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神威♂楽園 deイキナ祭
Nov. 29th, 2009 12:15 pmFriday night I:
Friday night was possibly the weirdest thing I have ever attended in my life. "Kamui Gakuen de Ikinasai" was this bizarre fanclub-only event Gackt's been doing recently where the entire thing is set up like a school assembly. Ahhh, suddenly my school uniform all makes horrible sense! There's a strict dress code for attendance, for boys as well as girls. Hence my post on Thursday night. :)
I got there on time, when I was told to get there. Of course, when I arrived I was told that they're running late and other things will have to be canceled since it's unlikely that the show will even be done before the venue closes. This is, of course, in total keeping with what I understand Gackt's fanclub-only events to be like. The same thing happened at his birthday concert this year, too. So I waited around outside, laughing at the food stalls. "Gacktの初恋鍋", "YOUカレー", as well as "Stargacks" serving coffee. I didn't sample any of it, but it actually smelled pretty good. I wish I'd brought my camera - it really was like a school festival, and everyone from the too-young-to-wear-high-school-costume kids to the definitely-too-old-to-be-wearing-it were dressed up in all varieties of school uniform. I even saw someone dressed as Rei Ayanami from Evangelion! It was an interesting twist on high school cosplay, that's for sure. XD
The event itself was really, genuinely bizarre. It was made up like a school hall, and frighteningly accurate. Hell, I worked in four Japanese schools for a year, and had to attend enough of these assemblies to feel very much transported straight back there. At least I knew all the conventions and so didn't fuck up when we all had to stand to attention and bow. There was a speech from the principal and the vice principal. Then we were introduced to our student body president; Gackt came out and walked through the crowd to get to the stage, the same way they do it in school, (except flanked by bodyguards). He was wearing school uniform too, of course. 8D;
Then we got a lecture from Gackt. Sorry, the Seito Kaicho. Congratulations on your enrollment in Kamui Gakuen! You're all very fortunate to be chosen. Our school, as you can see, is not about "learning", but about "fun".* Our motto is "study hard, play hard". When you refer to me, you will refer to me as Seito Kaicho. Or just Kaicho. When you refer to any of your elders, you will address them as "senpai". And when you respond to me, you will not say "yes" or "yay", but "I understand".
*The kanji for "gaku" in "gakuen" is usually the same as the kanji for "learn", obviously. But they've changed it to "fun". 8D
So there it was. What followed was extremely bizarre; a mixture of some bizarre lottery for fans to go up on stage and be part of the .. uh... "public morals committee". A dance-off between two groups comprised of Gackt's backing dancers and his band, to remixed versions of his music; collectively they were called "F9" (those who have seen Hana Yori Dango will immediately get the reference). JUN-JI (Gackt's drummer) performing GHOST with the full dance -- and doing all the vocals himself. Then, bizarrely enough, the "school bell" rung and we had a recess during which I simply sat there completely stunned and made bemused Twitter updates trying to convey how weird the entire event was.
After the break, Seito Kaicho came back out. Apparently him and some of the other F9 members had started up a school band called "Super Excellent High School Students In Japan", which he seemed to think was aptly abbreviated to "SEX JAPON". ...Don't ask, his grasp of English seems to be tenuous at times. So, SEX JAPON were going to perform some cover songs.
Yes, you heard that right. COVER songs.
At this point I was admittedly a little disappointed; I wanted to hear Gackt songs, damnit, not Gackt covering other bands. But even though it wasn't quite what I'd been hoping for, some of the results were absolutely excellent beyond comprehension. The first two songs were LUNA SEA. "The next two songs were written by Sugizo. I asked him if I could use them, and he said: 'yes, yes! go ahead! use them!'. So I responded, 'would you like to come and see the performance?'. He said, 'Actually, no thanks'."
After that, I noticed them putting a giant, vertical wig on JUN-JI's head, and my heart leaped! BUCK-TICK! It's BUCK-TICK! I was very excited. They performed "Just one more kiss". But then it just got better! Next, we're going to do one of l'arc~en~ciel's songs - PV style. Have you seen it? STAY AWAY.
