Hi everyone, I'm sorry I haven't posted here for a couple of months. I was thinking about not continuing with my journal, for a lot of reasons. But I've been doing this for about 5 years now, and I see that there are over a thousand people reading it, and I'm not sure if I want to give up on it yet. For now, I might just say that I won't be posting as often as I once did. I don't think it'll matter too much, as there are so many people writing about Gackt news these days, which I'm happy to see. If anyone has any opinions about this, please let me know, and thanks to everyone who's sent me messages already (and I'm sorry that I'm not always too good with responding).

Anyway, I just wanted to post some pictures from PBVIII, as I've done in previous years for some of the others (the pictures for PBVII & PBVI are still up, if anyone's interested; I seem to have missed PBV, and the PBIV links aren't working anymore). It came out in December for fanclub members, and last week for everyone else, at Amazon. I love it; I think the Platinum Boxes are always great, although they are a bit expensive. We see a lot of Job in this one, especially You-kun. Anyway, I hope this will be useful to those of you who haven't seen it yet ^^



( Some pictures & screencaps~ )

I wanted to scan the photobook & the N/S EYES ON magazine, but I just got them today as I was leaving to go on holidays. So I don't have a scanner, but I took a couple of pictures. Anyway, I hope some of you have received the photobook today too, because it's very pretty ^^




This NS EYES ON magazine seems to be sold out at Amazon already (I think it was actually in the top 10 highest selling books at one stage). It's not really one of my favourite photoshoots, anyway. A lot of the photos are very dark & you can't see Gack too well, & they're mostly of him in some industrial area, smoking, with grease on his face & nails through his hands O.o There's an interview with Gackt, and interviews with Ogata Ken & Hisaaki Wakaizumi about him.




The 龍の化身 photobook is beautiful, and everyone should buy it! You can get it at Amazon. It's huge, and has some of the nicest pictures of Gackt I've seen. It also has an interview with Gackt, & a prologue/interview with Ogata Ken.





[Edit] As you may have noticed, I'm taking a break from my journal at the moment. I'll post more soon.

Gackt's video message is now up at the fuurin kazan site.

There doesn't seem to be much news about the concert in China. It's mentioned briefly at NHK News & Hokkaido Shimbun. I was looking around some Chinese fan forums, & there are some very nice pictures at this one, posted by 'Devil_Shun':







(I think it says it's ok to re-post them, but not to hotlink? Someone tell me if I'm wrong about that!) Anyway, you can see all of the pictures at the forum here. Thanks to 'Devil_Shun' ^^ Gackt always seems to be wearing the same outfit lately. At least his hair looks nice again. I think he performed the Chinese version of December Love Song. If anyone knows any more about it, please let us know~ ^^

There are lots of updates at the fuurin kazan site today~

-大河三昧: Gackt has written in the fuurin kazan staff blog again.

-クローズアップ 政虎、関東出兵のてんまつ: There are a few pictures of Gackt/Kenshin on this 'close up' page.

-フォトギャラリー 上杉政虎(謙信): The Uesugi photo gallery is now up, with a lot of pictures of Gackt ^^



( Photo gallery~ )

Also, the magazines section of the community site has been updated:

11/29「FOOL'S MATE」1月号
11/29「ARENA37℃ SPECIAL」vol.40

[Edit]: The staff blog was updated again tonight with a couple of pictures from the rehearsal in China.

Also, this NHK出版 site has some pictures up from Gackt's new photobook!



( 龍の化身 )

This was just posted at the staff blog: Gackt at the Narita Airport lounge, about to go to China for the Japan-China Culture and Sports Exchange Year grand finale concert in Beijing tomorrow, 11/29.



Nell & You also wrote about it in their blogs. (I'm not sure if the new drummer, Minami, will be there this time, but he wrote about the performance in Korea in his diary a few days ago).

Does anyone know when the concert will be shown on TV in China? According to the community site, it won't be shown in Japan until Christmas Eve. Hopefully we'll all be able to see it soon, anyway~

There are some news articles about Gackt's press conference yesterday at oricon, pakila, sanspo, nikkan sports, jijicom, chunichi, & daily sports. There's also n article at mainichi which has a lot of pictures.



