Gackt’s agency has provided an update on his condition.
I can’t access the original page possibly due to region block, but Jrock News has been covering the situation and translated the original announcement.
The summary is that Gackt’s condition is improving, but although the agency hopes he’ll come back at the end of the year, he has also been suffering side effects from his treatments such as hair loss and dermatitis (a skin condition), due to immunodefiency caused by issues in his nervous system. Nonetheless, he is resuming his daily life without difficulties and his voice has recovered.
Agreed. Maybe getting into the studio, warming up, and playing the guitar for fun is good mentally. But physically, it doesn’t sound like he’s in shape to get back to being GACKT. His activities went far beyond music at his peak - I hope he recovers enough to get in shape to do the things that still interest him. I waited this long so I can wait a bit longer.
I’m not terribly familiar with Gackt but he strikes me someone who doesn’t know the word moderation. Hopefully he starts to take things slower from now on.
In his prime Gackt was one of the most ambitious performers around, where the insane scope of his live shows included things like riding into the arena on horseback, emerging from a descending coffin and flying over the crowd on a wire (all in the same concert! Diabolos if you’re interested). However from the behind-the-scenes footage it does seem like he was a bit of a Michael Jackson type in that he was a serious perfectionist and demanded the absolute best from all those who worked with him. At this age after all the health complications he’s dealt with over the years he can’t afford to be that extravagant any more. I hope he takes it easy rather than trying to jump straight back into various activities.
I’m glad he is getting better! Things seem like they might have been far worse than initially reported.
I remember a video on his YouTube channel: sort of a day in the life during his Khaos tour (of which any mention has been scrapped off) and I was sort of appalled by the fact that he collapsed after the show and was carried by his assistants. At first I dismissed it as sort of playing to the intense performance bandoman trope just like Yoshiki does (watch We are X documentary for context) but there might have been more than the intensity of a show judging by last year’s news.
Hope I’ll get to see him live before he retires at least once.
GACKT has held his birthday livestream on 7/3, his first one since going on hiatus, and announced that he will resume activities by the end of the year. He was originally scheduled to stream on his actual birthday the next day but contracted coronavirus.
Merveilles (but I’m assuming you’re talking about his solo work).
His first EP after leaving MM is fantastic. Leeca might be my favourite song here.
He released Vanilla soon after this which imho is absolute garbage.
Haven’t heard enough of his solo material to give a good opinion. I quite like most of MOON, and I had オレンジの太陽 (Orenji no Taiyo) on repeat for a while after Moon Child was released (20 years ago!).
