Hideto Matsumoto / YMMV

Broken Base: Some fans want to see him kept front and center of X Japan. Other either do not or don't like the constant usage of imagery and music connected to him.
Crazy Is Cool: Hide was one of those rare people that could successfully use the Lunatic Loophole in such a way that he could do absolutely crazy, dangerous, foolish, and even scarily violent things, often under the obvious influence of alcohol and/or drugs, onstage, offstage, and everywhere, and somehow not only get away with it, but become a Memetic Badass for doing it.
Creator Worship: In some cases literally: the saner ones see him as kind of a "patron non-saint" or spirit guide of the Visual Kei and rock subcultures or as a personal spirit guide.... the less sane ones literally view him as having ascended to literal godhood somehow, or to have been an Angel Unaware.
Epileptic Trees: hide is one of the reasons X Japan fandom is an Epileptic Forest.
Estrogen Brigade: Played straight when hide was alive and performing. Averted by his death. Most fangirls would rather venerate him or write yaoi fanfic about him in the past, now, than say they wish they could sleep with him.
Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory: Fans often insist that "Ever Free," "Hurry Go Round," and "Rocket Dive" all were about bipolar disorder despite another explanation for hide's lyrics in those three songs, and that "Goodbye" and "Pink Spider" were suicide notes.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- His songs "Drink or Die!!!" and "Goodbye" and the PV for "Pink Spider" are this so much that some fans see them as "suicide notes." Others see them as this.
- In the Performance Video for Oblaat, he posed sticking his head through a noose and playing with it. In the Misery PV, he was "hanging" from a television tower. This later became very sad in retrospect.
- Another one: The lyrics to his solo song "Tell Me" include the line "Until I'm ashes, I won't be able to hear it." After his death, hide's body was cremated.
- His song Oblaat. Not only did it have the above scene with hide sticking his neck through the noose, but the entire song was a slap at Apathetic Citizens and the "go along to get along/the nail that sticks up gets hammered down" aspect of Japanese culture combined with ignorance of the obvious. He would later die as a partial result of his brother/manager and others close to him being exactly like this in regard to their apathy and ignorance of everything related to his alcoholism and likely drug abuse.
- Also the song "Drink or Die." Change "or" to "and" and that's exactly what happened.
He's Just Hiding: Some vociferous and heavily in-denial fans subscribe to a conspiracy theory that claims hide didn't really die and is still alive somewhere. This sounds familiar...
Misaimed Fandom:
- Anyone who thinks Genkai Haretsu is a summer jam/love song or that Eyes Love You is a love song. Or that Blue Sky Complex is romantic. All of them are about sick, twisted relationships (Genkai Haretsu being about someone resolving his idea that Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny via Date Rape and necrophilia, Eyes Love You being a cynical denouncement of All Take and No Give + Date Rape or Questionable Consent in one interpretation and Hollywood/the music industry in another, and Blue Sky Complex implies incest)
- Anyone who thinks Drink or Die!!! is only a Drunken Song or Ode to Intoxication. It's both, but it's also about running away from emotions via alcohol.
- Anyone who thinks Ever Free is either an upbeat Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll song only, a summer jam, or similar. It's actually fairly balanced Heavy Meta about the life of a musician being "free" but also difficult and troubling (the line about "can you eat dreams?" = referring to the conflict of making art versus making money)
- Anyone who thinks Rocket Dive is a cute upbeat Oshare kei song about a spaceship. It's actually Ho Yay + Intercourse with You.
Posthumous Popularity Potential: Sadly so in hide's case. This is probably because of the rise of Visual Kei as well as the internet. Many western v-kei fans are curious and many v-kei artists have performed at the hide memorial summit. they look into who he is and instant popularity. With that said, had he lived he would have probably been as influential as Kurt Cobain, John Lennon or Elvis. It's obvious the Japanese viewed him that way.
Suspiciously Similar Song: "What's Up Mr. Jones" is this to "Drain," hide's last X Japan song. That said, he owned the music so he just had to change the lyrics...
Too Cool to Live: hide according to some of his fans. Somewhat subverted in that he was someone Too Cool To Die who became this trope?
Vindicated by History: In regard to the metal community, in that as his works became more and more known globally, that he isn't only recognized as an iconic popstar (an image he himself felt trapped in), but has earned slow recognition, especially with the Zilch works and his last track that would later become the backbone of X Japan's IV, as one of the premiere innovators of his time (and even ahead of it) in Hard Rock / Heavy Metal.
The Woobie: You wouldn't friggen believe it. Hide's woobie status can compare next to Yoshiki, Toshi, Taiji, and Pata, although he can lean towards Jerk Ass Woobie / Iron Woobie considering how much he was able to put up with for so many years, as well as constantly lashing out as people who wanted to help him.

YMMV / Hideto Matsumoto

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