What does -scape- mean to you?

Hi all!

So, while I rarely post, I've been a lurker on this forum since 2007. I used to come on here quite frequently from 2007-2009 but for the past several years I only stop by from time to time. It always makes me happy to see that people are still on here! I stopped by scape again just earlier today, after some time away, and saw that people are still here. It's quieter than it used to be, of course, but people are still here. It's awesome. It does make me wish I'd made more effort to become more involved with this forum earlier on, though but then again I've always found it difficult to insert myself into conversations.

I'm curious though, especially for those of you who have been on these forums for far longer than I've been: what does scape mean to you? For me it's just a reliable place I know I can always come back to for reigniting my interest in Malice Mizer and related bands. I imagine it means more to those of you who post here more frequently. I'm genuinely interested in your answers! I also hope it'll allow me to get to know some of you better

Oh well you know, it's a place where you can come to talk about those Malice Mizer people without getting bogged down in arguments about who's on top when Mana and Kozi dooooooo it
That sort of thing used to be much more of a problem XD
That aside, this whole Japanese indies music thing is inherently hard. So much of it involves third-hand information from the pre-internet days about what one bunch of high-school dropouts or another was doing on the live house circuit or what-have-you. This place happened to come along right when interest was at its peak, there was still almost no information available online, and we had the rare opportunity to have active field agents in Japan. And as it further so happened, the kind of weirdos who are interested in this stuff also turned out to be some pretty interesting people in general

It does make me wish I'd made more effort to become more involved with this forum earlier on, though but then again I've always found it difficult to insert myself into conversations.

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No time like the present

^ Ahahaha yes that's true, no time like the present!

Yeah I think that's a good point. When I was younger especially this was where I got all my information with regards to Malice Mizer and co. I would've never learned about Pride of Mind if it weren't for this forum/your Pride of Mind site, actually!

Actually now that I'm thinking about it....how did this site start? I just have no idea haha!

Our pseudo-legendary founders LejuN and amasanin started the site and forum in 2002 or thereabouts, but I wasn't around for the beginning. Before that I think people just posted on Inertia's message board... or Cameron's

I actually kinda miss those times. Having to scour used magazine shops in Japan and read ridiculous 2chan backlogs just to get a glimps of what was going on...there's no mystery anymore now that they've all taken to the international internetz.

But damn is there drama.

^It does sounds like quite an adventure when you put it that way! I suppose it is less mysterious now. Somehow I've avoided most the drama! Probably because I tend to read more than actually talk though I do vaguely remember reading some dramaz in years past, though.

Also I legit did not know scape was founded around 2002! I wonder how many years it'll live on for. Also can I just add this Gackt emoticon always cracks me up even now

The secret sauce to our longevity is the custom emoticons

flowersofnight wrote:

The secret sauce to our longevity is the custom emoticons

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And the latest was not the least XD

For me scape is the site where I start practising my English and the place where I come when I find something new related to the MM artist of course

I remember the first time in 2003 when I found this site while I was searching for MM stuff a day after I heard Shiroi in a local radio here in Chile.

Thanks to scape I met Inertia xD

Scape has a lot of meaning to me although I don't talk about it much to anyone IRL.

I've made a lot of great friends here, learned a lot, had some weird times, and I post a lot in the random thread especially during less talkative times just to keep it alive! I also like reading about people's lives on there!

Also, I talk to Cerceaux 24/7 about everything and anything and she's one of my best friends now. So when we don't reply to each other for hours either she or I will go, "WHERE ARE YOU ARE YOU ALIVE." And we send gifts to each other! She sent me a surprise gift a few weeks ago and it was Kaya's autograph on a femme fatale CD, like seriously! Before that I sent her a load of cute stuff I got from China to help her with her sewing life!

Once a few years ago she didn't reply for weeks and I thought she died and I was FLIPPIN. I actually contacted an IRL friend of hers because I didn't know what happened!

She's actually the one Scaper I haven't met who is actually a daily part of my life. I can't even imagine meeting her because it would be so epic! We both love Spongebob, Disney, making fun of random people, sleuthing, etc. She's also hilarious. She also knows every great classical Spongebob line so we're able to recite them back and forth. So that's one of my good Scape things!

