2021-01-27 Update! The translated lyrics, romaji, and kanji for "Dance Tengoku" are now up, but more importantly, this is the 15th anniversary of the launch of This is NOT Greatest Site! Thanks everyone, for all your warm support over the years! Maybe you're on lockdown, maybe it's too cold to go outside, or both, but we bring you this song today so that in honor of our anniversary, you can put on "Dance Tengoku," sing along in English, dance in your underwear, and celebrate. Pop the champagne! 2020-12-02 Update! The translated lyrics, romaji, and kanji for "Tsuki no Sabaku" are now up, with slightly fewer translation notes than the previous songs... what is this madness? See if you can spot Sakurai's comment on oil and war in the Middle East! 2020-12-01 Update! The translated lyrics, romaji, and kanji for "Maimu Maimu" are now up, with their very own very very very long string of notes attached. Kids, we really are sorry with how long this is taking, but... doing each of these songs is like researching and writing a literary essay. It's a lot of work, and our health is frail. There will be more coming soon, but for now, enjoy genderqueer Mr. Sakurai as a vampire hooker (and possible Sailor Mars cosplayer) in 1970's Shinjuku. For the record: he stated that this song is one of his favorites on the album. 2020-10-20 Update! The translated lyrics, romaji and kanji for "Urahara-juku" are now up, along with an even bigger pile of translation notes than for the previous two songs. How is that possible!? We weren't lying when we said there was a lot to unpack in this album! While we get to work on more translations, enjoy Mr. Sakurai's raging against gentrification, capitalism, idols, and street harassers who hit on goth chicks, all at once!!! Buy or die in paradise!!!! 2020-10-14 Update! The translated lyrics, romaji and kanji for "Sophia Dream" are now up, along with a big pile of translation notes. Whew, this album is a humdinger! More songs coming soon. 2020-10-08 Update! The translated lyrics, romaji and kanji for "Que Sera Sera Elegy" are now up, along with a big pile of translation notes. We appreciate your patience while we tackle the rest of this album. Buck-Tick sure love their word plays and allusions, and they've outdone themselves this time. To do these translations (and translation notes) justice, we're taking the time to let the songs sink in, and the time to do our research. Bear with us! 2020-08-31 Update! The translated lyrics, romaji and kanji for "Moonlight Escape" and "Kogoeru" are now up in the Buck-Tick lyrics section. Both are singable with the original melodies, and they sound pretty good, if we do say so ourselves. We have also added the FT 096 interviews with Sakurai and Imai to the translated articles archive. 2020-07-29 Update! We have uploaded our painstakingly crafted singable-in-English translation of Shiina Ringo's "Kemono Yuku Hosomichi" ("Beasts Travel the Narrow Way") so that the Shiina Ringo section of this site won't look quite so lonely with only one song in it. If the only Shiina Ringo song y'all ever listened to is "Kakeochimono," we strongly encourage you to change that and listen to the entire Sandokushi album - it's a masterpiece, in both music and lyrics. However, the melodies are just as difficult to sing as the lyrics are to translate, so if you pass on the singing, we forgive you. In fact, these lyrics are so difficult that during the live performances of these songs, Ringo had live subtitles of the lyrics going on the projection screen behind the stage, to help the audience follow along with the roaring riptide of metaphysical retro Japanese. Now aren't y'all glad Mr. Sakurai opts for simple? 2020-02-01 Update! The translation, kanji and romaji for "Luna Park" are now up. This one is lots of fun to sing in English, if you can get used to the unusual timing of the entrance of the vocal lines. Give it a try! 2020-01-30 Update! Happy 2020, folks! Here's to kick off a great year with a new Buck-Tick single, Datenshi. The translation, kanji and romaji for the title track are now up. Lyrics for the b-side "Luna Park" will follow shortly. 2019-06-17 Update! We are proud to present our translation of Shiina Ringo's song "Kakeochi Mono," written in the image of Sakurai Atsushi, and featuring Mr. Sakurai on vocals. His words: "She told me she wrote this song in my image, so how could I refuse? But am I really such a passionate man?" Shut up, Acchan-chan. Take all that oodles of money you earned from being a passionate man and buy a yourself deluxe pair of cat ears and some catgirl femmedoms to beat your ass and stop pretending you don't love the shit out every minute of it. Oh wait, I forgot. Pretending you don't like it is just part of the role-play! 2019-05-29 Update! Dear sweet Jesus, has it really been more than a year since we've updated NGS? Sorry for our silence! Just like a beast, we're back and we're bad, and we bring to you the singable translations (plus kanji and romaji) for "Kemono-tachi no Yoru" and "Rondo." Once again, if you enjoyed these translations, head over to The Blog-Tick Phenomenon to discuss them with other readers, and/or consider supporting us on Ko-Fi. Our illness landed us with a lot of expenses, and every little bit helps. 2018-04-12 Update! The kanji, romaji, and translations for "Guernica no Yoru" and "Tainai Kaiki" are now up in the Buck-Tick lyrics section, which completes our archive of translations of the lyrics to the songs on No. 0! If you enjoyed these translations, head over to The Blog-Tick Phenomenon to discuss them with other readers, and/or consider supporting us on Ko-Fi. 2018-04-03 Update! The kanji, romaji, and translations for "Ophelia," "Hikari no Teikoku," and "Nostalgia -Vita Mechanicalis-" are now up in the Buck-Tick lyrics section. Wow the notes took a long time. Many research. Much tears. So procrastinating translations for work about real live steamy factories. If you'd love to think about factories without actually ever having to visit one, mechanical translation may be the perfect job for you. 2018-03-22 Update! The kanji, romaji, and translations for "Gustave" and "Barairo Juujidan -Rozen Kreuzer-" are now up in the Buck-Tick lyrics section, complete with copious notes. Both translations are singable with the original melodies and ultra sexylicious! More coming soon. 2018-03-20 Update! The kanji, romaji, and translations for "Reishiki 13-Gata 'Ai'," "Bishuu Love," and "Igniter" are now up in the Buck-Tick lyrics section. All translations are singable with the original melodies and include notes. More coming soon. 2018-02-26 Update! The kanji, romaji, and translations for "Moon Sayonara wo Oshiete" and "Salome" are now up in the Buck-Tick lyrics section. 2018-02-10 Update! Our Spanish translator Natalia has kindly provided us with Spanish versions of our translations of yesterday's interview with Sakurai Atsushi, the Love Me book (an early history of B-T - if you haven't read this one yet, read it! It's inspiring enough to be a Disney movie and will make you all teary), and the lyrics to all the songs on Atom Miraiha No. 9, plus notes, as well as the lyrics to "Babel." Wow! Spanish-speaking fans, enjoy. Natalia plans on offering up more Spanish translations soon, so stay tuned. 