Before his 20th solo debut anniversary tour begins in January, GACKT (46) has been interviewed by Nikkan Sports and other media outlets. He stands out as a versatile artist who fits into neither the typical frame of a singer nor the typical frame of an actor, but behind all of this lies an attitude of taking on everything with earnest and a change of heart.

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The theme of this live tour that is to highlight his 20th solo debut anniversary is simply, “GACKT’s money-wasting has begun”. This 20-performance-long tour will begin on 11 January next year with the performance at Grand Cube Osaka, and “I thought it should be forgivable since it’s my 20th anniversary, so wouldn’t it be fun if I could set up a playful stage that brings laughter?”

Until now, the perspective of his music had always been expressed theatrically, but “I want to try performing the very serious songs in strange ways too… If I do it half-heartedly, it’s not going to be funny. I’m putting my all into doing this, so the staff numbers don’t change, which means I’m squandering money.”

With a smile, he spoke of things that he could not have done 5 or 10 years ago. “When you’re young, you’d want to be cool, right? My personality is that of a comedian, to begin with, so when I do silly things, I’d quickly fall into it. But since I’ve grown older, I guess it’s become forgivable (for me to do such things). Those who are coming for the first time, please don’t misunderstand that GACKT has always done such things.”

The sports world went into a frenzy with Japan’s rugby team’s breakthrough. This has a lot in common with a live performance, he says. “There is an emotion that you can only get by watching live. There is a human energy that only exists in that space, and there is a need for moments that move your heart and makes people scream together. Those are things that cannot be conveyed through a screen or online.”

This year, he took on his first comedy work, the movie Tonde Saitama (Fly Me To The Saitama) which became a hot topic. He is also the “unerring man” who has maintained a personal winning streak of 58 correct answers since 2009 on the NTV program “Celebrity Rating CHECK! (Geinoujin Kakuzuke CHECK!)”. But he says, “For example, you can’t learn how to speak English simply by watching Western films all the time. You have to study seriously before you will be able to speak it. It’s the same with wine too. I understand it because I pursued it.”
This attitude of taking on everything with earnest is something that won’t ever change.

Source: nikkansports.com

Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team

Translation © GACKT ITALIA