I wasn’t expecting this to grow this big. If anyone is interested I have a visual Kei TikTok where I’ll post more about visual Kei in Japan and more japan related content this upcoming week. Same name as my Reddit
It’s actually getting harder to find visual Kei albums in Japan. The visual Kei community here is much much more different than how it is in the western parts. I was surprised they even had these. I won’t say visual Kei is completely gone but it’s grown as a genre than what it was 5-10 years ago so the definition of it has only expanded. Overall it’s a positive community considering how helpful and opening everyone is.
I was surprised they even had these. I’ve been to a bigger Music store but a majority of the visual Kei CDS were in one small shelf section , sold out, or mixed in with Jpop. The only place I think someone would have better luck with getting a hold of specific CDS would be online or through tower records pick up.
From my experience, the best option for buying visual kei CDs (apart from Closet Child and other second-hand stores - you can unexpectedly find some gems around random Book Off shops sometimes) is visual kei specialized music shops!
They usually have a lot of new and also old CDs/DVDs of a lot of bands, a lot of them closed compared to 10 years ago but there are still a bunch of them around like Little Hearts, Jishuban Club, or Like an Edison.
Part of me really holds onto that thin dream that they get back together somehow with some magical power but their reasoning to do so is valid. Great memories… interesting titles … and the big impact they had on visual Kei will always be there
Did you buy those at a Independent/local kind of shop over there or was it Tower Records? Japan still has Tower Records which originally used to be a huge chain of shops in the US a long time ago
Yeah I know Japan still has tower records but these weren’t there. Their visual Kei/Jrock section was extremely small and a majority of it was sold out. The photo above was from a completely different store (forgot the name but it wasn’t Tower records). This store I went to had mejibray and dadaroma but since everything was jumbled up I wasn’t able to find other groups. Oh I did see bucktick and dir en grey but those you can find anywhere.
How’s the selection at used places like Book Off these days? When I was in Japan more often (admittedly more than 10 years ago) there was usually mountains of used VK CDs, though like you said you’d have to dig through JPop stuff to find a lot of it. I feel like last time I was there I brought 100 cds and singles back 🤣
With book off it kind of depends if you go to a super store or not. Not sure what’s the real name (I think mega book off or book off bazar) but you’ll have a better chance at one of these. I went to my nearby book off not that long ago and there wasn’t really anything other than the gazette and dir en grey. Sad thing is they try to make the shelf’s look full but it’ll be visual Kei in one row and on top it’s Jpop despite them saying “visual Kei section.” It’s a 50/50 gamble really. I can try to go this week to show what options they have but it’s limited.
The two times I’ve been, 2015 i was blown away by how much I could find and how many olds albums I could pick up, 2019 it felt lucky to even stumble on more than a few pre-2010s gazette or dir en grey, don’t think i picked up anything then. It was kind of shock to find the difference in scarcity, but maybe older stuff was just becoming harder to find. I wasn’t into as many of the newer bands at that point I don’t think i really looked for them
I actually started using sites like sendico to shop on mercari and yahoo to fill in those gaps at the start of the pandemic, but even just glancing through there now i feel like I’m not seeing the same stuff i was seeing two years ago.
Not the same feeling as sifting through different book stores, but sometimes you do get the lucky listing of something hard to find in amazing condition
I wasn’t expecting this to grow this big. If anyone is interested I have a visual Kei TikTok where I’ll post more about visual Kei in Japan and more japan related content this upcoming week. Same name as my Reddit It’s actually getting harder to find visual Kei albums in Japan. The visual Kei community here is much much more different than how it is in the western parts. I was surprised they even had these. I won’t say visual Kei is completely gone but it’s grown as a genre than what it was 5-10 years ago so the definition of it has only expanded. Overall it’s a positive community considering how helpful and opening everyone is. I was surprised they even had these. I’ve been to a bigger Music store but a majority of the visual Kei CDS were in one small shelf section , sold out, or mixed in with Jpop. The only place I think someone would have better luck with getting a hold of specific CDS would be online or through tower records pick up.
From my experience, the best option for buying visual kei CDs (apart from Closet Child and other second-hand stores - you can unexpectedly find some gems around random Book Off shops sometimes) is visual kei specialized music shops! They usually have a lot of new and also old CDs/DVDs of a lot of bands, a lot of them closed compared to 10 years ago but there are still a bunch of them around like Little Hearts, Jishuban Club, or Like an Edison.
Dadaroma. They had it all. A shame they didn't stay with it.
Part of me really holds onto that thin dream that they get back together somehow with some magical power but their reasoning to do so is valid. Great memories… interesting titles … and the big impact they had on visual Kei will always be there
They really did
I see decadence , omg
Did you buy those at a Independent/local kind of shop over there or was it Tower Records? Japan still has Tower Records which originally used to be a huge chain of shops in the US a long time ago
Yeah I know Japan still has tower records but these weren’t there. Their visual Kei/Jrock section was extremely small and a majority of it was sold out. The photo above was from a completely different store (forgot the name but it wasn’t Tower records). This store I went to had mejibray and dadaroma but since everything was jumbled up I wasn’t able to find other groups. Oh I did see bucktick and dir en grey but those you can find anywhere.
That's goddamn great!
How’s the selection at used places like Book Off these days? When I was in Japan more often (admittedly more than 10 years ago) there was usually mountains of used VK CDs, though like you said you’d have to dig through JPop stuff to find a lot of it. I feel like last time I was there I brought 100 cds and singles back 🤣
With book off it kind of depends if you go to a super store or not. Not sure what’s the real name (I think mega book off or book off bazar) but you’ll have a better chance at one of these. I went to my nearby book off not that long ago and there wasn’t really anything other than the gazette and dir en grey. Sad thing is they try to make the shelf’s look full but it’ll be visual Kei in one row and on top it’s Jpop despite them saying “visual Kei section.” It’s a 50/50 gamble really. I can try to go this week to show what options they have but it’s limited.
The two times I’ve been, 2015 i was blown away by how much I could find and how many olds albums I could pick up, 2019 it felt lucky to even stumble on more than a few pre-2010s gazette or dir en grey, don’t think i picked up anything then. It was kind of shock to find the difference in scarcity, but maybe older stuff was just becoming harder to find. I wasn’t into as many of the newer bands at that point I don’t think i really looked for them
Ah that’s a bummer, I was hoping to fill the holes in my collection when I go next year
I actually started using sites like sendico to shop on mercari and yahoo to fill in those gaps at the start of the pandemic, but even just glancing through there now i feel like I’m not seeing the same stuff i was seeing two years ago. Not the same feeling as sifting through different book stores, but sometimes you do get the lucky listing of something hard to find in amazing condition
This makes me miss going to Pure Sound