( Pictures from Oricon, Pakila & Mainichi )

There was a press conference today for Gackt's new book, 「龍の化身」, out on 11/30. So there should be news articles around about it soon~ Apparently 20,000 copies of the book have already been pre-ordered. (I actually got an email from Amazon saying that it had been delayed, so hopefully not for too long).



The picture is from the staff blog. They also posted another entry earlier today to say that the new album has now been finished ^^

Just wanted to remind everyone that Gackt's performing at the 「2007 Mnet KM MUSIC FESTIVAL」 in Korea tonight~

Apparently you can watch it live online at the mnet site (if you aren't able to watch it on TV). It starts in about an hour, and there's a countdown happening at the mnet site if you want to check when it's on. It goes from 7pm to 11pm (Korean time).

The staff blog was just updated before, with a picture of Gackt & the band & dancers backstage at the festival~ And they also mentioned something about Gackt having to walk on the red carpet at the festival ^^



[Edit] I don't know if anyone else has managed to do it, but I don't think it's possible to watch this online. To watch it at the mnet site, it seems that you have to register, and to register, you need a Korean residence registration number. That's always the way it is with Korean sites, unfortunately. I don't know why they mentioned the internet broadcast at Gackt.com though, if no one outside of Korea is able to watch it >.>

Gackt's in this magazine, N/S EYES ON, out on 11/27~



You can buy it at Amazon.

Another update at the community site: There's an interview with Gackt & some pictures up at the Apple Japan site~



It's partly about the itunes event on 10/23, but it must be a more recent interview, as he also mentions his new album. And I think he talks about receiving offers to perform in various European countries, but says that it might be difficult to do concerts of the same quality overseas... There are also more pictures & a video (although I can't get the video to work) from the itunes event at the BIGLOBE site.



Apparently Gackt is going to be on the cover of the 11/30 issue of NHKウィークリーステラ, out on 11/21, and there are a couple of pictures of him up at the site~



[Edit] New album cover up at Amazon~

There's news at Gackt.com & the community site about Gackt performing at the 「2007 Mnet KM MUSIC FESTIVAL」 in Korea on 11/17, and the 2007「日中文化・スポーツ交流年」 grand finale concert in China on 11/29.

Apparently the Mnet KM MUSIC FESTIVAL is one of the biggest music festivals in Asia, and artists from all over the world perform there. The festival will take place on 11/17 in Seoul, but it should also be shown on TV in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore (and possibly parts of America & Europe too - it mentions "ArirangTV" - is that a TV channel you can get overseas?). (More news & links at the community site).

The concert in China (one of the events to commemorate the 2007 Japan-China Culture and Sports Exchange Year) will be held on 11/29 in Beijing, and will be shown on TV in Japan on 12/24 & 12/28. (See the news about it at the community site).

Darts Tsutaya Ver. 10 is up today~ And Gackt's modelling again.



Darts × TSUTAYA オリジナル シルバーアクセサリー第10弾

( Version 10 pictures~ )

There's more about it at these sites:
-H[アッシュ] darkside inhabitants
-TSUTAYA online
-Chimaera crew Co. Ltd.
-Gackt Official Community Site
-Gackt.com

More news in relation to yesterday's post (& Gackt performing a song called 『哀　戦士』 on Heyx3 next Monday, 11/12):

Gackt is releasing a "Gundam Album" next month, containing his first cover songs. It's official... See the news on Gackt.com & the community site. There are also articles at スポーツ報知, Daily Sports, Oricon, CD Journal, Barks, & Gundam.info.

The album title is 「ＯＯ７９―ＯＯ８８」, it will contain 8 'gundam series tie-up songs', and it'll be out on 12/19.

As everyone knows, Gackt's a big fan of Gundam (the articles call him a 'huge gundam freak'), and in the past couple of years, some of his songs were used in the 「機動戦士Ｚガンダム」 movies. Those are going to be on the album too, and he's recorded 3 songs from the original 『機動戦士ガンダム』 movies in 1981-82 for the album, 「砂の十字架」, 「哀　戦士」, &「めぐりあい」.