2018-02-09 Update! We're pleased to present our first addition to the Translated Articles section in quite a while: Ongaku to Hito's interview with Sakurai Atsushi on Buck-Tick's forthcoming album, No. 0! Since becoming a professional translator, we haven't often had the time to translate interviews for fun, but we made an exception for this one because it's such a good one, delving into such meaty topics as gender fluidity, the creative process, and the role of the artist. If you're the kind of person who just looooooves to talk about your gender on the internet, this one's for you! Russian fangirl fans of Macho Man Acchan, take careful notes, please! 2018-01-08 Update! Happy New Year! By popular demand, we have added an all-new helpful guide to visiting Japan - this one's about train travel. If you're planning a trip to Japan, read this one over carefully! Remember: ain't no pain on the blue train! 2017-11-16 Update! The lyrics, translation, and reams of notes on "Babel" are now up. These English lyrics can easily be sung with the original melody, so go nuts with your karaoke and nerding out over Biblical scholarship and art history. 2017-07-09 Update! We're pleased to bring you a review of the film officially entitled Buck-Tick ~Climax Together~ On Screen 1992-2016, unofficially entitled Buck-Tick: The Climax (and un-unofficially entitled Buck-Tick: The Climax? Anti-Climax Together). We hope you find it as climax-inducing as we found it. For those of you interested in seeing the film, but who didn't catch it this time around, it will show again in September, so stay tuned. 2017-03-31 Update! At long, long, long last, we have posted a live report/album review of Atom Miraiha No. 9 and its accompanying tour. For those of you who like lyrics analysis, there's some of that in there as well. Oh yeah, and be sure to click the links! 2017-02-24 Update! We have posted a new analysis article in the Features section. Entitled The Fangirl Phenomenon, it explores the genesis, behaviors, and psychological motivations of Japanese fangirls, and why fangirldom in Japan is something of a unique phenomenon. For those of you who love our long-winded pretentious pontifications, this is the longest-winded, pretentious-est, and most pontificable of the bunch! If you love the word "hegemony," prepare to wallow in it! (In fact, we are sincerely sorry we used the word "hegemony" at all, but it had to be done. To find out more, read the article.) 2016-12-16 Update! We brought back an old section, complete with new content (and still more coming soon). See if you can figure out which one it is because we aren't telling. 2016-10-17 Update! The lyrics, translation, and notes for "Ai no Souretsu" are now up, meaning that our translation archive for Atom Miraiha No. 9 is now complete! For the first time in our history, every single English translation for this album is singable with the original melody. Not only that, but for the first time in our history, every single translation for this album is accompanied by translation notes, which took many, many hours to research and write, so please go enjoy the shit out of them. 2016-10-17 Update! The lyrics, translation, and notes for "Cuba Libre" are up! Rumba with me kiddos! Only one song left to go. 2016-10-13 Update! As some of you may have noticed, more translations for songs on Atom Miraiha No. 9 have been going up sneakily over the past few days. They include "Jukai," "The Seaside Story," "Future Song," and "Manjusaka," complete with extensive notes. Also, be sure to check out The Blog-Tick Phenomenon for some in-depth articles about the references found in these sounds. Boy, this is a deep album! 2016-10-06 Update! The lyrics and translations for "Bi NEO Universe" and "BOY septem peccata mortalia" are now up, along with more notes. More songs coming soon. 2016-10-05 Update! The lyrics and translations for "cum uh sol nu -furasuko no besshu-," "Pinoa Icchio -Odoru Atomu-," and "El Dorado" are now up in the Buck-Tick lyrics section, along with reams of notes I spent hours writing. Nerds, go nuts. More translations will follow shortly. 2016-09-21 Update! The lyrics and translations for both tracks on Buck-Tick's new single New World are now up! Imai may be in dubstep heaven but Sakurai's still coiled in The Mortal coil, it seems. More notes on New World No. 9 may be forthcoming after the release of the album next week. In the meantime, check out "New World" and "Devil's Wings". 2016-05-27 Update! Yes, it's been a long time in coming, but better take long and get off well than give up halfway and never get off at all (that's what she said!) What am I talking about, friends? What has finally come? Why, Schaft, of course. By which I mean, a live report of Schaft's Tour Ultra -The Loud Engine- is now up in the Articles section. Those of you who thought we couldn't get it up in time thought wrong. The DVD doesn't come out till next week, so this is your sneak preview! And if reading the report doesn't convince you to buy the DVD that's coming out next week, it should. The concert was fantastic and the DVD is sure to be, too. 2016-03-07 Update! Happy Birthday to Mr. Sakurai Atsushi! Today, my friends, Mr. Sakurai is officially celebrating a full half century of life on this earth, and it's been great having him, we hope he sticks around for a good deal longer. In honor of his birthday, and the productive use he made of the existential crisis that turning such an old age caused him to experience, we bring you the long-awaited second in-depth lyrics analysis article: The Cacophony of Mortality. Yes, my friends, it's all about The Mortal. Even if you think you don't like The Mortal, by all means, go read it! It might change your mind. Plus, we really pulled out all the stops writing this one, so please savor our efforts! 2016-03-03 Update! Happy Girls' Day, everyone! Today, Hina Matsuri, is also known as the Doll Festival in Japan, when everyone who can afford to busts out their expensive sets of empress and emperor dolls to celebrate the daughters of the household. But even if you don't have a set of Girls' Day dolls for the occasion, who cares? Necessity is the mother of invention, so why not improvise by putting that teeny-tiny Acchan sex voodoo doll you made yourself together with your favorite American Girl doll, and playing a sexy version of Attack of the 50-foot woman? You can't claim you haven't fantasized about this at least once. You can try to deny it, but we know you're lying. But that's neither here nor there. The main point is, it is not yet Mr. Sakurai's 50th birthday, and we have, true to our word, gotten our live report of The Mortal's virgin tour all up on the interwebs before the big day. So when you finish your kinky doll play, go read it! The album review isn't quite finished yet, but we aim to get it up within the next few days (that's what he said.) 2016-01-27 Update! We're proud to announce that This is NOT Greatest Site launched 10 years ago today, which means we're officially 100 years old in internet years! If you'd like to celebrate with us, go over to Blog-Tick to check out some info on our history and our embarrassing youthful looks. Thanks to everyone for all your support! In the meantime, we're partying. Happy birthday to us!
