LAST VISUALIVE report
I haven’t written anything about the LAST VISUALIVES, but I was trying to remember the details of GACKT’s MCs, and when I realised I couldn’t remember what he said at the first shows I went to, I figured I should write down what I could remember. Otherwise, I’d just forget what I could remember now later too. Then it turned into writing out the mid-show Gakuen movies… and became writing out most of it.
Spoilers abound. They keep slightly altering the movies, so no doubt some of the details have changed/will change. I'm also doing this from memory, having not taken any notes from any of the shows, but hopefully my memory isn't too faulty.
Opening movie
It’s set in the aftermath of a battle. Yoritomo (Yoshitsune’s older brother and head of the Minamoto family) and his aide Kagetoki are surveying a quiet battlefield after an immense battle, with their army behind them. Yoshitsune picks himself up off the floor, with an arrow sticking out of his armor, and climbs up the hill to greet them. Yoshitsune nods, tells his brother it’s okay, and with a tear rolling down his face, Yoritomo gives the order. The army behind him readies their arrows, and then lets them fly at Yoshitsune. The last shot is a close up of Yoshitsune, as ARROW (played by the band) starts up.
Part I
The curtain pulls back as the intro to ARROW is being played. Everyone is wearing the costumes from the ARROW MV, including sunglasses for the band, and nobody moves from their mark on the stage. When GACKT does the spoken bit in the middle of the song, it appears on the screen at the back.
Next is Hana mo Chiyu. Again, nobody moves from their marks. GACKT waves his arms around a lot (as he usually does). As the song moves into the final part, blood colored petals fall across the video screen.
Again, not much movement for Returner. GACKT flails around a little during the wicked instrumental bit in the middle, and Val impressively manages to keep up with it. For the song outro, all of the band members are frozen in place under a spotlight.
RIDE OR DIE doesn’t quite seem to fit in with the other songs, I don’t think. The previous three songs fit better as being battlefield inspired songs, and the way GACKT moves while he’s singing fits too. For RIDE OR DIE he’s back to shaking his hips. Maybe this would have fit better in Part III of the show.
Next is Akatsukizukuyo. It starts with the sound of rain, and GACKT does the first verse and chorus acapella and sounds glorious. Then the song starts with the same intro as the recorded version, but they don’t repeat the verse and chorus GACKT has already done. As the song is played, the video wall shows more from the battle that preceded the first video. The three characters that were alive at the end of MOON SAGA II - Saburo (Takaki Uda), Tadanobu (originally Taya, but now being played by Yuki Kimisawa) and Benkei (Shinnosu) - are all shown dying. Yoshitsune is fighting too, and there are random dramatic close ups of him too. Towards the end of the song Yoshitsune gets hit by an arrow, and each time the sound effect that accompanies the arrow hitting him manages to make me jump. The song ends with each member under a spotlight, and the spotlights go out one by one until GACKT’s is the last to go. The curtains close for Part II.
Part II
Movie
This occurs 9 years before the first movie. Yoshitsune approaches the Minamoto camp and his appearance causes a big stir, to say the least. He is granted an audience with his brother. I must admit that I’m only 95% certain of what actually goes on in this video, so I’m not going to say much in case I’m wrong.
At the end of the movie, Yutaka no Yume starts playing, and the curtain draws back to show all five members of the band playing shamisen. The stage is very red and fiery, and as they play the dancers are on the floor at the front of the stage, surrounded by mist. Val seems to have the easiest of the parts (understandably as he’s a drummer, not a guitarist) and GACKT gets a little solo time.
The lights dim, and when they come back up again, GACKT is near the front of the stage kneeling on the floor with a katana in one hand. The dancers are in the place that the band were playing shamisen and they launch into Zan. It’s not that different to the YFC performances - Chacha still does his bit!
A bit of music plays while GACKT gets his head mic, and then it’s Kugutsu no Gotoku. This is the big dance number of the show, like GHOST was in RRII, and GACKT is obviously miming, but the dance is good. It’s more puppets than cyborgs, but it is kinda similar. There’s a cool bit in the second half of the song where GACKT bends right back, but it’s slightly less cool when you can see the dancer crouched behind him holding him up and pushing him back upright, hahahaha.
A short bit of dialogue plays while GACKT has his head mic removed, and it comes back to just GACKT and the dancers - the band have left the stage. The next song is a new song, it’s not on any albums. It’s short, but a really good atmospheric ballad. As it ends, the curtain closes.
Part III
Movie
The movie starts with Nori’s death scene from MOON SAGA II, where Nori and Yoshitsune are in that limbo land between life and death (or whatever it was). Yoshitsune pleads with Nori to return with him, but Nori knows he can’t and kisses Yoshitsune to shut him up. Yoshitsune gets torn away from Nori… and then the scene pauses.
It pauses because Seito Kaicho and the senpais are watching it. Kaicho explains that the Yoshitsune that is flying through the air back to reality is CG. He has a cup of coffee in his hand and announces that Nestle is now the sponsor of Camui Gakuen, which causes all of the senpais to start a “Ne-su-re!” chant, and a caption on screen asks the fans watching to join in too. Kaicho is stood next to a monitor that asks the question “Why is GACKT so cool?” and he explains that they will have more training sessions to become ikemen, and the training sessions will be based on MOON SAGA.
