Excuse me for what might seem like a crazily outdated topic, but here’s a random thing that has been bugging me recently.
So Gackt is well-known for his extravagant ‘Visualive’ shows where he combines elements of various forms of performing arts to not only create an over-the-top rock-musical-esque concert but also convey a story from his own fictional world. A major convoluted epic called the Moon Saga which spans well over a decade of concerts, a book, a movie and a stage production finally came to a conclusion in the 2016 so-called ‘Last Visualive’ tour where Gackt professed to be bringing such elaborate shows to an end.
As an avid physical music collector and long-time fan (Gackt was in fact the artist who introduced me to Japanese rock music back when I was in secondary/junior high school) I finally got around to picking up the deluxe edition of the LAST VISUALIVE -最期ノ月- blu-ray recently. And here I noticed a strange discrepancy that actually completely passed me by on first viewing because of the way the recording was produced.
There’s a whole song missing.
According to various live reports that I have read in both Japanese and English, Gackt performed RETURNER～闇の終焉～ during the early stage of this concert. This is significant because it is the first time this song has ever been included on a major tour setlist to my knowledge. As a result this is the only time fans would have been able to see it performed live without physically going to a show on this tour (apart from a couple of old TV performances iirc). Furthermore, the song is included not only on the titular LAST MOON album but also on the live-limited setlist album (which adds the orchestral compositions used during the drama segments and a couple of instrumental fillers which are present on the blu-ray but not on the original album).
My question is this: does anyone have any idea why this song would be cut from a commercial release of the supposed last show of its kind? As a drama tie-in, might there be some rights issues among the publishers? Was anyone actually present at this show to see if there were perhaps technical issues, or one of the band members made a mistake? I just think this is a strange editing decision and it’s disappointing not to be able to see this song performed in its full dramatic Visualive glory.