We’re back again to greet the upcoming year by looking back at this year’s top Japanese acts! We have two lists prepared for you this time around, one consisting of the top 10 visual kei acts and another list with the top 10 Japanese acts we covered on our website!

The rank order is according to the artists’ top sale release on CDJapan in 2016, meaning that we’re only looking at the most popular release from each artist and not the total volume sold during the year. Unlike last year’s top list we reduce the number to only 10 acts in each list, and artists can now only enter one of the lists!

Starting from the bottom!

Goran kudasai!

Top 10 visual kei acts:

10. kaya

Kaya

Perfana

Buy at CDJapan

9. matenrou opera phoenix rising

Matenrou Opera

Chikyu

Buy at CDJapan

8. versailles greatest hits

Versailles

The Greatest Hits 2007-2016

Buy at CDJapan

7. mejibray uka new look

MEJIBRAY

The End

Buy at CDJapan

6. hizaki-2016

Hizaki

Rosario

Buy at CDJapan

5. gackt arrow look

GACKT

Last Moon

Buy at CDJapan

4. dir en grey utafumi 1

DIR EN GREY

Utafumi

Buy at CDJapan

3. NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST ZeTeS Artist Photo

NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST

ZēTēS

Buy at CDJapan

2. kamijo-2016

KAMIJO

LA VIE EN ROSE

Buy at CDJapan

crown-icon
1.
the-gazette-2016

the GazettE

UNDYING

Buy at CDJapan or JPU Records

 

Continuing with the second part where only non-visual kei acts are included!

Top 10 Japanese acts:

10. asian-kung-fu-generation-erased

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION

Re:Re:

Buy at CDJapan

9. radwimps-2016

RADWIMPS

Kimi No Na Wa

Buy at CDJapan

8. ladybaby-renge-chance-2016

LADYBABY

Renge Chance!

Buy at CDJapan

7. flow_main-copy

FLOW

Kaze no UTA / BURN

Buy at CDJapan

6. Aimer After Dark

Aimer

ninelie

Buy at CDJapan

5. egoist-kabaneri-2016

EGOIST

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

Buy at CDJapan

4. scandal-2016

SCANDAL

YELLOW

Buy at CDJapan or JPU Records

3. reol-group

REOL

Sigma

Buy at CDJapan

2. BABYMETAL

BABYMETAL

Metal Resistance

Buy at CDJapan

crown-icon
1.
band-maid-jrock-news-2016

BAND-MAID

Brand New MAID

Buy at CDJapan or JPU Records

It looks like the GazettE is still dominating the visual kei top list this year again, while Kamijo diligently remains as the silver medalist. However, Nocturnal Bloodlust made a significant leap from being in the fifth position last year, to the third position this year.

For the Japanese act list we see a tendency of female artists dominating it, surprisingly with REOL—a fairly new major debuted doujin artist—making it into the top three!

So that was it, hope you all had fun checking out our compiled top list of 2016. Tell us your thoughts or maybe even share your very own top list in the comment section below!

See more top lists:

 

Top Japanese acts 2017

 

Top 20 best anime songs 2017

 

Most influential JROCKERS 2017

 

Source:
Complete list of CDJapan’s Japanese artist ranking
Complete list of CDJapan’s visual kei artist ranking