So, each night a different video is shown. There are three games, and multiple senpais attempt them all, although only two senpais and Kaicho are shown each night.
Game 1 - Speed
This is based on Yoshitsune dodging arrows. The game sees a senpai dodging volleyballs that are being shot out of a machine while answering questions. A wrong answer means the machine comes closer. Three wrong answers and the game is over. These are the senpais that stick in my mind as being funny…
Val - Val’s first question was based on Japanese eye tests. Here, instead of reading letters off a chart, you’re shown a ring that has a gap in it and you have to say whether the gap is left, right, up or down. He was was shown one of these, and instead of saying “hidarI” [left] or “migi” [right], he got them mixed up and said “midari”. Kaicho was so annoyed by Val’s mistake that he not only moved the machine closer, but made Hayato and a dancer (I think Madoka) hold Val’s legs so he couldn’t dodge the balls. The next ball hit Val in the crotch, and when Val bent over in pain it bounced up and hit him in the face. Val then retired from the game.
Sato - Sato also was smacked in the crotch and had to retire. While he was rolling on the floor in pain, Kaicho knelt down, spread open Sato’s legs and put himself in a very suggestive looking position…
Yuki - one of Yuki’s questions was to choose between GACKT and Kaicho. He couldn’t choose quick enough and it was considered a wrong answer. After his game, Kaicho made him answer again. Yuki complained that there was no right answer, so Kaicho asked the other senpais what the right answer was. They all said “both”. Yuki hadn’t thought of that answer, hahahahaha.
Kaicho - Kaicho didn’t know what day of the week GACKT’s solo career started, he had no idea about the lyrics to “Suddenly” (but did get LOVE LETTER correct), and when played a short snippet of “Soliel” and asked what song it was, he said “Au Revior”. He pointed out after the game that he had about 200 songs so it was difficult to remember them all.
Game 2 - sword
This is based on Yoshitsune fighting off several enemies at once. There is a narrow beam about two feet off the floor that they have to walk across bare foot. Along the way are plastic bumpy bits, to make it a little painful. As they walk, the other senpais swing bags and balls at them to try and knock them off. If they can get across, there is a “sword” at the end and then they have to come back.
Takumi - he fell off halfway across and took an inflatable pole that was blocking the way with him, riding it like it was a broomstick. Someone (I think Kaicho) pointed out that the pole looked like a Tenga - a pretty infamous and distinctive looking male sex toy. They’re both red with white hoops around, so it was a valid comparison…
YOU - he was smacked in the face by a ball after getting the sword
Sato - he nearly did a complete flip and landed heavily on his shoulder. It looked painful, but I guess he was fine…?
Kaicho - before starting, Kaicho complained that he had the weakest feet in Japan and so wasn’t happy about the bumpy bits. He caught the first two bags that were swung at him, and when he tried to swing them back at the senpais, he overbalanced and fell off. He immediately got back on the beam and asked for another chance. Shinnosu made him ask for another chance into the camera, so Kaicho turned on the charm and winked. It excited Yuki a little, who literally jumped and fanboyed. This time Kaicho made it across and grabbed the sword, but was knocked off by the ball again.
Game 3 - Fight
This is based on Yoshitsune’s one-on-one battles with Yoshinaka and Nori. The senpais are to fight each other one-on-one in a sumo style battle. They have to push each other out of a ring which is slightly raised, but the surrounding area is padded out with sand to cushion their falls. Each senpai fights with their hands tied behind their back. A senpai is picked, and their opponent is picked by Kaicho picking a ball out of a box, and each ball has a senpai’s name on it. Also in the box are a female kickboxer, a female pro-wrestler, a dominatrix (complete with whip) and a drag queen. None of the women have their hands tied behind their back.
YOU had to fight Madoka. As soon as the bell rang, Madoka just bent over and shoulder charged YOU in the gut, instantly throwing him out of the ring. YOU didn’t stand a chance!
Poor Sato had to fight the pro-wrestler. She immediately got him on his back, grabbed his legs and tried to turn him over onto his stomach (for anyone who knows wrestling, she was trying for a Boston Crab). He grabbed onto her ankle to stop it, but finally she turned him over and pulled his hair back too, just to make it worse. She was reminded that she had to throw him out, so she just deadlifted him up and threw him out.
For Kaicho, Shinnosu picked his opponent. They made it dramatic by showing a graphic that cycled through silhouettes of all of the options. Kaicho’s opponent was a male sumo wrestler, and just as everyone in the venue got excited about seeing Kaicho beaten up by this sumo wrestler, another graphic comes on the screen saying “to be continued at Saitama Super Arena”. So, we don’t get to see Kaicho destroyed by a sumo wrestler until July (or more likely, he’ll cheat his way out of it somehow).
After Kaicho and the senpais are finished, it cuts back to GACKT in his dressing room as he’s been watching them be dumb. A member of staff interrupts to tell GACKT it’s time to go and GACKT stands up, wearing a dressing gown. He takes the dressing gown off, to reveal only a red fundoshi underneath. He thrusts at the camera, and then runs off, leaving his fundoshi behind (you don’t see anything more than the front view of GACKT in his fundoshi. No butt this time!). The fundoshi says “Start of Part III”.
