Gackt

Gackt was born on July 4, 1973, as the second of three children in a Ryukyuan family, in Okinawa of the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. His father was a music teacher, who primarily played the trumpet, and his mother was also a teacher. Gackt has an older sister and a younger brother. He lived in Okinawa until he was 7 years old (with short periods when was 16 and 26), because of his father's job, living in many different cities on Honshu and Kyushu islands in addition to Okinawa: Yamaguchi, Fukuoka, Shiga, Osaka, and Kyoto. He studied in the Moriyama High School in Shiga, and was enrolled in the Kyoto Gakuen University.

Gackt's musical education began at age three when his parents initiated his classical piano education. At age seven, continuing his classical piano education became more difficult because of time spent at elementary school and the repeated change of instructors due to relocating from city to city. It would take another four years until his parents allowed him to quit lessons. However, after losing a piano competition to a boy he met in the middle school, Gackt voluntarily returned to his piano studies, even writing orchestral scores. He has credited the classical pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin with being "the one who taught me the beauty, depth, fun, sadness, the kindness of music; that music could grant people courage, and the meaning of the layers of sound. It isn't an exaggeration to say Chopin is the foundation of my music". Since his father played the trumpet, Gackt is also familiar with brass instruments. Having only listened to classical music and enka while growing up, he did not become interested in rock music until high school, and went on to master modern percussion.Gackt's introduction to filmmaking, in addition to music videos, came in 2001 and 2002 with two TV documentaries. First, he traveled to Madagascar for the TV show Ima Hadaka ni Shitai Otoko-tachi (いま裸にしたい男たち), then participated in the children's documentary, Hero's Hero, both aired on NHK. In 2003, he worked on the script and starred as Shō in his film, Moon Child, which was filmed in Taiwan. It was released on April 19 in Japan, and screened on May 13 at the Cannes Film Festival and on April 12, 2004, at Philadelphia Film Festival. He voiced Seiji in the original video animation, New Fist of the North Star, for which two of his older songs were used as themes and released as a single "Lu:na/Oasis". Gackt also assisted as a model and provided the voice and the motion capture for a main character Lau Wong in the video game Bujingai by Taito and Red Entertainment. His next involvement was in 2006, with the Final Fantasy franchise, for a video game Dirge of Cerberus, and again in 2007 for a video game Crisis Core, where the character Genesis Rhapsodos was modeled on, voiced and co-created by Gackt. Besides that, Gackt composed and performed two theme songs for the first game, which were released in the single "Redemption".

In 2007, Gackt played the Sengoku-period daimyō Uesugi Kenshin in the NHK Taiga drama, Fūrin Kazan, for which he was nominated for the TV Navi award as best-supporting actor in a drama category. Gackt recalls that Kenshin was always portrayed as a very tough man. Thus his vision with female myth in mind, which presented him clean-shaven and with long hair, received harsh criticism, but Ken Ogata expressed his approval and supported Gackt's work in the drama. In the same year Gackt was a voice actor in the Japanese dub of the French animated-live action film, Arthur and the Minimoys. In 2008, Gackt was filming in Romania for his first international film debut, Bunraku, which was released in 2010. The next year he appeared as a prisoner Takegami Teijiro on death row in the second episode of the TV series, Mr. Brain, and Joji Yuki in the film Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker. In 2008 and 2009 collaborated as an actor, with main character based on him and were used his songs in two slo-pachinko's, Yamasa Digi World SP Bounty Killer and Gladiator Evolution.

In 2010, he was a voice actor several times, first for the film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard, then the anime series Shiki, his first regular voice cast role; and Tono to Issho, where he provided the voice for the daimyo he previously played on television. He also voiced characters for two video games, Velskud in Dragon Nest, for which he composed and performed the theme song, "Ever", and pilot "Ex-" of Extreme Gundam the final boss in Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs.. In 2011, he was a voice actor for the sequel of the Tono to Issho anime series, Andy in Supernatural: The Animation (episode 21 first season), and Dante in Sket Dance for which he also performed its theme "Graffiti" as well. He appeared in the TV drama, Tempest (テンペスト) in which he played Jotei Gai, a Chinese eunuch who tries to take over the Ryukyu Kingdom. He was also a voice actor of Knight Commander and theme song "Until The Last Day" performer for the video game animated film, Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker.

In 2012, Gackt appeared in the Sengoku Basara television drama, Sengoku Basara: Moonlight Party, as the games' depiction of warlord Oda Nobunaga. He also performed the series' theme song "Hakuro" (his 42nd single). He was also seen in a dual role as a Professor of Neurology Shiki Takashi and Yumeoji (literally translated "Dream Prince") in the drama Akumu-chan, which is based on the novel Yume Chigai (夢違) by Riku Onda. In mid-2013 was the voice actor of Travis Grady and provided image song "Claymore" in Japanese dubbing of Silent Hill: Revelation. In November 2013, Gackt appeared as a guest-star in two episodes (21 & 22) of the Indonesian Tokusatsu series, Bima Satria Garuda, as "Noir", the mysterious "Bima Legend" Knight from Parallel World. In 2014, he repeated his role in the movie Akumu-chan, and starred in the drama Time Spiral as a time-traveler university professor Shuya Tatsumi, based on the web novel Tokeru Rasen (解 け る 螺旋) by Eren Mizumori (水守恵蓮). Gackt collaborated with Square Enix on the role-playing game 3594e -Sangokushi Eiga- for iOS, based on the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a Chinese historical novel. The in-game playable character, military general Lü Bu, was voiced by him and he also provided a theme song.

In 2015, Gackt made a cameo appearance in Origami, a short film by director Cato Ochi. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. In the same year he voiced the characters Uesugi Kenshin and Sengoku Gackt which was modelled after him as well as provided the opening theme song of the mobile game Sengoku Shura Soul. In early 2016, it was announced that Gackt was to have his first lead role after 14 years in the movie Karanukan (2018) directed by Yasuhiro Hamano (浜野安宏). The movie is set at the Yaeyama Islands of Okinawa, and Gackt portrays photographer Hikaru Ooyama who falls in love with a girl, Mami who mysteriously disappears. In the same year he voiced Maten Ruedo in the mobile game Othellonia, was a voice actor for The Fiend with Twenty Faces providing also opening and ending theme songs for the anime Trickster, and also dubbed the main role played by Tom Hiddleston in the Japanese dub of Kong: Skull Island.

In August 2018, it was announced that Gackt will have a co-leading role as 18-year-old student Rei Asami in a live adaptation movie of the 1980s comedy manga Tonde Saitama (翔んで埼玉), written by Mineo Maya (魔夜峰央). The film was released in early 2019 to critical acclaim, and Gackt was nominated at the 43rd Japan Academy Film Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. In October 2022 was confirmed to have started working on Tonde Saitama sequel, which was released in November 2023.