Anarchy -NPPNBDKN-

A fantastic show it was, with a few surprises. We hadn't expected to hear "Heaven" again any time soon, and though rain failed to fall from the Budoukan ceiling during "Nocturne," the beautiful graphics more than made up for the lack of getting wet. Here's hoping the footage from the crane cameras turns up somewhere besides Imai's papa's home video collection.

As for a live report on the standing tour, it's coming. We've had an extremely busy late autumn and we're now taking a well-earned break, but we promise we'll be back with some proper articles in the new year. In the meantime, Happy New Year to you all, and here's hoping the Year of the Sheep brings some wonderful warm fuzzy feelings to everyone.

The small child in the foreground had a large B-T painted on her face in eyeliner.

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Smellovision

This just in from Fish Tank: Buck-Tick is coming once again to your television and nostrils simultaneously!

First, Eau de Buc-Tique, otherwise known as - quan vie nna sigue eye - was such a smashing success that although the first run of bottles is now sold out, a second production run of the fragrance will be released on the Buck-Tick web shop from noon tomorrow (December 3rd) Japan Time.

Whereas previously, we only had our imaginations to go on when guessing the fragrance, as the first run has now shipped, we can now judge by our noses. And as a matter of fact, Cayce rather enjoys perfume as a private hobby and knows enough about the stuff to offer at least a dilettante's opinion: it is indeed a light floral/citrus fragrance, heavy on jasmine and orange blossom, distinct but not too strong. It won't make clouds in the air where you walk, but within kissing distance, it's a nice little invitation. The base note is mellow and subdued compared to the top notes, but it seems to me like a hint of rose and something spicier. Opium and poison? Jasmine and rose? If you caught that reference, I think this perfume is for you! Plus, reading between the lines of the interview with Sakurai in the latest issue of the Fish Tank newsletter, it seems that Sakurai selected this fragrance largely on his own, which means that this is surely how he wants his fangirls to smell. So what are you waiting for? If you need Cayce's help with ordering, contact me by email directly, as soon as possible because it might sell out quickly.

Second, on February 25th, Buck-Tick will be coming to your telly and compy screens to deliver pure ANARCHY! By which we mean, the live DVD of the Tour 2014 Arui wa Anarchy show held on September 26th at NHK Hall will be released on this date.  The limited edition (DVD or Blu-Ray) includes special packaging, two live CDs of some sort of extra-special platinum format so you can hear Kokushoku Sumire Yuka's Dadaist singing extra clearly, an 80 page photo booklet, so you can see Kokushiku Sumire Yuka's Dadaist costume in crystal clear color, and not one but TWO DVD discs, showing the live footage of Kokushoku Sumire in all their Dada-Lolita glory. Did I mention Kokushoku Sumire are on this DVD? Forget Buck-Tick, I'm buying this release for the lolitas alone.  The limited edition DVD will cost 9000 yen plus 720 yen in nuke tax, while the limited edition Blu-Ray will cost 10000 yen plus 800 yen in nuke tax. A regular edition DVD (5500 yen plus tax) and Blu-Ray (6500 yen plus tax) will also be released on the same date. If you purchase these items directly from Japanese stores such as Tower Records or Tsutaya, they're likely to come with bonus extras, but those haven't been announced yet.

Third, as if all of the above weren't enough, a Buck-Tick song will be featured on the Fuji Television noitaminA 10th anniversary theme song CD compilation, as voted by fans. For those of you not in the know, noitaminA is the anime program on which Shiki ran in 2010. For those of you not in the know, Buck-Tick wrote the single "Kuchizuke" as the theme song for Shiki. For those of you not in the know, Shiki is a pretty awesome and badass vampire anime and if you're sick of sparklevamps I highly suggest you try watching it.

Beyond that, Buck-Tick: the Movie will be showing on NECO Channel at various times throughout the month. For details, check the Buck-Tick official site.

Fun fact: in Japanese, "neco" means "kitteh." In Latin, "neco" means "I kill."

Enjoy your evening.

