Gackt – No Ni Saku Hana No You Ni

Gackt – 野に咲く花のように (CD+DVD)

This week is the latest single from Gackt. The song garnered much attention from his fans, and after many requests, he released it as a single. For those who don’t know the backstory, a student of Maiko Koukou was having troubles maintaining one of Japan’s only environmental disaster prevention clubs that was dangerously low on members. After writing a letter to Gackt, the star actually responded with some sound advice due to his experience in the Kobe earthquake, and the student was apparently able to recruit members to keep his club alive. As a thank you, the student invited Gackt to his high school’s 30th graduation ceremony, and to his surprise, Gackt appeared and performed this song for them.

On to the review. You can hear Gackt’s heartfelt memories of his own high school experience in this song. It’s truly an inspiring song, especially from such a fellow as Gackt. Anybody who’s goth or emo would like Gackt’s music, though I don’t think you could honestly classify him in that category, especially when he can pump out such a positive message in a low-key ballad like this. (Also, I think he’s too pretty for his own good. He raises the bar for average guys like me.)

The original acoustic guitar version was okay, but the pf.style version is probably the one that really shines through. The piano matches the song perfectly, and though the technical level needed to play either version is pretty low, it suits this song just fine.

The PV is pretty cool – a montage of the high school’s students interspersed with Gackt sitting in an empty classroom and singing the song. The best parts are at the beginning and the end, where they show footage of Gackt speaking at the graduation ceremony, as well as the young man who was responsible for his appearance and the writing of this song.

All in all, the single was decent – not worth a purchase, in my opinion, unless you’re a die-hard Gackt fan – but the limited edition poster is enough to send fangirls screaming into the void. For your information, I wasn’t about to put a poster of a pretty, Nihonjin man on my wall, so I gave the poster away to Minky-chan. Hope you’re enjoying the poster (and please don’t tell me how you’re probably petting it right now… U_U). I enjoy Gackt’s more heavier, rock music, so I’m a bit biased, but hey, you like what you like. Ballad fans might enjoy this one more. Final score: 6/10.

02/21/2012 EDIT: Downloads disabled due to Megaupload takedown.

以上。。。であります。