Saitama 10-11th July Report
Okay - first of the Japan posts.
And of course it's the most important one - the Gackt lives! F-list, if you have no interest in Gackt then I suggesting moving along until the next entry is posted because that's all that this is!
It’s possible that I may have some things jumbled up from night to night but I’ll try to keep it separate. There’s more emphasis on Saturday due to the Sunday night being filmed for TV but there will be spoilers ahead.
We were staying in Ueno so we caught the Keihin-Tohuku line to Saitama Shintoshin station. We arrived about 10am and as soon as you come out of the station you can see the Super Arena. There was a book store right by the train station that was selling so many photo books and 2009 magazines that he’d been in so we knew we were in the right place! All of the restaurants in the shopping centre next to the Super Arena had Gackt posters everywhere and signs saying “BGMはGACKTです” - background music (in the restaurant) is Gackt - and it was. The place where we ate was playing The Sixth Day so Gackt had pretty much taken over the entire area, haha.
(The train station exit. The building to the right is part of the Super Arena)
The entrances to the arena are only about a two minute walk from the station and we could see that there was already a queue outside C Gate. The tour goods stand was being set up about 20 feet away but we didn’t connect the two and assumed the queue was for C Gate. We were wrong and eventually joined the tour goods queue at 11:30.
(The tour goods queue at 10am)
The queue was huge. From where we were we couldn’t see the start or the end of the queue and it quickly filled the allocated space so the Arena staff were making people queue around the side of the arena as well. We were all given a flyer listing the tour goods (somehow I’ve managed to accumulate 5 of them!) and the stands finally opened at 13:30. It took about an hour until we were served and everything was in stock - including the neko paws that seemed to be in short supply at earlier shows. A lot of fans were buying them two at a time.
(The tour goods stand)
There were some staff members milling around - some dressed in the white outfits from later in the show and an ageha girl with signs asking for fans to write messages to Gackt so we took advantage and wrote him three messages in English. The staff members were happy for them to be in English and we thought the more he gets the better for us International fans right? One of the members asked the three of us where we were from and seemed highly confused when the question was answered by three different countries (America, England and Canada). The wonders of the Internet!
The first night our tickets led us to Gate A so we waited around for the gate to open which it did at 17.05 - only five minutes late.
(The sights around the arena)
The flowers were all lined up here and most of the magazines and TV shows that have featured Gackt recently were represented, as was a bouquet from Breakers. Ah, Daigo ♥ It was difficult to see the rest of the flowers due to the number of people walking past and I apologise for the crappy photo but it was hastily taken on my phone as I didn’t want the staff to see my camera!
(The ohana)
The Gladiator stand was also here with the camera set up behind for Gackt to watch us all coming in and we gave him a wave.
(Again, sorry for the crappiness. This was actually taken on the way out so the camera isn’t there anymore)
There was another goods stand set up that was selling various CDs, DVDs and Platinum Boxes. I bought a set of the standard anniversary singles to match the Dears versions I have coming as they came with the calendar cards and a beautiful clear file of the infamous Jesus promo shot was given with every purchase.
Our seats on the first night were fantastic. We sat on the left side (You’s side), six rows from the floor but only about 8 seats in from the edge of the stage. It was an awesome view.
(The stage and a view of the arena - again, snatched with my phone)
It seemed to take forever for the arena to fill and it wasn’t full at 18:00. The show didn’t actually start until 18:20 (only 20 minutes late) but it was probably for the best.
I’m not going to go through every song, just the parts that stand out. The movies throughout the show are insane. They’re the same cinematic quality that we’ve come to expect from Gackt, if not better, and seeing his face on the huge screen that the stage curtain becomes is perfect proof that he was made for a cinema screen. Bunraku can’t come soon enough, haha.
Jesus opened the show with a bang (literally, first pyro of the evening) and the first thing that struck me was how LIVE everything was. There are a few exceptions throughout the show but there’s no denying that Job are live, Gackt sings live and it all sounds so powerful and fantastic. Everything sounds so clean - there’s no feedback, no distortion, nothing muddying the sound… You can hear every instrument individually from the rest but louder than everything else is Gackt and he sounds so much better than any recent TV appearances have made him sound. Even the backing vocals that always overpower him during the chorus lines on these TV shows are at the right level and merely enhance his voice instead of drowning it out.