Tracklist for Gackt 『0079-0088』 (from CD Journal & Barks; songs may not be in the right order):

「砂の十字架」
「哀 戦士」
「めぐりあい」
「Dears」
「Metamorphoze」
「君が待っているから」
「mind forest」
「Love Letter」
「Dybbuk」

It seems the news came out yesterday, on Yoshikyuki Tomino's birthday, & it may have been Gackt's present to him~

I'm a bit disappointed about this as I don't watch Gundam & was hoping for some 'new' songs, but the older songs don't sound too bad. They definitely sound like they were written before most of us were born, but it'll be interesting to see what Gackt does with them. (I just had a look for them on youtube... Hopefully these are the right ones, if you want to listen to the originals: 砂の十字架, 哀　戦士, & めぐりあい).

[Edit] The album can be pre-ordered from Shinseido already~

And it seems that as well as having Ryu back, Gackt may have a new bassist too? This guy, Nell (well, I assume it's a guy), is apparently playing bass for the Heyx3 performance. He has a blog & website. It sounds like he's a Gundam fan, too... Well, I don't think this means much in relation to Jun-ji & Ju-ken. Unlike You & Chacha, they play in other bands too, so they're not always going to be available for Gackt Job performances. I think they'll be back.

As you may have seen, there was news at the community site staff blog yesterday about Gackt & the band recording a performance for Heyx3. It's confirmed now at the Heyx3 site that Gackt will be on the show on 11/12.

Ryu hasn't performed with the band for a while but his site was updated today with this:

200/11/12(月) 放送のフジテレビ『HEY HEY HEY』（Gackt『哀　戦士』）に出演します。

So it looks like the performance will be shown next Monday, and that 『哀　戦士』 (Ai Senshi, Soldiers of Sorrow) is possibly the name of the song? (Apparently a song of the same name was the ending theme of the 2nd Mobile Suit Gundam movie. I'm not sure if there's any connection...) I guess we'll find out more next week ^^

They've been posting a lot of pictures of Gackt & the band on the community site staff blog lately~ They update it most days, and there's been a lot written about 'recording', so maybe we'll be hearing about a new single soon ^^

Anyway, I have no idea what the text says, but I just wanted to post today's staff blog picture~ ^^

As you may know, Gackt has a new photo book coming out next month. I think I actually like this temporary cover picture better... Anyway, there's news about the book at Gackt.com. Apparently it's like a 'souvenir photo collection' of Gackt's appearance in fuurin kazan, and has on-site & studio photos, as well as interviews.

Gackt 龍の化身 (ryu no keshin)
Price: 3,150円
A4 size, 160 pages (all colour)
Release date: 11/30
ISBN 978-4-14-081263-1

It's available for pre-order at yesasia (thanks to pixiezdust & ryuik at uesugi_gakuto for pointing that out!).

Yesterday (10/23) at the Apple Store in Ginza, there was a press event held with the theme of 「Ｇａｃｋｔ　世界への出陣式」, to celebrate Gackt's 'worldwide advancement'. Two of his DVDs were released in the US & Canada last month, he became the first Japanese artist to have his entire catalogue (224 songs) for download on itunes (in 22 countries) on 10/17, and his Diabolos album will be sold in 18 European countries from 10/26. Gackt said that he still has a long way to go, and he wants to tour Europe, America & Asia and bring Japanese culture to the world. (I think he also told a story about his hair melting when he dyed it for the Mizerable PV? ^^;)

Anyway, there should be more articles about this still to come~ (There are more pictures at these sites too).

Oricon
スポーツ報知
デイリースポーツ
サンスポ
日刊スポーツ
@pia
asahi
musicman

And there are also videos at Yahoo, スポーツ報知, & asahi.

So this is good news for Gackt, & for us all~ ^^ (Except maybe those of us who live outside of Europe, America & Asia! But at least we can buy his songs on itunes now). As Gackt said (and please excuse my poor translation), "Around the world, many fans have been waiting. The time has come."

The fuurin kazan site was updated before, and there are a few new pictures of Gackt & Uchino Masaaki~



(More here at the 「風林火山」 site).

Gackt's on the cover of the 11/2 issue of 週刊ファミ通, out today~



And he's also on the cover of the 10/20-10/26 issue of NHKウィークリーステラ, which was out on 10/17:

There's a video from the fuurin kazan crank-up on 9/26 at this site: コレ見て！ムービー



And the 'September' picture is also up at the community site~