The band come out one by one, to English introductions. The four members of the band are wearing jeans, white tour tank tops, with YOU and Val wearing black jackets over, and Sato and Chacha wearing flowing gray cardigans. Val’s introduction says he always summons the gods of laughter, Sato is a small package oozing sexiness, Chacha is the blonde bombshell and YOU has a smile to make the girls go crazy. GACKT comes out last and is called one of the most amazing singers, songwriters and actors in the world. He’s wearing those drop crotch jeans he’s been favoring lately, a very sparkly red jacket, and a red necklace and bracelet by the new VARTIX brand #LUV. No shirt.
One More Kiss is very colorful and playful. The video screen has a million colors going on, and GACKT comes to the front of the stage, teasing the audience by opening his jacket and showing off his abs.
Mirror is the same as always, with the guitar call and the “Gakuto” response from the crowd as GACKT gets his guitar and head mic sorted. He complains that he can’t hear the crowd and asks for more and then the song starts. GACKT has taken off the jacket so now he’s completely bare chested, and his guitar is a sparkly gold. It really is the same Mirror performance as ever, only GACKT is getting more ridiculous with some of his calls and dancing (in a good way, it’s meant to be ridiculous). It’s cute to see YOU laughing at GACKT’s antics every night, as if he hasn’t already seen it all a million times before. If you’re going to the shows though, you have to listen carefully to what GACKT shouts when he’s doing the call and response during the song, as he sometimes separates it out to men/women or first floor/second floor. GACKT does his usual collapse at the end of the song.
MCs
After a few moments pause, Yuki Kimisawa comes out on stage. He’s wearing jeans and a black jacket, with no shirt. He introduces himself and apologises for not being “Nii-san [GACKT]”. For his MC, he talks about some internet news ranking that GACKT has been ranked on. There’s been items such as “celebrities you don’t want to get married”, “celebrities that aren’t human” and “celebrities that are narcissists”. Yuki says the three reasons respondents to the surveys gave, and then basically agrees with them. For the not human one, he said that GACKT was a robot because he doesn’t eat, sleep or poop.
After Yuki is finished with the net news, he explains the dance routine for Koi no Friday. He asks people to get their light sticks, and says that if you don’t have light sticks you can just use your hands. If you’re a guy, you can use your own “stick” as it’s okay with just one. I won’t bother explaining the dance routine. Yuki asks us to remember it, because it’s the next, next, next song.
Finally GACKT comes out. He has the same jeans on, but now with the parka from the tour goods and cat ears. Still no shirt! First, he gives water bottles and straws to the crowd. Sometimes he tries to get a bottle to the second floor, and sometimes he even succeeds. Then follows the usual “okaeri/tadaima” bit. He loves teasing the first floor about not doing it with them and has been getting the crowds to do really, really long “tadaimas” back. I don’t remember most of the MCs I’ve heard, so I’ll just briefly mention the ones I do remember.
Osaka Day 2 - he spoke about how strange people from Osaka are and told stories about filming ‘Tempest’ in Okinawa and the hair and makeup he had for it.
Kamakura - it was his first ever show in Kamakura, and he spoke a little about the history of the place, as it is very closely tied to Yoshitsune and the real history behind the story of the MOON SAGA plays.
Okayama - he said that he really likes Okayama, but that his dancers didn’t know where it was. The crowd angrily asked him which dancers, and he replied “all of them”! So, to help Okayama’s tourism, he’s going to build Momotaro Land (complete with a sky cycle route he’s going to call the GACKT Cycle) and also the Okayama Dome.
Sapporo Day 1 - he said that it had recently been his 17th solo anniversary and asked how many fans knew him 17 years ago. He was surprised by how many answered yes. One fan shouted out that she’d known him since MALICE MIZER, and he was even more surprised by that. He said that before the tour started he’d thought about what to do for his MCs, and whether he should tell stories, and he asked the crowd if they wanted to hear a Malice story, even though it wasn’t Hokkaido related. They said yes, so he spoke about the Le Ciel costume he wore during the Merveilles tour. He said that he’d often scratch his face with the nails and couldn’t pick up his eyeliner, that the fake blood for his mouth was so thick that he couldn’t talk, that the Yokohama Arena wings were 6 meters wide and really heavy and that he had lots of wires running down his back that caused him trouble. He didn’t say he hated it, just that it was trouble for him.
Sapporo Day 2 - he spoke a bit about the Hokkaido dialect and hand gestures, and that he thought they were quite American (maybe if you’ve only watched gangsta movies). Then he spoke about why the tour was called “LAST” VISUALIVE. He said that it was 8 years between RRI and RRII (and he kept mispronouncing Requiem et Reminiscence, hahaha) and 7 years between RRII and this tour, so if it took another seven years to do one, he’d be 50. Nobody wants to see him do this again when he’s 50. The crowd told him very loudly that it would be fine if he was 50! He said that he would consider how he felt after the tour finished. He’s said all of this before though, so it’s nothing new. He said that he also had to consider his band, as he doesn’t do the shows alone. He especially has to think about 78 year old Chacha!
