Source: Tokyograph

Uematsu Nobuo will be one of the guests at this year’s Anime Boston convention, taking place in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 2nd-4th.

Uematsu is best known for scoring most of the “Final Fantasy” video games. He also composed for games such as “Chrono Trigger”, “Blue Dragon”, and “Lost Odyssey”.

Original post: in Japanese at GACKT’s blog
Translation: none at the moment

2010/02/10 07:15 (07:15am)

Original post: in Japanese at GACKT’s blog
Translation: none at the moment

2010/02/09 11:04 (11:04am)

Note: It looks as if only people from the USA can participate in this.

Ellen is asking for popular international artists to host on her show.
To suggest an artist go HERE. (click the blue text)
Fill in the required information.
Name a song for whoever reads your entry to listen too (pick a good one that really shows of GACKT’s talents) and write a short explanation as to why GACKT would be interesting to have on the show.

Mentioning that GACKT is fluent in English would be a good thing. That certainly helps being on an American talk show.
Also that he’s staring in a Hollywood movie coming out this year called Bunraku.
Also hint at how successful he is in Japan. (releasing 4 singles in 4 weeks consecutively is not something a solo artists often does).
If you can think of anything else to say that would be good, write it too.
Just remember to keep it short and not too complicated.

Original post: in Japanese at GACKT’s blog
Translation: by uranus_sama
Words form the translator: Let me preface this by saying that I’ve never seen The Matrix (nor do I desire to, I hate movies) so I may not have translated details involving the film as accurately as someone who has seen it may have.

Thanks as always to Veronica Sexy.

2010/02/06 05:45 (05:45am)

I’m awake already

FORDEAR

Good morning… is it too early to say that?
I’m sore and it woke me up.
We’ve been preparing for the NEMURI PROJECT lately, and training for the Otoko Matsuri has gotten very hard the things I’ve been doing have been fairly intense and now I think my body’s really going to break apart.

It was the first time in a while that I got up after not being able to stop tossing and turning. Then again, I got about three hours of sleep so I should be just fine.

Lately I’ve been training solely with all the other band members.
The dancers aren’t really participating, and I have to say I’m impressed with how the the band has pulled through such intense training like this…

And whenever MINAMI and Dir [en Grey's] SHINYA do training with us there’s never a time when I don’t think to myself “Wow, they’re great~”.

I think about how the young people who are dilligent and take on this training [regiment] like this and want to try so hard to take on this type of activity, if they can make it this far through training, they can probably overcome just about anything… and it gives me peace of mind.

It’s like I’m running in front of them solely on kiai [気愛] as they keep pushing my weak feelings.
Saying “I’m exhausted” isn’t going to change anything so you might as well not bother to say it. If you say anything, you’ll just get more tired out.
“At times like this, you’d better laugh!!!”
I never forget that saying, and when the going gets tough I make sure to laugh. When you do that, you discover that things will become interesting and fun. No matter what kind of trouble you may be in.

I truly think that people are interesting creatures.
There’s an awful lot of people in this world who try to control the way the general population thinks like some kind of mother computer controlling the thought system… [note: this doesn't sound so ridiculous in the original Japanese, I promise...]
If you can guide, draw, and create things of your own accord without giving a thought to the control another person is trying to exhibit over you, you’ll start to think it’s so much fun [to do those things on your own] because people are completely controlled by their own thoughts.
As humans, we have a thought system that’s unlike any other animals’ and we ought to do more to control our own [way of thinking].

There was a time when I was thinking about this a lot, and I wrote some songs, such as “SECRET GARDEN” and “CUBE”.
After that, I noticed that a movie known as “The Matrix” came out, and when I saw the English version I was surprised to find that the themes that I had personally been thinking about had shown up in the movie…

Indeed, that an idea I’m having at a specific moment is also being conceived by many people who exist coaxially in the same time frame.
And this is what is known as “synchronicity“.

It’s not an issue of who’s going ahead or behind, but rather will they make it to their destination. Aside from that, the most critical things are their ability to take action as well as their speed [with which they take that action].

The concept and ideas behind The Matrix are really intriguing.
If everyone were to watch it once again, [you'd see that] it’s not so much an action movie and as you took a look at the philosophical and psychological concepts, I think you’d understand what I mean a little [better].