This is NOT Greatest Site
~~~Celebrating 100 Internet Years~~~
 2016-01-21 Update! Added an all-new lyrics section for Schaft, including all the lyrics to their 1994 debut album Switchblade. This is it, ladies and gents: now you get your chance to read all about the life and times of Raymond Watts and his misogynistic, homicidal, suicidal P3N1$. Rhyme, chyme, blood and grime, now lie right back and praise the Schwein...oh wait, wrong band there! But you get the idea.
In fact, it must be said that the only people who wrote good lyrics for this album were Johnny Stephens (lyricist for inFORMation - early 90's doomsaying techno-phobia that still has alarmingly prescient relevance today), and Imai Hisashi. Oh wait, Imai Hisashi didn't write any lyrics for this album! Instead we got Susanne Bramson's teen angst poetry. Methinks it's a mercy she only ever released one album.
The lyrics for Ultra will be coming soon, but will take us a bit more time, owing to the fact that half of them are in Japanese, so we will need to translate them. But from what we've read so far, they're a lot sexier. It appears that Fujii Maki wants your soul and flesh, girl. Make sure your body is ready.
2016-01-05 Update! Updated the last section of So You Want to Be a Goth? to include a few things I forgot to say the first time.
2016-01-03 Update! Happy New Year, everyone! In honor of he new year, we bring you something a little different. By popular demand, we have written an article entitled So You Want to Be a Goth? which is now up in the Features section. In less space than a typical live report, we have attempted to explain the goth subculture in its entirety. We surely didn't do it justice, but maybe we scratched the surface of its undead grave, who knows. Either way, enjoy reading. Or skip the article and just scroll down to the picture we stole from the great internetz of Peter Murphy skivving out of his knickers. The choice is yours. We don't care either way.
2015-12-26 Update! Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and sorry for the delay! Our live report of The Mortal at Tower Records is now up in the live reports section. To all of you who helped make it possible for us to attend this event, thanks again! Aside from the less than desirable behavior of the other fans, the concert was one of the highlights of The Mortal's tour. As for the rest of the tour, we will be posting a full report as soon as we are able, but it's bound to be after The Day In Question. Expect at DIQ report too - but all in good time. In the meantime, enjoy the last few days of 2015, and have a happy new year!
2015-12-01 Update! The lyrics and translations for The Mortal's "Grotesque," "Mortal" and "Sayonara Waltz" are now up, which means that all the lyrics and translations for all the songs The Mortal have released to date are now up and we get to take a translator's vacation until Schaft's Loud Engine comes along.
In the meantime, please fangirls, do not masturbate to "Sayonara Waltz." Unless your name is Jake Cloudchair, it is not an appropriate song for masturbation. This has been a public service announcement. You're welcome.
Also, please be aware that the lyrics mentioned above contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.
Also, please be aware that the lyrics mentioned above contain trigger warnings, so if you find trigger warnings triggering, well, you've probably already been triggered, so we wash our hands of you.
Live reports will be coming as soon as we can make them come.
2015-11-24 Update! The lyrics and translations for The Mortal's "Fantomas," "Mother," "Guignol" and "Tsuki" are now up. Lots and lots and lots of notes! If you never had an education, now's your time to catch up. If you got kicked out of goth school, now's your time to re-apply!
2015-11-18 Update! The lyrics and translations for The Mortal's "Tenshi" and "Dead Can Dance" are now up in the The Mortal lyrics section (not too often one gets to employ a double layer of "the's" in English and remain grammatical, so we're going to make hay of this golden opportunity while the sun shines!) Both translations are singable in English, if you feel like singing all those dirty words. As a matter of fact, the lyrics for "Tenshi" have been up since last week but we didn't announce it - so good on you if you noticed, it means you're a real NGS fan! As for the rest of the songs...we will get them up as soon as possible. But judging by the length of the notes so far, it may take a bit longer than usual. Sit tight.
2015-10-16 Update! The translations for all the songs on The Mortal's debut mini-album Spirit are now up in our newly created The Mortal section. All the translations are singable with the original melodies, so feel free to try them out in your bathroom karaoke! Since Mr. Sakurai's Japanese lyrics for the covers of "Cities in Dust" and "Shadow of Love" are less translations and more complete rewritings, I have re-translated them into English for your reading pleasure. As always, please do not re-post these translations elsewhere on the internet. If you would like to share them (and please do!) please post a link back to Not Greatest Site instead.
2015-09-04 Update! The remainder of the translations for the songs on Lucy's album Rockarollica II album are up, so go check them out here!
2015-08-22 Update! At long, long last, our live report of the Lunatic Festival is up! We sincerely apologize for how long it took us to get this done. Not only was it a big event that necessitated a long article, but also, a whole lot of things have been happening to us in our personal and professional lives, and quite honestly it was very difficult to find the time to sit down and write. But as we have no pretensions of being "real" journalists, we'll hope you'll forgive us, at least this once.
However, if you were hoping for a report on Luna Sea's set, this isn't it. Sorry, fans. Luna Sea just isn't our cup of tea.
2015-08-21 Update! For the first time in ages, we've added new Lucy translations! By fan request, the translations of most of the songs on Rockarollica II are now up, including amazing singable English lyrics for "Rock-n-Roll Intercepter," so go check it out on the Lucy page. The rest of the songs will be up soon, so don't forget to check back!
