The Gackt Thread II

Smiling Mana seems so unnatural lol If Mana was in Ikebukuro then that totally could have been him....
But I always got the sense he was unaware of his surroundings, not indifferent.
Then I again I think one of the M10M members said something about 'classic Mana" being him doing things like banging his guiter into elevator doors and not reacting at all.

Anyhow, the humor's probably going to be lost in translation, but I'll give a summary of what we're talking about so any non-Japanese speakers aren't left out.
Gackt ended up renting a place in Ikebukuro when he first moved to Tokyo.
When he told people that they'd all be like "OMG DANGEROUS" and he was like "what dangerous? We're in Japan."
Then at one point he's at one of the band member's flats (logically Malice Mizer, since he moved to Tokyo to be their vocalist) and he opens the window to get some fresh air because it's a bit hot.
So he's standing at the window and one of the members calls out to him, "Hey Gackt, you're gonna get shot."
Just as he's thinking how ridiculous that is, he hears gunshots and nopes away from the window and's like, "Why didn't you tell me this before??"

Turns out there was a yakuza HQ on the same floor level of a neighboring building (4th), and sometimes bullets would make their way over to the member's flat because I guess Japanese yakuza learned to shoot from storm troopers.

Then he gets into why, for him, Shinjuku is the NoGo place, not Ikebukuro.
The few times he's been there, he....

1. Was surprised because there are people everywhere, even in the side streets
2. Saw a blood covered guy pass by and no one cared ( he thought it was a film until he realized there were no cameras). Two minutes later a Chinese guy with a long sword runs by in the same direction screaming lol
3. Got solicited by a country bumpkin looking yankee without teeth for paint thinner because he mistook his musician car for a drug dealer car...apparently toluene is a drug over there....
4. Was really creeped out by some crazy guy standing in front of the 711 in a thong and corset yelling about how Russians were eating Japanese people

Only 3 of those 4 were true. Not telling which.

Edited:becuase the bloody dude didn't really talk to him...I watched the video right before sleeping and I think I dreamed that part XD Goodness

I still say it was a halberd, not a sword, and nothing will convince me otherwise

For non-Japanese readers: a "yankee" means just a sort of brash ruffian here, not an American.

It was something large, long, stabby, and Chinese legendish. Just google 青龍刀 and decide for yourselves I know nothing about swords XD

flowersofnight wrote:

a sort of brash ruffian

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Like... an American?

I'd go a little further with the definition and say that it mostly applies to teenagers and youngsters who are up to no good, in comparison to chinpira who are a bit more thuggy and involved with organised crime, albeit in a low-level way.

Stopping by to say that Gackt sang Bel Air in a live stream over the weekend, after a fan sent him his cover version, which was apparently very similar.

Unfortunately no videos to be found so far (and i learned about it on twitter)

MorganIvy wrote:

Same. We know for sure Mana lived in Ikebukuro at some point, but I'm not sure when exactly... he responded to a question in the Salon recently saying thats since he's been in Tokyo he's moved houses 7 times (3 within the same condominium, because he liked it so much xD)

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There is this house in Ikebukuro, a bit off from the main area but on the side of the yamanote line heading towards otsuka,
I swear everytime I saw that house I thought "This looks like mana lives here or something."
I do not know why any normal person would get the european looking gates and such haha.
Crazy if that was his place at some time @_@!

Sounds like Mana, except I think his Ikebukuro times were during early MM, when he couldn't afford a fancy house

Look out for some decaying parthenon columns in a residential building parking tho, because according to Hitomi they are still there (the ones from MM stage decor, that Mana said he used to leave at the building's common area because he had no space in his apartment/room)

MorganIvy wrote:

Sounds like Mana, except I think his Ikebukuro times were during early MM, when he couldn't afford a fancy house

Look out for some decaying parthenon columns in a residential building parking tho, because according to Hitomi they are still there (the ones from MM stage decor, that Mana said he used to leave at the building's common area because he had no space in his apartment/room)

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Haha oh man, next time I run into hitomi Ima probe his drunk self for the columns info. Its like an Indiana jones quest.

Kozi still seems to live in the same place as all the old pics? being married to kozi in that wacky house has got to be crazy

I feel obliged to point out that your post reads like Kozi is married to a perpetually drunk ass dude named Hitomi.

Which doesn't sound out of place, except that gay marriage is not legal in Japan except for one random town in the middle of nowhere (if memory serves).

In Gackt news this week, he told a story about Mana in a livestream thing!

MENTIONED HIS NAME PUBLICALLY probably for the first time in 20+ years!! (definitely the first time that i can recall)

AND SOMEONE RECORDED IT!!!! and was kind enough to share on twitter (in 3 short videos):

https://twitter.com/batcheeks/status/1406268107073626112?s=19

https://twitter.com/batcheeks/status/1406268551132971009?s=19

https://twitter.com/batcheeks/status/1406268792594833416?s=19

So, from what I've been told, he's talking about this one time on a show when there was 1 string on Mana's guitar that was tuned incorrectly. So there Mana was, playing with is usual lack of expression, and he played that one string, which made a haunting sound, and made this face:



After the show, the roadie/crew person in charge of Mana's guitar apologized profusely and Mana was upset/depressed about the whole thing, which made the scene very funny and Gacktwas trying hard not to laugh.