And Job are so tight! There isn’t a note or beat out of place and they are really, really impressive. I’ve seen a lot of live rock bands and can honestly say that Job really surprised me with how good they are.
Sayonara… Wow. I admit to never being a fan of this song and I always skip it whenever I watch the RRI DVD but it was simply stunning. The band and dancers were sat around, Jun-ji did his usual talk and skit with the wine bottle and it’s breathtaking. There are three things that really stood out for me, the first being the crowd. It’s so quiet! There is absolute silence throughout the arena and it doesn’t matter how long Gackt drags out the dramatic pauses in-between his playing because nobody dares to make a sound. You can hear the hum of the sound system, the creaking of the seats, someone coughing the other side of the arena… It’s amazing. The second thing is Gackt’s voice. Without the rest of the band competing with him his voice seems to be twice as loud and you can FEEL every note he sings. It just circulates around the arena in the strangest way and I wish I could explain this better. It’s almost like you’re being wrapped up tight and warm with every word of the song. The violin duet is everything that everyone has ever said about it and more. You and Gackt complement each other perfectly and their individual melodies would weave in and out and join together into this beautiful harmony.
I completely missed every aspect of the Black Lagoon staging. I was far too distracted by Gackt’s insistence on flirting with everything in sight - oddly shaped microphone stands, dancers, himself… He kept on flashing those HUGE shoulders of his (seriously, where did all of that muscle come from?) and that hypnotic hip shaking during the chorus is deadly.
The audience teasing at the beginning of Mirror didn’t seem to be too long on Saturday. It certainly wasn’t anywhere near the length of Sunday. You could physically see Gackt get weaker as the song progressed. The lighting guy was a little slow as the whole arena saw Gackt fall at the end and he was lying on the stage for a couple of seconds before the lights went out. He hit the stage so heavily too - the thud echoed around the arena. I’m convinced that it’s just a combination of jumping around too much and forgetting to breathe though as he never stops screaming in order to take a breath and he runs around far too much (even if he didn’t come to our side of the stage. At all. We did have Jun-ji though for the audience participation in the middle and he is so cute!)
It took about 10 minutes for Gackt to return for the MC with a change of T shirt. He was really unsteady on his feet. He nearly tripped over the steps on the stage a couple of times as he was picking up the water bottles for the traditional throwing to the audience. He looked completely dead on his feet but he did recover from it as the MC drew on.
It was an hour long again. I’m not confident enough in my Japanese to share in great detail what I think I heard but he discussed his birthday at length, sex (as always), and he very sincerely thanked the fans and spoke of Ogata Ken.
He introduced two guests to the stage - the comedy duo ブレックマヨネーズ (Black Mayonnaise). I admit that neither my friends nor I had any idea who they were and they had been on stage for five minutes before Gackt decided to introduce them. Thanks Gackt. They did a little comedy routine on stage for about 10-15 minutes that the audience all found hysterically funny but I was completely lost. It’s one thing to understand parts of what Gackt says, even if he does mumble occasionally, but two Japanese men speaking rapidly and animatedly whilst being mock angry with each other is far beyond my comprehension level.
Gackt sat at the front of the stage during their routine between the lights which was about 2 feet lower than the proper stage. He looked like a little child waiting on words of wisdom from his senpai and was unbelievably cute. He found it funny too and it’s so refreshing to see him laughing so much! Shortly before Black Mayonnaise left Gackt did say something that I am quite happy to quote word for word.
“Thank you Ken Ogata. Thank you for the memories my Dears.”
And yes, he said that in English. It was perfectly understandable and well pronounced but I always think his English sounds a little strained, as if he’s almost over pronouncing it. Eh, it was cute!
The band introductions were fun. Jun-ji took the longest as he was running laps of the stage getting people to clap out a rhythm and chant his name (no foot stomps on Saturday). Chirolyn pulls the strangest faces when he shouts to the crowd. Chacha was his usual adorable self and he also ran laps of the stage. You took the shortest time but from what I caught of what he shouted he was being very funny. Gackt had his turn also and how he can do that microphone-less shouting, singing and high-pitched whooping he’s started to do and not lose his voice is amazing.
