Pictured: Yui and Tachibana.
"The belief modern humans have in fairies has lessened over the years. With our music, we aim for the reconstruction of the fairy world devastated by this lack of belief."
Yousei Teikoku, also known as Das Feenreichnote is a Japanese band with several different genres under its belt (see below) that got its start in the '90s. Their songs have been featured in several anime and games including Venus Versus Virus, Future Diary, Black God, My-HiME, Queen's Blade note , Seikon no Qwaser, Innocent Venus, and Magical Pokaan.
The band's current lineup includes:
- Yui, Dictator for Life (real name Yui Itsuki) - Vocals, chorus, lyric-writing (1997-present)
- Takaha Tachibana - Guitar, keyboard, composition/arrangement, lyric-writing (1997-present)
- XiVa - Guitar (2019-present)
- ryöga - Guitar (2019-present)
- Nanami - Bass (2010-present)
- Gight - Drums (2013-present)
Former members of the band include:
- Shiren - Lead guitar (2013-2018)
- Relu - Drums (2010-2013)
And their discography includes:
- Atarashii Momo (1996)
- Momo no Hane (1997)
- Momo no Mori (1998)
- Shikou no Momo (1999)
- Owari no Shissu ~Tsui no Yakata~ (2004)
- Stigma (2005)
- Mai-HiME OST - Last Moment (2005)
- Gothic Lolita Propaganda (2007)
- Metanoia (2007)
- Gothic Lolita Doctrine (2009)
- Gothic Lolita Agitator (2010)
- Pax Vesania (2013)
- Hades: The Other World (2014)
- Shadow Corps[e] (2015)
- The Age of Villains (2020)
Yousei Teikoku provides examples of:
- The Ace: All of the band members are incredibly talented, but Shiren makes a guitar do things that a guitarist shouldn't be able to do.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: It's generally agreed "Schwarzer Sarg" is about death. Though depending on what translation you're looking at, it also tells a tale of a girl who died (possibly by suicide) and looks down and pities the rest of the human world. That, or it's just Word Salad Lyrics about death.
- Ascended Fangirl: Yui voiced a character in Black Butler.
- Avant-Garde Metal: The band has shades of this beginning with their Gothic Lolita album trilogy. The albums from Pax Vesania onwards bring the avant-garde elements to a higher level by more thoroughly fusing anisong elements with ever-heavier forms of metal.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Takaha and Shiren do it with electric guitars
. - Character Tics:
- Gight likes to twirl his drumsticks between a complex or especially rapid beat sequence.
- Nanami is fond of the Captain Morgan Pose whenever he gets serious.
- Shiren will toss guitar picks into the crowd between riffs. He goes through a LOT of guitar picks. It's also why he moves around the stage during concerts, getting new picks from various spots he stores them.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Arguably, "Shijun no Zankoku."
- Darker and Edgier: Their current musical style when compared to their early work.
- Deal with the Devil: "Kikai Shoujo Gensou" and "Senketsu no Chikai."
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Yui, oh so very much.
- As mentioned above, some of their albums are called Gothic Lolita Propaganda, Gothic Lolita Doctrine and Gothic Lolita Agitator.
- While most of Yui's dresses are just inspired by actual Lolita fashion, the black and white outfit (complete with a Parasol of Prettiness) from the Kyuusei Argyros music video definitely counts.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: The beginning of "Wahrheit."
- Genre Mashup: Last.fm describes them as "a gothic metal/gothic rock band with electro and classical influences," as a generality. Song to song they can differ between any combination of these genres. Stigma was mostly electro, and their early albums were almost all electro and pop, as well. More recent albums even include elements of Melodic Death Metal.
- Gratuitous English: In "Patriot Anthem:" "I am a martyr! I am a believer! I believe just in the fairy!"
- I'm still alive, I'm still alive...
- Gratuitous French: Not as common as their liberal use of English and German, but as usual for a Gothic Metal band, it is not unheard of. "Eternal Waltz" contains this.
- Gratuitous German:
- The band, and in particular, Yui, loves this trope. In addition to naming the band Das Feenreich, many of their song titles and plenty of lyric lines are in German.
- Just to drive the point home, they had an official live called 920Putsch.
- Gratuitous Latin: "Kuusou Mesorogiwi" includes two instances of Yui rattling off a list of Roman gods' names.