2015-07-23 Update! Courtesy of Anca again, I've added Romanian translations of the following songs: Adult Children, Cosmos, Coyote, Darker Than Darkness, Galaxy, Cain, masQue, Melancholia, Yougetsu, Yumemiru Uchuu, and Zekkai. Enjoy!
2015-06-30 Update! Courtesy of Anca, one of our Romanian readers, I have now added Romanian translations of the following songs: Heroin, J, Lion, Romance, Satan, and Zangai. The Romanian lyrics to Satan are singable with the original melody. In addition, I have reconfigured the main Buck-Tick lyrics page for easier viewing.
2015-06-10 Update! In anticipation of the Lunatic Festival, I have added an all-new artist to the site: Ka.F.Ka, the new gothically superpowered super-group fronted by Japanese music legend Tsuchiya Masami.
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past two years, Ka.F.Ka's lineup includes not only Tsuchiya Masami on guitar, but also Ken Morioka (of minus, formerly of Soft Ballet) on keyboards, Ueno Koji (of The Hiatus, formerly of Thee Michelle Gun Elephant) on bass, Motokatsu (of Imai Hisashi's Crazy Drunk Buddies and The Drunken Drummer Gang, formerly of The Mad Capsule Markets) on drums, and Issay (of Der Zibet, formerly of A Bat-Haunted Castle on a Misty Crag in Eastern Romania) on vocals. As I said previously on Blog-Tick, this band is so dark, spooky, glittery and glammy that clouds of bats follow them wherever they go and actual blacklight shines out of all their orifices! Ka.F.Ka are so gothygoth, they're enough to warm even the black frilly knickers of the Acchan-chan fangirls who only ever listen to 13kai wa Gekkou on repeat every day of the year! They may not have released many songs yet, but this is a band to keep your world-weary bloodshot eyes on!
For anyone attending the Lunatic Festival at the end of this month, they're a must-not-miss. I have already added translations of all the songs they have released to date, and will add more as more are released. If you look them up and like what you hear, the albums can be purchased via Tsuchiya Masami's web shop. If you like what you hear, please buy copies of the albums, as this band is not wealthy and they need your support to continue playing!
2015-04-08 Update! Added a whole slew of new questions to the "Going to Japan" and "At the Venue" FAQ sections of the new "So You Want to Visit Japan to See Buck-Tick" guide. These are important additions, suggested to me by several veteran NGS friends who've made the trip to Japan to see Buck-Tick multiple times. If you already read the new sections, go back and check the new questions, it's information you need to know. I will probably add still more questions later, so if you have a suggestion for something you think I should add, please email me.
2015-04-07 Update! By popular demand, I have added a whole new section, entitled Visiting Japan: Helpful Guides. This section contains the Japanese Concert Guide which was previously filed under Articles > Features.
It also contains an ALL-NEW guide, specifically for overseas fans who are thinking of making the trip to Japan in order to see Buck-Tick, appropriately titled, "So You Want to Visit Japan To See Buck-Tick." If this applies to you, please read the entire section, as well as the entire Japanese Concert Guide, before you contact me with questions. I guarantee that 90% of the answers to your questions are in there.
I have been helping overseas fans navigate Japan for many years, and attending Buck-Tick shows for many more years. I guarantee this is the best information you will find on this topic on the English-language internet. If someone else is telling you something different than what's posted in this guide, they are probably wrong. If you run into any fangirls on FaceGram who don't like my sense of humor, you can tell them I said that.
As far as FaceGram goes, if you'd like to share this guide on social media, I don't mind at all, but as it took me a significant amount of time to write, I request that rather than copy-pasting, you instead post a link back to NGS. Enjoy!
2015-02-23 Update! More Spanish-language translations from our special correspondent Natalia H.! As always, the translations are re-translations of Cayce's English, and since Cayce doesn't speak Spanish, we can't always verify their accuracy, but we hope you enjoy them anyway. This time we bring you 37 whole songs:
2015-02-17 Update! In the name of making NGS/Blog-Tick content more accessible, I have cross-posted a number of the meatier articles I've written for Blog-Tick over the past few years to This is NOT Greatest Site. Articles include the band member interview from the pamphlet for Buck-Tick: The Movie (in Translated Articles), my reviews of Elise no Tame ni and Keijijou Ryuusei (in Reviews), my retrospective on the history of "Victims of Love" (in Reviews), and my analysis of the lyrics for "Melancholia" (in Features).
If you haven't read these articles yet, by all means, go read them, as they are largely still relevant. Even if you have read them, go read them again! And as always, if there's any type of content you'd like to see more of on the site, just drop me a line and let me know your thoughts (it's themadaristocrat at gmail.) I lead a busy life, so I can make no promises, but I want to produce content that's of interest to readers, so I value your input.
2015-02-13 Update! It's past midnight, which means it's officially Friday the 13th in Japan. I hope y'all have some spooky goth fun. But even if you don't have anything planned, you can always stay glued to your computer reading This is NOT Greatest Site, because an illustrated mini-report of the Fish Tanker's Only Tour 2014 is now up. You're welcome. Please go ahead and share your comments on Blog-Tick.
2015-02-12 Update! More Spanish-language translations from our special correspondent Natalia H.! As always, the translations are re-translations of Cayce's English, and since Cayce doesn't speak Spanish, we can't always verify their accuracy, but we hope you enjoy them anyway. This time we bring you the following songs:
2015-02-05 Update! At long, long last, a live report of the Metaform Nights ~or Anarchy~ Tour is now up. We sincerely apologize for the delay in posting this article, as it is generally our policy not to let more than a month or so elapse between the show and the publication of the live report. However, in this particular instance, a confluence of circumstances, including holidays, illness, and work, conspired to get in our way to the point that we weren't even able to start writing till last week. A report of the Fish Tanker's Only Tour 2014 is also forthcoming, so stay tuned. Feel free to share your comments over on Blog-Tick. Writing these articles takes a lot of time and effort, so we always love to hear your responses and impressions. Happy reading.
