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The ManQuick Facts Real Name: There are several names, that in various constellations are rumored to be Gackt´s real first and surname. Which one the real one is we won´t know until Gackt tells us so. Most likely - in my opinion - is a constellation of the Names "Gakuto" and "Kamui", the first one being the surname, the second one the first name.
Pseudonym: Gackt. Sometimes we will find it written as "Gackt Camui" or "Gackt C.". Very few times the letters M.S. were added to his pseudonym. The meaning of these two letters, however, remains unknown. I´ve read rumors about them standing for "Manabu Satoru", so some people believed this to be Gackt's real name. Still "Manabu Satoru" is quite more often said to be Mana´s (of "Moi Dix Mois" and once of "Malice Mizer") real name.
Date of Birth: July 4th 1973. It´s common with japanese artists that they do not publish the year of their birth, only the day and month. Gackt, either, didn´t publish his year of birth for a long time. Yet in a video of his 2005 live tour was written on a tombstone with the name "Gackt" on it "1973" as the year of birth.
Place of Birth: Okinawa, Japan. I can not tell you if this information refers to "Okinawa City" or to the whole island of Okinawa.
Home Town: Kyoto, Japan. As far as I know and gathered information from several sources including Gackt´s autobiography he has been living in Kyoto most of his life and still does so today.
Height: ~ 178cm / 5'10''
Weight: ~ 60kg / 132lb
Measures: 98cm /68cm/88cm for Bust/Waist/Hips
Eye Color: brown originally but Gackt uses contactlenses most of times preferring them in blue.
Hair Color: dark brown/black originally, but dyed usually.
Bloodtype: A. It is very common with japanese artists to publish their type of blood quite like for western people to publish ones zodiac sign. Biography Gackt was born on July 4th 1973 on Okinawa, Japan. The year of his birth though has been rumored about for a long time as Gackt published it as late as 2005. Before that there has only been information on his day and month of birth. Several times Gackt claimed that he was born in 1540 anywhere near Norway but though I´m not good in calculations I guess we can put this into the basket of myths. He has an older sister and a younger brother. His real name is actually unknown. Gackt and "Gackt Camui" (or "Camui Gackt" vice versa) are stage names. The name Gackt is spoken Gack~to and you will also find it written "Gakuto", too, that's the japanese phonetic transcription ("u" is not spoken within most japanese words). There are also lots of rumors about his real name AND about his stage name. Is Camui supposed to be the surname? Is it Gackt? (It´s a big question as in Japan the surname is written first, the first name as second). And once Gackt said his full name would be Camui M.S. Gackt - so what´s the M.S. for? Anyway now what´s his real name? Is his real first name actually Kamui? Is his surname Gakuto? And what´s about that "Manabu Satoru" name mentioned on the one or other HP? Rumors and still more rumors. Wanna read my version? I'm nothing more but a victim to rumors but there are some HPs I ... well I guess I trust them somewhat. My tip is: His real name is Kamui Gakuto. It makes sense for me as it would answer the question about how he chose his stage name. Camui Gackt <=> Kamui Gakuto. Anyway I guess Camui is supposed to be the first name as it actually IS a japanese, male first name. Gackt or Gakuto for me sounds like a surname. But maybe I´m wrong - I can´t tell. AND as japanese Rock/Pop artists very often orientate at western styles it´s quite possible that Gackt writes his Name in english/western style and not in japanese, so first the first name, then the surname. The Name Manabu Satoru instead I read the first time on an "yeah-no costs-no sense" Homepage and it seemed to me that somebody just searched for two names that would fit the M.S.. On the other hand I have read the name on a Mana fanpage so maybe it´s actually her ... uh sorry HIS real name. Try and find your own truth until he tells us. Still being a little child, about three years old, his parents made him play the piano. "Made him" as he says he would have never enjoyed it himself. His parents were very strict allowing their children to see only educational tv and to listen to classic music. Remembering his strict education he says he gets angry even today. Everything in his life was "regulated and instructed" beginning with how to say "Good Morning" and ending with the way he had to go to bed. But the Piano would not be the only instrument he would learn. Indeed he´s able to play several instruments like trumped, saxophone, horn, gitar, drums, trombone and tuba. And in the "Making of" of "Yunigatsu no Love Song" he plays a little bit violine. He seems to have a very good way with music and instrument. Still he always trained playing his instruments very hard as he admits about himself: "I couldn´t stand it if the others could do something I couldn´t. When I saw the instructor play a difficult song very easily, I felt ashamed of myself and was eager to achieve learning that song." At the age of six or seven Gackt nearly drowned in the sea of Okinawa. He was saved and revived. In his autobiography "Jihaku" he writes about seeing his childhood memories when struggling to survive. After that had happened he started to hear voices of higher spirits. And sometimes those higher spirits would indeed take control of his body. One day, when his parents were visited by friends he felt like the spirit of some woman moved into his body. When all this strange behaviour for which he couldn´t find any understanding increased he was send to a psychiatry. Twice he had to spend some time there, once when he was a little child and again when he was about fifteen years old. When he was about seventeen years old he started to change his taste for music. He became acquainted with some kind of music he did´nt know from his childhood: popular rock´n´roll. Classic music was everthing he was familiar with and so he had once imagined to become an orchestra conductor. Yet when getting to know rock music more and more he made his mind up for a different type of "career". He became the drummer in a band founded by other pupils of his school. It was named "Cain´s Feel". Before he had already played in his school´s big band. But actually when becoming the drummer of "Cain´s