puss_nd_boots | (no subject)

So it seems the latest Gazewank is Bottlegate, in which a foreign far literally assaulted a Japanese one - we're talking biting here - in order to get Ruki's thrown water bottle. The act is, no doubt, absolutely appalling. It's a damn bottle, people. It has Ruki's DNA on it, true - but bloody hell, BITING another person over it?

In true Gazewank fashion, though, the fandom's initial, justified shock and horror over this terrible incident turned into finger-pointing and infighting - accusations of specific people assaulting other fans at other lives (including one specific big-name fan who does a LOT for the fandom), people saying other people were supporting the biter, worries that GazettE would be so appalled by this that there would never be another world tour, etc. And pretty soon it became so out-of-control it was overshadowing the positive stuff about the tour on Tumblr. (I don't even want to know what Twitter was like).

All I will say about the incident itself is this - it was definitely an isolated case. I saw nothing like that when I attended the GazettE World Tour live in Munich - there was some pushing and shoving, but nothing truly out of line. I also so no out-of-line incidents when I went to the three SCREW shows in Japan last year - I got kicked in the head a couple of times when people were crowd-surfing in Osaka, but that's, well, the hazards of crowd-surfing, not anything malicious. Otherwise, everyone behaved.

I swear, the Gaze fandom needs to have a "Days Without a Major Wank" counter on top of one of the larger fandom Tumblrs (like namelessliberty) like the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom used to have on its major LJ community.

Otherwise, I'm working on my latest Camera Eye fic, which is MiA-centric. (It really does sadden me how under-loved that boy is by the Mejibray fandom. He's their primary songwriter and arranger - the architect of the band's sound, really.) And I got invited to visit a Canadian friend for their Thanksgiving in a few weeks. A much smaller-scale trip than the last couple of years (Munich for GazettE and Oktoberfest in 2013 - my God, it's been two years since I saw Gaze - and Japan last year), but it'll be good to get away for a few days.

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Some fans are just crazy, I just hope Gazette and their management understand this. Probably seen worse in Japan tbh, being more popular and everything.

I always remember Yoshiki's experience in a Mexican airport. He described it as "Mugged and assaulted" where I would say "Some over excited fans accidentally scratched him and one stole his necklace". Be glad not all rock stars are such Drama Queens :)

LOL! One can only imagine what Yoshiki would say if this incident happened at one of his own lives. Quite frankly, we don't know if this incident is the first of its kind - it's just the first that's been openly reported and caused drama.

To be honest, this kind of thing is far from a one off. Sure MOST fans are sane, and most concerts are nice, but there's always extreme fans with a screw loose that do things like this. It sucks.

I've been pretty much avoiding all social media now because of that craziness. I just hope that it comes down soon. Ugh.

I love MiA! I just fail on writing him....because Koichi is my number one haha. I seriously need to catch up on your fics ;___;

It's calmed down a little, at least on Tumblr, though there's still occasional bouts of yelling about it. GazettE drama dies slowly, it seems - it took Swastikagate weeks to go away.

I just introduced Koichi in the latest installment of Camera Eye, BTW! He's turned out to be a much stronger muse than I expected he'd be.

I heard about that water bottle incident. Foreign fans can be so psychotic when it comes to things the band members have thrown. In all the times I've been to concerts in Japan, I NEVER saw anything like that. It's disgraceful.

So Gazette fandom is being nuts as usual? I feel like they always are. Have been out of touch with the fandom for a few years but slowly getting back into things again.

Ohh, MiA centric! I'm excited to read that one. I know, poor MiA doesn't get nearly the appreciation he deserves. He's such a talented person. That'll be a fun trip. Have a good time! I know what you mean about getting away. My dad and I are planning to go out and visit my sister for a few days at the start of October. See if that'll work out.

GazettE fandom seems to go through periods where everything seems calm and mellow and everyone's getting along . . . followed by periods where everyone is at each other's throats. Well, not everyone - just a select and noisy group. The wank seems to be on the downslide right now, thank God, though there's still some finger-pointing going on. (This is why I've avoided Twitter - I've heard that as bad as the drama gets on Tumblr, it's a million times worse over there).

I never saw anything like the bottle incident in Japan, and a friend of mine who lived over there for awhile around the 2011 earthquake, then went back for a few months last year, never saw anything at the lives she went to, either. (And she went to something like five Alice Nine, eight SCREW, four GazettE, a few D=OUT . . .)

The MiA-centric fic went up today! (I made sure I got it finished for his birthday). It was actually nice to go on Tumblr today and see a bunch of pictures of him in the Mejibray tag for once - the boy needs to have birthdays more often! ~_^

I'm barely on tumblr any more, so I saw the news about the bottle attack (sort of) but missed all the wank... Ugh, I am so fed up with fandom!

You're lucky you did. It got pretty childish - especially when the finger-pointing was going on. (I swear GazettE drama has distinct stages - incident happens, fans react to incident, fans react to other fans' reactions to the incident, finger-pointing and sniping results from there).

It's always the same groups of people doing the finger pointing as well, isn't it? It really is ridiculous! There's some really nasty cliques that have formed, I've cut a few people I was following because they kept reblogging that stupid shit. Ahh... I've totally turned into a grumpy old woman. -_-;

that big-name fan who does a LOT for the fandom... i gues.. whatever, i wasn't there so i can't talk about it. :D people were calling crazy korean fans with a special name... they follow them all day and punch them in the face because if they do like that they will never forget themselves and they will live with a mark on their face. this is just so disgusting. I think the GazettE fandom is turning into something like that.

Edited 2015-09-16 17:28 (UTC)

The Korean fans sound flat-out scary. O_O (I've heard of outright stalker incidents involving various group members, too). From what I can tell, this particular case seems, so far, to be an isolated incident - thank God. Sadly, though, I would not be at all surprised to hear of similar cases.

Someone I know apparently knows who 'the biter' is and told me she claims the Japanese fan was choking her. Still don't think biting is the way to handle this or if this is even true, but what a mess either way! Admittedly I was worried at first, but I'm sure most fans and Gazette themselves understand that foreign fans aren't all like this, since so many of us go to their gigs without any problems (I'm pretty sure they'd know if this were a regular thing). All I can truly see as a consequence is, if PSC find out who it was, that this fan will be kicked out of Heresy - assuming she wasn't there as a non-Heresy member accompanying a friend in the FC - and perhaps banned from future lives.

Why people felt the need to bring up so much other crap is beyond me.

Have fun in Canada, by the way!

Good Lord - if the incident involved both choking AND biting, that makes it all the worse. O_O And I don't think this has really soured GazettE's view of foreign fans - they've been to South America and twice to Europe, so I think that pretty much forms the basis of their impression of fans outside Japan. I just wonder if PSC will really be able to positively identify the person beyond a shadow of a doubt, since the main info they have to go on is Tanuki and other fangirl scuttlebutt.