2015-01-15 Update! Our Spanish-language correspondent Natalia H. has been at it again! This time we bring you Spanish translations of the following Buck-Tick songs, as well as assorted songs by various Buck-Tick-associated side projects. As always, the translations are re-translations of Cayce's English, and since Cayce doesn't speak Spanish, we can't always verify their accuracy, but we hope you enjoy them anyway. Also, we must apologize for the delay in posting a live report of the Metaform Nights tour. Corporate slave drivers have been driving us hard. The live report is in the works but it might take another week or two. In the meantime, stay tuned!
Buck-Tick Songs
Sakurai Atsushi solo songs
Schwein Songs
Lucy Songs
2014-12-15 Update! Added additional notes to "Phantom Voltaire" and "Dada Disco." Also, added Spanish translations of the following songs:
As always, these are re-translations of Cayce's English translations, and since Cayce doesn't speak Spanish, Cayce cannot speak to the quality, but as with the batch of Spanish translations posted in our last update, all of these songs include Spanish translations of Cayce's notes as well as the song lyrics themselves. As before, all translations are thanks to our new Spanish-language correspondent, Natalia H., from Chile.
2014-12-08 Update! Added Spanish-language translations of the following songs. See if you can guess which ones they are based on the Spanish titles, if you don't speak Spanish:
As always, these are re-translations of Cayce's English translations, and since Cayce doesn't speak Spanish, Cayce cannot speak to the quality, but as with the batch of Spanish translations posted in our last update, all of these songs include Spanish translations of Cayce's notes as well as the song lyrics themselves. As before, all translations are thanks to our new Spanish-language correspondent, Natalia H., from Chile.
2014-10-29 Update! Added Spanish-language translations of the following songs:
...that's 23 whole songs! That's a lot of songs! Plus, if I'm not mistaken, all the tracks on Sexual XXXXX have now been translated into Spanish. See if you can guess which ones they are based on the Spanish titles, if you don't speak Spanish.
As always, these are re-translations of Cayce's English translations, and since Cayce doesn't speak Spanish, Cayce cannot speak to the quality, but as with the batch of Spanish translations posted in our last update, all of these songs include Spanish translations of Cayce's notes as well as the song lyrics themselves. As before, all translations are thanks to our new Spanish-language correspondent, Natalia H., from Chile.
2014-10-08 Update! Added Spanish-language translations of the following songs:
...that's 20 whole songs! That's a lot of songs! As always, these are re-translations of Cayce's English translations, and since Cayce doesn't speak Spanish, Cayce cannot speak to the quality, but as with the batch of Spanish translations posted in our last update, all of these songs include Spanish translations of Cayce's notes as well as the song lyrics themselves. As before, all translations are thanks to our new Spanish-language correspondent, Natalia H., from Chile.
2014-10-06 Update! Added Spanish-language translations of the following songs:
...that's 24 whole songs! That's a lot of songs! As always, these are re-translations of Cayce's English translations, and since Cayce doesn't speak Spanish, Cayce cannot speak to the quality. What we can say, though, is that these new Spanish-language translations include Spanish-language versions of all the translation notes, and between "Phantom Voltaire," "Survival Dance," and "masQue," that's a hell of a lot of notes already. All translations are thanks to our new Spanish-language correspondent, Natalia H., from Chile.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - if you speak some language that I don't, and you'd like to provide new translations in that language, just email me. I will be happy to post them, though since we prefer to post only the best content, before you contact me please proofread and polish as much as you can.
2014-09-05 Update! Added a zillion images to the gallery. I would say they're new images, but they're not, really. I simply haven't updated the gallery in far too long.
2014-08-29 Update! A comprehensive live report of the 2014 Arui wa Anarchy Tour is now posted! We're sorry it took so long. As we said over at Blog-Tick, no one expects the Spanish Influenza.
2014-07-30 Update! By popular demand, we have begun adding lyrics to our Mucc section again. Translations, kanji and romaji for ultra-rare b-side tracks Asunaro no Sora and Monroe are now up. Mucc translations that previously appeared on NGS 2.0 will follow shortly. And yes, I know you're all waiting for the Arui wa Live Report. Don't worry, folks. It's coming down the pipeline.
2014-06-17 Update! Lyrics and translations for "One Upon a Cheese," "Mudai" and "Satan" are now up, complete with notes. This concludes this album's translations, bringing me to 246 Buck-Tick songs translated in total. That's a lot of fucking songs, people! I demand champagne! And now, without further ado, we head off to the start of the tour. Live report to follow soon-ish.
2014-06-17 Update! Lyrics and translations for "Dada Disco - RANDOM LETTERS-" and "Sappy to Cheesy de Nakasareteru" whoops wrong link I mean "Sekai wa blah blah I already forget the title" are now up. Both are singable in English.
Now, for homework: Does Imai's composition of such a bourgeois, cliche, cloying, drippy, derivative, predictable pile of cheese-crap like
2014-06-16 Update! Lyrics and translations for "Uchuu Circus," "masQue," "Baudelaire de Nemurenai," and "Not Found" are now up. The translations for "Uchuu Circus" and "Not Found" are singable in English, and all the songs contain more reams of notes. I'm beginning to think I should quit my job and write an encyclopedia instead.
2014-06-05 Update! Lyrics and translations for "Devil'N Angel" and "Phantom Voltaire" are now up. I hope you like those notes on Voltaire, people. They took me five times as long as the translation itself.
2014-06-04 Update! The lyrics and translation for "Survival Dance" are now up, and the translation is singable in English, so sing along and shake your sweet tequila cheeks to that Latin Hidehiko beat! I haven't even finished typing up the kanji for all the songs on the album and I can tell already that Arui wa Anarchy gets the prize for being the Most Full of References Ever. Expect some delays while I write miles and miles of translator's notes.
2014-05-14 Update! Lyrics and translations for the songs on Buck-Tick's anxiously awaited new single, Keijijou Ryuusei ("Metaphysical Meteor), are now up in the lyrics section! The translations for "Keijijou Ryuusei" and "Melancholia -ELECTRIA-" are both singable in English, so study up for karaoke time! Since the newly reworked "Victims of Love ~avec les Lolites Pretenseuses~" contains an entirely new stanza of lyrics at the end, I have put the new lyrics up on a separate page from the old "Victims of Love." The new page contains a big ol' brand-new note about the history of the song in all its iterations. But the real question, as so astutely posed by the new releases booth at Tower Records Shibuya, is, "WHAT is metaphysics?" According to Dictionary.com, "metaphysics" is "the branch of philosophy that treats of first principles, includes ontology and cosmology, and is intimately connected with epistemology." For homework: look up ontology, cosmology, and epistemology, and write me a concise summary in essay form of their definitions and how you think they relate to the meaning of the lyrics. Cat gifs to the student with the best response.
