For anyone out of the loop, ZOMBIE, a well-known osare kei band, is gonna disband after their final live in July of this year. They’ve undergone a lot of lineup changes since 2019; from their guitarist Sho getting fired, to Reika leaving in late 2023, to their vocalist changing...simply put, a lot has happened to them over their nearly 12 years as an active band.
This whole ordeal got me thinking, hey, ZOMBIE is under the same label as Golden Bomber. A quick look at any Zany Zap social media account shows that them and GB are considered one of, if not, the only active v-kei acts under said label. That doesn't mean they're the only acts though. We had SINCREA and MANNEQUIN, both of which disbanded a few years after formation, with SINCREA members forming Fest Vainqueur, and MANNEQUIN ending with nothing further coming from it :( both bands were pretty active in their heyday, being involved with the (somewhat) yearly Zany Zap Summit events.
ZZS as a whole isn't entirely dead though. Ever since, they've held it in 2017 and 2022 respectively alongside Guild, another Zany Zap band; but they're out of the question, having left the label in 2022 (i think...). Events and labels aside, the one thing that messes me up is that every ZZ band that isnt Golden Bomber is, in a sense, kind of doomed; staying loyal to the visual kei genre comes at the cost of being active. It makes me wonder, now that ZOMBIE is soon to disband, what's gonna happen to ZZ as a label? Is it just gonna have Golden Bomber as their only active act? Will new ones be added? Will pre-existing Euclid Agency acts be transferred to ZZ?
Regardless, the news is pretty sad. I'm hoping the members of ZOMBIE can find some kind of new path with their careers, whether it be going solo, starting a new band, or simply retiring...until then I hope they'll make the best of their time <3
