The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

In regard to the music genre, so far the visual identities of leading
musicians and bands associated with the movement have been discussed,
but not the sound. One may be surprised to learn that such demurely
dressed young women as Gothloli would favour listening to heavy music.
However, just as Mana helped inspire women to dress like little girls, his
bands have also encouraged them to be open to the Japanese Gothic and
Industrial genre that most Visual-kei groups adhere to. While the sound of
groups such as Malice Mizer (Fig. 15), Moi Dix Mois (Fig. 52), Versailles
Philharmonic Quintet (Fig. 48) and BLOOD (Fig. 51) might remind us of
Western Metal and Goth Industrialism, it is also distinctively Japanese. In a
way that is hard to describe, one knows when they are listening to Japanese
industrial music, and not just because the lyrics are often sung in Japanese: it
is orchestral, dramatic, technically skilful, layered, complex and absolutely
mesmerising, it is often fast, frenetic, dark and very, very loud; and most
members of the Lolita movement are enthralled by it. This dichotomy is just
one of the many paradoxes of the Lolita subculture. Chapters Two and
Three of this thesis, which is the thesis per se, investigate and analyse more.
The following chapter also examines in greater detail the association of
the Japanese Lolita with the Doll and the significance of doll culture in
Japan, as well as psychological connections to and inferences of dressing as a
doll-like child. However, doll culture is further connected to the subculture
in the forms of anime and manga. Manga, which is two-dimensional
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