ABOUT BARU

Name: ばる / Baru / Val (real name unknown)
Birth date: February 4th (age unknown)
A few words: Baru is a very talented drummer I think. (You don't have to take my opinion, I've never played drums before!) His skills are very impressive in comparison to others I've heard. And I think many fans of Duel Jewel and otherwise will agree with me. He is fast, but he has beautiful rhythm as well. Alot of people comment specifically on his great usage of double bass drums. For him, they certaintly aren't just for looks.

Baru is very stoic. His style isn't very flashy, it's very simplistic. His stage personality is the same. He is not very "out there" but rather he looks intense when he's drumming, which just serves to draw you in. But even so, he does like to joke around too.

Interesting Baru Facts
- doesn't smoke
- likes sweets
- likes boxing
- a favorite band is "Siam Shade"
- was born in Singapore
- has two pet turtles named "Riku" and "Koriku".

BARU vs. VAL

this was updated on 04/13/2008

If you are new to Duel Jewel you may notice that you see his name written as both Baru and Val. I consider both to be right. Personally I prefer Baru, since that's the reading of the hiragana. Here's a little explanation.

Baru decided he would change his name from "VAL" to ばる in hiragana. There was an interview from Cure magazine Vol. 5 where he mentioned about the name change. It was from around the time they released 'Vermillion' maxi single. I remembered reading a translation of this interview online back when it came out, so I went searching for it again. It was on the dj.net domain but is now gone. I don't know who translated it and it seems the page was just laying around on the dj.net domain. But I saved this quote from it.

Baru says
"Starting from this year I will be known as Baru in hiragana and I hope everyone will look at the new me!..."

So for whatever reason he chose to change it. I of course don't know the reasoning, but since then I have taken on writing it as Baru. I think it's because he announced it so in an interview. The two names are not totally different. In fact they are the same name when spoken. However, it doesn't sound how the American pronouciation of "Val" is said. If pronoucing Val in Japanese with katakana would be バル(baru as same as the hiragana). A 'v' sound doesn't exist in the Japanese language so a 'b' is used to imitate it. Perhaps this had some effect on why the name was changed.