(Japanese speaking people, please do add any details that I may have missed, as this was relayed to me in portuguese and I'm now translating to english)

Anyway he's sure been mentioning Malice stuff a lot lately. I'm so here for it! <3

MorganIvy wrote:

please do add any details that I may have missed

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Here's a fun fact about Mana's guitar; it uses a Floyd Rose system which is an absolute pain in the ass to tune/re-string. Unlike a regular guitar, where you could simply adjust that single string, in the case of the Floyd Rose system the tension of the strings has to be balanced together and the strings are also locked down.

Here is what the locked down strings look like;


Now moving down to the business end of the guitar, in a regular guitar, the strings are anchored directly to the guitar like this;


The Floyd Rose however uses a 'floating' bridge, like this -

This means you can go crazy with the tremolo arm (not pictured) and do dive-bombs etc. Note the adjustment dials and pins.

Here is what it looks like from below;

So in addition to balancing the strings, these springs also need to be balanced. Of course any change in tension anywhere throws the rest of the alignment out somewhere.

So in short; Mana's guitar is an absolute pain in the scrote to manage.

sanctum wrote:

So in addition to balancing the strings, these springs also need to be balanced. Of course any change in tension anywhere throws the rest of the alignment out somewhere.

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No wonder he gets so many custom guiters, it's probably easier to just build a new one when it goes out of tune

flowersofnight wrote:

No wonder he gets so many custom guiters, it's probably easier to just build a new one when it goes out of tune

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You're not wrong. :p

Changing the strings themselves doesn't take too long, but getting everything balanced takes a damn long time.

and even then, once everything is set and done there is something you need to remember;

strings stretch.

I don't understand why that method even exists. Even tuning strings freestyle is just about the most annoying thing ever.

That said, thank you MorganIvy and batcheeks lol
In one of the madousho, the mDm people were talking about how Mana would go into super depression if he didn't like lunch.
I chose to think it's the same kind, as in he turned the entire room black with his aura of despair over a hamburger.

Actually I've been thinking about it, and I'm pretty sure Mana has told this same story himself somewhat recently.. havent had the time to double check, but I'll edit this with my findings x)

He may have mentioned it while talking about not really getting angry/yelling because he doesnt see a point.. at most he gets annoyed and sad, but doesnt mistreat staff. I'm just not sure where he said this.

Well he's right. Studies have found that yelling and pointing out faults are the least effective ways to motivate someone and get what you want.
Also Japanese culture as a whole doesn't seem to be much about that.

Yeah, I agree too, it's not a very productive way of getting anything done. And I found where he talks about that (Salon interview with Yukari Oba) but no mention of this specific incident (just costume accidents and the like, and Oba mentions that her assistant used to comment that Mana never gets angry)

But I'm almost sure, specially after seeing a comment on twitter about it from a japanese fan. Guess I'll find it someday.

faith wrote:

I don't understand why that method even exists.

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Ironically the system was actually designed to help the guitar stay in tune.
Because all the strings are locked down and the bridge is disconnected from the guitar body, you can use the tremolo arm to do crazy pitch changes, you can hear it a lot in Slayer solos for example. I think Van Halen's guitar also used it.

I'm sure that's why Mana, being the big Slayer fan that he is, adopted it. Which is a little strange given that I can't recall any Malice Mizer, or Moi dix Mois songs that use it. I think it might show up in some of the post-Beyond the Gate releases, but I only listen to the first two albums and I really don't feel like digging through everything to find examples.

Ah hah. They don't have that on acoustic violins...
Looked it up, understand it now, and suddenly some of the things guiter players do seem less magical.

I'm almost certain Malice never had anything that would make use of a tremolo arm, but do seem to recall a few M10M songs that use it.
Either way, if Mana took an out of tune string so poorly, he'd probably prefer the Floyd Rose to avoid in-show accidents, whether he's doing pitch distortion or not.

flowersofnight wrote:

No wonder he gets so many custom guiters, it's probably easier to just build a new one when it goes out of tune

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haha actually floyd roses are pretty easy to handle, anyone of merit as a tech will only have to deal with spring tension in the back at the start of any tour and it would be slight adjustments, with my esp w/ a floyd if i get it set up by ESP tech i do not have to worry about the springs for pretty much ever with the same tuning.
but if it is just one single string it isnt a spring problem, thatd have them all go out a bit plus anyone could see the floyd not flush with the body. . . the only other thing I could imagine is that if it was one single string like that then it was his ESP jeune fille custom model which is a stop tail piece and he was using that in gackt era so that would be way way more likely.

Thats cool gackt mentioned Mana though! but darth gackt still is strong in the dark side of the force.

faith wrote:

I feel obliged to point out that your post reads like Kozi is married to a perpetually drunk ass dude named Hitomi.

Which doesn't sound out of place, except that gay marriage is not legal in Japan except for one random town in the middle of nowhere (if memory serves).

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oh god if kozi was married to hitomi @_@;;; uggh

haha yah Shibuya you can too, but it is actually slowly growing here, prefectures starting to recognize things and such.