Tower of Buck-Tick

In honor of the release of the Tour 2014 Arui wa Anarchy live album, Tower Records Shibuya is currently holding an exhibit of the Buck-Tick members' costumes from the tour (the exhibit lasts till the end of the month.)  Naturally, we went to investigate.

As new CDs are always released on Wednesdays, Tower Records was a mob scene. Teenyboppers swarmed a giant mural of Korean idol boys that covered half the first floor back wall, but we had eyes only for Buck-Tick...and we weren't the only ones.  Everyone loves Buck-Tick!

In the limited space available, fans crammed in to get pictures, but it was very difficult to photograph the outfits due to the highly reflective nature of the display case. But in case you wondered...Cayce's face isn't accidentally reflected in any of these photos, so give up looking for me.

Detail of Hide #sexybeast

Detail of Sakurai. As I was trying to frame this photo, the fans next to me were earnestly discussing the visibility of Acchan-chan's armpit hair through the lace. Riddle me this: why do y'all fangirls like pit beards but not face beards, eh?

Detail of Toll.

Detail of Imai's rockin' Anarchy necklace.

And even better, Imai's shoes!

As you can see, Hide is tall enough not to need much in the way of heels on his silver boots, while Yutaka prefers pointed platform brothel creepers (he wears them when he creeps into brothels!)

Sakurai, meanwhile, has some tall Cuban heels on him. Way to, uh, stand up, if you get what I'm saying ;)

Above the display of CDs and magazines, a large video monitor played the Keijijou Ryuusei PV on repeat...

...while fangirls read Yutaka's new autobiography in morbid fascination at the soul-baring tales of his dastardly deeds of the dudes he has done...wrong. We sincerely apologize for not posting a picture of Yutaka's costume. We took a few, but none of them came out.

We awarded this poster the Not Greatest Poster of the Year award. Some fans got to take copies home, but none of them were autographed.

No Buck-Tick, No Life!

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Tour 2014 Arui wa Anarchy Live Report

A comprehensive live report of the tour so far is now up over at Not Greatest Site.  You can read it here.  Once again, we're sorry it took so long and we hope you'll find it worth the wait. If you'd like to make any comments on the live report, please leave them here.

In the meantime, we'd like to apologize in advance for stealing those Buck-Tick matryoshka dolls. We're sorry, but we just couldn't resist.

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Also, it has recently come to our attention that a friend of ours has been mistaken for Cayce several times by slightly confused fans. Since we do happen to be personally acquainted with her, we can vouch for the fact that she's a charming lady, but she's not me, folks. Guess again!

Cafe Manduuka

On June 3rd, after enjoying the celebratory displays for the release of Arui wa Anarchy in Tower Records Shibuya, Blog-Tick & friends headed next door to the Buck-Tick Cafe event at Cafe Manduuka. This is the second time Buck-Tick have held a pop-up cafe event to celebrate the release of an album, the first being the NicoNico Buck-Tick Cafe event which was held in honor of the release of Yumemiru Uchuu. Though the NicoNico Buck-Tick cafe had the distinct disadvantages of closing at the young hour of 8PM and not serving alcohol, the exhibit was extensive, and included displays of the band members' costumes and instruments, as well as a Buck-Tick purikura machine.

How would the Cafe Manduuka measure up? There was only one way to find out.

On our way in, we were greeted by this giant banner, which ran the length of the front window.

Inside, the walls were hung tastefully with prints of various promotional photos, though due to their small size, they didn't intrude nearly as much as I had hoped on the dining experience of the numerous Normal People who had come to the cafe for no other reason than to eat food.

Though Blog-Tick & friends spotted a number of Buck-Tick tour-following regulars drinking beer at the tables near the entrance hall, in the back, there were several birthday party groups of Shibuya teenyboppers who looked to be about twenty years too young to have ever heard of Buck-Tick on TV. Though Arui wa Anarchy was playing on shuffle over the cafe speakers, annoyingly, when the various birthday guests of honor were presented with cake, cafe staff dimmed the lights in the whole restaurant, stepped up to the DJ booth and turned on a loud, canned, j-pop lounge version of "Happy Birthday To You," severely detracting from the Buck-Tick atmosphere. I strongly feel they should have played "Iconoclasm" instead, but no one ever listens to me.