It’s worth watching Gackt throughout all of this because not only does he have this bewildered “I have crazy people in my band” look on his face he also laughs throughout… and if he’s drinking water at the same time as he laughs he spits it all over the stage like he did during Chirolyn’s part. A staff member had to run on stage and mop it up while Gackt sheepishly motioned to the part of the crowd who saw him to remain silent and sat on the stairs to wipe the bottom of his shoes.
U+K is the usual fun song that it always has been and there was a sea of neko paws in the audience. Koakuma Heaven was even more fun! The video screen works so well and makes the dance relatively easy to follow along with and everyone in the audience dances along. There were a couple of bursts of glitter and ticker tape during the song and it was just the nekos with Gackt on Saturday. I have a new appreciation for Faraway after hearing it live. Between the claps (and the neko paws on the screen do NOT help with those as they are way too early), the towel waving, the “whoos!” and the standard glow stick waving it’s a very complicated song to keep up with!
The closing video is again, very stunning but also very sad. They really don’t censor Zero being repeatedly shot by that Nazi General (or whatever rank he is) and I had to sniff away a tear when that tear ran down Zero’s face. And nobody moves when the credits roll. Everyone stays rooted to the spot and applauding throughout. But the last credit - All produced by GACKT CAMUI - gets one of the loudest reactions of the night as soon as his name is flashed on screen.
All in all the show took 4 hours, 5 minutes. It’s also the fastest 4 hours of my life.
We saw the same crew members from Saturday only this time they had a CAMERA instead of just pieces of paper so of course, we stood by them and sure enough the random white girls were asked if we wanted to film a message to Gackt. We wrote a message on a flip chart, recorded our message and if it ever sees the light of day I’m going to deny it’s me because I think we completely embarrassed ourselves!
Our seats were nowhere near as good on Sunday as we were sat on the right side in the far corner and on the fourth floor. It did give us an opportunity to see the finer points of the staging though instead of just being distracted by the pretty people on stage.
Things were very similar to Saturday so I’m not going to take as long with this one.
I thought that Gackt sounded completely off during Jesus. I was so worried that it was going to be a bad night for him, especially as it was being recorded, but luckily he sounded far better throughout the rest of the night.
The Mirror introduction took FOREVER. It was really beginning to get boring! Gackt screamed more on Sunday but didn’t seem to be anywhere near as weak after it all as he was on Saturday. He still fell at the end but there didn’t seem to be the same sickening thud as before. Maybe it’s because we were further away. He seemed fine when he came out for the MC too.
Again, the MC was an hour long. A lot of it consisted of Gackt setting the men against the women and there were so many men there! And they weren’t just there because their girlfriends had dragged them along; they were there because THEY wanted to be there. We had 3 guys behind us that were particularly loud and one of them was drowning out every girl in our section.
Jun-ji ran laps of the stage again but he added feet stamps to the applauding and chanting of his name. Job all seemed suitably impressed by the reaction he got for it. Chirolyn had an air canister for his spot. He took a breath from it… and shouted in this high pitched, helium affected voice. It was so funny! I’ve really taken a shine to Chirolyn after this (I still miss Ju-ken though) and I’m pretty sure that Gackt was on his hands and knees laughing at this part. Chacha ran the stage too and got the crowd to cheer along with him but it was all done so quickly and frantically that it kinda fell apart and the rest of Job, plus Gackt, were either laughing with him or at him.. I can’t quite decide! You took a little longer but I couldn’t really make out what he was shouting as the laughter from his last shout hadn’t ended before he started his next sentence!
And Gackt… He was unbelievably cute. He was in such a good mood both nights but Sunday was insane. He was constantly throwing those cute peace signs and goofy smiles to the crowd which lead to the “kawaii!” shouts, which he still complains about even if he is now purposely doing everything he can to prove just how “kawaii” he is. He was also jumping around in this really cute/stupid way - the best way to describe it is to imagine a 6 year old pretending they’re riding a horse.