I've met weird people on here too and Scape has definitely shown me how different people think. For example, some people are extremely negative or who won't let things go or have odd conclusions about things and it's really taught me *not* to be that way. Scape has actually helped reinforce my positivity in a way.

I don't think I'm as active as I'm used to because life, but it's definitely something important that happened to me!

For some backstory, PE and I started talking after the short-lived Scapechats. We didn't really talk that much on here before that, but we both played PoupeeGirl so we started talking about that and making fun of all the weirdos on there.

But yeah now we're buddies and some day we'll go on a dream Disney vacation together and be huge obnoxious nerds the whole time until we slip on ice and get sent to Weenie Hut General with boo-boos.

I think the emotes are the best part of Scape. Sometimes I'm on another forum or texting or something and I think " Man I wish I could use right now".

I originally joined Scape because I wanted to get into the download forum for some old MM radio show clip thing.
To this day I haven't downloaded it.
I don't think MM really changed my life other than giving me a reason to keep my PS2 around because it's the only thing that will play my Merveilles DVD.
I wear lolita fashion but I liked it before I had any interest in Mana. He really doesn't influence my style at all (though I do like his his look and stage costumes).

Scape is one of the few places on the net active where all the peoples are welcomes newbies and oldies guys . With a great administration at least the forum is always active with new posts each day , the shop topic is always great , and good i'm currently posting interviews from my website at Off topic.

i dont share a lot of music likes with scape i'm more old visual kei extasy records, free will , but at least here a lot of peoples that have my respect .



in my old days i was an extreme kozi fan in one time when everyone around me was a Moi dix mois and malice mizer hard fan sadly at thoses times in Chile was very hard or almost impossible bought kozi items btw : Kozi stuff is always hard to find .

yeah i'm still a kozi fan i never leave my musical tastes except when the music suck .


scape website help me when i was contributor to visual kei wikia 2008-2010 to edit Malice mizer page .

what could said : Visual kei was and is part of my life , since that i know vk i'm fixed my english each day yeah i know i got a lot of wrongs xd


i knew to the love of my life thanks to it , almost 5000 usd wasted on items , but the ugly point is the reality of visual kei market last time but now is more easy be and know visual kei than long time ago but somethings must change .


Thanks to visual kei and to ones of our favorite musicians in the forum : Kamijo is the point of because i'm travellling to brasil the 4 of december .

akiramariage wrote:

in my old days i was an extreme kozi fan in one time when everyone around me was a Moi dix mois and malice mizer hard fan sadly at thoses times in Chile was very hard or almost impossible bought kozi items btw : Kozi stuff is always hard to find .

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Yes, I agree, Közi stuff is very hard to find! Stuff floats in over on Yahoo Japan auctions sometimes, though, from what I've seen.

snailfreak wrote:

akiramariage wrote:

in my old days i was an extreme kozi fan in one time when everyone around me was a Moi dix mois and malice mizer hard fan sadly at thoses times in Chile was very hard or almost impossible bought kozi items btw : Kozi stuff is always hard to find .

Click to expand...

Yes, I agree, Közi stuff is very hard to find! Stuff floats in over on Yahoo Japan auctions sometimes, though, from what I've seen.

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If you're feeling brave and willing to use a site like Celga, Kozi CDs are pretty easy to get on www.amazon.co.jp. A quick lookhas users selling used copies of Izayoi no Tsuki, LIVE COLLAGE, Khaos/Kinema, Catharsis, Memento, and LOKIN'ROLL. They're decently priced, but you'll need to pay the shipping fees, plus the fees that Celga tacks on. I bought a couple used CDs from Amazon back in the day and I was very happy with them.

Cerceaux wrote:

but we both played PoupeeGirl

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POUPEE!! That thread, Merry and the dead Dir en Grey ones are probably what I used Scape for the most.

I have an IRL friend on here, and I'm sure she linked me here for some Moi dix Mois info, her fav, and I joined up. Still not sure if she knows it's me or not.
But I'm super inactive. I only log in to make sure my account doesn't disappear now, and, of course, check for any updates. Once, I posted a lot just to get download access, but I don't recall actually getting anything.

