I've been getting a lot of PMs and emails lately, so I thought I'd write a bit of a post to clear up some common questions. (Also guys I kind of suck at answering messages soooooorrrry T__T).
How do I contact you?
LJ private message or email to amaiakuyume AT hotmail DOT com. Comments will work too, but have more chance of getting lost/accidentally deleted. Please read this entry before messaging me, as I am likely to ignore questions I have received dozens of times. Please ask
dears or
ohgacktyoudidnt for general questions about GACKT
Can I friend you?/ Can we be friends?
Go ahead and add me ^_^ There's no need to ask permission.
However, I generally do not friend people back unless I know them in real life or have known them online for a reasonable amount of time. The reason is that my locked journal entries are about my personal life, which I feel uncomfortable sharing with the general public. I do not lock Gackt-related posts, since I believe anything that is worth sharing is worth sharing with the entire fandom. So don't worry about missing out :)
Also, please not if I do add you back: I'm NOT a good online friend. I only comment when I feel like I genuinely have something to say, and that's not often. I'm not the type to make small talk, and I'm pretty bad at comforting people who are upset.
I know there's people who are on LJ for the sake of those kind of friendships where you both share and comment on each other's lives. It's not that I think there's something wrong with that, just that I find it uncomfortable to share my own life, and quite often equally uncomfortable discussing other people's personal lives. Which doesn't mean I never will, but I find some people add me with an "expectation" of a certain amount of comments and participation on my part, and end up disappointed. But it would be unnatural and forced for me to do so, not a good friendship for either of us.
Can I repost (translation)? Can I translate it into another language?
I get a lot of requests from people asking if they can repost translations of something Gackt said that they found particularly moving on their own journal. That's fine with me as long as you give me credit for translating and link back to the post.
However, if you are the owner of a fansite and want to use my translations as site content, linking to my post rather than reposting it is vastly preferred. Otherwise, please contact me to discuss it. I have my own website,
Moon-Struck and under most circumstances I do not want the content to be mirrored elsewhere.
EDIT (Jan 2012): I have also received many requests to re-translate my translations into another language. I am uncomfortable with this because I believe it greatly increases the chance of the final translation being inaccurate to the original Japanese. If you want to translate a small quote for discussion purposes, that is okay as long as you acknowledge where it came from and that it is a translation of a translation. If you understand Japanese and use my English translations to double-check something while translating it into your own language, that is also okay. But I do not give permission for someone to to run a blog or website based on re-translations of my translations.
Can I use (translation) to make subtitles?
I'm currently revising all my lyric translations, so please ask first, and I'll tell you whether I'm finished with that one yet, and maybe fix it up a bit for you.
My "translations" of video interviews are more summaries which lack a lot of the details, so I don't feel like they would be of use as subtitles.
In any case, please credit amaiakuyume.livejournal.com on the video itself, and provide a link to the translation in your video description if you are uploading it somewhere where you can do so.
Can we meet in real life?
If you truly want to see the human embodiment of social awkwardness in person.
Jokes aside, I'm pretty shy (social anxiety disorder) and not good at making conversation. I prefer to meet people in groups to cut down on long awkward silences. If anyone is going to a Gackt concert or related event, I'm happy to meet you there if I can. I'm a bit uncomfortable with the idea of meeting a stranger at some random place though, it will help if we at least have interacted regularly in the past.
Can you upload/share _________?
Short answer, if I can and want to, it will be up as soon as possible. If I can't/don't want to, asking won't help.
I don't believe in sharing media that can be purchased, so pretty much anything I do share will be either TV/radio broadcast or out of print/extremely limited. I consider Dears only material to be sufficiently accessible from overseas with the number of shopping services that are around. In any case, there are people out there who do share both Dears and in print material, if you're determined to download it, please go and find them instead.
Also, I am not particularly good with digital video and audio, so if someone who is an expert in that field *cough*
tenshin26100*cough* volunteers to record or rip something, I will usually leave it to them. If I share something, please do not message me to ask for better quality, I do the best I can with the limited time and skills I have.
As a final note, please do not offer me money to upload things. I have no desire to profit illegally off Gackt's work (or anyone else's).
Can you translate/sub (video)?
First things first. I don't do subbing. That requires the use of a video editing program to add text in time with what is happening on screen, and is a rather time consuming process I have no idea how to do.
will take requests to add subtitles to a video, but since the subber doesn't speak Japanese, a translated script is needed before she can do it.