Koakuma Heaven had the Ageha girls dancing instead of the nekos. The girls immediately surrounding Gackt seemed to be the same girls as the Music Station performance but I think there were extras. The rest of the song was the same, the band still did their little dances in the middle while the girls stood and clapped. There was an evil little tease of Lu:na during Papa Lapped a Pap Lopped which I don’t remember from Saturday night.
And that was pretty much it. No real surprises or added songs or anything on the Final but as it was again, 4 hours long I think Gackt can be forgiven for that.
The audience is so varied. There are children, teens, adults and those old enough to be Gackt’s parents and they’re all so into everything that happens. Lots of people come alone, some as couples, some as families and there were lots of mother/daughter combinations there.
There were a few foreigners at the shows and we even saw foreign MEN at the shows which made us feel a lot better about going all of that way to see Gackt! We saw two on the Saturday that sounded German and three on the Sunday who caught the same skyliner back to Narita airport that we did on the Monday morning.
There are a lot of men and women who cosplay as GHOST members and as Gackt himself. We saw a fantastic Vanilla era Gackt on Sunday who looked so much like him we had to do a double take but there are also so many men who give the distinct impression that they look like that all of the time… It’s kinda cute that there were so many men there who just want to BE Gackt.
Everyone had an obsession with getting the crowd to wave their glowsticks in a circle and loudly whoop. As soon as the second half of the gig hit You and Chacha especially were taking every opportunity to get the crowd doing it and it caught on quickly. Gackt was providing the high pitched whoops and jeez, can he get high! I don’t think I heard a single woman in that audience that could match him.
Another advantage of Sunday’s bad seats was that it gave a perfect view of the arena. It looked spectacular with all the glowsticks in the air - it really is such a pretty sight and I can only imagine how good it looks to the band when they see 95% of the audience bouncing these red glowsticks to every beat.
And if anyone is interested this is the haul of Gackt related things I managed to buy while over there (just imagine a few more stickers than there are here!)
The TV showing should be awesome.
So, was it all worth the money spent on the trip and the 13 hour flights? YES! I'm already saving for the next tour, haha!
And of course it's the most important one - the Gackt lives! F-list, if you have no interest in Gackt then I suggesting moving along until the next entry is posted because that's all that this is!
It’s possible that I may have some things jumbled up from night to night but I’ll try to keep it separate. There’s more emphasis on Saturday due to the Sunday night being filmed for TV but there will be spoilers ahead.
We were staying in Ueno so we caught the Keihin-Tohuku line to Saitama Shintoshin station. We arrived about 10am and as soon as you come out of the station you can see the Super Arena. There was a book store right by the train station that was selling so many photo books and 2009 magazines that he’d been in so we knew we were in the right place! All of the restaurants in the shopping centre next to the Super Arena had Gackt posters everywhere and signs saying “BGMはGACKTです” - background music (in the restaurant) is Gackt - and it was. The place where we ate was playing The Sixth Day so Gackt had pretty much taken over the entire area, haha.
(The train station exit. The building to the right is part of the Super Arena)
The entrances to the arena are only about a two minute walk from the station and we could see that there was already a queue outside C Gate. The tour goods stand was being set up about 20 feet away but we didn’t connect the two and assumed the queue was for C Gate. We were wrong and eventually joined the tour goods queue at 11:30.
(The tour goods queue at 10am)
The queue was huge. From where we were we couldn’t see the start or the end of the queue and it quickly filled the allocated space so the Arena staff were making people queue around the side of the arena as well. We were all given a flyer listing the tour goods (somehow I’ve managed to accumulate 5 of them!) and the stands finally opened at 13:30. It took about an hour until we were served and everything was in stock - including the neko paws that seemed to be in short supply at earlier shows. A lot of fans were buying them two at a time.
(The tour goods stand)
There were some staff members milling around - some dressed in the white outfits from later in the show and an ageha girl with signs asking for fans to write messages to Gackt so we took advantage and wrote him three messages in English. The staff members were happy for them to be in English and we thought the more he gets the better for us International fans right? One of the members asked the three of us where we were from and seemed highly confused when the question was answered by three different countries (America, England and Canada). The wonders of the Internet!