The appeal of Cafe Manduuka's food outstripped the horrifying NicoNico black curry by a large margin, though the prices were high and the drinks were weak. Shop staff had been directed to hand the special Buck-Tick coasters and placemats only to customers who asked for them, so as to avoid giving away coveted Buck-Tick items to undeserving Normal People. However, it seemed a waste to actually use the coasters and placemats, so most fans simply pocketed them and carried them home.

As the album had not been officially released yet, none of us had yet had a chance to listen to the new songs, and we strained to hear over the din of cafe conversation, while watching silent clips from Buck-Tick: The Movie, the Day in Question 2013, and the Keijijou Ryuusei PV on the projection screen conveniently located near our table, groaning in unison as "Sekai wa Yame de Michiteiru" came up over the speakers. We took bets on which sorry band member was responsible for the epic fail this time, and all four of us lost - we all bet Hide, but this song is 100% Imai's fault. Sorry, fans.

And kids, listen good, cuz I'm only gonna say this once: friends don't let friends have babies. Reproduction is rock-n-roll suicide in the making.

Though it would have been nice to sit there in the cafe all night, they kicked us out after two hours to make room for more fans...but not before we got a nice shot of this banner hanging in the entryway.

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So how would Cayce rate the Cafe Manduuka experience overall?

Ultimately, while it was nice to be able to sit down and eat dinner and have a beer, I would have appreciated a bit more aggressive Buck-Tickery - larger panels, louder music, more bananas, and most importantly, TEQUILA!

Bring those tequila shots to the tour, guys. Y'all know exactly when to take them.

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P.S. For those of you wondering whether you will see Cayce on the tour, just remember, this is what I look like:

If you were convinced I was someone else, you're wrong.

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Tour Tickets For Sale

Attention Blog-Tickers:

We currently have two pairs of fan club tickets available for Buck-Tick's 2014 Arui wa Anarchy Hall Tour!

2 tickets for the show on Sunday, July 20th at Nara Centennial Hall in Nara, Nara Prefecture (within easy travel distance of Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and Nagoya)

AND

2 tickets for  the show on Monday, July 21st at Kobe Kokusai Kaikan in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture (within easy travel distance of Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, and Okayama)

Seating is not released until three weeks before the tour, but these are fan club tickets, so there is a chance they are good seats.  Both sets of tickets are contiguous pairs, so you can bring a buddy or a sweetie.  Both locations are accessible by bullet train from Tokyo for about 12000 yen one-way ticket.  From Tokyo, the trip would take about three hours door to door.

If you're one of those kids who's planning on flying to Japan from another country to see the tour, and but you lost the ticket lottery for the shows in Tokyo, I highly recommend you consider attending the tour in Kansai instead!  Tickets to shows in Tokyo are highly sought after and if you lost out on the lottery you're going to have a hard time getting tickets through general admission sales and/or auctions.  The prices are likely to be higher and the seats aren't likely to be as good.  Furthermore, Tokyo fans can be spoiled snots, but Kansai fans are famous for being friendly and knowing how to party.

In addition, Kansai is a great place to visit if you're a tourist.  Kobe is famous for its beautiful hilly scenery and delicious sake, while Nara is famous for being the original capital of Japan, and home to a number of very famous and beautiful temples, as well as the largest bronze Buddha in the world, situated in the middle of a park full of tame deer who will eat out of your hand.  Both cities are a short train trip from Kyoto, the historical heart of the country, packed with all kinds of interesting places to visit.  As a bonus, Kansai received minimal fallout from Fukushima so you don't even have to worry about a radioactive holiday.

If you are interested in buying any of these tickets, please email me at themadaristocrat at gmail for further details.

For those of you who are concerned about whether our tickets are ethically sourced, we'll say that these are tickets we're selling on behalf of a fan who has become unable to make it to the tour due to unfortunate circumstances. They couldn't be more free-range and fair trade.