I think I nearly died of joy right there. My absolute favourite l'arc song, and true to his word, he performed it like the PV to the absolute letter - including the hilarious choreographed dance at the end and the cute/awesome-lame hip-bobbing that Hyde does the whole way through. All in all, it was a very good impression of Hyde. (Why is Hyde so much shorter than me? Well, he has a hormonal imbalance or something. It's very serious, things like that exist, you know.)
Other covers of note... Well. Gackt performing a Malice Mizer song live was not something I thought I'd ever live to see. 8D He performed Au Revoir, and it was biblical. XD Absolutely amazing. He did perform one Gackt song (his "older brother's" song, sorry), and since it was Ai Senshi, we all had to learn "Akiba-kei" parapara for it. Gundam-style parapara. It was.... A sight to behold. I have to mention that all the way through this, Gackt had the driest, most amusing sense of humour in everything he was saying. He went through the steps to the dance for about twenty minutes, all along remarking that if we couldn't manage them we may as well all go home. Whenever he'd announce whose song they were going to perform next, he'd remark: Don't bother yourself if you have no idea who they are. It's fine. I don't care. You can go home and look them up on You Tube. Whatever. Of course we all knew who they were, he was just working everyone up. 8D
JUN-JI made another appearance and performed TRAIN TRAIN and one other song, which was pretty amazing. He has a good voice! Gack-- uh, Seito Kaicho also did a remioromen song, among others. And then for the encore... I KNEW they would do it. I just knew it. There's no way Gackt would do a covers concert without touching X JAPAN.
Except Chachamaru, Gackt's guitarist, was playing Toshi's part and doing the singing. They were all dressed up as their respective counterparts - huge eighties-style hair and all. Chacha was Toshi, You was Hide, and Gackt..... Well. Gackt was Yoshiki, which nearly made me have some kind of terminal brain event. Never mind that he was TOTALLY Yoshiki; he came out topless and played the drums in just the same fashion as Yoshiki does. Chacha was actually really impressive at the vocals, especially considering that Toshi is hardly easy for anyone to pull off.
So there you have it 8D Possibly the most supremely odd event I have attended - definitely the strangest event I think Gackt's done for a long time, if not the weirdest of all. It was fanclub-only, but I have a feeling that he's going to be opening it up to everyone next month; he mentioned that he was going to take it to Saitama Super Arena, which is a HUGE venue. He's also having events on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - none of these I can attend, of course, but I'm not sure if I could really take going to Kamui Gakuen again so soon anyway. XD
Oh, and I guess I should mention for those who aren't savvy in Japanese how dodgy the entire title is. Basically, through much word trickery and many puns, all night people were effectively saying "I want to make you come!". Everything that alluded to the "lessons" that apparently go on at the "school" was about sex. When they performed X Japan, in the spaces where you would normally shout "X! X! X!" we had to shout "SEX! SEX! SEX!".
... I really don't know what else to say. I think perhaps what I've written really speaks for itself 8D; Shame that we were strictly not allowed to take photos, because they would have been amazing. However, I can at least give you a little glimpse of our Seito Kaicho:
Kaicho, Kaicho! Ahh, I feel kinda like my sanity might never return. :( Never mind about my dignity, I think it wandered off somewhere while I was looking at which school uniform to buy.
Oh, and just to clarify my final bullet point - if any of you remember it by now - on the way home some drunken businessmen started harassing me to have sex with them. This is the trouble with wearing a school uniform, I suppose, even if I did have a hoodie covering up almost all of it and brought jeans along just in case. I was in such a hurry to get home that I didn't bother to get changed, and ended up having to quite firmly tell these guys to fuck each other if they were so desperate, before moving to the opposite end of the platform. 8D
- Came the closest I will ever come to traveling back in time and going to a Malice Mizer concert
- Went back to school again 8D
- Met my new student body president (who is in his thirties) (
not to mention sexy as hell) - Saw a Gackt concert where only one Gackt song was performed. Sort of.
