Kami's obituary in BAND Magazine

Kyuketsuki

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Hey guys, long time no see.

I ran across something that might interest everyone- Kami's obituary in BAND magazine. A Japanese friend of mine posted a picture on fb of a bunch of old VK mags he found in a box or something and I commented on all the MM stuff. He then said that, when he was going through them, he found one that had an obituary spread for Kami in it.

He said I could share the photos with you guy and he also included a translation, which was extremely nice of him.

Here's the collection- he didn't tell me which issue it came from, but I'm guessing it's not any of the ones with Hide on it, which narrows it down pretty well:

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Here are the photos he took of the obituary spread:

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And here is his translation of the pages:

This page has three condolences from some people having had relationships with Kami. And one of them is from MM.

1, This is a sudden unexpected thing but we have to announce really sad news. One of MM members, the drummer, Kami, died of subarachnoid hemorrhage at his house on 21st of June. Kami was really nice to us, so we`re so grateful to him. His funeral was held today with only a small number of people, like, his parents, his relatives and MM members. That was his parents` request. They wanted to hold his funeral with a few people. All of you, please pray that his soul may rest in peace. 1999, June 25th. From Souichiro Otsuka and Sachie(or Yukie) Ito.

(And this is my opinion, on # 1, they didn`t say Gackt didn`t attend the funeral. this is from Aki, me)

2, We`re so sad that there`re no words we can express because it was a sudden event. But we have to get over this sadness, we shouldn`t get sad always from this event. We`ll keep MM and be in action for Kami to move on from now on. Please support us even after this with a warm heart. By MM.

3, In the middle of the night, I was surprised and shocked at the letter sent by FAX saying about Kami`s death. I was dumbfounded for a while. MM was no longer in business because of Gackt leaving MM last year. We were just wating for MM to restart again. On the stage of the event taken place by their fan club in April, Kami was fine and there was nothing the audience were worried about. But he doesn`t exist in this world now. Since before their major debut, MM members were already unique and eccentric in a good way whenever I interviewed them and there was a tense atmosphere a bit and only Kami was a bit different from the other members. He seemed or looked just nice and created a good and nice atmosphere. Kami and I also had a good or sometimes funny or stupid conversation but he was always smiling and seemd friendly. Only when we talked about drums, he was so eloquent. When I showed him music equipment pictures, he looked so interrested in them like a very frolicsome child. After the Budokan concert, he was crying over a member of his family`s death, in front of so many staff. Human have frail life. He must have thought he wanted to restart and be on the stage with the rest of MM members till his sudden death. He talked about his dreams, and his dreams came true one by one, he gave a lot of people dreams and moved people. But he went to heaven like a butterfly with large wings flapping slowly. MM will definitely come back with Kami`s will and soul. MM will definitely come back because Kami should have thought he wanted to. What I can do now is just pray for the repose of his soul and wait for MM to come back. From Satoshi Fushimi, an editor of this magazine.

And the subject of this page is Like a butterfly flying in the sky.

Anyway, I thought this was something we probably didn't have yet on scape, which is, well, an extremely rare event. So I wanted to make sure it got here. :)

Thanks guys!

-Kyu
 

flowersofnight

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Hey, welcome back :D And thanks for the new (old) material!
Was there a rumor that Gackt wasn't at the funeral? I don't remember now. He definitely seems to still care even to this day, even though I thought his graveside TV special was a little tawdry.
 

Kyuketsuki

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Hey, welcome back :D And thanks for the new (old) material!
Was there a rumor that Gackt wasn't at the funeral? I don't remember now. He definitely seems to still care even to this day, even though I thought his graveside TV special was a little tawdry.

Gackt said in Jihaku (which we all know is a super truthful and reliable source for everything ::meev:: ) that he didn't know about the funeral until after it happened and in HIS opinion he was intentionally left out and he's resented the other band members forever for it because he and kami were "best friends". Personally if there was a shotgun funeral, it's because Kami's body had been out for too long and they had no choice, and with the way Gackt cut himself off from the rest of the band to go be a solo rock star, how in the hell were they supposed to let him know about it? Truthfully it was most likely a huge miscommunication and series of premade bad choices that led to him missing the funeral and not any kind of intentional malicious decision-making. That doesn't stop any of them from being dicks to each other though. :P

I had mentioned this to Aki (my friend whose magazine this is and who did the translation) and I guess he was keeping an eye out for any linguistic hint about Gackt not being there and there doesn't seem to be any. It was later that Gackt himself said in Jihaku that he missed it because no one told him Kami had died in time or something.