If you were to see “The Animatrix” before you saw The Matrix, you could find intriguing things you didn’t notice before.
When you can’t sleep at night, watch it over and over again.
Well now… I wonder how just how many people there are who can appreciate the depth of this movie…

I guess I’ll go stretch now…

GACKT

Top 5 male celebrities who women
want to give chocolates to
1. Sato Takeru (佐藤健)
2. Mukai Osamu (向井理)
3. Sakurai Sho (櫻井翔) (Arashi/嵐)
4. Fukuyama Masaharu (福山雅治)
5. Miura Haruma (三浦春馬)

Top 5 female celebrities who men
want to receive chocolates from
1. Nagasawa Masami (長澤まさみ)
2. Aragaki Yui (新垣結衣)
3. Horikita Maki (堀北真希)
4. Miyazaki Aoi (宮崎あおい)
5. Ueto Aya (上戸彩)

Top 5 love songs to listen to on Valentine’s Day
1. Valentine Kiss by Kokusho Sayuri (国生さゆり)
2. Chocolate Disco by Perfume (パフューム)
3. Love so sweet by Arashi (嵐)
4. CHE.R.RY by YUI
5. Sakuranbo by Otsuka Ai (大塚愛)

- I do not like the fact of a fan sub group have a locked community for members where you : ‘Have to be a fan of a certain musican group’ or answer the question ‘Who’s your favorite member?’ (what if I’m not even a fan?)  just be able to join the community to download their subbed dramas. (No, I’m not just talking about STORMY team).
- It is one of the reasons that I’m prefer using torrent over direct downloads. Another is that I with torrents can give back to others by seeding dramas.
- And maybe a solution for problem of dramas ending up on various streaming sites.  Make MKV file format a standard? *Cheers to XrayMind*

Sources: Barks, Natalie, Oricon, Sanspo, Sponichi, BXtE, Xplosion’s MySpace, Tokyograph and others

Many news websites have been writing about YOSHIKI when he appeared at the Grammy Awards 2010 that took place on January 31st at 10:00pm (local time)
There YOSHIKI did announce that X JAPAN has accepted the request to play at the music festival Lollapalooza which takes place in Chicago between August 6th-8th, 2010.
If X JAPAN play there, they will be the first japanese rock band that appears on the main stage.
Approximately 225000 people will be visiting the festival during the three days that it takes place.

No official confirmation have been done on X JAPAN’s website or anywhere else yet.

Source: BXtE News – 2010/01/29

An announcement made on the Star Age website states that starting with January 31st, Healing World Ltd. will not be in charge of TOSHI’s official homepage and Fanclub (TOSHI NET) anymore. It is also stated that information about a new website or the continuation of the fanclub will be published when decided. The statement also clarifies that Star Age Co, Ltd. is not associated to or in any way connected to Healing World Ltd. or Home of Heart Ltd. and that it is an independent company.

In more TOSHI related news, it seems his MIXI blog is back up, after having been removed a few days ago. Apparently it was SUGIZO who invited him back. (One can only join MIXI if one is invited by an existing member.) In that first new blog, TOSHI also mentioned that both his OHP and his Ameblo blog will be renewed sometime in the future.

Original post: in Japanese at GACKT’s blog
Translation: by uranus_sama

2010/01/21 11:27 (11:27am)

I’m swindling people, they say…, what??

FORDEAR

Yep yep, there’s a lot of people with free time in this world.
Once again, good-for-nothing third-rate media outlets are reporting on things they have no proof of.
“An emerging fraud???” Wait, someone’s committing a fraud, you say?
Oh shit, I didn’t hear about it…, please forgive me.

Of course, it’s a fact that the DVD’s release date keeps getting pushed back.
I’m really sorry about it and I think Ive [conveyed that to] the fans who’ve been waiting patiently for me.
I let everyone know that I feel there’s no compromising in my work, and I don’t want people to feel like we just threw this thing at them with light editing like “Okay, here you go!”

In spite of how clear I thought I made myself on this, eventually third-rate media outlets are writing things to the contrary.
Not to mention the bonus footage is behind schedule, and どーとか. [dont know what that means] I thought I made that absolutely freaking clear.

Just who are they talking about when they say “[We got the inside] story from authorized people”?

They said “running out of money”.
Who’s running out of money?!?
You gotta be kidding me.
Oh I beg your pardon, I didn’t realize you were a dumbass.

If they think it’ll sell, they’ll write anything.
Really, the media is just saturating this world, of course it’s going to be bad.

This shit flows through the media from adults who can’t think of anything other than themselves.

If you’re going to just make light of me, I can ignore it.
But I will NOT excuse you getting my fans wrapped up in this as a pretext.
If you’re selling a fight, no matter how much it may cost, I’ll buy it.
Fucking media.

GACKT
~~~~~
Note: On the last part, he literally says “Idiot media-domo”, where ‘domo’ is a plural marker implying a low status.