The first night our tickets led us to Gate A so we waited around for the gate to open which it did at 17.05 - only five minutes late.
(The sights around the arena)
The flowers were all lined up here and most of the magazines and TV shows that have featured Gackt recently were represented, as was a bouquet from Breakers. Ah, Daigo ♥ It was difficult to see the rest of the flowers due to the number of people walking past and I apologise for the crappy photo but it was hastily taken on my phone as I didn’t want the staff to see my camera!
(The ohana)
The Gladiator stand was also here with the camera set up behind for Gackt to watch us all coming in and we gave him a wave.
(Again, sorry for the crappiness. This was actually taken on the way out so the camera isn’t there anymore)
There was another goods stand set up that was selling various CDs, DVDs and Platinum Boxes. I bought a set of the standard anniversary singles to match the Dears versions I have coming as they came with the calendar cards and a beautiful clear file of the infamous Jesus promo shot was given with every purchase.
Our seats on the first night were fantastic. We sat on the left side (You’s side), six rows from the floor but only about 8 seats in from the edge of the stage. It was an awesome view.
(The stage and a view of the arena - again, snatched with my phone)
It seemed to take forever for the arena to fill and it wasn’t full at 18:00. The show didn’t actually start until 18:20 (only 20 minutes late) but it was probably for the best.
I’m not going to go through every song, just the parts that stand out. The movies throughout the show are insane. They’re the same cinematic quality that we’ve come to expect from Gackt, if not better, and seeing his face on the huge screen that the stage curtain becomes is perfect proof that he was made for a cinema screen. Bunraku can’t come soon enough, haha.
Jesus opened the show with a bang (literally, first pyro of the evening) and the first thing that struck me was how LIVE everything was. There are a few exceptions throughout the show but there’s no denying that Job are live, Gackt sings live and it all sounds so powerful and fantastic. Everything sounds so clean - there’s no feedback, no distortion, nothing muddying the sound… You can hear every instrument individually from the rest but louder than everything else is Gackt and he sounds so much better than any recent TV appearances have made him sound. Even the backing vocals that always overpower him during the chorus lines on these TV shows are at the right level and merely enhance his voice instead of drowning it out.
And Job are so tight! There isn’t a note or beat out of place and they are really, really impressive. I’ve seen a lot of live rock bands and can honestly say that Job really surprised me with how good they are.
Sayonara… Wow. I admit to never being a fan of this song and I always skip it whenever I watch the RRI DVD but it was simply stunning. The band and dancers were sat around, Jun-ji did his usual talk and skit with the wine bottle and it’s breathtaking. There are three things that really stood out for me, the first being the crowd. It’s so quiet! There is absolute silence throughout the arena and it doesn’t matter how long Gackt drags out the dramatic pauses in-between his playing because nobody dares to make a sound. You can hear the hum of the sound system, the creaking of the seats, someone coughing the other side of the arena… It’s amazing. The second thing is Gackt’s voice. Without the rest of the band competing with him his voice seems to be twice as loud and you can FEEL every note he sings. It just circulates around the arena in the strangest way and I wish I could explain this better. It’s almost like you’re being wrapped up tight and warm with every word of the song. The violin duet is everything that everyone has ever said about it and more. You and Gackt complement each other perfectly and their individual melodies would weave in and out and join together into this beautiful harmony.
I completely missed every aspect of the Black Lagoon staging. I was far too distracted by Gackt’s insistence on flirting with everything in sight - oddly shaped microphone stands, dancers, himself… He kept on flashing those HUGE shoulders of his (seriously, where did all of that muscle come from?) and that hypnotic hip shaking during the chorus is deadly.
The audience teasing at the beginning of Mirror didn’t seem to be too long on Saturday. It certainly wasn’t anywhere near the length of Sunday. You could physically see Gackt get weaker as the song progressed. The lighting guy was a little slow as the whole arena saw Gackt fall at the end and he was lying on the stage for a couple of seconds before the lights went out. He hit the stage so heavily too - the thud echoed around the arena. I’m convinced that it’s just a combination of jumping around too much and forgetting to breathe though as he never stops screaming in order to take a breath and he runs around far too much (even if he didn’t come to our side of the stage. At all. We did have Jun-ji though for the audience participation in the middle and he is so cute!)
