S.K.I.N ("superband" featuring Gackt, Miyavi, and Sugizo, one performance only
Various collaborations with other artists, most recently Marilyn Manson
Acts once signed to Extasy Records by Yoshiki as a solo producer (NOTE: as it no longer is signing artists, none of these are signed to it as of this time):
Yoshiki Hayashi (who usually goes by his first name, Yoshiki, which is capitalized as YOSHIKI in his solo or band work) is the bandleader, drummer, pianist, occasional guitarist, and co-creator of the rock band X Japan. While a true statement, it's also an understatement - he has also been everything from a product designer and male model to an American music producer known for his work on Saw IV, Catacombs, and Repo! The Genetic Opera. He is also the founder of the first dedicated Visual Kei label, Extasy Records, and has been as such the Record Producer for a lot of Visual Kei bands other than his own, including Dir En Grey and Glay.Other projects he has been attached to or involved in in some way include Globe, V2, and classical solo performances, including one for the emperor of Japan (the Anniversary Concert). As of 2002 until the reunion of X Japan, he has been doing most work toward his solo project, Violet UK. (Yoshiki is the only current permanent member of Violet UK.) He has also produced work with Roger Taylor and George Martin among others. As of 2012, he has become the composer of note for the 69th and 70th Annual Golden Globes.Yoshiki is also a video blogger and an executive advisor with Ustream. He posts far more regularly, though, on Twitter at @YoshikiOfficial, and on Facebook and Google Plus. He has also opened a Weibo account for Chinese fans of X Japan, and seems very interested in encouraging peace between Japan and China, having performed multiple times in China and refusing to take a public stance on any contentious political issues.NOT related to Yoyo Plot Point, though if his film auteur aspirations ever became successful, who knows?Tropes relating to or included in Blood Red Dragon, the Comic Book featuring his Author Avatar (or Mary Sue if you want to be less charitable) are to be listed on that page (which Needs More Love). They are NOT to be listed on this page, which deals with the real artist.Yoshiki's charitable and awareness efforts have become more widely known over 2011: not only has he worked, through the Yoshiki Foundation, to raise funds and help with the Great East Japan Earthquake relief effort, he also has donated money, band memorabilia, and more for the Thailand floods relief effort, and seems to be very concerned for disaster victims especially in the countries which he has visited or to which X Japan has been on tour.Oh, and his name is, despite every time you may have heard it (mis)pronounced in mainstream media, properly pronounced closer to "Yosh'key" or "Yosh'ki." (those aren't the exact pronounciation in Japanese, but for English speakers, they are the closest you can get to correct.) It is not pronounced "Yosheekee." Doing that will earn you the wrath of almost anyone who knows the proper pronounciation, or at least another Face Palm. "Yokashi" is only forgiven for Stan Lee, and "Yoshi" will make most people wonder why you're talking about the green dinosaur from Super Mario Bros.Provides Examples of:
Ad of Win: Ads for various types of Cool Car occasionally show up on this page.
All Drummers Are Animals: Though somewhat averted in that Yoshiki managed to create a combined image of fragility and beauty fused with brutality and power rather than being the "big dumb drummer" stereotype.
Played straight in the 2010 video for Jade, in which Yoshiki is morphed into a CGI werewolf. A little bit of Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot and mythology fail also applies there, as he seems to identify more with "vampire" than "werewolf" in most of his image...
Angst: Yoshiki's life has been, in so many ways, angstier than any of his music. If you wish to find out how, go elsewhere.
Attention Whore: Back in the day. To somewhat less of an extent now, but his haters still accuse him of being so.
Bi the Way: He openly poses with and dates women, and is open about romantic bisexuality (as in, being in love with another man in the past), and has written lyrics about gay sex as well as heterosexual sex, though it is not to be discussed whether/if he has actually had sex with someone of the same sex, as this is not something he has openly discussed in public.
Blood Bath: Once took such a bath in fake blood (while fully clothed) during a photoshoot for Fool's Mate magazine and, in the past with X Japan, has written a song about the Trope MakerElizabeth Bathory entitled "Rose of Pain".
Cool Car: He likes driving supercars such as Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, and similar, and these expensive CoolCars have made their way into videos for the band (the 2010 version of Rusty Nail), and quite a few of his photographs. He and X Japan also once sponsored a Le Mans race team in The Nineties.
Creepy Cool Crosses: Wears one of these fairly often as they are part of his jewelry line. There are several variants: the one with his name symbol on it, the one composed of daggers, the crucifed doll one, the one that resembles an "X"...
Creator Breakdown: Yoshiki's had at least six of them, some mental, some physical, some both. These have influenced his music and performance.
Dye Hard: With the occasional rare exception, Yoshiki's hair is usually some shade of blonde or light brown. Sometimes it gets closer to the red spectrum, though.
