: I'm not using the term "suit" correctly in the legal sense, but I don't think anyone would throw a fit over it.