The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

However, the authentic Gothic Lolita image is itself also represented in
the music industry by genuine female Gothloli performers. The most
popular musicians, and bands who include Gothloli girl members, supported
by worldwide Gothloli communities, are Japanese artists Moon Kana (Fig.
53), Lolita Complex, Aural Vampire and Kanon Wakashima; and outside
Japan, the German Lolita Komplex; Estonian-born American singer, Kerli;
and the Persian/English group, RazorBladeKisses (Fig. 55).
All three movements, G&L, Visual Kei and the Lolita subculture, reflect
cycles of fashion and inspiration that have travelled, and continue to travel,
not just from East to West to East and back but also through time.
Throughout this entire trajectory, however, it can be noted that there is a
gap in the narrative, in that it leaps forward from the fin-de-siècle era to the
1970s. The reason for this is plain; the Western enamour for Japan and
Japan’s reciprocal relationship with the West, especially in regard to cultural
crossings between the creative industries, was tainted periodically due to war
and mutual fear. While Japan was viewed in the earlier-twentieth century as
part of the “yellow peril” and stories coming out of POW camps in Japan
brought home the horrors of WWII, the consequences of the bombings of
Nagasaki and Hiroshima instilled the same terror in the minds of the
Japanese toward people of Western nations. While it was the West, and
ironically America, that immediately took up the task to help rebuild post-
war Japan, it was not until widespread anti-war sentiments toward the
American and Allied Forces’ occupation of Vietnam (1964 – 1975) led the
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