Visual kei/Nightmare Fuel
This page will be split into several kinds of Nightmare Fuel. Please avoid Natter, remember to Repair, Don't Respond, and place your nightmare fuel in the correct section.
- Live Performance refers to Nightmare Fuel onstage, whether a real incident (a band member collapsing or becoming ill etcetera) or a staged one (a faked collapse, a Scare Chord that wasn't in a song before).
- Lyrics refers to Nightmare Fuel songs - please keep these Family Friendly.
- Meta refers to Nightmare Fuel found in the scene, e.g. the high rate of alcoholism or eating disorders would go in that folder.
- Performance Video refers to Visual Kei performance video Nightmare Fuel. Again, keep these Family Friendly - no links to the videos in question if they involve sex, links to overly violent videos need a warning.
Live Performances And Events
- Anytime an artist collapses, falls, or otherwise becomes noticeably ill or injured while performing live. Somewhat lessened if he or she gets up afterward or seems to brush it off, but most fans (and especially other artists) are well aware of what can happen, and watching someone getting hurt or ill is both worrisome and a reminder that it happens.
- Many forms of Visual Kei, specifically Visual Shock and Eroguro Kei, tend to rely heavily on stagecraft and effects to produce shocking imagery. This is generally not Nightmare Fuel. Where the nightmare fuel resides is when you realize it's not blood squibs or makeup and that guy cutting himself onstage or otherwise performing self-injury is doing it for real. Kyo and Kenzi are two such artists.
- Fan behavior at lives can definitely become Nightmare Fuel. While most fans are intelligent and respectful, there are some that are not. From groping the artists well beyond what they might ask for, to ripping out their hair or ripping off a part of their costume (or even something functional like a neck brace) to attacking other fans, it's all happened.
Lyrics
- Pick any song from Dir En Grey's discography. Even the slower and more calm ones are Nightmare Fuel to some degree.
- The Gazett E's Taion is about the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Junko Furuta.
- X Japan's Art Of Life is actually Fridge Horror Nightmare Fuel: it's Yoshiki's semi-autobiographical personal story of pulling through a horrific depression and its attendant overwhelming emotional pain. It becomes Nightmare Fuel when you read one of the interviews where he mentioned that it refers to an attempted and failed suicide.
- Another one from X Japan is Rose of Pain, the story of Elizabeth Bathory.
- Another X Japan one is Without You, especially to those who have been in the situation of either losing a loved one to death or almost doing so. The lyrics aren't necessarily nightmarish per se, but the raw pain of losing someone's love or close friend forever is.
- And yet another is Sadistic Desire, both from the lyrics and the Fridge Horror that it is describing a serial killer and rapist attacking victims. It's arguably meant more as BDSM fantasy than as an actual Misogyny Song, but still...
Meta
- The insanely high rate of alcoholism and alcohol abuse in the Visual Kei scene. Combine Japan's already high levels of alcohol misuse problems with Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll and people who are often the Broken Bird for a variety of reasons, and you have what is best described as an alcoholic nightmare. Almost all lives are held at bars and live houses which serve alcohol, many band meeting and networking events are drinking parties, everyone celebrates everything with alcohol. As noted in the main article, alcohol could be argued to be the lifeblood of Visual Kei.
- Alcohol abuse and alcoholism lead to everything from drunk driving to mental illness to suicide. Keep in mind when you read about any tragedy or nightmare related to Visual Kei, there's a 90 percent chance alcohol was involved in some way, either as an exact cause of the incident, or as a contributing cause.
- While not as necessarily common as alcohol abuse, methamphetamine abuse and addiction. The Yakuza and affiliated artists churn methamphetamine into the scene, and many Visual Kei artists have been users or addicts at one point or another. The drug convinces users they've reduced the need for sleep and rest (making impossible work schedules and/or holding down several jobs while performing seem possible) and helps them maintain nigh-anorexic bodies. The problem? It is one of the most physically and mentally destructive and addictive drugs in existence. The "reduction in sleep and rest" and "better looks" are basically drawn out of the bank account of the user's body and mind - eventually users will crash hardcore, and this usually results in a mental breakdown, the loss of physical appearance far faster than normal aging would produce, and many, many more horrific effects. Not to mention that the drug's prevalence indebts users to the Yakuza and costs money that most people don't have.
- Eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia are unfortunately seen as ideals in much of Visual Kei, as opposed to being the horrifying and painful illnesses they are in reality. The thinner an artist is, the more aesthetically pleasing he is generally seen to be (and fans will pile onto artists and other fans with incredibly venomous verbal abuse even for being at a normal weight, while some labels will actively refuse to work with artists who don't meet a certain standard for beauty), which leads to everything from extreme diets and exercise to vomiting and laxative use to methamphetamine use.
- Oh, those very nice gentlemen. Most older bands in Japan have ties (no matter how tenuous at this point, but some stronger than others) to them, some bands are entirely composed of members, other bands will use them to intimidate or attack opponents (from aggressive "anti-fans" to bootleggers to other bands).
- The rate of suspicious deaths. Out of all of the Visual Kei artists that have died so far, all have died under 50 years old (owing to the scene's relative novelty - the oldest people in it are in their late 40s and early 50s for the most part). This in and of itself isn't that unusual for rock, but the rate of suspicious deaths is in that a large percentage of these deaths have involved questionable or odd causes, as opposed to the more usual overdoses, car accidents, and sudden illnesses that usually affect younger men.