I mean, in fairness, Forest put the beach horse meme in their own post…
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Hey, Misunderstandings can happen. Happens to the best of us.
Let’s get back to what this thread is about. Questioning life decisions of the Gazette and wondering how it goes on from here and if it goes on at all
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Another thought that I have to get out…
If the GazettE was another run of the mil band where the Guitar/bass mirrored each other, they could function without 2 of the founding members. The issue/blessing is that they are not. They are a very distinct band. Thanks to technology, they could compensate for Reita not being there. But im sorry, you can’t compensate for him and now Aoi being gone. I understand WHY they will go on. And I’m sure we’ll be curious to see how it goes. But that’s TOO big of a hole for me personally. I think its safe to assume the Winter will be the last release featuring everyone. But that will probably be my jumping off point, at least for awhile.
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Translation of yahoo article:
Yahoo article
Job abandonment and even a demand for 10 million yen in damages… Internal conflict erupts in a popular band formed 24 years ago! The parties involved speak about the “truth”
The visual kei rock band “the GazettE,” which boasts more than 20 years since its formation.
The members consist of five people: vocalist RUKI, guitarist Uruha, guitarist Aoi, drummer Kai, and bassist REITA.
The trigger for the trouble was that in March 2025 the representative director of the agency the band belongs to decided on an intention to resign.
Discord that arose within the band:
“It seems he indicated an intention to delegate the rights of the representative to the band members. By unanimous agreement, it was decided internally that drummer Kai would serve as the representative. However, guitarist Aoi began to become fixated on this representative authority. By becoming the representative of the agency, he likely expected executive compensation to be paid. From there, discord began to arise within the band.” (Record company insider)
The band was formed in 2002, and this year marks the 24th anniversary of their formation.
“Based on heavy rock and alternative metal, they have continued to captivate fans both domestically and overseas with a sound that fuses an aesthetic worldview with aggression. The lyrics often deal with the darkness of people, loneliness, and a sense of discomfort with society, and RUKI’s distinctive vocal style is a characteristic.” (Music magazine writer, same as below)
In 2007, the album “STACKED RUBBISH” recorded No.1 on the Oricon weekly chart.
“Furthermore, the song ‘SHIVER’ surpassed 11 million views on YouTube. In December 2010, the band achieved their first solo performance at Tokyo Dome. This was accomplished about eight years after their formation.”
The band activities had been smooth sailing, but in April 2024 bassist REITA died suddenly. It gave a major shock to fans. The members overcame his death and continued their activities, but in March 2025 friction began to arise among the members when Aoi began abandoning his duties…
“The other three members frequently sent LINE messages and tried to approach him, but Aoi repeatedly rejected them, and it seems the members became unable to meet face-to-face. Furthermore, Aoi unilaterally said that he wanted to withdraw from the band.
-He claimed that it was because he was receiving injury and illness allowance due to a mental illness. However, it appears he was planning a ‘change of course’ to either pursue solo activities or form a new band eventually.”
In August of the same year, Aoi reportedly demanded a large amount of money from the agency.
“On August 18, a sealed letter from Aoi arrived addressed to the agency. It was written ‘compensation,’ and the requested amount was stated as 10 million yen.
On September 5 of the same year as well, there was another demand for money. It was clearly written there as ‘consolation money,’ and about 8 million yen was demanded.
If the money was not paid, he would refuse to appear at live performances, and he significantly obstructed the band’s activities such as album production and tours.”
After persuasion from members and staff, Aoi also appeared at the tour performances held on August 25 and September 30. However, on November 17, a certified document arrived at the agency.
“This time he demanded about 8 million yen as the guarantee for the live shows he appeared in. The label written was ‘compensation money.’ The labels and amounts that had been written until now were inconsistent, and questions remain as to why he did such things.”
Aoi’s bizarre behavior did not stop there…
“Despite receiving injury and illness allowance, repeated bad conduct and scandals involving women did not stop. At drinking gatherings, it was discovered that he talked about the cause of REITA’s death, which had not been made public, and that he was leaking information about the agency. External music industry people sometimes said that Aoi should be warned, and it seems the agency gave him a strict warning.”
Power harassment toward staff was also seen as a problem.
“Within the LINE chats used by many employees for work, he would name specific staff members and scold them, writing things like ‘If you repeat the same thing again, find other personnel and just have them work as warehouse guards.”
