Mana

Mana

Profile
Real name	unknown
Aliases	Serina (until 1992) マナ魔名 Shadow X
Date of birth	March 19
Birthplace	Hiroshima
Bloodtype	O
Activity
Years active	late 80s - present
Current band	Moi dix Mois
Occupation	Producer, model, guitarist, music composer
Instruments	Guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, percussions
Website	Monologue†Theater Monologue†Garden

Biography[]

Mana was born in Hiroshima on March 19th 1969. His parents were music teachers, and he started to play the piano in his childhood, listening almost only to classical music (he still keeps classical music as his favourite, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach and compositions for organ and harpsichord). As a teen he discovered other music genres such as Punk, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. The first concert he watched was Mötley Crüe and the first record he bought was Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind. Mana said that the first band he played in was a Mötley Crüe cover band and he was on vocals. It was after that performance that he retired from singing. Another musical influence on Mana was horror movies soundtracks. He likes especially Italian horror movies from the Eighties: Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, Suspiria from the latter being his favourite movie, he also cited the Italian progressive rock band Goblin (who provided the soundtrack for Suspiria and other Argento's movies) as one of his favourites.

He then started to play the guitar, and also drums (he admired Mötley Crüe's drummer Tommy Lee). In high school he founded his first band Ves.tearge. Nothing is know about that band but they probably played punk rock. His second band was GIRL'E (he was called Serina back then), they played punk and released a demotape called One Game/Sexy Lewd, they also played several lives and a bootleg VHS can be found. Mana moved to Tokyo around 1991, in hope to join the more active music scene here. Working in a karaoke, Mana met the guitarist Közi who introduced Mana to the Visual Kei scene and to the brand new band he was playing in: Matenrou. Mana joined them as the bassist. He composed the song 'Meikyuu no Tobira', released on a demo tape with 'U-RA-GI-RI', composed by Közi. Matenrou released another untitled demo tape, played some lives and was featured on a video compilation in VHS (Nervous Night) with the live performance of the 2 songs.

In April 1992 Matenrou disbanded and Mana and Közi decided to start a new band: MALICE MIZER. They wanted to create a new music style and played an original Gothic Rock with strong classical influences. To produce his new band Mana founded his indies label, Midi:Nette, to release the first MALICE MIZER album, memoire. After a few years MALICE MIZER became one of the most famous Gothic rock and Visual kei bands in Japan and signed with the major label Columbia. In 1999 vocalist Gackt left the band and drummer Kami died. Despite these unfortunate events, Mana took the guide of the band, they left the major label Columbia and returned to Mana's indie label Midi:Nette, releasing other singles, videos and a new album. In December 2001, MALICE MIZER members decided to put the band on hiatus to focus on other projects. On March 19th, 2002 Mana announced his solo project: Moi dix Mois.

Mana is also a fashion designer: he started his own fashion brand Moi-même-Moitié in October 1999, opening a shop in Aoyama, Tokyo (he currently has also a shop in Nagoya). Moi-même-Moitié is one of the most important brands of the Gothic Lolita style: in Japan the Lolita fashion style was already famous in the '70s, but since some rock musicians and manga artists started to depict Lolita costumes with Gothic elements, the media coined the term Gothic Lolita. Mana coined two different term to define his fashion design: Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL) and Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA), the latter without the lolita elements and more similar to western Gothic or Victorian clothing style.

Mana also works as a producer since 2002: he signed the Darkwave/Dark electro band Schwarz Stein to his label until their disbandment in 2004. From 2007 until 2010, he was also the producer of singer/cellist Wakeshima Kanon signed to DefStar Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment. Mana also composed and arranged all her songs, before Wakeshima moved on to Warner Music Japan.

Band history[]

Ves.tearge - late '80s
GIRL'E - Guitar (circa 1990/91)
摩天楼 (Matenrou) - Bass (1991 ~ April 1992)
MALICE MIZER - Guitars, Keyboards, Programming (August 1992 ~ December 2001)
Moi dix Mois - Guitars, Programming (March 2002 ~ present)

Guest appearances[]

ART MARJU DUCHAIN - Guitar (1994 "visual art collection vol.1" ~喜劇的晚餐~ - 1996.11.08 "visual art collection" ~喜劇的晚餐~, Shibuya O-WEST)
KAMIJO - guest appearance in the music video of Louis ～艶血のラヴィアンローズ～ (2013).

Works[]

Labels[]

Midi:Nette - founder (1994 ~ present)

Produced bands[]

Schwarz Stein - producer (2002 ~ 2004)
分島花音 (Wakeshima Kanon) - producer, composer, arranger (2007 ~ 2010)

Others[]

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Game Boy Advance Game) - composed a song "La nuit blanche" for its soundtrack. (currently considered as Lost Media)

Trivia & Rumours[]

Height: 173 cm
Weight: 49 kg
Favourite colour: deep blue
Most relaxing place: in the middle of his heart
Favourite TV show: cooking shows
Favourite flower: blue flowers
It is rumoured that his real name can be Manabu Satou (佐藤学).
Since the mysterious member Shadow X began to be credited in some songs of Moi dix Mois, it was rumored that it could be Mana himself using another name, however, this rumor would not be confirmed until 20 years after his first participation giving deathvoice.
Mana once said as a joke that he was born in 1549, claiming to be a vampire. He was actually born in 1969.