It took about 10 minutes for Gackt to return for the MC with a change of T shirt. He was really unsteady on his feet. He nearly tripped over the steps on the stage a couple of times as he was picking up the water bottles for the traditional throwing to the audience. He looked completely dead on his feet but he did recover from it as the MC drew on.
It was an hour long again. I’m not confident enough in my Japanese to share in great detail what I think I heard but he discussed his birthday at length, sex (as always), and he very sincerely thanked the fans and spoke of Ogata Ken.
He introduced two guests to the stage - the comedy duo ブレックマヨネーズ (Black Mayonnaise). I admit that neither my friends nor I had any idea who they were and they had been on stage for five minutes before Gackt decided to introduce them. Thanks Gackt. They did a little comedy routine on stage for about 10-15 minutes that the audience all found hysterically funny but I was completely lost. It’s one thing to understand parts of what Gackt says, even if he does mumble occasionally, but two Japanese men speaking rapidly and animatedly whilst being mock angry with each other is far beyond my comprehension level.
Gackt sat at the front of the stage during their routine between the lights which was about 2 feet lower than the proper stage. He looked like a little child waiting on words of wisdom from his senpai and was unbelievably cute. He found it funny too and it’s so refreshing to see him laughing so much! Shortly before Black Mayonnaise left Gackt did say something that I am quite happy to quote word for word.
“Thank you Ken Ogata. Thank you for the memories my Dears.”
And yes, he said that in English. It was perfectly understandable and well pronounced but I always think his English sounds a little strained, as if he’s almost over pronouncing it. Eh, it was cute!
The band introductions were fun. Jun-ji took the longest as he was running laps of the stage getting people to clap out a rhythm and chant his name (no foot stomps on Saturday). Chirolyn pulls the strangest faces when he shouts to the crowd. Chacha was his usual adorable self and he also ran laps of the stage. You took the shortest time but from what I caught of what he shouted he was being very funny. Gackt had his turn also and how he can do that microphone-less shouting, singing and high-pitched whooping he’s started to do and not lose his voice is amazing.
It’s worth watching Gackt throughout all of this because not only does he have this bewildered “I have crazy people in my band” look on his face he also laughs throughout… and if he’s drinking water at the same time as he laughs he spits it all over the stage like he did during Chirolyn’s part. A staff member had to run on stage and mop it up while Gackt sheepishly motioned to the part of the crowd who saw him to remain silent and sat on the stairs to wipe the bottom of his shoes.
U+K is the usual fun song that it always has been and there was a sea of neko paws in the audience. Koakuma Heaven was even more fun! The video screen works so well and makes the dance relatively easy to follow along with and everyone in the audience dances along. There were a couple of bursts of glitter and ticker tape during the song and it was just the nekos with Gackt on Saturday. I have a new appreciation for Faraway after hearing it live. Between the claps (and the neko paws on the screen do NOT help with those as they are way too early), the towel waving, the “whoos!” and the standard glow stick waving it’s a very complicated song to keep up with!
The closing video is again, very stunning but also very sad. They really don’t censor Zero being repeatedly shot by that Nazi General (or whatever rank he is) and I had to sniff away a tear when that tear ran down Zero’s face. And nobody moves when the credits roll. Everyone stays rooted to the spot and applauding throughout. But the last credit - All produced by GACKT CAMUI - gets one of the loudest reactions of the night as soon as his name is flashed on screen.
All in all the show took 4 hours, 5 minutes. It’s also the fastest 4 hours of my life.
We saw the same crew members from Saturday only this time they had a CAMERA instead of just pieces of paper so of course, we stood by them and sure enough the random white girls were asked if we wanted to film a message to Gackt. We wrote a message on a flip chart, recorded our message and if it ever sees the light of day I’m going to deny it’s me because I think we completely embarrassed ourselves!
Our seats were nowhere near as good on Sunday as we were sat on the right side in the far corner and on the fourth floor. It did give us an opportunity to see the finer points of the staging though instead of just being distracted by the pretty people on stage.