“After live shows, if something happened that Aoi didn’t like, he would also kick chairs toward staff. No one was injured, but it was an extremely dangerous act. It is said that many staff members felt fear toward this intimidating attitude and behavior and quit.” (Event company insider)
Is it true that there was trouble with Aoi over the representative authority? When asked, the agency the band belongs to said:
“It is true. However, initially the member who would become the next representative had been decided in a meeting.
Suddenly Aoi became fixated on the representative authority and spread falsehoods about a specific member who had been provisionally decided as the next representative, and words and actions corresponding to power harassment triggered discord. All the members reprimanded him for it. At the time, I heard that Aoi also apologized saying something like ‘I’m sorry for doing such a sneaky thing.’”
Regarding the demand for large sums of money:
“It is true. Our legal advisor handled the matter and gave the view that such unjust demands should be ignored.”
What does Aoi himself say?
In early March, Aoi was directly approached in Tokyo.
Were you trying to obtain the representative authority of the agency you belong to?
“I’m not fixated on it. It’s not the agency that the GazettE belongs to, but I once had the experience of becoming a company president. I understand how much pressure that puts on you and how much stress it becomes, so honestly I think I don’t want the position of representative director.”
Did you demand money from the agency a total of three times?
“I did not make an unjust claim. I think it was a legitimate demand.”
Are you considering withdrawing?
“I thought about continuing the band. But the member REITA passing away is big for me. It’s our own band, but we can’t make decisions ourselves, so things don’t move forward with just the members.
Gradually I began to not understand the meaning of continuing the band. We’re doing a band, but behind the scenes we’re just being instructed. “Do this, wear this, this song is no good.”
I thought maybe that was fine, but my mind also became sick, and now I’m living on injury and illness allowance. I’m receiving counseling from a doctor, and I was told that if I can get away from that environment, it would be better to leave it. I was pushed to that extent.”
The agency claims “completely baseless"
-Had you previously told the agency about your intention to withdraw?
“I had done the band for 20 years, and it was something I was proud of. When I thought about quitting and consulted the president, he held me back saying, “If you quit the band you’ll regret it.” But when I said that if I felt the same way again next time I would quit, he said ‘Okay’ for the first time.
This time, I consulted the agency again about wanting to withdraw in April 2025, and I withdrew at the end of September. I quit with nearly half a year of margin, so I thought it was the utmost sincerity I could show, but…”
Did you convey your feelings to the band members?
“The method I used might have been running away, but I told them through Zoom.”
It seems that Aoi himself recognizes that he has already withdrawn from the band. When the agency was asked to confirm:
“That is his one-sided claim. We have not made such an announcement in an official setting. There are also issues such as rights relationships, so we believe he cannot suddenly withdraw on his own decision.
We find it extremely regrettable that he is making such claims without giving greetings to the record company that took care of us or to the fans who supported us for many years.”
Aoi said that the reason for withdrawing was
“I cannot do what I want to do and I was dissatisfied with the current system”
But the agency responded:
“There is no such fact. There is no person in a position to restrict the activities he wants to do. On the contrary, we have confirmed that he had a tendency to repeatedly make statements and actions similar to moral harassment toward the other members, and this is completely baseless. If we go back several years, it would mean that he had already been spreading falsehoods to everyone around him, including the member who passed away.”
The claims of the two sides do not match. Finally, when asked whether the agency intends to formally dismiss Aoi:
“We cannot answer regarding that part.”
No matter what form it takes, they will continue to love their music. For the fans who keep waiting with those feelings, a resolution to the trouble as soon as possible is awaited.
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Heartbroken. I’m worried for the future of the GazettE as a band. Aoi (like Reita) is irreplaceable.
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If anyone would like a fan’s perspective in video/audio format, Kleptoyade (who’s very kindly helped pass along a drawing of mine to the band during their first live show without Reita) did a video about what they think of the situation. It’s similar to the sentiments discussed in this thread so far, but I’ve been thinking about how difficult it is for fans to trawl social media now, so if it helps anyone to process/consume the news a lot more intentionally, or if it’s easier for them to sit through a video on the matter:
(I meant to share videos of their Gazette concert reviews a while back as well..will share those in the other thread some other time to keep to the topic)
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Sucks to Aoi gone, loved the dual guitar work with him and Uruha. Whatever issues they all have now, i just hope they can resolve and mend them in the future even if it means not reuniting as band. Not the first and not the last band to go through stuff like this. If Slipknot can move on from Paul Gray and Joey Jordinson, the gazette will be fine as well.