2014-04-07 Update! Kame, who was one of This is NOT Greatest Site's founding members, and its original front-end web developer (PLEASE don't call her a "webmistress"), has returned to the team after a four-year hiatus as a special correspondent, with "Lola Lita Underdrive," an extended piece on the evolution of Harajuku and lolita fashion in the US, and where things stand today. The piece is more focused on the fashion subculture rather than the clothes themselves, and I highly recommend reading it, especially if you're one of our under-20 readers, a relative new convert to Japanese music fandom, or if you live in a country other than the United States. The article is located in the Features section.
2014-02-04 Update! A Polish-speaking fan of ours has generously translated the lyrics to "Love Parade" and "Steppers -Parade-" into Polish. These translations are re-translations of my English translations, so they may suffer from a lack of closeness to the source language, but Polish-speaking fans, enjoy. Please note that as Cayce has zero familiarity with Polish, I cannot vouch for the quality of the translations themselves, but I have posted them as part of my ongoing efforts to make NGS more international. Also, if you check out the main Buck-Tick lyrics page, you'll see that a number of songs have been translated into Spanish, as well. Once again, these translations are re-translations of Cayce's English, written by Spanish-speaking fans of NGS, and once again I can't vouch for the quality but I hope you enjoy them anyway.
2014-01-22 Update! Translations of the lyrics to the songs on Buck-Tick's new single, Love Parade/Steppers -Parade-, are now up! The English translations are singable with the original melodies, and they scan very well, if I do say so myself. Also, for those of you who thought that in "Steppers," Sakurai was singing something about "eat the crazy sexy music"...you weren't wrong. If you thought he was also singing about a "Luna Park cat"...you weren't wrong about that either. Yes, Cayce thought the same thing. Yes, Cayce was confused. Yes, Cayce was even more confused when we found out we'd heard all the lyrics correctly the first time.
2014-01-15 Update! A live report of The Day in Question 2013 is now up over in the live reports section. Photos of the flowers and such will be posted in the Image Gallery soon. In the meantime, enjoy reading about how Buck-Tick performed all your fangirl favorites live in the sweaty flesh.
2014-01-13 Update! As part of our continuing efforts to spread the Buck-Tick love beyond the Far East, This is NOT Greatest Site is pleased to announce that we are launching This is NOT Greatest Shopping Service in Russian! We’ve been aware for some time that there is a strong contingency of Buck-Tick fans among the CIS countries and Russian diaspora around the world…yes, Cayce knew you were there, and now is your chance! The Russian version of the Shopping Service page is basically an exact copy of the English page, barring a few tweaks in wording to facilitate readability. All the text was written by a real live human being, NOT by translation software, so we hope it makes a damn sight more sense than the word salad generated by Google Translate. Since our goal is to make the Shopping Service page usable by Russian fans who have little to no fluency in English, we will now be accepting emails in Russian as well as in English. However, since Cayce still does not speak Russian, all emails received in Russian will be forwarded to our Russian translator. Therefore, if you send us an email in Russian, it may take a little longer to receive a response than an email sent in English. Even so, we will do our best to answer your requests in as timely a fashion as possible. Check out the Russian shopping service page here.
Одним из усилий нашей постоянной работы по распространению любви к Buck-Tick за пределы Дальнего Востока, стало радостное событие – запуск “This is NOT Greatest Shopping Service” на русском языке! Мы, конечно же, уже заметили, что существует огромный фронт поклонников Buck-Tick среди стран СНГ и русскоговорящей диаспоры по всему миру ... да, Кейси знает, что вы здесь, и теперь это ваш шанс! Русская версия страницы Shopping Service (сервис «Покупки в Японии») в основном представляет собой точную копию английской страницы, за исключением нескольких штрихов в редакции, для удобства чтения. Весь текст был написан настоящим живым человеком, а не электронной программой-переводчиком, поэтому мы надеемся, что здесь чертовски больше смысла, чем в слове «салат», переведенном через Google Translate. Поскольку нашей целью является создание страницы сервиса «Покупки в Японии» для русскоговорящих фанатов, которые практически не владеют английским языком, теперь у нас будут приниматься электронные письма на русском языке точно также как и на английском. Однако, так как Кейси по-прежнему мало говорит по-русски, все письма, полученные на русском будут направлены нашему переводчику. А поэтому, если вы отправляете нам письмо на русском языке, может потребоваться чуть больше времени на ответ, чем на письмо, написанное на английском языке. Но даже, несмотря на это мы сделаем все возможное, чтобы ответить на все ваши просьбы, настолько быстро, насколько это возможно. А теперь, посмотрите страничку сервиса «Покупки в Японии» на Русском здесь.
2013-10-02 Update! A live report of Yagami Toll's 2013 Birthday Tour "It's A Now" (again) is now up! And I'm very sorry it took me this long to get around to writing and posting this. The party lasted for more than a week and the hangover lasted even longer.
2013-09-25 Update! A live report of Buck-Tick and hide with spread beaver at the Kishidan Expo is now up!
2013-07-25 Update! Cayce is proud to announce that we have launched an all-new shopping service! What does this mean? It means you can request that I find you used, rare, and out-of-print CDs and other items, straight from Tokyo! I am also selling a number of used Buck-Tick CDs currently. Click here for details.
2013-07-20 Update! By popular demand, we have added a brand new artist to our lyrics translations section. Our favorite slithering androgynous glamorphonic electronic 80's superstars, familiar friends from Schaft and the Sakurai Atsushi Solo band and all around glittering pelvic thrusting shameless fabulousness! Can you guess who they are? Yes, I'm talking about SOFT BALLET. Go check it out! Currently I've only put up translations for four of their all-time greatest hits, but if you have any other specific song requests, send me the lyrics in kanji and I will add them. To add a human element...it might interest all of you to know that Soft Ballet are particularly popular among Not Greatest Site's male readers, and I've received three separate requests from three different boys to add them to our collection. If you ever doubted, I can verify: not all fans are fangirls. Some of them are fanboys.
