In 2008, the Visual Kei band SID went major by moving from Danger Crue Records to Ki/oon (a division of Sony), which is also home to the famous (and prolific anime theme contributors) LвЂ™Arc~en~Ciel. Furthermore, the first season of Kuroshitsuji resulted in a massive increase in sales of the original manga and placed the opening theme song вЂњMonokuro no KissвЂќ by fellow Visual Kei band SID into the top ten of the Oricon charts, meaning that there was little risk in such a tie-in, minus the backlash from some existing fans (which wouldnвЂ™t have resulted in reduced sales anyway). Considering that many people disregard Visual Kei musically due to the appearance of the bands, this was a very safe and (most probably) profitable venture for Sony. Hence, the target audience of the anime would consist of (mainly) young girls/women who have absolutely no qualms with the fashion in Kuroshitsuji, and therefore would be very much open to the visual aspect of Visual Kei. For those who do not know, Kuroshitsuji takes place in a fictional Victorian Era, a very gothic one for that matter. However, the decision of Sony Music Entertainment to tie-in the GazettE with Kuroshitsuji (literally вЂњBlack ButlerвЂќ) was a very good one from a sales and exposure point of view. There seems to have been a rather angry response from some established fans regarding the likelihood of вЂњotakuвЂќ becoming fans of the band. Has a truly horrific conclusion.ДЄ collaboration with a fair bit of drama behind it was the use of the GazettEвЂ™s вЂњSHIVERвЂќ as the opening for Kuroshitsuji II.

Mouryou no Hako or Box of Goblins (Lost in Blue, Naked Love): a bizarre and intricate murder mystery in which the limbs of victims are removed from the corpse, placed ceremoniously within a wooden box and positioned in well frequented places for all to see.

Claymore (Raison DвЂ™etre): in a fictional fantasy world, young women discard their humanity by allowing the flesh of monsters to be implanted in them, in order to give them the abilities to protect the people of their world from the aforementioned monsters in what appears to be a losing battle with no end.

He sets upon a mission to rid the world of criminals but loses sight of his original goal (and develops a God-complex) as he is hunted and attempts to evade the police.

Death Note (THE WORLD, alumina): follows a high school student disillusioned with the world and his fellow humankind, who gains possession of a notebook which allows one to murder a person by writing their name within its pages.

During their time with the label VAP, Nightmare contributed theme songs to three anime, all with fairly serious (and violentвЂ¦) storylines, quite befitting of their image (the serious part, not the violent part!):

Those who are familiar with the show would recognise the homage to a particular scene from Death Note in NightmareвЂ™s THE WORLD PV which involves the blindfolding (and interrogation) of a certain character.

NightmareвЂ™s most well known tie-in would be вЂњTHE WORLDвЂќ and вЂњaluminaВ вЂќ, which were used as the first opening and ending theme songs to the popular anime Death Note. When people think вЂњvisual keiвЂќ and вЂњanimeвЂќ one of the first bands that would come to mind is Nightmare.

As a member of both fandoms, IвЂ™ll be taking a look at some collaborations that I have found interesting. The Japanese music industry has a great love for tie-ins be it with anime, drama, promotion of jewellery lines, ice-cream ads, you name it! However of interest to Visual fans is the apparent (from this authorвЂ™s POV) increase in the number of anime tie-ins with Visual Kei artists. This is quite likely due to a general interest in Japanese (pop) culture, however another explanation could be the use of вЂњtie-insвЂќ whereby songs by certain artists are used as the opening or ending themes for an anime in order to cross-promote the two products. And some fans of Visual Kei are fans of anime.

Visual kei brands