Some of the reactions on twitter are honestly a cesspool and disappointing, I get being upset and sad but people are acting like Aoi is the scum of the earth and deserves the worst. It’s just band issues at the end of the day.
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Man, this is absolutely GUTTING me.
I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately, not listening, but thinking about them. In retrospect, it was almost like a premonition or something. Not the kind I was hoping for. Guess we’ll never get to see what THE WINTER is/was, after all.
FUCK. I love this band. What they brought to the table can’t be replicated or replaced… Their sound was so original. I always assumed there would just ‘be more’. Totally took them for granted.
Hate that this is happening, and to the only real band holding the banner of this scene together no less… I don’t see any new or currently existing band even coming close to what they’ve achieved.
Gazerock is dead.
(I hope not. But it certainly feels grim.)
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This piece of news is the hardest thing to swallow right now. Been listening since 2008 and now look at the mess.
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I honestly believe the best way to approach this in the context of the future of the group.
do what Sick2 did after their drummer left them and create a special project (Kansen2 in the case of sick2) for a year and try to look for members to take over the legacy of Aoi and possibly reita depending on what way they want to honour Reita.
(turning the whole group to a single guitar group would ruin in a way the legacy of it but if you create a special project you are instead just experimenting without putting any possible stain on the actual project)
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What I take from all of this is that Reita’s passing wreaked their relationship and the business part of the band made it all worst. I don’t know if it was salvageable at any point. Aoi wanted to leave, and they didn’t really let him. Business trouble issues, so a few months later they kick him out. Really messy. I guess his behavior could be explained by grief and mental health problems, but I can understand the other members and label side too. It’s definitely one of those “everyone loses” situations.
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Not super into this band. Listened to them around the stavked rubbish era but never followed up on them after. Did Aoi write any songs?
Yes, he wrote many songs.
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Ugh. I can see the remaining members struggling to regain nomentum.
I wonder if he could form a band on his own with this precedent.
In addition to these statements being very very sad, I can’t help but feel like they’re backing themselves into a corner with all these rigid statements, here and in the last few years. It’s like they won’t let themselves imagine a future other than continuing the GazettE. I hope they won’t feel too beholden to Reita’s last post and to the fans. That kind of devotion can become a curse.
Of course I don’t know these people and I only know a fraction of the situation, but that’s the feeling these statements give me. As a fan of almost 20 years, I don’t want them to feel obligated to repay us - they’ve done that already.
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I believe Aoi is innocent, I think the company is trying to tarnish his name. If he gonna feel better like this, I’ll keep support him. I understand its not easy to continue without Reita and such… Wishing best for all of members. I wish they had better communication between them too.
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I can’t help seeing this but compare it to whatever was going on 2015-2020 with Naitomea. Mucc too, having split with Satochi
I guess late 40s is where the stress of being a full time, constantly writing constantly recording bandman has to be reckoned with somehow, as opposed to one’s twenties where touring the world, leaving all else unattended to can be simply decided on and repeated
In short, i’m not sure if any of these messages have convinced me there’s a “bad guy” here. Even remembering the messages they left at Reita’s passing, Aoi’s surprised me with a different tone then the others’. I hope he can find a way forward in his own time, tho i feel like an ass typing that about a guy going on 50 whose music was a source of comfort, optimism, and fun times with friends since my youth.
I’ll still look forward to anything all four (five?) of these guys choose to put out.
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What I’m gathering is Reita’s cause of death was salacious enough for Aoi to be telling people about it while (presumably) drunk.
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I’m not a die-hard fan of this band, and even less so of the fan base that surrounded them, but witnessing this decline is still quite sad. I don’t know the agency particularly well, but I find the bashing of Aoi a bit extreme. The guy is being literally torn to shreds (rightly or wrongly, it doesn’t matter) when he certainly gave his all for his group for 24 years. Shouldn’t dirty laundry be washed at home? Honestly, what ingratitude…
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This is all very sad. In the last few months I worried for him but this is a lot to process. I shouldn’t be crying like a little kid but somehow this is kind of doing it for me. I can only wish both of them well and that maybe one day both parties can somehow make up and reunite in the future.
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