2013-06-25 Update! A review of BUCK-TICK 2: Can't Stop the Phenomenon, is now up in the Reviews section. Blimey that was fast! That's what she said, too.
2013-06-17 Update! A review of BUCK-TICK: THE MOVIE, Part I, is now up in the Reviews section. And I'm embarrassed to say this is the first thing we've posted in the Reviews section since the site renewal last spring. At least there's something in there now. Better late than never. That's what she said! Oh my.
Anyhoo, the movie is running for another two weeks, so if you're on the fence about whether or not to go, maybe this will help you decide.
2013-04-04 Update! We have posted a live report of "We Love All," the special extra final show on the Cosmic Dreamer tour, which was held as a charity event to support relief for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake on the two-year anniversary of the tragedy, March 11th, 2013. Needless to say, this will be our last live report of this tour, so savor it! I feel like I've been doing nothing but write live reports since last June. I'm developing carpal tunnel syndrome and I've used up all my jokes! My brains are fried, like brain tempura! I think it's about time for me to cut off to Hawaii. But don't worry, I'll be back in June for a review of BUCK-TICK: THE MOVIE. Starring Johnny Depp and John Hamm as Atsushi Sakurai, Ken Watanabe as Hidehiko Hoshino, Russell Brand as Toll Yagami, Peter Dinklage as Yutaka Higuchi, and Tilda Swinton as Hisashi Imai. See you at Shinjuku Wald 9 on June 15th.
2013-03-29 Update! We have posted a live report with highlights from the Tokyo-area stops on the Cosmic Dreamer Tour 2013. Live Report of Buck-Tick's earthquake relief charity show coming soon.
2013-02-09 Update! NOT Greatest Site is proud to present an epic and highly comprehensive live report of the ENTIRE Yumemiru Uchuu tour! Okay, we admit this took us a while but...everything's in there! If you missed this tour, reading this live report is the next best thing! And if you think it's TLDR...frankly, I think your attention span has been ruined by watching too much Kim Kardashian on TV (fun fact: Kim Kardashian is a Buck-Tick fan! Her favorite member is Hoshino Hidehiko.) So yeah. Go read it.
2013-01-27 Update! Congrats, you guys. This is the SEVENTH HEAVEN ANNIVERSARY of This is NOT Greatest Site. Yes, that's right. We've been on the internet a whole SEVEN YEARS. Which, no doubt, is significantly longer than many of you have been Buck-Tick fans. Birthday presents will be graciously accepted.
Also, right in time for our birthday, we bring you our very first live report of Buck-Tick in Okinawa. Enjoy!
2013-01-25 ANNOUNCEMENT! NGS/Blog-Tick are selling TWO tickets to the Cosmic Dreamer Tour, one each for the show on Tuesday, February 26th at Akasaka Blitz, and the show on Wednesday, March 6th at Shibuya AX. Tickets go to the highest bidder, and the minimum bid is 7500 yen (the original price of the tickets + convenience charges.) Email me for details. These are fan club tickets. The haven't been printed yet, so I can't confirm what line numbers they are, but the numbers might be good. They are likely to be better than ticket numbers for general admission tickets or tickets bought on auction.
2012-11-29 Update! I have moved the article formerly known as "Concert Etiquette 101" to its own section of the Articles page, and renamed it "Japanese Concert Guide," since at this point, it's become more of an all-around guide than just an etiquette guide. I have also added some information about ticket purchasing, payment methods, and shopping services. If you are thinking of attending a concert in Japan and you haven't read this section yet, for Toll's sake, read it! If you are thinking about attending a concert in Japan but you have some questions you want to ask me via email, please, read it before you email. I'm happy to answer your questions personally, but if your questions are very basic you may find all the answers you are looking for are already there. However, if you think there's anything I didn't explain clearly enough or anything you think I should add, please email me and let me know. I want this site to be useful to readers, so I welcome your feedback.
2012-11-13 Update! A live report of Day Two of the 2012 Parade Festival is now up at last! Thank you for waiting and I appreciate your patience. And for those of you who were wondering whether or not we have yet attended the Yumemiru Uchuu Tour: we are following the Yumemiru Uchuu Tour, we just haven't written about it yet...because we haven't had time. Because we've been following the tour. It's the Yumemiru Uchuu Tour that has gotten in the way of us writing about the Yumemiru Uchuu Tour. How meta is THAT? Now excuse me while I go drink some whiskey out of a Klein bottle.
2012-11-08 Update! A live report of Day One of the 2012 Parade Festival is now up! Yes, I know, this was a long time in coming, and I'm sure you're annoyed with me for being a tease and only posting Day One, and you're wondering if I've gone soft and lazy. But it's the tough truth, kids—rent checks and Halloween wait for no gentleman, lady, or skeleton! Cayce had a lot of business to attend to that obstructed the writing of articles. But then, seeing as Cayce's just a mere beer-guzzling dilettante j-rock tabloid paparazzo and not a Serious Journalist like the Well Credentialed and Accredited miko-lings who write for Well Credentialed and Accredited online j-rock media conglomerates, you can't expect to hold me to a deadline. I'm too busy gathering my next scoop. By the way, Higuchi Yutaka is now engaged to Kristen Stewart. They're tying the knot at Oita T.O.P.S. Bitts Hall on February 21st. Kim Kardashian, Pippa Middleton, and the Shade of Mick Karn will be attending the wedding. You heard it here first.
2012-10-29 Update! I have cross-posted my article from The Blog-Tick Phenomenon "Love Dreamy Music Baby OF DEATH: An Analytical Journey Through the Lyrics of Atsushi Sakurai" in the Features section. For those of you who haven't read this yet: by popular demand I have written an in-depth analysis of themes and images in Sakurai's lyrics over the years, focusing especially on the songs on Yumemiru Uchuu. Think he uses the same words in lyrics too often? You're wrong! Read the article to find out why! Reader response on Blog-Tick to this article has been very positive, so if you haven't read it go read it. And if the reason you haven't read it yet is because your attention span is too short to read a full-length article, shame on you.