- Was harassed for sex on the way home. Not cool, Japan.
Friday night was possibly the weirdest thing I have ever attended in my life. "Kamui Gakuen de Ikinasai" was this bizarre fanclub-only event Gackt's been doing recently where the entire thing is set up like a school assembly. Ahhh, suddenly my school uniform all makes horrible sense! There's a strict dress code for attendance, for boys as well as girls. Hence my post on Thursday night. :)
I got there on time, when I was told to get there. Of course, when I arrived I was told that they're running late and other things will have to be canceled since it's unlikely that the show will even be done before the venue closes. This is, of course, in total keeping with what I understand Gackt's fanclub-only events to be like. The same thing happened at his birthday concert this year, too. So I waited around outside, laughing at the food stalls. "Gacktの初恋鍋", "YOUカレー", as well as "Stargacks" serving coffee. I didn't sample any of it, but it actually smelled pretty good. I wish I'd brought my camera - it really was like a school festival, and everyone from the too-young-to-wear-high-school-costume kids to the definitely-too-old-to-be-wearing-it were dressed up in all varieties of school uniform. I even saw someone dressed as Rei Ayanami from Evangelion! It was an interesting twist on high school cosplay, that's for sure. XD
The event itself was really, genuinely bizarre. It was made up like a school hall, and frighteningly accurate. Hell, I worked in four Japanese schools for a year, and had to attend enough of these assemblies to feel very much transported straight back there. At least I knew all the conventions and so didn't fuck up when we all had to stand to attention and bow. There was a speech from the principal and the vice principal. Then we were introduced to our student body president; Gackt came out and walked through the crowd to get to the stage, the same way they do it in school, (except flanked by bodyguards). He was wearing school uniform too, of course. 8D;
Then we got a lecture from Gackt. Sorry, the Seito Kaicho. Congratulations on your enrollment in Kamui Gakuen! You're all very fortunate to be chosen. Our school, as you can see, is not about "learning", but about "fun".* Our motto is "study hard, play hard". When you refer to me, you will refer to me as Seito Kaicho. Or just Kaicho. When you refer to any of your elders, you will address them as "senpai". And when you respond to me, you will not say "yes" or "yay", but "I understand".
*The kanji for "gaku" in "gakuen" is usually the same as the kanji for "learn", obviously. But they've changed it to "fun". 8D
So there it was. What followed was extremely bizarre; a mixture of some bizarre lottery for fans to go up on stage and be part of the .. uh... "public morals committee". A dance-off between two groups comprised of Gackt's backing dancers and his band, to remixed versions of his music; collectively they were called "F9" (those who have seen Hana Yori Dango will immediately get the reference). JUN-JI (Gackt's drummer) performing GHOST with the full dance -- and doing all the vocals himself. Then, bizarrely enough, the "school bell" rung and we had a recess during which I simply sat there completely stunned and made bemused Twitter updates trying to convey how weird the entire event was.
After the break, Seito Kaicho came back out. Apparently him and some of the other F9 members had started up a school band called "Super Excellent High School Students In Japan", which he seemed to think was aptly abbreviated to "SEX JAPON". ...Don't ask, his grasp of English seems to be tenuous at times. So, SEX JAPON were going to perform some cover songs.
Yes, you heard that right. COVER songs.
At this point I was admittedly a little disappointed; I wanted to hear Gackt songs, damnit, not Gackt covering other bands. But even though it wasn't quite what I'd been hoping for, some of the results were absolutely excellent beyond comprehension. The first two songs were LUNA SEA. "The next two songs were written by Sugizo. I asked him if I could use them, and he said: 'yes, yes! go ahead! use them!'. So I responded, 'would you like to come and see the performance?'. He said, 'Actually, no thanks'."
