Gackt ~ 小悪魔ヘヴン

'Koakuma Heaven', the first of Gackt's ongoing four consecutive single releases celebrating his 10th anniversary as a solo artist, has understandably caused quite a stir among his fans and people who follow the Japanese music scene in general.  I'm not a huge fan of Gackt, but I just wanted to talk a bit about a few issues surrounding this release.  There were people who liked it and people who hated it, which is natural, but what makes me sad is that many in the international community criticized it without understanding what the song is about and what he was trying to do here.  Of course, there's often a lot of unavoidable misunderstanding simply because of the language barrier, and you can't pin that on people like it's something bad that's their fault...it's also many people's gut reaction (including me!) to recoil whenever they hear such heavy vocal distortion and effects if the artist doesn't normally use them.  It just unfortunately seemed that even some pretty serious reviewers and fans didn't really know what to make of this song.

The shame in this is that in my opinion, it's one of the most interesting and creative songs Gackt's made in a long time, even though he himself explains that he was just joking around here.  His plan was to purposefully be silly and have fun with two of his four releases, and make the other two serious songs.  The most unique thing about this song is that he wrote it from a gyaru's perspective, even writing in gyaru moji.  A gyaru is a girl who adheres to a particular form of fashion and lifestyle in Japan, and while their interests and the activities they partake in are stereotyped to a degree, it doesn't mean a prostitute or anything of that sort (which I've come across in some interpretations of this song), but it could be related to being a hostess.  Gackt explains his intentions with this song in various interviews, including this one on Music Station which also features an...entertaining live performance. XD

I think it takes quite a bit of guts for a guy like Gackt to do something like this, especially since he went all out and dressed like a gyaru, as well as singing from the perspective of one of these girls.  It's actually a pretty admirable effort on his part to represent musically and take an intriguing look at this cultural phenomenon in Japan...but obviously meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and definitely shows his ever amusing sense of humor.  What makes it even funnier is that it's an almost a certain fact that Gackt is personally not a fan of this kind of style or way of speaking, yet pulls it off so well.  I find it refreshing and nice to see him looking so happy, having fun, and being more flexible with his work.  All the synthesizer and effects go perfectly with the over-done, sparkly image gyaru represent, as well as their attitude, which is reflected in the lyrics too.  Despite this, there's probably still people who hate it and won't start liking it any time soon, but I don't know, I would just hope people could at least appreciate it in some sense.