Today is GACKT’s 49th Birthday, wooo!

I’ve been too tired from work to be able to do anything new. But I could at least throw on his records and rock out while putting together a collage of my fanart of him!

This isn’t everything, though it is a lot of it. I’m actually not big on doing fanart of real people, which is why half of this is actually GACKT as Genesis Rhapsodos and two of the others were done as practice in their respective mediums. Putting this together was quite the trip down memory lane…

Clockwise from upper left:

1. This might be the first Genesis Rhapsodos fan art I drew. I did it for the group Red Leather that I had on the North American Square Enix Members, and posted it to my personal blog later the same year (2009).

2. This is the GACKT clone I made in Soul Calibur IV. (2012)

3. This was for my short, illustrated gag story where the three SOLDIER boys try Painting With a Twist. This is also Genesis. (2020)

4. Genesis, from a larger illustration based on musician Alex Moukala’s “One-Winged Angel is Funky” remix wherein he said “Sephiroth’s crew shows up with a boombox.” (2021)

5. A copy of a photo of GACKT that I drew as an example of how to use charcoal. (2021)

6. A copy of a photo of GACKT done entirely in ballpoint pen, just to see if I could. (c. 2004)

7. This is a photo of the artist’s proof for my lithograph entitled “The Alchemist of Sound.” In my undergrad printmaking class, we had to decide on a theme for the work we’d produce that semester. IIRC my theme was “the mysterious and occult.” The outfit I put GACKT in is inspired by the burlap sack he wore in the video for “OASIS” and my own love of drawing draperies. I guess I gave him the Black Materia to justify the pose. Everything else in the image is just mysterious/occult-looking stuff I liked. Ahaha… (2004)

8. A Japanese fan on Twitter randomly started the hashtag game ジェネシスとりんご (Genesis and apples). I didn’t have time to actually draw something, so I took a photo of the Gakucchi from the DIABOLOS tour with a little apple and painted the apple purple in Photoshop to turn it into a Banora White. (2021)

9. The teddy bear isn’t GACKT merch. But I bought him during the time of the Yellow Fried Chickenz; his hot pink mohawk reminded me of bassist Chirolyn. So I put a YFCz pin on his leather jacket and named him Chirobear. (LOL) That’s why he’s in this photo with the black rabbit suit Gakucchi, which I’m pretty sure I bought at a YFC show. (2022)