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Visualising Visual Kei – Oshare Kei

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After a lengthy interval, here is the next in our series of articles on Visual Kei, taking a look at one of the many sub-categories; Oshare Kei. Some popular Oshare Kei bands you might have heard of include Antic Cafe (better known as An Cafe, who have been on hiatus since January 2010), LM.C and SuG, the latter of which we will be using as an example in this piece, while we will be going to see LM.C on their world tour in London in May.

Oshare Kei is a more recent sub-category of Visual Kei, one that first emerged in Japan in around 2001. The literal translation is ‘fashion conscious’. When Oshare Kei first emerged, the Visual Kei scene was viewed to be both dark in image and lyrics, with their music being similar to that of metal and similar rock genres. Oshare Kei, needless to say, changed all this.

Oshare bands, while still retaining many typical Visual sounds in their music, such as guitar solos, rhythmic shouting and songs that are generally around 5 minutes in length, their music is influenced more by modern Pop and Punk. The lyrics tend to be more upbeat and focus on more positive matters, usually consisting of topics pertaining to love, friends and relationships.

As we all know by now, clothing plays a big factor in visual kei. The style of clothing associated with Oshare Kei is usually bright and colourful and generally incorporates Japanese street fashion, something we will be covering in later articles. Since the introduction of this sub-section, many bands have begun to stray from the darker image that had once been associated with Visual Kei and have started to include both brighter colours and cheerier content into their repertoire, thus blurring the lines between the genres.

[SuG, from left to right; Vocalist Takeru, Bassist Chiyu, Guitar Masato, Shinpei Drums, Guitar Yuji]

SuG is currently a major Oshare Kei band in Japan. They claim their band concept to be ‘Heavy Positive Rock’. The name ‘SuG’ comes from the English word ‘thug’, which is pronounced as ‘Sagu’ in Japanese, and is simplified as ‘SuG’.

Formed in late 2006 they have since released 2 mini-albums, 3 full length albums, 16 singles and a number of live dvd’s. Their rise to fame has been rather swift and steady, their first single, ‘Scheat‘, being released in August 2007, followed by their second only a month later, ‘Alterna‘. Some of you may well have already heard SuG without realising, their song ‘R.P.G.: Rockin’ Playing Game‘ having been used as the opening theme to popular anime ‘Fairy Tail‘ and ‘Gr8 Story‘ as an ending for ‘Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

[Gr8 Story – A SuG single that featured as an ending in the Katekyo Hitman Reborn! anime.]

Each new single generally comes with a new look with most Visual Kei bands and SuG is no exception to this, each new release coming with another typically bright, colourful look, some more colourful and ridiculous than others. Vocalist Takeru has taken to designing the clothing for each member of the band for each new single released, having decided long ago that it was easier this way to find clothing that fit the themes they were dealing with and the image they had in mind. Looking at each outfit, we can all easily see how this could be the case.

Not surprisingly, this has led to him going on to having his own designer label, Million$Orchestra, which features rather interesting clothing each season themed on SuG’s recent releases. Takeru has also become rather well known as a model too and has even featured in photoshoots alongside Kyary, who has featured in other articles on the Arcade site.

[One of SuG’s more recent singles; Toy Soldier]

The above videos are good examples of the generally positive and upbeat music that is associated with Oshare Kei, each with their own theme and moral to the story of the song, although it is important to remember that not all music in this category has to be like this. As with all bands, Oshare Kei bands will have varied themes for their songs and not all of them will turn out to be happy and positive. An example of this would be below, one of this writers personal favourites;

 [SuG’s song Umbilical strays from the typically cheery sound associated with Oshare Kei]

In May we will be bringing you more on Oshare Kei with the Arcade sending this writer off to see LM.C on their world tour in London, following the release of their next album that is set for launch this week. In the meantime we’ll be sure to keep you posted on SuG, LM.C and any other interesting Oshare Kei bands that happen to fall into our line of notice!

[Above; Maya and Aiji, vocalist and guitarist of LM.C]

If you missed the last part of our Visual Kei series and our review of the Versailles gig in London, you can check it out here.

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