L'Arc-en-Ciel -- Stay Away

I heard my first L'Arc-en-Ciel song, "Niji"（虹...Rainbow）, while watching the movie for the "Rurouni Kenshin" anime back in the late 90s. But what really got my attention about the band was the music video for their 20th single, "Stay Away". To paraphrase a well-worn expression, "Come for the song, stay for the video".

Written by lead vocal, hyde (aka Hideto Takarai...寶井秀人), and composed by bassist tetsu (now tetsuya), "Stay Away" was released in July 2000, and immediately made an impact by selling over half a million copies in its first week alone. It peaked at No. 2 and became the 24th-ranked song of the year.

However, I think it was the video that hooked everyone. I'm sure the sight of seeing hyde and the rest of L'Arc-en-Ciel (tetsuya, ken and yukihiro) dressed up as the coolest and most intimidating students in the high school probably got a lot of the fandom's hearts-a-racing. But then came the choreography....seeing hyde writhing around as if he had gotten lessons from Sadako of "Ringu" fame, and then the finale of the band and a lot of other folks frolicking about on a sports field most likely had quite a few jaws dropping (although I know CG helped out here). Ironically, I couldn't stay away. In the years before YouTube, I just wanted to see that video again and again. Not surprisingly, the video won Best Video of the Year and Best Group Video of the Year for the "Space Shower Music Video Awards". And on top of that, the Osaka band got another invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen.