For a Hard Rock band made up of young women who take their musicianship very seriously despite dressing as maids, you might not expect Band-Maid to be funny. You would be wrong. Over the years, their on- and offstage antics have become the stuff of legend amongst their fanbase.
- The very foundation of Band-Maid has this. While Kanami was all-in on Miku's choice of aesthetic, Akane took some convincing. Misa was even more wary. When they auditioned Saiki, they intentionally did not tell her she would be dressing as a maid until right before her first live with them so she couldn't back out. Saiki was not pleased and, after the show, tossed her apron and headdress.
- Akane is from Hyogo Prefecture – it's where Kobe is, immediately west of Osaka and Kyoto. When she's messing around she'll sometimes turn that Kansai dialect way up just because she can.
- By all accounts, Miku is Miku basically 24/7. If her previous form "Mika Noguchi" has ever appeared to the other members, none of them have said anything. Miku loves bugging her bandmates behind the scenes or when out & about. She's able to easily make Kanami crack up (offstage). Saiki is not as forgiving.
- Misa is, on camera, absolutely The Stoic. Turns out that's just because she's very shy. Left on her own she can be just as silly as the others, especially if her pal Akane is involved, and is often caught smiling and laughing – and she has dimples. When left to her own devices, she has a rather dry wit. See below:
- Due to being very tall by Japanese lady standards, she'll sometimes photobomb pictures of the other Maids by hiding behind something in the background like a shrub or shrine such that only her head is visible. More than once it's freaked out Akane.
- Misa does not sing. However, in any show where they play any of the MAIKO version of "Secret My Lips", she's the one who makes the kabuki-style "Yoooo~!" call. Misa is able to alter her voice to sound almost alien; regardless, hearing her use her voice at all onstage is simultaneously shocking and funny.
- At live shows, as fans have long known and is mentioned on the main page, Misa keeps a flask of booze (often Jim Beam) on top of her amp. One time, unwilling to put down her bass or her pick, she picked the open flask up with her mouth and drank from it like that.
- At a show in Europe, during a MC break, she decided to be generous to a Japanese fan in the front row, took her bottle o' booze, and poured a shot straight into the dude's mouth to much applause.
- Management's way of informing the Maids that they would be performing at Rock In Japan 2018 was putting them in front of a camera and handing Miku a folded up piece of paper. She carefully unfolded it but didn't really notice what was printed on it. Akane saw it first and immediately freaked out while Saiki's jaw dropped, followed one second later by Miku finally reading it and screaming in surprise. While Akane, Saiki, and Kanami start dancing around and fist-bumping, Miku just stands there in shock for a bit before holding the paper up to the camera as she let out an excited "PO-!"
- Fans have on multiple occasions expressed disappointment that Akane decided to ditch her nice hat. So she posted a photo of herself wearing the hat again… over her face.
- At one brief interview, the one in which Kanami said she wanted to marry Saiki (then expressed shock that Miku, Akane, and Misa stared at her like it was new information), once the interview ended, Miku gave the traditional "Bye-bye!" with all the girls waving …except Misa, who seemed to be off in her own little world. Akane took Misa's arm and waved it for her.
- The fan reactions to that interview only adds to the hilarity…Master 1: "Looks like Kanami's crush on Saiki is getting serious."
Master 2: "When wasn't it serious?"
Master 3: "Looks like Misa is malfunctioning again."
- The fan reactions to that interview only adds to the hilarity…
- It's clear that before the tour to Taiwan, Miku has at best limited experience with northern Chinese food. Band-Maid appeared on a Taiwanese show which introduced them to some of the local cuisine. Everyone was given some xiaolongbao (which are full of scorching hot juices under pressure) in soup. Akane correctly eats her by nibbling a little off of the top to cool it down and then safely sipping the juice before eating it. Miku, thinking it was a normal dumpling, shoves the whole thing in her mouth and bites down... She does cover up nicely other than her eyes bugging out and frowning a moment after. Since then she's wise to the ways of xiaolongbao and the band loves scarfing them when they were in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
- Anyone who has ever performed will tell you it gets HOT onstage. Akane in particular often has a fan near her kit to keep her from overheating. At a 2019 show in the UK, there was a giant fan at stage-right and, during Omajinai Time, Akane and Misa both knelt down in front of it to cool off. They also appear to vocalize into it because who doesn't do that? Miku looked over at them, then turned back to the audience and insisted, "You… Don't see that. No see, po."