After GACKT has finished his bit, it’s time for the band introductions. For the first few shows of the tour, the band would introduce themselves and do a mic-less MC each. Now, GACKT introduces them and only one member does a mic-less MC. He always teases Chacha for being old, says Sato has a cute style but is a gremlin, says lovely things about YOU but then often calls him old too, and tries to skip over Val completely until Val complains and wants a longer introduction. So one member does his own mic-less introduction, and GACKT does one too.
After the MCs, the next song is U+K. It starts, as always, with an acapella singalong. For the dance, there are two cats and two little kids. It’s the usual cute performance.
Next is WooHaa Baby, and all the dancers (minus the two in the cat outfits) are out for this wearing the same black jacket and jeans combo that Yuki had for his MC. GACKT has his mic on a stand and is miming as he does the drumming too. It’s hard to watch what’s happening on stage when you’re trying to watch the screen and do the dance too. The extra part that isn’t on the album version but is on the practice video is the time where GACKT gets his guitar that’s strapped around his waist fitted. This guitar is orange.
For Koi no Friday, the two missing dancers are back and GACKT is still at his mic stand, only this time with the guitar. There’s lots of dancers swinging their hips and butts around for this one. The crowd is split in half for the part of the song with the repeated words, and each side does the “koi, koi, koi!”, “yoi, yoi, yoi!”, “noi, noi, noi!” parts in turn. Then everyone does the “poi, poi, poi!” part together, while holding the lightsticks at their nipples. This is all just a series of kanji puns that play out on the video wall. After this part, GACKT sings the word “Odoru” and then the cannons fire the streamers. So if you’re going to the shows and want streamers, this is your cue to get ready!
After all of the craziness, things are toned down a little. GACKT has a quick on stage change in the darkness and now has a white shirt instead of his parka. The next song Kimi dake no boku de iru kara starts the same way as the album version with the acapella beginning. It’s a really good song live, and the accompanying video full of pastel colors and silhouetted people is really pretty.
The final song is P.S. I LOVE U. As GACKT sings, the lyrics come up on screen as a written letter. There’s one note in the first verse of this song that GACKT sometimes misses, but it’s good to hear him screw up occasionally as it can be hard to tell he’s live sometimes as he’s just genuinely that good. He falls to his knees for the end of the song. This is really powerful live.
Part IV
The video starts with footage from Moon Child, DIABOLOS and the Returner MVs, showing GACKT’s character in each one dying as GACKT’s voiceover asks why humans keep repeating the same mistakes. The scene then changes to Yoshitsune, relaxing against a stone and drinking sake under a beautiful moon. All of the characters from MOON SAGA I and II join him one by one, and as it develops you start to realise that some of these characters were not in Yoshitsune’s life at the same time, for example Yoshinaka died before Yoshitsune met Nori, so how are they sat next to each other? The conversation revolves around the general things that are said in MOON SAGA, about everyone being family and being born in the same era and so on… One lone tear escapes from Yoshitsune’s eyes and he starts saying he’s tired, as he falls asleep. Everyone laughs at him and tries to wake him, but the scene goes out of focus…
It comes back to Yoshitsune, leaning against a stone, alone and dying on the battlefield. Another lone tear runs down his face as he whimpers and says how much it hurts, and promises his friends he’ll be with them soon. He again says how beautiful the moon is.
Then Setsugekka starts. The curtain opens to show the band, all dressed in white with white masks and white wigs. The three guitarists have their guitars upright on stands. GACKT is sat in the middle dressed as Yoshitsune with arrows sticking out of him and in the same chair that was used in the Setsugekka video. He has a head mic on, and snow is falling. Shortly before the song reaches it’s climax, the stage goes dark and when it lights up again all of the dancers are onstage, wearing the same outfits as the band. Snow is no longer falling, instead it’s sakura. Throughout the song, the video wall has been showing Yoshitsune’s memories of his friends, and for the end part they are all stood there. As the song finishes, they disappear and are replaced by balls of light. After the song finishes, Yoshitsune slumps back into his chair and his light joins those of his friends.
Closing video
The end video is the credits roll, as pictures of Yoshitsune and his friends are shown. At the very end is a handwritten message from GACKT, that he also narrates. I don’t remember it word for word, but it says something along the lines of “you might be crying, but lift your head and smile as I’ll always be here with you.” Or words to that effect, anyway.
Now, personal opinion time. I think it's a really good show. Part I is probably the weakest part, because of the lack of interaction or movement. Part III is ridiculously fun, and it's been made more so by how much GACKT seems to be genuinely enjoying himself on stage and enjoying performing the songs. The songs sound good live, I wasn't particularly impressed with WooHaa Baby or Koi no Friday when I first heard the recorded versions before the tour started, but the live versions won me over. Of course, as always, GACKT doesn't believe in sending the audience home smiling and it does get overly dramatic at times, but it wouldn't be a GACKT live if it wasn't overly dramatic. It does follow basically the exact same pattern and pacing as RRII, but I guess that's the VISUALIVE system.
