**Gackt Camui** ( 神威 楽斗 Kamui Gakuto ) is a Japanese musician, songwriter and actor. Usually referred to by his stage name Gackt, he is best known for his work with Malice Mizer and his following career as a solo artist. Besides Japanese language, he has performed in English, Korean, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Biography
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### Early life

Gackt was born in Okinawa, Japan on 4 July 1973. As the second of three children, with an older sister and a younger brother. His father and mother were music teachers who played various instruments with his father primarily playing the trumpet. According to his autobiography, he was a mischievous child and enjoyed taking risks; at age seven he nearly drowned while swimming off the coast of Okinawa. After this near death experience, he claimed to have the ability to see and speak with the deceased, a notion which was dismissed by his parents. At the age of ten, Gackt was hospitalized with a gastrointestinal tract and had to remain at the hospital for a prolonged time. He made the acquaintance of several terminally ill children, some of whom died during his stay.

Gackt's musical education began at age three, when his parents initiated his classical piano education, of which he grew tired four years later. It would take another four years until his parents allowed him to quit. Competition with a friend lead to Gackt taking back up the piano, and he was later encouraged to learn other various instruments, especially those used in a rock band, throughout the rest of his time in school.

### Malice Mizer

See the main article: Malice Mizer
In 1995, Gackt joined Malice Mizer as the group's vocalist, lyricist and pianist. Fan base and record sales grew substantially over the following years. Malice Mizer released two albums with Gackt (*Voyage ~Sans Retour~* and *Merveilles*) along with seven singles. According to Gackt, when he began taking on more roles in the band, he was asked to leave the group. However, the other members of the band say that this is not true and that Gackt simply "disappeared" after waiting for him once their break was over.

### Solo career

Gackt began his solo career on 12 May 1999 with the release *Mizerable*. Several albums, singles and videos have since followed. He has also done voice acting and motion capturing and co-wrote and co-starred in the 2003 movie *Moon Child*, which also stars Hyde (vocalist of L'Arc~en~Ciel) and Wang Lee Hom (Taiwanese-American actor-singer). Also in 2003, Gackt published his autobiography titled *Jihaku* and for Caparison Guitars, he has designed two guitars, named "Marcury" and "Venus".

In 2007, Gackt played the warlord Uesugi Kenshin in the TV drama *Fūrinkazan* Gackt's most recent solo release is the single "Returner ~Yami no Shuuen~", released on June 20, 2007, which was the first in the artist's career (both solo and in a band) to reach the number one spot on the Japanese Oricon charts. Gackt was also the voice actor for Malthazar in the Japanese release of the film *Arthur and the Minimoys*.

On 19 December, Gackt released an album titled *0079-0088* containing 8 tracks, which had either previously been used on the soundtracks of the *Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam* movies or were covers of earlier songs from the *Gundam* franchise. It was created as a tribute to the creator of *Gundam*, Yoshiyuki Tomino, for his birthday.

### Skin

On 25 May 2007, the formation of the supergroup Skin was announced, which also consists of Miyavi, Sugizo and Yoshiki. The group gave its debut performance at an Anime convention in Long Beach California on 29 June 2007.

GacktJob
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GacktJob is Gackt's live support band. Its current lineup is as follows:

* Yukihiro "Chachamaru" Fujimura–backing vocals, lead guitar
* You–violin, guitar
* Ju-ken–bass (currently touring with Anna Tsuchiya)
* Nell–bass (filling in for Ju-ken)
* Minami–drums
* Igao–keyboard

Former members:

* Masa–rhythm guitar
* Ren–bass
* Ryu–drums
* Toshi–drums
* Jun-Ji - drums

Sources
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1. 1 2 3  *Jihaku*, Kobunsha Co. Ltd. ISBN 4-3349-7412-0
2. ↑  "*Article transposed to 2ch, most likely from a January 1999 Ma Cherie newsletter.*" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
3. ↑  "*Moon Child* credits". *imdb.com*.
4. ↑  "Caparison Marcury". *kyowashokai.co.jp*. Archived from the original on 2008-04-30. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
5. ↑  "Caparison Venus". *kyowashokai.co.jp*. Archived from the original on 2007-12-26. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
6. ↑  "来年の大河ドラマ「風林火山」、主役に内野聖陽さん". *asashi.com* (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2007-02-04. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
7. ↑  "Oricon compliments Gackt on his first #1 single". *oricon.co.jp* (in Japanese).
8. ↑  "News article on *Arthur and the Minimoys* involvement". *tokyograph.com*. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
9. ↑  "Gackt to release "Gundam album"". Archived from the original on 2007-12-09. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
10. ↑  "Anime News Network- Gackt x Gundam for 0079-0088".
11. ↑  "Anime Expo 2007 announcement". *anime-expo.org*.
12. ↑  "Yoshiki interview at JRock Revolution". *jmusicamerica.com*. Archived from the original on 2009-07-10. Retrieved 2008-03-03.

Other websites
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* Official Website (Japanese)
* Gackt at Nippon Crown Archived 2006-12-10 at the Wayback Machine (Japanese)
* Gackt and Dears community site (Japanese)