Translation requests are trickier. In theory, I don't mind being asked, but most of the requests I get are rather unrealistic. I guess people think that translating a five-minute video takes me five minutes, but the reality is different.
[EDIT (Jan 2012): I no longer take translation requests at all. The following explanation still applies]
Imagine getting a five minute youtube video in your own language, and having to write down everything that was said. People probably speak faster than you can type, so you have to repeatedly stop the video and go back, particularly if someone's mumbling, or people are talking over the top of each other. After you're typed each part, you need to go back and check you didn't miss or rephrase any words. All in all, it would probably take you 20 minutes or so to fully write and check five minutes of talking (unless you're a professional transcriber or something).
Now try doing it in a language you don't speak fluently. If you don't know a word someone says, you have to guess by typing what you think you heard into a dictionary until you get it right. Mumbling and slurring can make things completely incomprehensible. Puns and jokes aren't always obvious, and even if they are, you often have to type a lengthy explanation or wrack your brain for an English substitute. Locations, people, tv shows and anything else the Japanese person makes reference to that is obvious to them need to be looked up before you know what the hell they're talking about. And on top of it all you need to rephrase everything into a completely different language. All in all, a 5 minute video can take 1-2 hours to write up (and I usually don't even do full translations).
So you see why when I wake up and find a request in my inbox to "quickly translate" [thing that will take 5 hours], I put on a sad face like this :(
This doesn't mean I'll never take a video request, but, well, it makes it rather unlikely unless I find said video REALLY interesting. You're more likely to get a response if you ask something like "What are they laughing at at 3.45?" or "Can you give me an idea what he said about cars in between 3.30 and 4.00?" Topics and timestamps really help. That said, depending on how busy I am, I can't guarantee anything.
Can you translate (song)?
If it's Gackt, it'll be done as soon as I have time and a decent written version of the lyrics.
If it's not Gackt, I'll translate a song that catches my interest, but I don't take requests.
Can you translate (article/interview/text)?
[EDIT (Jan 2012): I no longer take translation requests.]
Only if it's sufficiently short, interesting or both, and I have time. Written material is easier than video, but still quite time consuming. I probably wouldn't take a request for a four page article, but a paragraph or two is fine. A page or two is more likely to get a summary. Once again, if you have a specific section or topic you want to know about, it's better to just ask for that.
Gackt blogs will be done when I have time. I have it set up so I am notified when he updates, so there's no need to remind me. I'm probably working on it as you're typing your message :D
Once again, I can't guarantee that I'll have time to fill any request.
EDIT: Feel free to ask any other questions in the comments, if you have them ^^
EDIT JAN 2012
GACKT didn't reply to my tweet/email! Why? How do I get him to reply?
GACKT himself has stated that he gets over 2000 emails a day and 100,000 tweets every time he logs on. Getting a reply is largely a matter of luck (it took me 4 years to get my first response). However, for emails, I believe the following things help (I've never gotten a tweet reply):
1. Attaching a photo to your email seems to help a lot. Particularly if you're an attractive (blond) female <------[unfortunate truth]. But even if you're not blessed in that regard, he does seem to enjoy seeing who he's talking to, and I know people who have gotten their first response after including a photo.
2. Writing in clear and concise English, with simple sentence structure. Remember that he's not a native speaker, and sometimes misunderstands complicated sentences. I don't recommend using Japanese unless you're close to fluent, he's only recently even deigned my Japanese with a response. Above all, keep it fairly short- he's got 1,999+ other emails to read before he goes to sleep!
3. He does seem to try to reply to those who have gone out of their way to do something for him, particularly fundraising for the earthquake. He's also thanked me for translating once, and I believe sometimes also replied to the organisers of fan projects. Keep in mind there is no guarantee though, so if you're going to do something, do it out of the goodness of your heart, not just to get a response, okay?
4. He seems to check emails within a day or so after concerts, particularly replying to the fans who have been to the recent shows. Looking at his schedule during a tour can help you pick a time when he will probably see your email, though it can't make him answer.
5. Be polite. Be respectful. I don't have to say this, do I?
I have a question about GACKT that is not related to a translation or event report in your journal (about merchandise, tour dates, personal opinions and information, etc)
I have recently been receiving all sorts of questions about GACKT, some of which are very googleable and some of which I have no earthly way of knowing. I do not have a lot of free time to answer PMs so most questions will be much more quickly answered by the well-informed regulars of
dears and
ohgacktyoudidnt. Thank you.