The shows are clocking in at around 3 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours 45 minutes right now, and he's typically not starting that late anymore. If you're planning travel, to be on the safe side I'd give the show 4 hours, with the Super Arena shows possibly being longer/later.
And if you read through all of that (or even skimmed it all) have a cookie.
Spoilers abound. They keep slightly altering the movies, so no doubt some of the details have changed/will change. I'm also doing this from memory, having not taken any notes from any of the shows, but hopefully my memory isn't too faulty.
Opening movie
It’s set in the aftermath of a battle. Yoritomo (Yoshitsune’s older brother and head of the Minamoto family) and his aide Kagetoki are surveying a quiet battlefield after an immense battle, with their army behind them. Yoshitsune picks himself up off the floor, with an arrow sticking out of his armor, and climbs up the hill to greet them. Yoshitsune nods, tells his brother it’s okay, and with a tear rolling down his face, Yoritomo gives the order. The army behind him readies their arrows, and then lets them fly at Yoshitsune. The last shot is a close up of Yoshitsune, as ARROW (played by the band) starts up.
Part I
The curtain pulls back as the intro to ARROW is being played. Everyone is wearing the costumes from the ARROW MV, including sunglasses for the band, and nobody moves from their mark on the stage. When GACKT does the spoken bit in the middle of the song, it appears on the screen at the back.
Next is Hana mo Chiyu. Again, nobody moves from their marks. GACKT waves his arms around a lot (as he usually does). As the song moves into the final part, blood colored petals fall across the video screen.
Again, not much movement for Returner. GACKT flails around a little during the wicked instrumental bit in the middle, and Val impressively manages to keep up with it. For the song outro, all of the band members are frozen in place under a spotlight.
RIDE OR DIE doesn’t quite seem to fit in with the other songs, I don’t think. The previous three songs fit better as being battlefield inspired songs, and the way GACKT moves while he’s singing fits too. For RIDE OR DIE he’s back to shaking his hips. Maybe this would have fit better in Part III of the show.
Next is Akatsukizukuyo. It starts with the sound of rain, and GACKT does the first verse and chorus acapella and sounds glorious. Then the song starts with the same intro as the recorded version, but they don’t repeat the verse and chorus GACKT has already done. As the song is played, the video wall shows more from the battle that preceded the first video. The three characters that were alive at the end of MOON SAGA II - Saburo (Takaki Uda), Tadanobu (originally Taya, but now being played by Yuki Kimisawa) and Benkei (Shinnosu) - are all shown dying. Yoshitsune is fighting too, and there are random dramatic close ups of him too. Towards the end of the song Yoshitsune gets hit by an arrow, and each time the sound effect that accompanies the arrow hitting him manages to make me jump. The song ends with each member under a spotlight, and the spotlights go out one by one until GACKT’s is the last to go. The curtains close for Part II.
Part II
Movie
This occurs 9 years before the first movie. Yoshitsune approaches the Minamoto camp and his appearance causes a big stir, to say the least. He is granted an audience with his brother. I must admit that I’m only 95% certain of what actually goes on in this video, so I’m not going to say much in case I’m wrong.
At the end of the movie, Yutaka no Yume starts playing, and the curtain draws back to show all five members of the band playing shamisen. The stage is very red and fiery, and as they play the dancers are on the floor at the front of the stage, surrounded by mist. Val seems to have the easiest of the parts (understandably as he’s a drummer, not a guitarist) and GACKT gets a little solo time.
The lights dim, and when they come back up again, GACKT is near the front of the stage kneeling on the floor with a katana in one hand. The dancers are in the place that the band were playing shamisen and they launch into Zan. It’s not that different to the YFC performances - Chacha still does his bit!
A bit of music plays while GACKT gets his head mic, and then it’s Kugutsu no Gotoku. This is the big dance number of the show, like GHOST was in RRII, and GACKT is obviously miming, but the dance is good. It’s more puppets than cyborgs, but it is kinda similar. There’s a cool bit in the second half of the song where GACKT bends right back, but it’s slightly less cool when you can see the dancer crouched behind him holding him up and pushing him back upright, hahahaha.
A short bit of dialogue plays while GACKT has his head mic removed, and it comes back to just GACKT and the dancers - the band have left the stage. The next song is a new song, it’s not on any albums. It’s short, but a really good atmospheric ballad. As it ends, the curtain closes.
Part III
Movie
The movie starts with Nori’s death scene from MOON SAGA II, where Nori and Yoshitsune are in that limbo land between life and death (or whatever it was). Yoshitsune pleads with Nori to return with him, but Nori knows he can’t and kisses Yoshitsune to shut him up. Yoshitsune gets torn away from Nori… and then the scene pauses.
It pauses because Seito Kaicho and the senpais are watching it. Kaicho explains that the Yoshitsune that is flying through the air back to reality is CG. He has a cup of coffee in his hand and announces that Nestle is now the sponsor of Camui Gakuen, which causes all of the senpais to start a “Ne-su-re!” chant, and a caption on screen asks the fans watching to join in too. Kaicho is stood next to a monitor that asks the question “Why is GACKT so cool?” and he explains that they will have more training sessions to become ikemen, and the training sessions will be based on MOON SAGA.
