First impression of Mana

[Godiva]

greetings and salutations!I'm new here. I guess I'm just curious.When I first saw him I busted out laughing.I knew he was a guy automatically and the first thing that came to mind was David Bowie and Boy George mixed in one.

 

[Nocturne]

I thought he was a woman and found him really attractive. Embaressing.

 

[angels of night]

I saw him in the "Beast of Blood" video, and I thought "there is something odd about that woman...."lol. But once I found out he was a guy, I loved him for his music and style. I thought he was pretty fearless to dress the way he does, not ashamed to be who he is. I thought he was awesome!

 

[carna]

Er, 1st impression?!
I thought he was a wonderful musician, and that his music was full of emotions... and he was so cute, so feminine...
But really my 1st impression was not about how he looks like, it was about his talent in music ^^

 

[Hoshi]

My first exposure to Mana was in the Beast of Blood PV... I remember watching it saying things like, "She does her makeup REALLY well! OMG that's a guy?! WTF?! Wow - this song sounds like the Addams Family started a band or something... Are you SURE that's a guy? WTF?! Oooh pretty guitar! Duh he's not playing the violin correctly!" and so on and so forth...

Overall I think I was inrigued more than anything... It wasn't until I saw the Bara ni Irodorareta Akui to Higeki no Makuake DVD however, that I realize how godly Mana was.... *sigh* Back in the day, I tell ya........ ^_~

 

[Herr Doktor Knave]

the suprise was ruinded for me, when an old friend of mine tol me that everyone in this band was a guy, and to be honest I wasn't all that suprised, because I had already known about the japanese obsession with trannies form watching sailor moon, so when i finally DID see mana, my first impression was "wow, the illusion is very complete."

 

[Geisha]

My first contact with Mana was finding the website of Moi-meme-Moitie on the internet. I never really liked Western goth fashion and had always been looking for something more understated and 'sharply tailored' (my solution to the problem was mixing formal wear with fetish fashion). When I saw Mana's E.G.A. designs it was like 'wow, THIS is what I have been looking for all this time!' Months later I discovered this really cool looking band and the cross-dressing guitarist caught my eye immediately. I admired his sense of style and his courage to not only wear women's clothes but go all the way to try and look like a woman. When I found out that he was also the person behind MMM I really wanted to know what his music sounded like. The rest is history...

 

[Illaparatzo-sama]

Music first. It wasn't much of an impression, I think I first heard Illuminati (and as we all know, there's like... 2 guitar chords in that song, and they're probably Kozi's anyway =D), so I didn't hear any of Mana's guitarwork. Then I listened to Bel Air and thought "wow, this is a really great sounding song, especially the double guitars *___*", and after that I finally saw a picture of him. And er.. my reaction was pretty much "wow I like him", cause I think it was a picture of him in his Illuminati costume, tall platforms and short skirt, so I thought it was fairly obvious he was a man. He just looked manly in that picture, and I was a little familiar with girly-men by then anyway.

Lydia

 

[AdamG]

My first exposure was also the Beast of Blood PV, which was sent to me randomly by someone I have yet to find again. I was on AIM and someone literally random sent me the vid. Since they said it was of a Japanese band I figured I'd let it go (I use linux, no virus fears here).

My real first impression: What in the living crap is this???

I promptly deleted it and didn't give it another thought.

Fast forward to a year later when someone lent me a DVD of this japanese band they loved called "Malice Mizer". She watched it with me, the first vid being Sakai no chi to Bara. I was amazed at the elegance of the music, it's dark gothic themes really hit me. About halfway through I said a phrase that will forever stick with me in my circle of friends:

"Great music... and is that woman in the band hot or what?"

...yeah. Heh. I still remember them laughing at me. So cruel

Later in the DVD, along came none other than Beast of Blood and I sorta freaked. "I know that video! I've seen it before..." and after hearing Sakai and later Kyomo no Naka de no Yuugi, I figured I'd give the video and song a second chance, and it quickly became one of my favorite songs. Still is

So that's my funny little story. Since then I usually like to spring and exceptionally attractive pic of Mana to my straight male friends to see if they do the same thing.


Another funny story, my cousin (she did the exact same thing I did when I first saw Mana, heh) showed a pic of Mana to one of her friends that's an independant Pro Wrestler. He was in a locker room with his laptop with some of his co-workers when one walked by and said that he'd "Tap that goth ass in a heartbeat". The friend told him that Mana was a guy and without blinking said "Doesn't matter, I mean LOOK at that!". For some reason that cracks me up without fail.


That's all I got, heh

-AG

 

[navate]

My first impression of Malice Mizer as a whole was a photo gallery of their pictures. I was amazed by them all, and thought Mana was extremely beautiful. I knew they were guys (mostly because you can tell with most of them...) but I wasn't sure at first with Mana. I forget when I figured it out, but I don't think I was shocked. I was more enthralled and amazed... I thought it was awesome a man could look so gorgeous, and was overall impressed with MM's costumes. It was seeing how intense their visuals were that made me go, "Holy crap, I have GOT to give these guys a listen."