- In Summer 2019, the girls booked a "cabin" outside the city to rehearse for the final leg of their "World Domination" tour. During some downtime in the working vacation, Miku decided to do a livestream which turned out to be bizarre even for her. Most of it focused on Akane trying (probably in vain) to overcome her Lethal Chef tendencies and make stew.* At one point, Miku heard Misa (who was supposedly asleep) laughing and went into her bedroom. Misa noticed the camera and immediately hid under her blankets. Miku tried and failed to yank the covers off her. Later, Miku noticed that Misa was watching the stream from under the blankets. Throughout all of this, Saiki slept soundly in an adjacent room, while Kanami was downstairs working and never so much as looked up even when Miku said her name.
- Well into this livestream, someone suggested Miku "touch" Akane. There are any number of ways she could have interpreted this – the way she did was to grope Akane's breast. Twice.
- During a UK gig in 2018, Miku tried to do her usual "Omajinai Time". While she tried to get the crowd hyped up, speaking in a mixture of broken English and Japanese, the other four all crowded behind Akane's drum set, and Saiki started hitting the bass drum in time with the crowd's response to Miku's "Moe! Moe!" When Miku noticed Saiki, rather than Akane, at the drum kit, she appeared visibly and audibly puzzled before prompting Saiki to attempt a drum solo. Following Saiki, Kanami and Misa had their own goes at the drums, with Kanami demonstrating considerable chops on the kit. After Misa finished, the audience began chanting for Miku to try. She responded "Shut up! Shut up!" but then her band mates joined in the chant, and she reluctantly handed her mic to Kanami, who led the crowd in cheering Miku on as she had a go (poorly) at the drums herself. Then she immediately returned to her post and very insistently continued her "Omajinai Time" chant.
- During Omajinai Time at a 2019 concert in New York City's Mercury Lounge, Miku stepped out into the audience and challenged the audience members on either side of her to see which side could repeat her chant louder. After she returned to the stage, Kanami offered her a bite off the end of a Pocky. After taking the bite, Miku turned to the audience and began to tell them that the following day was Kanami's birthday. Kanami returned and whispered in Miku's ear, to which Miku responded with a shocked expression. Kanami then leaned into the mic and said, "This Pocky, before, Misa's nose hole. She eat it... Misa's nose hole."
- In October 2019 during a rehearsal break, Akane decided to do some "Body Percussion" – it's a thing with nearly every trained percussionist, just roll with it – and as she slapped out a rhythm on herself, Misa came up behind her and played the off-beat on Akane's butt. This went on for about 30 seconds before they both cracked up.
- Although Akane's Trademark Favorite Food is noodles, she also loves shellfish – particularly mussels and whelks. A few weeks before the December 2020 Online Okyu-ji (the night before her 30th birthday), Akane was convinced to pose provocatively
on a chaise-lounge while holding a tin of whelks. That's absurd and hilarious enough on its own. BUT, when the other Maids brought out Akane's birthday cake, that photo had been screen-printed onto the top. Fans generally agree the whole stunt was Misa's idea. - Speaking of Akane's birthday, while she was warming up for their livestream and doing sound-check, she discovered the others had pranked her by messing with her drum kit — they'd taped at least four dozen packets of fresh nori inside her hi-hat. When Akane looked inside to figure out why her cymbals sounded dead, she freaked out and backed off, not realizing at first the green things weren't alive. They all had a good laugh at that one.
- The staff had also filled her water bottle with seltzer, only giving her regular water after she drank the seltzer and was caught off guard by it. In a livestream later that evening, it was said that, after the concert, Miku handed Akane a towel to wipe her sweat, only it had been soaked in hot water.