So, each night a different video is shown. There are three games, and multiple senpais attempt them all, although only two senpais and Kaicho are shown each night.
Game 1 - Speed
This is based on Yoshitsune dodging arrows. The game sees a senpai dodging volleyballs that are being shot out of a machine while answering questions. A wrong answer means the machine comes closer. Three wrong answers and the game is over. These are the senpais that stick in my mind as being funny…
Val - Val’s first question was based on Japanese eye tests. Here, instead of reading letters off a chart, you’re shown a ring that has a gap in it and you have to say whether the gap is left, right, up or down. He was was shown one of these, and instead of saying “hidarI” [left] or “migi” [right], he got them mixed up and said “midari”. Kaicho was so annoyed by Val’s mistake that he not only moved the machine closer, but made Hayato and a dancer (I think Madoka) hold Val’s legs so he couldn’t dodge the balls. The next ball hit Val in the crotch, and when Val bent over in pain it bounced up and hit him in the face. Val then retired from the game.
Sato - Sato also was smacked in the crotch and had to retire. While he was rolling on the floor in pain, Kaicho knelt down, spread open Sato’s legs and put himself in a very suggestive looking position…
Yuki - one of Yuki’s questions was to choose between GACKT and Kaicho. He couldn’t choose quick enough and it was considered a wrong answer. After his game, Kaicho made him answer again. Yuki complained that there was no right answer, so Kaicho asked the other senpais what the right answer was. They all said “both”. Yuki hadn’t thought of that answer, hahahahaha.
Kaicho - Kaicho didn’t know what day of the week GACKT’s solo career started, he had no idea about the lyrics to “Suddenly” (but did get LOVE LETTER correct), and when played a short snippet of “Soliel” and asked what song it was, he said “Au Revior”. He pointed out after the game that he had about 200 songs so it was difficult to remember them all.
Game 2 - sword
This is based on Yoshitsune fighting off several enemies at once. There is a narrow beam about two feet off the floor that they have to walk across bare foot. Along the way are plastic bumpy bits, to make it a little painful. As they walk, the other senpais swing bags and balls at them to try and knock them off. If they can get across, there is a “sword” at the end and then they have to come back.
Takumi - he fell off halfway across and took an inflatable pole that was blocking the way with him, riding it like it was a broomstick. Someone (I think Kaicho) pointed out that the pole looked like a Tenga - a pretty infamous and distinctive looking male sex toy. They’re both red with white hoops around, so it was a valid comparison…
YOU - he was smacked in the face by a ball after getting the sword
Sato - he nearly did a complete flip and landed heavily on his shoulder. It looked painful, but I guess he was fine…?
Kaicho - before starting, Kaicho complained that he had the weakest feet in Japan and so wasn’t happy about the bumpy bits. He caught the first two bags that were swung at him, and when he tried to swing them back at the senpais, he overbalanced and fell off. He immediately got back on the beam and asked for another chance. Shinnosu made him ask for another chance into the camera, so Kaicho turned on the charm and winked. It excited Yuki a little, who literally jumped and fanboyed. This time Kaicho made it across and grabbed the sword, but was knocked off by the ball again.
Game 3 - Fight
This is based on Yoshitsune’s one-on-one battles with Yoshinaka and Nori. The senpais are to fight each other one-on-one in a sumo style battle. They have to push each other out of a ring which is slightly raised, but the surrounding area is padded out with sand to cushion their falls. Each senpai fights with their hands tied behind their back. A senpai is picked, and their opponent is picked by Kaicho picking a ball out of a box, and each ball has a senpai’s name on it. Also in the box are a female kickboxer, a female pro-wrestler, a dominatrix (complete with whip) and a drag queen. None of the women have their hands tied behind their back.
YOU had to fight Madoka. As soon as the bell rang, Madoka just bent over and shoulder charged YOU in the gut, instantly throwing him out of the ring. YOU didn’t stand a chance!
Poor Sato had to fight the pro-wrestler. She immediately got him on his back, grabbed his legs and tried to turn him over onto his stomach (for anyone who knows wrestling, she was trying for a Boston Crab). He grabbed onto her ankle to stop it, but finally she turned him over and pulled his hair back too, just to make it worse. She was reminded that she had to throw him out, so she just deadlifted him up and threw him out.
For Kaicho, Shinnosu picked his opponent. They made it dramatic by showing a graphic that cycled through silhouettes of all of the options. Kaicho’s opponent was a male sumo wrestler, and just as everyone in the venue got excited about seeing Kaicho beaten up by this sumo wrestler, another graphic comes on the screen saying “to be continued at Saitama Super Arena”. So, we don’t get to see Kaicho destroyed by a sumo wrestler until July (or more likely, he’ll cheat his way out of it somehow).
After Kaicho and the senpais are finished, it cuts back to GACKT in his dressing room as he’s been watching them be dumb. A member of staff interrupts to tell GACKT it’s time to go and GACKT stands up, wearing a dressing gown. He takes the dressing gown off, to reveal only a red fundoshi underneath. He thrusts at the camera, and then runs off, leaving his fundoshi behind (you don’t see anything more than the front view of GACKT in his fundoshi. No butt this time!). The fundoshi says “Start of Part III”.