Scape, to me, is Hora, was Kaya, was Kozi, and the off-topic area used to be moving a lot quicker and it was enlightening to read everyone's opinions. It was fun. It was my 'other forum' from.... dare I say, *snicker* Here, there's/was just a tighter community.
OH YEAH, lyrics and blog posts translations. Who was it... I don't even remember anymore. There were a few posters actually.
Lots of people were reporting lives from Japan too. That's just not happening anymore, anywhere really. I have not a clue how the new visual kei/Japanese rock music foreigner fans roll these days.

This seems like a decent time to admit that while I have maybe two Moi dix Mois releases, they've never been my favorite band. Not even close. I used to question why I was here all the time because a majority of the conversations I could not get into. I really think it was that everyone sort of knew each other and I feel a lot of real life was posted on these threads. Ya'll are real. ::kisaki::

desqui wrote:

Lots of people were reporting lives from Japan too. That's just not happening anymore, anywhere really. I have not a clue how the new visual kei/Japanese rock music foreigner fans roll these days.

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I dunno, are there even any new fans? Or do those kids these days just listen to Gangnam Style?

Wandering_Fox wrote:

snailfreak wrote:

akiramariage wrote:

in my old days i was an extreme kozi fan in one time when everyone around me was a Moi dix mois and malice mizer hard fan sadly at thoses times in Chile was very hard or almost impossible bought kozi items btw : Kozi stuff is always hard to find .

Click to expand...

Yes, I agree, Közi stuff is very hard to find! Stuff floats in over on Yahoo Japan auctions sometimes, though, from what I've seen.

Click to expand...

If you're feeling brave and willing to use a site like Celga, Kozi CDs are pretty easy to get on www.amazon.co.jp. A quick lookhas users selling used copies of Izayoi no Tsuki, LIVE COLLAGE, Khaos/Kinema, Catharsis, Memento, and LOKIN'ROLL. They're decently priced, but you'll need to pay the shipping fees, plus the fees that Celga tacks on. I bought a couple used CDs from Amazon back in the day and I was very happy with them.

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I said about around 2003-2010 time when just could you bought items with Card here on my country bought japanese stuff was really expensive it was to peoples with a lot of money and the peoples with ways to bought were ones assholes a lot of time after 2010 was our salvation i spend a lot of money in items but Still dont bought Kozi items xd . to say more precise : The chilean scene was almost always hard to be a real Visual kei fan the internet was expensive until the 2008-2010 , if you want to obtein mp3 you must to met with a lot of assholes , and the the best part Trade Via Soulseek XD i still love trade specially Bootleg and terekos .


In spite of all my differences with the scene that exists or that claims to support the scene remains.


I keep distances to support the scene from my own side buying new or old records, interviewing and studying costume design.

flowersofnight wrote:

I dunno, are there even any new fans? Or do those kids these days just listen to Gangnam Style?

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OMG I swear it was some kind of trend that everyone suddenly turned to Korea for music! Did you catch that happening? You did too, didn't you!

I think there are new fans, not in droves how it felt like before, but more like a slowly dripping faucet. It's a bit of a shame because newcomers just do not have the community I feel we all got to enjoy for a while. So many good websites are gone, or no longer updated. Another forum I just got onto, their activity is dying as well, but most of the bands that come up I have NO IDEA who they are! And the threads with the most activity are being fanned by the torches of old, as in, us oldies, and they are bands I do know.
I believe anyone listening to any Japanese music has potential to become a fan, even the newer anime lovers~, I was so close to converting one!
BUT I think connecting bands/members to other bands/members is dead and that was no small part in choosing to support X band. So instead, it is a random invitation. Thanks youtube!

A good chunk of Dir en Grey fans seem to be quite young, but since they like their later stuff, I do not think they went through the Vkei entrance.

^ Yeah Korean pop has been such a big thing hasn't it? I listen to some of it.

And yeah I'm puzzled how new fans get their information! I guess I'm just out of the loop and stick to my mainly 90s/early 2000s bands so I'm not up to date on the latest in visual kei. I used to follow Kaya, but stopped in recent years. I followed Versailles until they disbanded (Kamijo seems to be doing well in his solo career though I don't really listen to it!). I still follow MDM of course, but that is it.

Anybody have any clue what the more 'popular' current visual kei bands are? It'd be interesting to check them out and see what's up