Young LUNA SEA fans “SLAVE Gakuen”

Last year, the unfamiliar term “High School SLAVE” was all the rage among fans on X. LUNA SEA calls their fans “SLAVE” and the name of their official fan club is also “SLAVE”. But what exactly does “High School SLAVE” mean?

In fact, young fans who love LUNA SEA are gathering under the names of “High School SLAVE” and “SLAVE Academy.” As LUNA SEA has been active for 35 years, the age of their fans has increased proportionately, so the fact that young fans are gathering together and posting on social media like this has attracted a lot of attention.

SLAVE Gakuen members jumping at a live concert (Courtesy of TAKUYA @TAKUYASLAVE0503)

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SLAVE Gakuen was founded in May last year at the concert “THE BEST OF LUNA SEA 2023” held at Musashino Forest Sports Plaza in Chofu, Tokyo, by high school student TAKUYA (@TAKUYASLAVE0503) and another TAKUYA with the same name, who wanted to “interact with other young SLAVEs!” and “create an environment and relationship where young SLAVEs can easily interact with each other.” The number of members has steadily increased since then, and now there are 26 members. The age range is from junior high school students to around 20 years old, and the male-female ratio is about 7:3 (female: male).

“We don’t usually have any activities that could be called special, but when LUNA SEA has a concert, we gather together like a get-together, with only those who can make it to the venue. We talk about the appeal of LUNA SEA, take group photos, and post them on social media with a “#” in the hope that it will show that LUNA SEA is popular with young people too. Outside of concerts, we have a LINE group, so whenever LUNA SEA makes an announcement, we all share our excitement and casually talk about how much we love LUNA SEA!” (TAKUYA)

(Provided by TAKUYA @TAKUYASLAVE0503)
(Provided by TAKUYA @TAKUYASLAVE0503)

But why are these teenagers so into LUNA SEA now? LUNA SEA is certainly a popular band, but it went on hiatus in 2000 and then REBOOT in 2010. Since they haven’t had as much media exposure since then, it seems like there aren’t many opportunities to see their activities.

We spoke to five members of SLAVE Gakuen about how they first encountered LUNA SEA and what got them hooked.