The band come out one by one, to English introductions. The four members of the band are wearing jeans, white tour tank tops, with YOU and Val wearing black jackets over, and Sato and Chacha wearing flowing gray cardigans. Val’s introduction says he always summons the gods of laughter, Sato is a small package oozing sexiness, Chacha is the blonde bombshell and YOU has a smile to make the girls go crazy. GACKT comes out last and is called one of the most amazing singers, songwriters and actors in the world. He’s wearing those drop crotch jeans he’s been favoring lately, a very sparkly red jacket, and a red necklace and bracelet by the new VARTIX brand #LUV. No shirt.
One More Kiss is very colorful and playful. The video screen has a million colors going on, and GACKT comes to the front of the stage, teasing the audience by opening his jacket and showing off his abs.
Mirror is the same as always, with the guitar call and the “Gakuto” response from the crowd as GACKT gets his guitar and head mic sorted. He complains that he can’t hear the crowd and asks for more and then the song starts. GACKT has taken off the jacket so now he’s completely bare chested, and his guitar is a sparkly gold. It really is the same Mirror performance as ever, only GACKT is getting more ridiculous with some of his calls and dancing (in a good way, it’s meant to be ridiculous). It’s cute to see YOU laughing at GACKT’s antics every night, as if he hasn’t already seen it all a million times before. If you’re going to the shows though, you have to listen carefully to what GACKT shouts when he’s doing the call and response during the song, as he sometimes separates it out to men/women or first floor/second floor. GACKT does his usual collapse at the end of the song.
MCs
After a few moments pause, Yuki Kimisawa comes out on stage. He’s wearing jeans and a black jacket, with no shirt. He introduces himself and apologises for not being “Nii-san [GACKT]”. For his MC, he talks about some internet news ranking that GACKT has been ranked on. There’s been items such as “celebrities you don’t want to get married”, “celebrities that aren’t human” and “celebrities that are narcissists”. Yuki says the three reasons respondents to the surveys gave, and then basically agrees with them. For the not human one, he said that GACKT was a robot because he doesn’t eat, sleep or poop.
After Yuki is finished with the net news, he explains the dance routine for Koi no Friday. He asks people to get their light sticks, and says that if you don’t have light sticks you can just use your hands. If you’re a guy, you can use your own “stick” as it’s okay with just one. I won’t bother explaining the dance routine. Yuki asks us to remember it, because it’s the next, next, next song.
Finally GACKT comes out. He has the same jeans on, but now with the parka from the tour goods and cat ears. Still no shirt! First, he gives water bottles and straws to the crowd. Sometimes he tries to get a bottle to the second floor, and sometimes he even succeeds. Then follows the usual “okaeri/tadaima” bit. He loves teasing the first floor about not doing it with them and has been getting the crowds to do really, really long “tadaimas” back. I don’t remember most of the MCs I’ve heard, so I’ll just briefly mention the ones I do remember.
Osaka Day 2 - he spoke about how strange people from Osaka are and told stories about filming ‘Tempest’ in Okinawa and the hair and makeup he had for it.
Kamakura - it was his first ever show in Kamakura, and he spoke a little about the history of the place, as it is very closely tied to Yoshitsune and the real history behind the story of the MOON SAGA plays.
Okayama - he said that he really likes Okayama, but that his dancers didn’t know where it was. The crowd angrily asked him which dancers, and he replied “all of them”! So, to help Okayama’s tourism, he’s going to build Momotaro Land (complete with a sky cycle route he’s going to call the GACKT Cycle) and also the Okayama Dome.
Sapporo Day 1 - he said that it had recently been his 17th solo anniversary and asked how many fans knew him 17 years ago. He was surprised by how many answered yes. One fan shouted out that she’d known him since MALICE MIZER, and he was even more surprised by that. He said that before the tour started he’d thought about what to do for his MCs, and whether he should tell stories, and he asked the crowd if they wanted to hear a Malice story, even though it wasn’t Hokkaido related. They said yes, so he spoke about the Le Ciel costume he wore during the Merveilles tour. He said that he’d often scratch his face with the nails and couldn’t pick up his eyeliner, that the fake blood for his mouth was so thick that he couldn’t talk, that the Yokohama Arena wings were 6 meters wide and really heavy and that he had lots of wires running down his back that caused him trouble. He didn’t say he hated it, just that it was trouble for him.
Sapporo Day 2 - he spoke a bit about the Hokkaido dialect and hand gestures, and that he thought they were quite American (maybe if you’ve only watched gangsta movies). Then he spoke about why the tour was called “LAST” VISUALIVE. He said that it was 8 years between RRI and RRII (and he kept mispronouncing Requiem et Reminiscence, hahaha) and 7 years between RRII and this tour, so if it took another seven years to do one, he’d be 50. Nobody wants to see him do this again when he’s 50. The crowd told him very loudly that it would be fine if he was 50! He said that he would consider how he felt after the tour finished. He’s said all of this before though, so it’s nothing new. He said that he also had to consider his band, as he doesn’t do the shows alone. He especially has to think about 78 year old Chacha!
