How did you discover visual kei?

[Shia]

So, how did everyone here discover vk?
And while you're at it, how old were you, and how did you find S-T? xD

I found out about vk from Shojo Beat magazine. In the magazine, they were talking about Hyde and I thought he looked cool, so I listened to his music and liked it-- and that led me to Gackt, which led me to Malice Mizer, which led me to vk.
I got into it about a year and a half ago, I think.

[Ku]

My first contact was about 10 years ago, shortly after the release of the X movie in the states. I'd read an Animerica article about it (lololol) and was interested. Of course, the ending theme was "Forever Love" by X JAPAN and I thought it was the most beautiful song ever... I didn't pursue it yet, though.

Then in 2002, I went to an anime con where I saw a guy perform "Cage" by Dir en grey in the karaoke contest. I didn't know what a "Dir en grey" was but now I was intrigued. At the same convention, a friend proposed we do a Malice Mizer song for the contest the next year and I was totally clueless.
When I got home from the con, I went to the only other Japan-obsessed friend I knew at the time and asked for information. She hooked me up with a ton of Dir and MM, and made me fall in love with Due'le quartz, too.

This was before the days of youtube, when sites like Lavender no Heya, Invasion Dream, and Japanese Chanel were some of the best (and only) resources for jrock out there. High-speed internet was a thing for the rich so everyone I knew ran on 56k modems. It took 45 minutes to download a single song, and let's not even talk about PVs. @_@ There was no youtube; we used sneaker net (haha) to share media, and because of that it took me forever to get into any other bands aside from the 3 I started with.
The daarrrrrrk ages!

For S-T, I probably found it within the last year. :3 The site kept popping up in google searches, and my curiosity finally led me to click it and check it out.
Also, yay for me replying to this super-late. xD

[Shia]

Whoa.. ten years ago. That's so cool to hear about, what it was like to love VK back then. It's already such an obscure thing even now!

[Ku]

Yeah, but it's come a long way! :D (Thank god.)

[Narumi]

Okay I didn't start with Gackt XD I was pretty much into metal bands like Murderdolls, Dope, SlipKnoT and stuff like that so i was just surfing the net and found a band called Trashlight Vision ((Acey Slade's band)). They were pretty popular in Japan and since I already loved Japan, manga and anime at that time, I wanted to find out more about the band. So I searched for some pictures and boom!! A picture of Acey Slade with Kagerou's Daisuke. I was like O.O It was pretty much love at first sight...it was over 2 years ago ((I was 12 back then))...my fisrt song was Urami Koto and it's been my favorite song since then. So blame Kagerou for my weirdness XD So after that I searched for more info about the band, found Malice Mizer, Plastic Tree, D'espairsRay, Dir en grey and Phantasmagoria...and I was already under the VK spell. But it was awfully hard when Kagerou and Mago disbanded...but I've lived till now XD And about ST, I discovered it when I was searching for some info about...which band was it? Ah, can't remember -.-

[Shia]

Duuude, that's awesome. Especially since you already knew what kind of music you were into.

[Dawni DeHart]

When I was in sixth grade I was really into anime, but I really liked heavy music, so the poppy openings and endings weren't really cutting it for me. I eventually sumbled across Dir en grey and I thought that they were really cool. I believe that Ain't Afraid to Die was the first song that I ever listened to by them. Watching the PV for Obscure pretty much sealed the deal. Ever since I've been digging up as many Japanese rock bands as possible; finding them much more talented and entertaining than the bands that I had been exposed to all of my life.

[kamari kim]

last year i used to watch Death Note all the time. still do :)
I downloaded the songs played during the credits, then found rentrer en soi, kagrra, and luna sea and started listening to them all

[Lei]

I discovered visual kei by just roaming the internet.
i usd to se pictures of Jrockers and be like "woahh, let me look this person up"
and doing that, along with meeting other people who liked it and recommended bands to me, my visual kei discovery was born!
I think I found shattered tranquility when i typed in visual kei on google! haha

i think the first jrocker was miyavi. back when he had blue hair. i think.

[filthinthebeauty]

Gackt led me to visual kei actually. I first heard of Gackt through Final Fantasy 7 Dirge of Cerberus and started listening to his music. Through that I found about Malice Mizer. After that I became very intrigued and started discovering various bands and learning more about vis kei. That was about 3 years ago so I've been a fan since then

[Rebecca Evans]

I think I found vk through Dir en grey... I found "Cage" in 2004 or 2005 on some website, then I went out and bought GAUZE and I don't know how it went from there but I guess it did. Malice Mizer was involved eventually...
I found S-T today, haha. I was searching something on google--possibly "Valluna," a vk band I really like--and found a link (S-T) saying they had a new single and was like "WHAT" and then yeah. Here I am? :)
And let me just say it is way cool to read through all of our stories of discovery (I feel vaguely like we are a cult though ha... how did YOU find Jesus?), and to recognize not only most of the band names but also the stories. 'Cause I keep reading them and being like "omg me too... omg ME TOO!" You know?