2012-9-26 Update! Translations of "Kinjirareta Asobi -Adult Children-," "Yasou" and "Inter Raptor" are up. That means all the songs on the album are now up, folks! And at risk of alienating some of my readers, I'm going to say it right here. If you don't like this album because it's too jazzabilly boogie-woogie skabrass surferdude bluestastic for your refined lace-coated befrilled chocolate rabbit munchkin musical tastes, shame, shame, shame on you, go back to Gothloliland from whence you came, and get your hands off Acchan's raptor. Now excuse me while I go get my surfboard, put on my dance shoes and skeleton-print poodle skirt, and scat the night away, shoobie doobie doo wop. Wop.
Oh yeah and lemme know if you find my bikini I think I lost it in the mud at Chiba Port Park on Sunday.
2012-9-25 Update! Translations of "Ningyo -mermaid-" and "Yumeji" are up. The rest of the album will be up shortly. I hope y'all get kicks out of "Mermaid," especially all you Acchan fangirls who couldn't stand "Katte ni Shiyagare" or "Sakuran Baby."
2012-9-21 Update! Translations of "Climax Together" and "Lady Skeleton" are up. Both are singable in English, so study up good tonight in preparation for tomorrow's festival! Cayce's going to the festival, of course, so expect more translations sometime next week.
2012-9-20 Update! I have cross-posted two popular articles from The Blog-Tick Phenomenon in the Features section. In "A Window Into Cayce's Process" I describe step-by-step how I translate and why I make the choices I make. If you are a regular reader of this site and you haven't read this article yet, I urge you to read it because it explains a lot about how how translation works. Translation is a lot more complicated than you think it is! In "What's in a Nickname?" I discuss Japanese nicknames and name suffixes. Whether you are studying Japanese, you're a fan of Japanese music who has run across Japanese phrases on message boards and wonder what they mean, or you're a person who simply loves language, this is another one I strongly encourage you to read.
2012-8-31 Update! A live report of Yagami Toll's 50th birthday live "It's A Now" is now up...so just, go nuts kids.
2012-8-26 Update! Guys y'all should go follow Bad Joke Cat on Twitter. That's basically it. Oh yeah, I uploaded some new photos to the Image Gallery.
2012-7-25 Update! A live report for the Parade Tour 2012 featuring Merry, The Lowbrows,
2012-7-05 Update! Lyrics and translations for "Miss Take ~boku wa miss take~" and "Only You" are now up. Once again, I have not put up a separate page for "My Baby Japanese -type II-" because the lyrics are the same as the original version. But you should still buy the damn single and pay money to my Toll.
2012-6-14 Update! A live report for At the Night Side 2012 is now up! Photos coming soon.
2012-5-23 Update! The lyrics and translations for "Elise no Tame ni" and "Yumemiru Uchuu" are now up! I have not put up a separate page for "SANE -type II-". If you care that badly about exactly how the order of the lyrics were changed from the original version, buy the damn single and pay money to my Toll.
Welcome to This is NOT Greatest Site, version 3.0!
The hiatus was inexcusably long, but apologies don’t make up for late trains. We’re back and we may not be bad but we’re definitely not the greatest. We hope that’s good enough for you.
As Kame’s gone and gotten a rainbow-colored skull-shaped Macintosh tattooed on her forearm in the service of the shady megacorp that currently runs the world so that said megacorp can summon her to the wilds of the California alps to develop the front ends of web apps for them at a moment’s notice, Cayce is pretty much running the show alone here now. Not being blessed with Kame’s front-end-development skills, Cayce is using a “for dummies” platform to develop the current NGS user interface. So if the look of the site leaves you wondering whether or not we’ve realized it’s not 1999 anymore, just consider this: unlike the wistful days of yore when we founded the site, visual kei is officially dead, the cosplay kids are gone and the Meiji Jingu bridge stands empty, and all the Buck-Tick members are now over forty. Also I’m guessing a significant slice of my readership have been fans of the music we cover here at NGS for less time than NGS itself has existed. So if you think our new layout is crappy, call it an expression of our bitter nostalgia disguised under a thin layer of attempted hipster irony, and be charitable. We hope you’ll judge us not by the color of our coding but by the character of our content.
So, do we have new content? Yes we do, and how! In addition to an expanded FAQ, all-new articles on Japanese Concert Etiquette and How to Read the Japanese Alphabet, a new Image Gallery and an all-new Translator’s Note, Cayce has re-written the entire blinkin’ archive (insert [blink] tag here) of lyrics translations for increased accuracy, readability, and all-around cool-factor. Some of them are not so different from how they were before, but most of them are entirely new, revised, and updated, complete with new footnotes, album release info and even cute little thumbnails of the album covers. What the hell are you waiting for, go read them. Read them ALL, RIGHT NOW.
It's true that not all the content that was on the old site is on the new site. As far as the lyrics and translations go, I'm still working on updating some of them, and I'll put them up as I finish working on them. I figured you guys would prefer to see the mostly-complete new site sooner, rather than having to wait longer for the whole thing. However, some content from the old site was so old I felt it just wasn't relevant anymore, and so I've taken it down and will not be putting it back up. Thank you for your understanding. If you have ideas for content you think I should add, email me. I can't promise anything but I do take your requests seriously.
Oh yeah, and we've enabled commenting on lyrics translations and articles...but I warn you, I reserve the right to ruthlessly mock your flames and your spelling mistakes, or just delete your comment entirely if I feel you're being too much of an asshole or a hater. Comments like "this song sucks" accomplish nothing except for stirring up negativity, they detract from the atmosphere of the site, and I reserve the right to delete them if I feel like it. Take a leaf out of Cayce's book: if you're going to snark, you'd better make it witty. Also the comments section is not an appropriate place to write personal letters to me. If you want to do that, email me. If you have any other questions/comments, please don't hesitate to email me. I will mostly likely respond within a few days.
-Cayce, Not Greatest Translator
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