I translated this beause I agree with it, and having it written by a Japanese person who actually spent a lot of time at lives and talked to people, etc, validates it.

2002.04.26

In the age range of visual kei fans, there is an overwhelming number of younger children. The more famous bands have mainly middle and high-school students, while for minor indies bands the age range is more from high school to about 24 years of age.

When they reach about 25 years, most people outgrew visual kei bands. And even if they didn't there was a tendency to start thinking about only going to lives from time to time, and then the enthusiam started wearing off. There were people who outgrew visual kei and then went to a completely different band's lives though.

J, a friend of mine past 25 years of age, said that there's also the question of physical strength in visual kei participation. It seems that when doing gyakudai it's tough to hang on to the front and keep looking ahead, and in the end you end up losing to the younger kids no matter what you do.

But though they might come of age, this doesn't necessarily mean that everybody outgrows vis kei. There are still people who love it no matter how old they are. While I don't think this is a bad thing, I do wish that they would stop behaiving immaturely. If an older woman's still at it, it's seen as unnecessarily shameful you know. In other words, it's a bad example. I would hope young girls know not to become adults like that.

After that, although in reality the age centers around middle and high school students, there are also elementary school students. When asked where they heard of these minor bands, they replied that their mothers had liked them, or that they saw them on tv or in a magazine by chance. One child even had the ill sense to say that it's completely normal for elementary school students to like vis kei. I wish I could teach those kids more about the sketchy underground to this world.

We were talking about Jouwa when the subject turned to the problem of the fans.

B: There are really elementary school Jouwa fans, aren't there...
M: What?! But they're not even all that famous~!
B: But a while ago I saw a cosplay chouldering a knapsack they seemed to have really been using! That had to be an elementary schooler.
M: They're not afraid of the free standing bars or anything, are they.
B: Right! When I was at the last live the girl next to me started up a conversation. When I answered back, I found out it was an elementary schooler. She said "There's no one else around to talk to about Jouwa" and I thought of course not. She asked for my phone number and said she wanted to be friends, but it's it's hard talking to someone with a 10 year age gap, and I ended up dodging the question.
M: Yeah. It would have been hard for me being friends with an elementary school student in my teens too.
B: A ten year age gap...god we're ancient. All of my friends into vis kei are younger than me, and so they call me "neesan" already!!!!!!!!

After that, B's mental agitation continued for quite some time.