And MY PLEASURE. I saw it and immediately thought of everybody here. Plus, you know, I miss you guys. <3
 

flowersofnight

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Oh yeah, didn't he run off to Madagascar (as in the literal African island) without telling anyone, when he was going off to become a secret solo artist, and no one knew where he'd gone? I wonder if that's when the funeral was.
 

Kyuketsuki

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Oh yeah, didn't he run off to Madagascar (as in the literal African island) without telling anyone, when he was going off to become a secret solo artist, and no one knew where he'd gone? I wonder if that's when the funeral was.

I think Madagascar was later? Because that was an official NHK special and NHK doesn't do anything on the fly- there would've been months of planning for that kind of trip, I think.
 

flowersofnight

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Well, the NHK might have known about it, but maybe not his former band members XD I don't remember the details now, but I could have sworn Gackt did go off somewhere and drop off the radar (as far as the rest of them were concerned) sometime after he quit.
 

Kyuketsuki

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Well, the NHK might have known about it, but maybe not his former band members XD I don't remember the details now, but I could have sworn Gackt did go off somewhere and drop off the radar (as far as the rest of them were concerned) sometime after he quit.

Yeah, the band was already on a break or something- from touring I think?- and in that time Gackt just was *boop* gone, and if I'm remembering correctly they all found out he left when 'Miserable' came out?? Harsh. I think that info came from an article someone posted on 2ch that you ran across a million years ago? It was in that month between Gackt leaving and debuting as solo and Kami was still alive and all of them were like "We had no idea- we're all really shocked". I wish I could remember what the name of that thread was now....

I don't remember when the Madagascar special was precisely (wikipedia suggests 2001), but I just looked it up and it starts with live footage of him playing stuff off the MARS album, specifically 'Mirror' which didn't come out until after 'Vanilla'. I'm not saying he couldn't have filmed it before 'Miserable' came out but that would be 1. one hell of a conspiracy-level of planning and some seriously high confidence in Gackt's popularity before he even put out a single solo piece on NHK's part (i.e. there's no way they would have invested the money to send him to madagascar if he hadn't made a name for himself yet), and 2. a hell of a long time to edit something, like 7+ months before release if they really shot it before 'Miserable' even came out.
 

Chouko

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Hey, welcome back :D And thanks for the new (old) material!
Was there a rumor that Gackt wasn't at the funeral? I don't remember now. He definitely seems to still care even to this day, even though I thought his graveside TV special was a little tawdry.
Say whaaaat - he did a graveside TV special!?
That's a little too much if you ask me.
 

sanctum

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Say whaaaat - he did a graveside TV special!?
That's a little too much if you ask me.

You can view it here:

Although I haven't seen it myself, so I can't really comment on it.

Has anyone here ever visited his grave?
 

etherealspirits

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Per Jihaku Gackt was either in Okinawa or recording or maybe he was recording in Okinawa? ::shifty::jihaku.JPG

jihaku 2.JPG

I remember reading somewhere that he was away and had read in the newspaper about Kami's passing. Clearly he had separated from the band and sounded like he would not have been able to make the funeral since it was held right after they found Kami. From what has been posted on Scape, the translation of the band's statement after Gackt split, leaving like that without actually talking with everyone would make things very difficult for the rest of the band, along with having to deal with the sudden loss of Kami. I'm sure it was very painful for everyone involved.
 

etherealspirits

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Yeah, the band was already on a break or something- from touring I think?- and in that time Gackt just was *boop* gone, and if I'm remembering correctly they all found out he left when 'Miserable' came out?? Harsh. I think that info came from an article someone posted on 2ch that you ran across a million years ago? It was in that month between Gackt leaving and debuting as solo and Kami was still alive and all of them were like "We had no idea- we're all really shocked". I wish I could remember what the name of that thread was now....