After that, I noticed them putting a giant, vertical wig on JUN-JI's head, and my heart leaped! BUCK-TICK! It's BUCK-TICK! I was very excited. They performed "Just one more kiss". But then it just got better! Next, we're going to do one of l'arc~en~ciel's songs - PV style. Have you seen it? STAY AWAY.
I think I nearly died of joy right there. My absolute favourite l'arc song, and true to his word, he performed it like the PV to the absolute letter - including the hilarious choreographed dance at the end and the cute/awesome-lame hip-bobbing that Hyde does the whole way through. All in all, it was a very good impression of Hyde. (Why is Hyde so much shorter than me? Well, he has a hormonal imbalance or something. It's very serious, things like that exist, you know.)
Other covers of note... Well. Gackt performing a Malice Mizer song live was not something I thought I'd ever live to see. 8D He performed Au Revoir, and it was biblical. XD Absolutely amazing. He did perform one Gackt song (his "older brother's" song, sorry), and since it was Ai Senshi, we all had to learn "Akiba-kei" parapara for it. Gundam-style parapara. It was.... A sight to behold. I have to mention that all the way through this, Gackt had the driest, most amusing sense of humour in everything he was saying. He went through the steps to the dance for about twenty minutes, all along remarking that if we couldn't manage them we may as well all go home. Whenever he'd announce whose song they were going to perform next, he'd remark: Don't bother yourself if you have no idea who they are. It's fine. I don't care. You can go home and look them up on You Tube. Whatever. Of course we all knew who they were, he was just working everyone up. 8D
JUN-JI made another appearance and performed TRAIN TRAIN and one other song, which was pretty amazing. He has a good voice! Gack-- uh, Seito Kaicho also did a remioromen song, among others. And then for the encore... I KNEW they would do it. I just knew it. There's no way Gackt would do a covers concert without touching X JAPAN.
Except Chachamaru, Gackt's guitarist, was playing Toshi's part and doing the singing. They were all dressed up as their respective counterparts - huge eighties-style hair and all. Chacha was Toshi, You was Hide, and Gackt..... Well. Gackt was Yoshiki, which nearly made me have some kind of terminal brain event. Never mind that he was TOTALLY Yoshiki; he came out topless and played the drums in just the same fashion as Yoshiki does. Chacha was actually really impressive at the vocals, especially considering that Toshi is hardly easy for anyone to pull off.
So there you have it 8D Possibly the most supremely odd event I have attended - definitely the strangest event I think Gackt's done for a long time, if not the weirdest of all. It was fanclub-only, but I have a feeling that he's going to be opening it up to everyone next month; he mentioned that he was going to take it to Saitama Super Arena, which is a HUGE venue. He's also having events on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - none of these I can attend, of course, but I'm not sure if I could really take going to Kamui Gakuen again so soon anyway. XD
Oh, and I guess I should mention for those who aren't savvy in Japanese how dodgy the entire title is. Basically, through much word trickery and many puns, all night people were effectively saying "I want to make you come!". Everything that alluded to the "lessons" that apparently go on at the "school" was about sex. When they performed X Japan, in the spaces where you would normally shout "X! X! X!" we had to shout "SEX! SEX! SEX!".
... I really don't know what else to say. I think perhaps what I've written really speaks for itself 8D; Shame that we were strictly not allowed to take photos, because they would have been amazing. However, I can at least give you a little glimpse of our Seito Kaicho:
Kaicho, Kaicho! Ahh, I feel kinda like my sanity might never return. :( Never mind about my dignity, I think it wandered off somewhere while I was looking at which school uniform to buy.
Oh, and just to clarify my final bullet point - if any of you remember it by now - on the way home some drunken businessmen started harassing me to have sex with them. This is the trouble with wearing a school uniform, I suppose, even if I did have a hoodie covering up almost all of it and brought jeans along just in case. I was in such a hurry to get home that I didn't bother to get changed, and ended up having to quite firmly tell these guys to fuck each other if they were so desperate, before moving to the opposite end of the platform. 8D