Things were very similar to Saturday so I’m not going to take as long with this one.
I thought that Gackt sounded completely off during Jesus. I was so worried that it was going to be a bad night for him, especially as it was being recorded, but luckily he sounded far better throughout the rest of the night.
The Mirror introduction took FOREVER. It was really beginning to get boring! Gackt screamed more on Sunday but didn’t seem to be anywhere near as weak after it all as he was on Saturday. He still fell at the end but there didn’t seem to be the same sickening thud as before. Maybe it’s because we were further away. He seemed fine when he came out for the MC too.
Again, the MC was an hour long. A lot of it consisted of Gackt setting the men against the women and there were so many men there! And they weren’t just there because their girlfriends had dragged them along; they were there because THEY wanted to be there. We had 3 guys behind us that were particularly loud and one of them was drowning out every girl in our section.
Jun-ji ran laps of the stage again but he added feet stamps to the applauding and chanting of his name. Job all seemed suitably impressed by the reaction he got for it. Chirolyn had an air canister for his spot. He took a breath from it… and shouted in this high pitched, helium affected voice. It was so funny! I’ve really taken a shine to Chirolyn after this (I still miss Ju-ken though) and I’m pretty sure that Gackt was on his hands and knees laughing at this part. Chacha ran the stage too and got the crowd to cheer along with him but it was all done so quickly and frantically that it kinda fell apart and the rest of Job, plus Gackt, were either laughing with him or at him.. I can’t quite decide! You took a little longer but I couldn’t really make out what he was shouting as the laughter from his last shout hadn’t ended before he started his next sentence!
And Gackt… He was unbelievably cute. He was in such a good mood both nights but Sunday was insane. He was constantly throwing those cute peace signs and goofy smiles to the crowd which lead to the “kawaii!” shouts, which he still complains about even if he is now purposely doing everything he can to prove just how “kawaii” he is. He was also jumping around in this really cute/stupid way - the best way to describe it is to imagine a 6 year old pretending they’re riding a horse.
Koakuma Heaven had the Ageha girls dancing instead of the nekos. The girls immediately surrounding Gackt seemed to be the same girls as the Music Station performance but I think there were extras. The rest of the song was the same, the band still did their little dances in the middle while the girls stood and clapped. There was an evil little tease of Lu:na during Papa Lapped a Pap Lopped which I don’t remember from Saturday night.
And that was pretty much it. No real surprises or added songs or anything on the Final but as it was again, 4 hours long I think Gackt can be forgiven for that.
The audience is so varied. There are children, teens, adults and those old enough to be Gackt’s parents and they’re all so into everything that happens. Lots of people come alone, some as couples, some as families and there were lots of mother/daughter combinations there.
There were a few foreigners at the shows and we even saw foreign MEN at the shows which made us feel a lot better about going all of that way to see Gackt! We saw two on the Saturday that sounded German and three on the Sunday who caught the same skyliner back to Narita airport that we did on the Monday morning.
There are a lot of men and women who cosplay as GHOST members and as Gackt himself. We saw a fantastic Vanilla era Gackt on Sunday who looked so much like him we had to do a double take but there are also so many men who give the distinct impression that they look like that all of the time… It’s kinda cute that there were so many men there who just want to BE Gackt.
Everyone had an obsession with getting the crowd to wave their glowsticks in a circle and loudly whoop. As soon as the second half of the gig hit You and Chacha especially were taking every opportunity to get the crowd doing it and it caught on quickly. Gackt was providing the high pitched whoops and jeez, can he get high! I don’t think I heard a single woman in that audience that could match him.
Another advantage of Sunday’s bad seats was that it gave a perfect view of the arena. It looked spectacular with all the glowsticks in the air - it really is such a pretty sight and I can only imagine how good it looks to the band when they see 95% of the audience bouncing these red glowsticks to every beat.
And if anyone is interested this is the haul of Gackt related things I managed to buy while over there (just imagine a few more stickers than there are here!)
The TV showing should be awesome.
So, was it all worth the money spent on the trip and the 13 hour flights? YES! I'm already saving for the next tour, haha!