- The liner book included with the Limited Edition of Unseen World has a rather glaring error – they left Misa off the members list, and folks had a field day with it. While Pony Canyon quickly apologized for the mistake, Misa took matters into her own hands, with many fans following suit. Kanami soon joined in. Even their international distributor JPU gave Misa a shout-out.
- Note that in Misa's photo, behind the booklet is a can of beer. Because of course there is.
- Akane insists that the part of the "Warning!" MV where she appears to explode wasn't CGI or clever editing, saying she had a "very valuable experience playing drums in the back of a car and exploding".
- On February 5th 2021, the Band-Maid Newsletter featured a message from Misa talking about Unseen World in general and their follow-up single "About Us". She ended it with an encouragement to listen to the album and watch the album's music videos while drinking/drunk in hopes it might provoke a "different feel".
- Two months later, Misa met up at her home – already Band-Maid's designated hang-out spot – with Aina Yamauchi, bassist for Japanese band Silent Siren. On the photo of the two of them, Misa used a filter that separated out the CMYK pallet and made the whole thing look like a bad acid trip, which she then joked about in her next Omeisyusama Newsletter.
- In that same April 2021 entry, Misa discussed their then-upcoming Maids' Day Show and said that, because it had been over a year since they had played in front of a live audience, she hoped not to overdo it on the whiskey.
- Two months later, Misa met up at her home – already Band-Maid's designated hang-out spot – with Aina Yamauchi, bassist for Japanese band Silent Siren. On the photo
- The interview program Kannai Devil got some gems out of the maids. One episode discussed weaknesses the band has, here Saiki has her insect phobia revealed. She's so afraid of grasshoppers that during an outdoor festival, she couldn't make it to the stage because of all the grasshoppers around, so Akane had to come down and piggyback her to the stage, good thing Saiki isn't a large woman.
- In another episode, the maids were asked what was their favourite anime/manga. When it came to MISA, she mentioned Doraemon. So the hosts managed to convince her to do an imitation of Doraemon and she gave a nasally, squeaky "Boku Doraemon" before covering up in embarassment. In that same ep, Akane showed her anime nerd aspect. Where the others mentioned shows or manga of their childhood like Slam Dunk and Coji-Coji, Akane whittles off a long list of mostly contemporary shows. Youtube has a review video of the ep called "BAND MAID FAN REACTS TO INTERVIEW TALKING ABOUT FAV ANIME (MISA' S CUTEST MOMENT YET)".
- Normally staid Kanami can let her inhibitions go on stage and pulls off rock-star antics like giving people at the New York show the middle finger or axe-kicking Akane's cymbal. One time she took a large swig of MISA's whiskey and almost passed out.
- Speaking of Kanami and booze. Because she's an infrequent and weak-sauce drinker, the others try to get her drunk every so often because she's a fun drunk.
- What fans expected on April Fool's Day 2021: more BAND-MAIKO. What they got: a Miku solo project "Cluppo" that has more colors than the average Kyary MV plus Miku playing a different Zemaitis guitar in every single shot, none of which are her usuals. Also she declares "Pigeons Will Save The World". It's insane even by her standards.
- Speaking about "Cluppo" shortly after PEACE&LOVE premiered, Miku said she told the other band members about her idea and all of them thought it was a good outlet for her and she should do it. Then when she asked if they wanted to join her, all four turned her down flat.
- During the June 2021 "Day Of Maid" performance, once again restricted to online-only, the Maids got bored of being confined to the stage. So, during the final songs, everyone except Akane wandered into the mostly empty space in front of them until Kanami was at the very back playing behind the soundboard guy.
- This show was also advertised as having a "Special Guest" opening the show. Everyone called it correctly – it was Miku as Cluppo performing "PEACE&LOVE" and is exactly as silly as you'd expect (except that, since it was live, she couldn't switch guitars every five seconds). Give the pigeon-girl credit, though. She had less than ten minutes after that to change costumes for the main set.