Epic Rocking: When he tries, it tends to hurt him very badly, but this is the person who brought Art of Life into being. And who, before his injuries got so severe, would perform it AND the rest of a set during shows.
12 minute drum solo at the Yokohama live August 15th.
Any given drum solo on the North American tour 2010.
Genre Popularizer: Visual Kei alongside Buck Tick and D'erlanger, and the first to name Visual Kei as such as listed below. Arguably alongside others such as Loudness, Anthem, and Rosenfeld, Japan's heavy metal scene in the 1980s.
Grief Song: Tears, which was written for Yoshiki's father who committed suicide when Yoshiki was 10, and then rededicated to hide. Without You, which was written for hide.
Guide Dang It: Averted. Is the second member of X to write his own autobiography "YOSHIKI," which serves as somewhat of an albeit biased history of the band and himself.
Heroic RROD: Playing drums, Yoshiki will always push his body to and beyond its limits. The results are artistically great but physically worrisome...
Heroic Willpower: Should be one of the pictures of this in the dictionary. If he wants to do something, he will. not. stop. until it's accomplished, no matter what the personal cost or health cost or whatever, unless outside forces intervene to the point that he's pretty much legally banned or absolutely physically incapable from doing it - and he'll even try to find a way around those sometimes.
Kung-Shui: Once caused so much damage via Bar Brawl and so much damage while drunk otherwise that he was banned by name from several Tokyo bars, drinking establishments, hotels, and restaurants, the ban only being removed once he was rich enough to pay for any damages on the spot and famous enough that "having your bar destroyed by Yoshiki" was a good thing. Also well-known for smashing up the stage and grabbing random objects and throwing or running with them...
Love Hurts: Yoshiki became entirely overcome with grief after hide's death. One can argue that it is obsession or love, but he has written at least three known songs for hide (Without You and Jade for X and Unnamed Song for Violet UK), and occasionally posts about his feelings regarding hide and his love for him.
Never Got To Say Goodbye: Not to his father nor to hide. Yoshiki has used these actual words in his memorial song "Tears."
The Not Secret: That he and hide were best friends, yes, but also that he was in love with hide and hide likely was in love with him.
Otherkin: If his identification with vampire subculture isn't a joke.
Percussive Therapy: Yoshiki has stated in interviews that he took up music (and Heavy Metal and drumming specifically) to deal with his emotions after his father's death and as a way to express emotional pain and suffering.
The Red Stapler: Tama drum kits, Kawai pianos, Mondavi wines including his own marque, Hello Kitty including his Yoshikitty collaboration, pretty much any Cool Car out there...
Rockers Smash Guitars: Smashing his drums/drum kit is a pretty common part of Yoshiki's shows...
Sanity Slippage: Arguably, from 1998 until 2002 or so, and then only slowly coming back. The loss of his band, the then-loss of his friend Toshi to Masaya's cult, then hide's death hit in almost unrelenting order, leaving him suicidal and an absolute emotional wreck until he could slowly begin to recover. Listed because it is reflected in his music and in public communications.
Sunglasses at Night: He wears sunglasses almost all the time, to the point that seeing his eyes is considered rare.
Surprisingly Good English: His English is usually mostly understandable and coherent, unless he is very drunk, very tired, or very angry.
Survivor Guilt: his grief for hide. He blames himself for much of the circumstances surrounding hide's death, though he could not have done anything for most of them, and the things he could have done something about, he likely had little or no knowledge of at the time.
To a somewhat lesser public degree, over Taiji. This upsets some Taiji fans, though it's more likely simply due to his being far closer to hide emotionally and on a personal level than he was to Taiji.
Three Minutes of Writhing: White Poem for X Japan in both the PV and the live is one example, but he tends to do this either on his drum kit, on the stage, or in the audience at any given live show. And for more than three minutes, too...
Troll: Some fans see him as one, and have bestowed upon him the nickname "Trollshiki." As for trolls in general, he seems to attract a lot of them: he once had to leave the internet temporarily due to said trolls piling on with vicious abuse when he canceled shows in 2008 and 2009. Even now, a small but bothersome amount of his Face Book comments are made by trolls, nearly any piece about him in the mainstream media will have troll comments, and people even troll his charity auctions as mentioned below.
Whammy Bid: Some fraudulent ones, made by people trolling a charity auction of one of his pianos for the earthquake and tsunami relief effort. These have happened repeatedly in his auctions, to the point that anyone watching charity auctions suspects trolling whenever the price goes too high - and if you bid in one, and the price seems to be jumping, especially between a couple of bidders, it's usually a good idea to step back and wait for the trolls to get kicked out and the bids to be reset.
Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Cancelwank 2008 and 2009 and trolls. That said it is mostly over now, because he is back on the Internet, albeit in far less troll-vulnerable ways.
0 reviews