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hyde
vocals
Birthday: January 29, 1968*
Height: 158 cm*
Misc: colorblind, married, artist |
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ken
guitar
Birthday: November 28, 1969
Height: 178 cm |
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tetsu
bass, leader
Birthday: October 3, 1968
Height: SHORT
Misc: Gundam freak |
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yukihiro
drums
Birthday: November 24, 1969
Height: 165 cm
Misc: Chocolate freak |
L’Arc~en~Ciel (French for Rainbow) is very different than the everyday rock bands you hear today. There is something about them that sets them apart. They, along with the band GLAY, are the last of what some people refer to as the “Early 90’s Greats”. The band currently consists of hyde on vocals, ken on guitar, tetsu on bass, and yukihiro on drums. Yes, all their names are lowercase.
L’Arc~en~Ciel (Laruku for short) have been around a long time, 12 years on a major label (since 1994), and almost sixteen if their indie days are included. Since the beginning they were different from most bands, dressing with a Mediterranean gypsy fashion rather than the black and gloomy clothes that was so prevalent in the indie rock scene at the time. They don’t like to play by the rules; they like to make them up. L’Arc~en~Ciel is one of those bands that go beyond a rigid genre of rock, just as their name suggests, they explore every color of the rainbow, from punk to metal to pop. They can be dark and haunting at times (finale), light and fun (Driver’s High), or slow and beautiful (Pieces). This may be cause for their large fan base in and outside of Japan: the visual rocker and the pop listener will both find something they enjoy. Their music transcends the language barrier. And there is no doubt that L’Arc~en~Ciel has left a big mark on, not only the Japanese music scene, but also Japanese culture, from video games to manga to fashion.
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Hitomi Shimatani posing in CDData 2006
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Name: Hitomi Shimatani
Birthday: September 4th 1980
Hometown: Hiroshima
Star Sign: Virgo
Height: 161 cm
Blood Type: O type
Hobbies: Karaoke, shopping, movies
Record Label: avex trax
Talent Agency: PROCEED
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Hitomi Shimatani is a relatively popular singer in the J-Pop scene, who has made her debut back then in 1999. Apart from being a singer, Hitomi is a popular television personality and is an actress. She has a reputation of having powerful vocals and her beauty has labelled her as being one of the most beautiful personalities in Japan. Her trademark is her long hair.
Despite the fact that she is not extremely popular and is not one of avex’s biggest source of revenue, Hitomi still manages to attract a fair amount of attention. She has her personal fanclub called Eye-Land. Hitomi’s personality is rather well mannered and she is a compliant woman to work with, according to those who have done so. Hitomi frequents many music and radio programmes, just because she an interesting person. For these reasons she has made a lot of friendships and connections with various personalities, most notably the illustrious actress Yukie Nakama and Ryoko Kuninaka.
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Namie Amuro (安室奈美恵) was born at Naha, Okinawa prefecture, on 20th of September 1977. Her parents divorced while she was only a toddler, leaving her mother responsible for bringing up Namie and her 3 siblings all alone. The low funds of the family didn’t prevent Namie from chasing her dreams to be a star. She was attending Okinawa Actors School successfully, despite her having to walk everyday for 2 hours to go and return from the school – her family couldn’t afford public transportation.
At her fifteen, she formed a girl group with some classmates of hers, called “SUPER MONKEY’S”, under TOSHIBA EMI label. At first, their sales were pretty decent but after the 5th single “TRY ME ~私を信じて~” (01/25/1995), the group started having proper recognition at the charts, getting into the top 10 and being invited at 紅白歌合戦 (Kouhaku Uta Gassen), a big annual music show. During that period, the group had already moved in Tokyo and changed its name to “Namie Amuro with SUPER MONKEY’S” with Namie taking the upper hand and the lead role of the group. The two following singles made big success as well, resulting to Avex, through the superstars’ producer Tetsuya Komuro, noticing the band, offering a solo career contract for Namie. The rest of the members regrouped with the name Musical Active eXperience or, simply, MAX.
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