I believe they found out around Jan 1, 1999 when Gackt released a statement that he had left to start a solo career. Miserable came out in May.

Also there was a thread here about that video but I can't find it now. Gackt said in the video that he would fight with Kami but then would make up. Except the last time he saw him he fought and didn't make-up and didn't contact him after that. When he visited Kami's parents he said he was sorry to them even though he knew it would not reach Kami. *something like that from what I found online*
 
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Kyuketsuki

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You can view it here:

Although I haven't seen it myself, so I can't really comment on it.

Has anyone here ever visited his grave?

CHRIST, I thought flowers was joking, hahaha oh my god, Gackt, sweetie, why???.

I've been out of the loop for ages and clearly this is something new. I already knew that he goes to Kami's parents' house every year on his birthday/death day (he tries to do both, he says?), but like.....the video came out 2014 it seems, so was it like a 15 year anniversary or something? I actually cannot bring myself to watch it. Gackt, you git- you know the rest of MM is probably really not cool with what you did. *sigh*

You know....once, ONCE, I spotted Gackt walking down the street in the heat of summer in higashi ueno as casually as anyone can in a Tokyo summer, and instead of being a good Nashvillian who lets musicians have their space, I should have just zoomed over and smacked him upside the head.

I really do love Gackt, but I will also beat him up. :|
 

flowersofnight

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I actually cannot bring myself to watch it.
Well: he visits Kami's parents and they talk about him, and they show, like, the pictures of Kami they have up over the fireplace and so on. Then Gackt goes out to Kami's actual grave and prays (silently) on-camera. Everyone's behavior is respectful enough, but honestly there's no reason cameras should have been brought along to make a spectacle of it. There's nothing "celebrity" about the rest of the family; we don't need to virtually go peeking around their house looking at scrapbooks of their dead relatives.
 

faith

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It's been a while since I saw it, but I'm pretty sure this isn't the whole thing, and that there were more pictures of GACKT than Kami...
But you know, not my friends, so no real opinion.

That aside, trusting anything Gackt says is popsicle sticks.
He's probably the faultiest narrarater I've seen, aside from dada and Natalie Waite.
 
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Kyuketsuki

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Well: he visits Kami's parents and they talk about him, and they show, like, the pictures of Kami they have up over the fireplace and so on. Then Gackt goes out to Kami's actual grave and prays (silently) on-camera. Everyone's behavior is respectful enough, but honestly there's no reason cameras should have been brought along to make a spectacle of it. There's nothing "celebrity" about the rest of the family; we don't need to virtually go peeking around their house looking at scrapbooks of their dead relatives.

I'd love to know who produced it- if it was oricon or somebody else- because that could explain a lot. But feature pieces like that love to get awkwardly into everyone's business on Japanese tv- stuff that you'd never do in the US, or would never ask, is fair play and yeah it makes you squirm a bit. But I agree on the whole that there was no reason to showcase Kami's death, especially 15 years later, because in the end all it is is Gackt promotion because I doubt Gackt's going to be seriously talking about the good ole days in Malice Mizer. (=_=)
 

etherealspirits

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I'd love to know who produced it- if it was oricon or somebody else- because that could explain a lot. But feature pieces like that love to get awkwardly into everyone's business on Japanese tv- stuff that you'd never do in the US, or would never ask, is fair play and yeah it makes you squirm a bit. But I agree on the whole that there was no reason to showcase Kami's death, especially 15 years later, because in the end all it is is Gackt promotion because I doubt Gackt's going to be seriously talking about the good ole days in Malice Mizer. (=_=)
It was a Niconico Premium Membership video so people paid to see it through their membership. Part of this which was also him releasing a new single. http://www.en.barks.jp/sp/news/?id=1000004257
 

Kyuketsuki

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lady_toast

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Omg hi Kyu!!!! Nice to see you here! :D

And thanks for that obituary -- surreal to think that it's been 17 years since he passed away.
 

Demanufacturer

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Thanks for this little bit of history, was good to read :)
 
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