Went on WinMX, DLed Beast of Blood (loved it), Gekka (thought wtf?), and Au Revior (loved it, and decicded to keep downloading since I could see how diverse they were)... and that was the end of that. I was hooked.

I think I actually liked Kozi best at first, strictly from the photos. Once I started DLing concerts and PVs, though, Mana really grabbed me with his presence and personality.



Adam -- I do that, too. Funny thing is... there's always one of two reactions: OMGWTF FAG! or "...he's still really hot."

One of my guyfriends has banned me from showing him pictures of any androgynous JRocker. Poor thing's a bit sexually insecure, I think....

;D

 

[Monophobia]

I didn't think Mana was male at first, when I found out I thought the person I asked made a typo. I remember being VERY intrigued, I loved the whole idea and that's what all lead me into visual kei in the first place. Of course I wanted to hear the music aswell, and yeah I loved it.

 

[Cheatsy]

First time I ever heard/seen M+M was the Gekka no Yasoukyoku video. Then I looked them up and found pictures of them. I saw Mana and was like "Damn, she's beautiful!" then I found out Mana was a guy and was like "Damn, he's beautiful!".

And I seem to be one of the older M+M fans, since so many seen "Beast of Blood" first. I came in during the "merveilles" period. But didn't really start looking into them and loving them until "Bara no Seidou" came out. And I still remember the day they disbanded. I cried that day

 

[CookieMoses]

I liked Mana's style because I want to look as feminine as him.

 

[Anonymous]

You know... I can't remember. I think it was just 'pretty' or something along those lines. I saw pictures of them all together so Mana was fading in the background somewhere behind Klaha and Kozi

 

[gloombox]

Yeah, amasanin...I had the same phenomenon.

Mana, at first, faded into the background. I had been told ahead of time that they were all guys, which at the time was kind of like o_O
But, I think I noticed Kozi most at first.
Now, though, I see Mana's charisma and he's like a fiery blue beacon of wonder. I think that comes with appreciating his awesomeness.

 

[Gier]

I think the first pics I saw of them were from the Merveilles era, some sort of frilly pirate theme going on. I thought well damn, their music is amazing and they must have guts to wear pirate hats that big.

When I first noticed Mana specifically I thought he was a she and quite lovely, eventually I was corrected as to the gender but mana remains quite lovely.

 

[inertia]

I'm another one who noticed Kozi first. At the time I first became aware of Malice Mizer's existence (1997), there was NO information about them online in English. A couple of people on the old jrock ML said this band "Malice Mizer" was really good and there was a beautiful guitarist "Mana". So I arranged a videotape trade to sample them, and in the meanwhile checked my copies of Shoxx to see if there were any articles. I did have a few articles, but none that matched face to name, and the band member that caught my eye as being "beautiful" was Kozi. So naturally I assumed that he had to be the "beautiful Mana" everyone was talking about. ^^; I didn't notice the actual Mana at all and was very surprised when I later got the names straight and realized who they were really referring to.

 

[ShadowsParadox]

I first saw Mana in the Beast of Blood PV also. I thought Mana was the most atractive woman I had ever seen. especially when the camera zoomed in when he had the umbrella. I later found out she was a he.

 

[Kame]

before Malice Mizer, I had had absolutely NO exposure to goth, effemenite men, or crossdressers (I was still under the impression that all crossdressers were ugly transvestites) The only rock music I'd been exposed to was mainstream american stuff.

so, when I first saw Malice Mizer I thought they were rather odd... even kinda scary. I was at my friend's house and he showed me the Beast of Blood video (I'd heard the song a few times before, but new absolutely nothing about the band) and I thought "woah, they've got a girl in the band! and she's really awesome too! (I mean look at the girls that are turning out so-called rock music in the US ) So I was all happy, thinking my gender was at last decently represented in the world of rock music and my friend kept going on about what an awesome guitarist this "Mana" is and then he showed me Shiroi live and the band really creeped me out but Mana was so pretty and she was just so cool...

and then later I was joking about how I'd first mistaken Gackt for a woman and my friend was like "haha.... of course, people mistaking Mana for a woman I could totally understand..."

and then I sort of went into shock

 

[Cianide]

I was asking my friend to tell me some good j-rock bands that I would like for their difference. I downloaded 'color me blood red' then 'beast of blood'.(p.s. I think most people's first malice mizer songs are usually those, it just looked appealing to me, but whatever) Then, because I really liked them, I looked up pictures on google and came to the one where their wearing the same outfits of beast of blood PV and I saw Mana, but I'm just naturally stupid and thought HE was a SHE ^^;; and I even misread an article about Mana and thought he broke up malice mizer.