- The High Queen: Yui is portrayed as a mysterious, authoritative, immortal, and gothic kind.
- Iconic Outfit: The one for Stigma qualifies to a lesser degree, but recently the hats from Gothic Lolita Doctrine and Pax Vesania have become very important. The Doctrine hat is generally worn during performances of "Patriot Anthem."
- Kayfabe Music: Yui Itsuki is always Fairy Yui in official media appearances concerning the band.
- Large Ham: During live concerts, there's usually an instrumental interlude when Karen changes costumes or rests her voice. Shiren really loves these moments to prove why he's the lead guitarist of the band.
- Lighter and Softer: Their old indie albums, and the more recent "Irodori no Nai Sekai" and "Ashita wo Yurushite."
- Lonely Piano Piece: "Weiß Flügel" fades into one near the end.
- Mad Love: In "Filament." Considering it was used as one of the opening themes for Future Diary it's most likely sung from Yuno Gasai's perspective.
- Meaningful Name: "Hidden Truth" is a purely music box version of "Wahrheit." "Wahrheit" means "truth" in German.
- Melodic Death Metal: The band has experimented with this throughout their career, with songs such as "Baptize", "Astral Dogma", and "flamma idola" having significant melodeath influences. The band would explore the sound even further in The Age of Villains.
- Motor Mouth: Yui
- Ms. Fanservice: Yui, even in her less-flashy outfits (see the picture above.)
- Musicbox Intervals: "Wahrheit."
- New Sound Album:
- The Gothic Lolita... series of albums showcased the band becoming increasingly aggressive with their music, downplaying the darkwave stylings of previous material and adding more Symphonic Metal elements into their sound.
- Pax Vesania started a new phase of musical evolution for the band with its more experimental musicianship.
- Shadow Corps[e] was a massive shift into more extreme metal styles, blending together the aggressive and accessible into an innovative fusion of anisong and metal.
- And just when the band couldn't get any more extreme, they dropped The Age of Villains, a straightforward Melodic Death Metal album.
- Non-Appearing Title: Nearly all of their songs. A few exceptions are "Last Moment," "Kokou no Sousei," "Shito Raisan," and "Still Alive." "Call My Name" is a semi-example, as the English phrase appears nowhere in the lyrics, but its Japanese translation does.
- Oh, Crap!: Basically the reaction of "Kikai Shoujo Gensou"'s protagonist as she realizes that getting this "perfect" machine body will take away her humanity.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Too many to list.
- Ominous Music Box Tune: "Hidden Truth."
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Averted with Yui. Even though she officially goes by "Yui, Dictator for Life" in the band, she's also a voice actress, and it's pretty well known that her last name is Itsuki.
- Really 700 Years Old: Yui, "as a fairy," claims to be 4325 years old.
- Revolving Door Band: From 1997 to 2013, the band consisted of Yui, Tachibana, and a whole slew of session musicians. 2019 saw another lineup change when Shiren left, Tachibana stopped touring, and two new guitarists were recruited to fill the role.
- Robot Girl: What the ill girl becomes.
- Scare Chord: "Wisdom" starts out as a creepy little piano tune, then suddenly brings on the heavy guitars.
- Signature Style: The band's artistic concept is a cross of totalitarian empire, gothic lolita, Victorian horror, fairies, vampires, the German language, and a Wagnerian approach to contemporary Heavy Metal that juxtaposes grand symphonic overtones and anisong-style musical production with chainsaw riff-laden Melodic Death Metal, dark and doomy Electronic Music, and the occasional sludgy Gothic Power Ballad.
- Soprano and Gravel: Yui frequently alternates between a cute, melodic singing voice to a creepy child voice in many of her songs with ease. Justified by the fact that she's both a singer and a voice actress.
- The Stoic: Yui pulls this off very well.
- During live concerts, Takaha Tachibana isn't as energetic as his fellow instrumentalists. Especially when Shiren really gets into the groove.
- Summoning Ritual: "Senketsu no Chikai."
- Visual Kei: Many Visual Kei fans have classified them as one (or post-Visual Kei at the very least) ever since their Genre Shift into Heavy Metal, though they aren't as recognized as other female-fronted Visual bands such as exist†trace and Danger Gang due to a slight negative stigma against anisong-influenced acts. Yui's costuming and image would certainly qualify, though. The two new members, Shiren and Gight, have pushed the band much further in this direction than before.
