Bad Habits and Moon Wave have been around for a couple of years, but not sure if everyone truly knew about them and their origins. Ever since Otakify has been around, I’ve always known of seen “kanekichii” on Instagram but I was always confused about why his handle was that instead of their brand name. After the years gone by, I felt that they’ve made a place for themselves in this community and we should share more about the mind behind the brand.
Here was how the interview went:
INTERVIEW WITH BH/MW
For the people who don’t know, why is your IG handle, kanekichii?
First off I want to say thank you for the opportunity, and I appreciate your brand being interested in bad habits enough to want to do this interview it really means a lot. As for the name selection I don’t necessarily have a real reason as to why I chose it other than because I’m a huge fan of tokyo ghoul and kaneki in general. Sometimes I wish that I didn’t choose that name because it’d be harder to transition into switching my handle to the brand name now. It’d really confuse a lot of people if it just changed all of a sudden.
We’ve been friends for a while now, but I’ve always wondered to myself. You run both Bad Habits and Moon Wave. How did you come up with the names? Why are there two different shops?
I guess I should start off with addressing the reasoning behind the names for both brands. In the beginning “moon wave” actually started off as “otaku desu” in my first year of trying to become a brand, pretty cringey right? It was meant as a placeholder because I wasn’t sure of a direction the brand should go in at the time so it made deciding on a name very difficult. About a year or so later I’d built somewhat of a name for myself amongst the community and I was heavily known for making a lot of sailor moon stickers so the inspiration for the new name “moon wave” just came naturally. As for Bad Habits the inspiration was more from an edgy retro sort of mind space. I knew that I wanted the brand to be named something catchy but relatable at the same time so long story short one day I was browsing tumblr and I came across a gif that said bad habits and it just sort of all fell into place from there. As for why there’s two separate brands I just really felt like the themes of what they both represented couldn’t coincide with each other. To me they both represented light and dark with really specific themes centralized around them. Bad Habits represents a splash of retro mixed with a whole lot of lewd sexualized themes transformed into streetwear while Moon Wave is this sort of upbeat pop centric brand that focuses on the now in anime and manga.
Currently the anime sticker brands and clothing brands are HOT. What got you into this scene?
Honestly I wasn’t even looking to get into the scene. I was at a weird place in my life doing the college thing trying to pick up steady jobs just trying to figure out life. A buddy of mine randomly sent me a picture of an anime sticker one day and I just sat there and thought to myself that I could really do that as well. I was completely unaware that there was a market for that type of stuff, and I really enjoyed anime/ manga so it kind of just made sense for me at the time, and here we are today.
For each of the brands, do you have a favorite piece you’ve made?
I’d have to say my personal favorite that I’ve put out would have to be Milky. The reason I chose milky is because it was pretty much what kicked the brand off, and it was something a lot of people gravitated towards.
I’ve noticed for Moon Wave, you kind of have a signature pose for the characters..the PEACE SIGN. How did that happen? Why the peace sign?
At first I would put out a bunch of random stickers with no real theme or purpose to them so I was looking for a style that I could take on that no one was really attempting at the time, and thats how the whole peace sign thing came about.
I’ve noticed that the anime streetwear scene has grown a lot since then.. what are your thoughts on this scene? Where do you think it will be going in the future?
The scene seems extremely healthy at the moment with tons of potential for even bigger growth in the future. New brands are coming on to the scene everyday and its honestly refreshing to see so many people be so passionate about this style of streetwear. It gives people who aren’t necessarily into “high fashion” something to wear and be proud of because what they’re buying is actually based off of a culture they enjoy and can rally behind.
If you wanted to do a future collaboration with any hype brands out there, who would you want to collab with? Why?
If I had to choose one person to collab with I’d say as of right now my dream collab would be w/ Crisalys. I think she’s extremely talented and what her brand represents is completely related to some of my own hobbies and that’s something I can really get behind as a fan. The way she incorporates her favorite kicks into her designs is just amazing to me because the finished product always turns out flawless. I honestly couldn’t name a better artist in 2017 imo.
It’s become a tradition for me to ask all the interviewers I’ve done. What is your favorite anime out there?
That honestly a really tough question because I don’t think I have that one favorite anime of all time. I’m a fan of many things but if I had to choose one I’d say Cowboy Bebop is really up there for me. The whole aesthetic of Bebop is just out of this world.
For the last couple of years there has been a lot of collaborations with anime/ japanese culture, such as Dragon Ball with BAPE. What are your favorite collaborations?
To be honest I’m not a huge fan of most of the collabs I have seen but if I had to choose one I really enjoy It’d have to be the Supreme x Toshio Maeda collab. That one just resonates really well with me.
What was your very first anime that you’ve watched that got you into this scene?
My love for anime came at a real early age in my childhood because I grew up on the old toonami back in the day so I was exposed to a lot of the classics when I was young. I can’t quite remember what the first anime I saw was but things like yu yu hakusho, naruto, dbz, and ruroni kenshin is what got me into anime.
I hope you gets enjoyed our interview with Mr. Bad Habits himself. It was a pleasure getting to know a little bit more about how things progressed with the brand, as well as getting his input on the whole anime streetwear scene.
Make sure you follow them in their social media down below to be up-to-date with what’s going on for both Bad Habits and Moon Wave.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Bad Habits: badhabits.jp
Moon Wave: moonwave.us
Instagram: @kanekichii
