to be completely honest (and shallow), the first video of theirs i saw was kirei da and he's absolutely gorgeous in that (and i have a thing for boys with long hair). as i learned more about the group, the more i loved his personality, his quirkiness, his voice, his musicianship, his dancing, his ridiculous sense of fashion and ability to make just about anything look good.

oddly enough, before i got into jpop, istarted listening to jrock and went on a random download spree. it wasn't until a year later that i realized one of the songs that had gotten the most play was actually ryuichi's solo from the 2004 tour.

the thing that absolutely clenched it was seeing them live. on the dvds it's hard to tell because of the size of the venues and the camera angles, but when he's on stage he really tries to interact with the audience, waving and making eye contact with as many people as he can, all with a look of complete wonder at times. it's enthralling. :)