Here's how it REALLY happened.
A round of applause if you will for the fighting men of Red Apple Productions, who this year made a real effort to enlighten the masses, by downplaying that whole V-kei phenomenon. With half the room dressed as jrockers and the featured artist of the convention being costumed V-kei go-getters Psycho Le Cemu, it took some realÉguts to stand up and say, "No! We aren't gonna play to your favor, nyaaa!" The boys from Red Apple would have none of it! They weren't here to entertain you. They were here to inform you.
I for one learned a lot from the Exile video they screened. Firstly, boy was I wrong about that whole V-kei thing... hoowee. That "goth boys in make-up thing" is SO last decade. Finito. Kaput. Buried alongside Dandy Sakamoto (on the left) and those three adorable, but by now, rotten and festering Dango Siblings. Secondly, them Japanese kids nowadays aren't into all that gloomy stuff! It's cool to be carefree again! When I saw Exile, who I'm told are demi-gods in Japan now, ruling the charts with their mom friendly smiles and PG dance routines, all that zetsubou!! just melted away. Gone!