After GACKT has finished his bit, it’s time for the band introductions. For the first few shows of the tour, the band would introduce themselves and do a mic-less MC each. Now, GACKT introduces them and only one member does a mic-less MC. He always teases Chacha for being old, says Sato has a cute style but is a gremlin, says lovely things about YOU but then often calls him old too, and tries to skip over Val completely until Val complains and wants a longer introduction. So one member does his own mic-less introduction, and GACKT does one too.
After the MCs, the next song is U+K. It starts, as always, with an acapella singalong. For the dance, there are two cats and two little kids. It’s the usual cute performance.
Next is WooHaa Baby, and all the dancers (minus the two in the cat outfits) are out for this wearing the same black jacket and jeans combo that Yuki had for his MC. GACKT has his mic on a stand and is miming as he does the drumming too. It’s hard to watch what’s happening on stage when you’re trying to watch the screen and do the dance too. The extra part that isn’t on the album version but is on the practice video is the time where GACKT gets his guitar that’s strapped around his waist fitted. This guitar is orange.
For Koi no Friday, the two missing dancers are back and GACKT is still at his mic stand, only this time with the guitar. There’s lots of dancers swinging their hips and butts around for this one. The crowd is split in half for the part of the song with the repeated words, and each side does the “koi, koi, koi!”, “yoi, yoi, yoi!”, “noi, noi, noi!” parts in turn. Then everyone does the “poi, poi, poi!” part together, while holding the lightsticks at their nipples. This is all just a series of kanji puns that play out on the video wall. After this part, GACKT sings the word “Odoru” and then the cannons fire the streamers. So if you’re going to the shows and want streamers, this is your cue to get ready!
After all of the craziness, things are toned down a little. GACKT has a quick on stage change in the darkness and now has a white shirt instead of his parka. The next song Kimi dake no boku de iru kara starts the same way as the album version with the acapella beginning. It’s a really good song live, and the accompanying video full of pastel colors and silhouetted people is really pretty.
The final song is P.S. I LOVE U. As GACKT sings, the lyrics come up on screen as a written letter. There’s one note in the first verse of this song that GACKT sometimes misses, but it’s good to hear him screw up occasionally as it can be hard to tell he’s live sometimes as he’s just genuinely that good. He falls to his knees for the end of the song. This is really powerful live.
Part IV
The video starts with footage from Moon Child, DIABOLOS and the Returner MVs, showing GACKT’s character in each one dying as GACKT’s voiceover asks why humans keep repeating the same mistakes. The scene then changes to Yoshitsune, relaxing against a stone and drinking sake under a beautiful moon. All of the characters from MOON SAGA I and II join him one by one, and as it develops you start to realise that some of these characters were not in Yoshitsune’s life at the same time, for example Yoshinaka died before Yoshitsune met Nori, so how are they sat next to each other? The conversation revolves around the general things that are said in MOON SAGA, about everyone being family and being born in the same era and so on… One lone tear escapes from Yoshitsune’s eyes and he starts saying he’s tired, as he falls asleep. Everyone laughs at him and tries to wake him, but the scene goes out of focus…
It comes back to Yoshitsune, leaning against a stone, alone and dying on the battlefield. Another lone tear runs down his face as he whimpers and says how much it hurts, and promises his friends he’ll be with them soon. He again says how beautiful the moon is.
Then Setsugekka starts. The curtain opens to show the band, all dressed in white with white masks and white wigs. The three guitarists have their guitars upright on stands. GACKT is sat in the middle dressed as Yoshitsune with arrows sticking out of him and in the same chair that was used in the Setsugekka video. He has a head mic on, and snow is falling. Shortly before the song reaches it’s climax, the stage goes dark and when it lights up again all of the dancers are onstage, wearing the same outfits as the band. Snow is no longer falling, instead it’s sakura. Throughout the song, the video wall has been showing Yoshitsune’s memories of his friends, and for the end part they are all stood there. As the song finishes, they disappear and are replaced by balls of light. After the song finishes, Yoshitsune slumps back into his chair and his light joins those of his friends.
Closing video
The end video is the credits roll, as pictures of Yoshitsune and his friends are shown. At the very end is a handwritten message from GACKT, that he also narrates. I don’t remember it word for word, but it says something along the lines of “you might be crying, but lift your head and smile as I’ll always be here with you.” Or words to that effect, anyway.
Now, personal opinion time. I think it's a really good show. Part I is probably the weakest part, because of the lack of interaction or movement. Part III is ridiculously fun, and it's been made more so by how much GACKT seems to be genuinely enjoying himself on stage and enjoying performing the songs. The songs sound good live, I wasn't particularly impressed with WooHaa Baby or Koi no Friday when I first heard the recorded versions before the tour started, but the live versions won me over. Of course, as always, GACKT doesn't believe in sending the audience home smiling and it does get overly dramatic at times, but it wouldn't be a GACKT live if it wasn't overly dramatic. It does follow basically the exact same pattern and pacing as RRII, but I guess that's the VISUALIVE system.
The shows are clocking in at around 3 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours 45 minutes right now, and he's typically not starting that late anymore. If you're planning travel, to be on the safe side I'd give the show 4 hours, with the Super Arena shows possibly being longer/later.
And if you read through all of that (or even skimmed it all) have a cookie.