Did Mana make you love Japan?

ehhhh sorry i'm so exhausted and i don't know how to word questions. it makes sense though, right?

i think polls are my favorite part of this forum XD

My first visual key song was miyavi pop is dead... that was back in... hmm 2005?...

But when i was lil.... i watched Pokemon on MTV (Finland television.... at the time i spoke Finnish fluently)
And as i grow older digimon and digimon tamers andso-on anime from Estonian tv... i have always been there..... XD

Been interested in Japan for years. Cannot remember when it started really.
But waaaay before Mana, that's for sure.

My love affair with Japan started When i got given a NES at the grand old age of 3!
to this day I still have it, it still works, its in perfect condition, all original Nintendo cables and controllers... And its still as entertaining as the day I got it.

Thus spiraling me into the wonderfully inescapable world of the Videogame...

After literally creating a "me" shaped dent in the carpet from where I'm sat day in day out, at 11 years old, I decided to teach my self Japanese.

My mother thinks it started when she took me to Madame Tussuad's in London as a babe in arms. All these amazing wax works of celebrities are all around us... But my mother got stopped by a Japanese woman who wanted her picture taken holding me... then her entire entourage of a family wanted one too...
And she reckoned I looked Japanese when I was born... XDDD

hahahahha a lady wanted a picture taken holding you? hahaha i don't get it but thats funny XD

Japanese people love children and babies. XDDD Thats really a cute story!
It reminds me of when I was in Japan...my mom and I were walking to the Yamanote train and some lady decided to show my mom her baby. My mom said she was beautiful and the lady got really excited. XDDDDDD

Anyway, on topic, I fell in love with Japan when I was 11 years old. My friend introduced me to pokemon when I was in grade school and at first I hated the show, but something drew me to it and I couldn't stop watching it. Shortly afterwards, I found out there were more cartoons like pokemon (anime in general) then I found out they all come from Japan. After that, it was all over. I stated teaching myself Japanese and my love for Japan grew since then.

Ehhhh, I've not really been very interested in Japan. I was but I'm over it now.

How I came to like Japan in the first place was something I saw on TV. They mentioned "harajuku fashion" and there was a brief glimse of some VK kids and I was like ooooh, I'll have to look that up" Thats pretty much as far as my interest goes.

hahahahha a lady wanted a picture taken holding you? hahaha i don't get it but thats funny XD

It's not so freaky as a baby... Babies are babies. I was a cool baby, so its understandable she wanted a picture, of course with all my baby awesomeness... XD

Whats freakier is when someone chases you across Epcot in Disney Land, to get a picture of you because she knows what Lolita is. I'm sure Mana must have felt like me when people get excited about what your wearing... its kinda like, you might as well be on acid laughing at a pillow coz you think it looks like the Virgin Mary holding a joint radiating magical rainbow lights.
Or when you're stalked by Mall kids because you have a "rad" outfit on... Nice enough kids but, "rad" to describe Lolita....... O_o

i kinda feel the same. i still like to look at pictures of VK musicians and people because their hair is inspiring to me XD. for a little while i was like "huh i should learn about this place" but then i kinda got less and less interested. i still think its cool but i'm just not that into it.

Ever since I can remember, I've been drawn to Japanese culture and lifestyle. Many times I've been really interested in something only to later find out it is from Japan or orginated there. Some of my personal lifestyle preferences follow Japanese customs very closely. I really think I must have been Japanese in a previous life or something. So, yeah, I liked Japanese stuff before Mana. I'd been aware of Mana/Malice Mizer since a long time ago, but never really spent time getting into it until a little over a year ago. Then I was thinking, why didn't I look into this more earlier??

I've been interested in Japan and it's culture for a really long time. Mostly anime got me interested in it.......then Japanese movies......then Jrock. Mainly after I read this book that had alot to do with Japanese culture, I was hooked on it. After that, I kept reading about it and drawing things that had a lot to do with it (I'm very much into artXD)

I discovered in Mana way after I got interested in Japan.

I liked Japanese stuff befooore BUT Mana sama did make me mooore interested in it all. The first band i heard saw was Dir En Grey Obscure then Malice Mizer Illuminati so the first thing i saw was Mana and his beauty!

So i was sucked in lol.

to tell the truth i knew Mana thanks to be interested in Japan, my entire life wans't interested even if i grew up watching Astroboy, Candy, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya and others... i didn't hear anyband brom Japan before Malice Mizer (well, i listened to X-Japan once but i let it pass) one day, almost 2 years ago i was watching tv and saw a documentary about Geishas and i fell in love with them!
in that documentary they talked about a girl that makes herself call "the punk geisha" i confess i hated her cause i thought she was very much disrespectful with the beautiful culture and tradition of Geishas...

i thought "if i'd live in Japan i'd go to Kyoto and become a Geisha" i loved their make up and their clothing and they way to act, andall the meaning of being a Geisha, it turned into my new obsession at that time, i remember i started to wear my hair in a classic japanese style sometimes and start to act polite, my friends start to thinking i was getting really mad... hehehehe

while keep on investigating about japense culture i found pics of gothic lolita and lolita japanese style everywere and loved the way they looked like so i researched about Gothic lolita and found Mana...

haha i lik Japanese stuff before Mana, i like the history of Japan and such...and then i aimed at visual kei and such and then i liked Mana

One of my favorite child hood cartoons, Star Blazers, was a product of Japan. The Japanese Zero is also from Japan.

Early Animie like Robo Tech, and Voltron (the latter in its Americanized version didn't hold a candle to the Americanized former) also products of this place.

Then I discover Mana, and along with that visual Kei.

I have to say, I far prefer visual kei, to the thug ridden, or macho genres we have in the states. I actually heard someone complain that Green Day was too Metro sexual. Geez the people here have no idea what metro sexual is until they take a look at visual kei.

They need to get a load of Hizaki.

I by the way love the movement, and hope beyond hope it comes here. I am sick of the gansta thug image, that just seems to be every where, and I am not too fond of people like Henry Rollands looking like a muscle bound dim wit, sweating on the stage. Mana does so much more on the stage, and his makeup is untouched by sweat. Hizaki plays some amazing guitar, and makes it look effortless.

We had Hair bands in the 80s, but for some reason they have become jokes in our culture. Which I think is sad, considering what has replaced it.


Japan had a brutal past, and I am not sure about the current culture, but if Mana was able to go about in a skirt in his days BEFORE MM, and not get the snot beaten out of him by macho guys, then I would say Japan is a bit better socially.

But remember I don't know that much about their culture so I may just be talking out my neck here.