Feel" Gackt was only supposed to be a help member. That was until the band´s vocalist left and the band started to search for a new one. One of the band´s members - eventually Gackt´s best friend and GacktJOB member You - told Gackt that he should sing. Gackt infact wasn´t that sure about his skills in singing. It took You lots of persuation until he had got Gackt to sing for the band. You was the first person to tell Gackt that he had a great voice. And thus Gackt - the singer was born. However, he didn´t stay the vocalist of "Cain´s Feel" for very long. Between 1992 and 1994 a band named "Malice Mizer" archived more and more fame. This band, which was founded by Mana and Közi in 1992, very soon became a quite popular visual kei band. In these early years the band´s vocalist was Tetsu. Yet in 1994 he announced he was leaving the band. He didn´t like the little acts and plays the band´s members were performing on stage. It took "Malice Mizer" a year to find a new vocalist. On October 10th 1995 then Gackt became officially a member of "Malice Mizer" replacing Tetsu. And in fact with Gackt the popularity of "Malice Mizer" grew wider and wider. With their very own music label "Midi:Nette" they started to publish their first singles and in 1996 "Voyage sans Retour", their first full length album with Gackt, was produced. Very soon "Malice Mizer" started to produce with one of the greatest japanese music labels: Nippon Columbia. They filled great music halls giving concerts, were special guests in tv shows, were seen on covers of the most popular music magazines, published Photobooks and Merchandise. They also released a silent film with the name "Bel Air - Verte Aile". Yet nothing lasts forever. In 1999 Gackt left "Malice Mizer" starting a solo career because of some differences with the other members. Nevertheless he claims he would always love them in a special way. For "Malice Mizer" it seemed like the days of great popularity had gone with Gackt´s parting as they had come with him joining them. In 2000 "Malice Mizer" found a new vocalist in Klaha, but a great amount of fans had left with Gackt and another crisis hit "Malice Mizer" when their drummer Kami died in 1999 from an cerebral haemorrhage. The end came in 2002 when "Malice Mizer" finally announced their parting for the good of the solo projects of its members. In the very beginning of his solo career it seemed like Gackt´s manager was going to turn him into a "Malice Mizer" one man show. Gackt himself worked so hard to please his fans and to achieve what he dreamed of that he finally had to stay in hospital for a very long time. He also once disappeared without a trace in the first month of his solo work. But when he returned he was ready to go on in order to fulfill his dreams. His solo career and the band supporting him is called "GacktJOB". He got a new manager and in 1999 his first solo single "Mizerable" was released. The first official fanclub was founded with the name "Kissmark". In the following month however "Kissmark" was suspended and the new official fanclub was named "Dears". It remains Gackt´s official Fanclub until today. "Dears".. that´s what Gackt calls his fans, those people supporting him and believing in him. In Japan his popularity grew with Tv shows like "Utaban", with moderators not knowing what to say, with people enjoying his dark humor and the fact that he can say the weirdest things without changing the expression on his face. Because of his strange behaviour, because of the things he said and did he got the nickname "The twisted aristocrat". With the efforts of the world wide web Gackt´s popularity spread all over the world. Nowadays there hardly seems to be a way around Gackt in Japan. He´s in Commercials, Tv shows, in magazines, in Videogames like "Bujingai" (PS2), series and movies, one can buy calenders, posters, postcards, photobooks, he´s designing clothes and juwellery, he´s been writing soundtracks for anime series like Gundam V and he did voice acting for a charakter of "Fist of the North Star". In spring 2003 he infact was the star of the movie "Moon Child". This movie also starred Hyde of "L'Arc~en~Ciel" and Gackt helped writing the script. Gackt has been on several tours filling great music halls like Yokohama Arena and Tokyo Dome. He has been on photoshooting trips around the world. His Discography is ever growing. Eventually he has been chosen as ""Mr.Perfect Japan" by the Takano Yuri Beauty Clinik for four years in sequence. In the new sequel to "Final Fantasy VII" which goes by the name "Final Fantasy VII - Dirge of Cerberus" and which features "Vincent Valentine" as main character Gackt is playing a character. This character namend "Project G" will only be seen in the special ending of the game that you can unlock while playing. Unlike in the making of "Bujingai" they did´t use motion capturing but filmed Gackt and later created the character´s movement to Gackt´s. Now in 2007 another part of the "Final Fantasy VII" story is added by the prequel "Crisis Core". And again in this game we will see Gackt as "Project G". The year of 2007 came with a new television activity for Gackt. He played samurai warlord Uesugi Kenshin in NHK´s seriel drama "Fu-rin Kazan". Filming started in Sommer 2006, the series aired for the first time in January 2007. Episodes following every sunday. He is also doing some cooperation with three other famous japanese artists (Sugizo, Yoshiki, Miyavi). The music project goes by the name S.K.I.N. In summer 2007 they started working on an album. Gackt is doing the vocals for this "super band". The first official appearence was on Anime Expo in L.A. However the S.K.I.N. project seems to be resting now for the benefit of the members solo work. There haven´t been any news since summer 2007. After nearly one and a half year without musical releases in November 2008 Gackt has become more active again. He´s working on a new album and startet his new live tour in December 2008. This tour is also the first one that´s not for "Dears" members only after a row of limited tours. Another benefit of Gackt´s long break from publishing will be in cinemas around the start of 2010: The movie "Bunraku" in which Gackt plays a major part with co-stars Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson, Demi More and more. To celebrate his 10 year anniversary of his solo work from June 10th on a row of singles will be released in some kind of a release-marathon. ↑ Top |