Vanilla was created in September 2001 by two guitarists: Shinobu (ex-PlatinA Forest) and Hide (ex-After Effect). The band was completed by Taka (ex-Crystal Eyes) on drums, Kuro Kosugi (formerly named Sugi, ex-PlatinA Forest) on bass and, on vocals Zen who probably had the most interesting band-history seeing as he used to be the guitarist of the visual kei band Fatima.
In January 2002 the band released its first demo: Call or Down. A few months later, the title-track of this single was also featured on the omnibus album Yougenkyou II, which featured other visual kei bands that were popular around this time.
In June, the band released their first maxi-single, which was entitled sagashimono/chiisana negai. Shortly after, the band was featured on another compilation album. At the end of 2002, the band released two more cds, a set of two concept maxi-singles entitled Q and A. As it later turned out, these were the last releases of Vanilla alone.
In January 2003 drummer Taka decided to leave the band. Vanilla was still hanging on and in May they joined forces with Zen's former band, releasing together with Fatima a collaboration disk entitled simply Korabodisku (collabodisc). The disk featured a track of Fatima covered by Vanilla, a song written by Zen and Shinobu and performed by Fatima, and a song written and performed by both bands.
Unfortunatelly, only two months later, on July 13th, 2003 Vanilla officially disbanded. All the members continued in the music busines: Zen decided do pursue solo career while Hide played guitar for Vidoll briefly. Shinobu became a part of the also short-lived Guy's Family and Kuro Sugoshi joined and supported various bands but is currently playing bass for Moi dix Mois, using the name Sugiya.
