Happy Birthday, Aoi-san!

葵 Anyone who has talked to me online (or in person, really) about music knows I love the GazettE and also knows I have a total Aoi bias. Aoi is the rhythm guitarist for the band and also the oldest member, and I admire the hell out of him. (And he’s so fine and talented and funny and just ugh. I can’t.)

Since his birthday is January 20, I decided to do a post for it. 葵さん、お誕生日おめでとうございます！

Songs for which Aoi has been credited as the composer

A very talented musician, Aoi has been credited with composing some of my absolute favorite songs by the GazettE. (You can kind of tell since both my site name and user name are songs composed by him.) Below is a list of all the songs he’s composed.

Songs with a [t] after them have been translated into English by me, songs with a [p] have an embedded PV/music video, and songs with an [x] contain explicit content (in English, either in the original song or in the translation). All links will open in a new window.

A MOTH UNDER THE SKIN [t]
AN UNBEARABLE FACT [t]
Bath Room [t]
BURIAL APPLICANT [t][p]
Defective Tragedy [t]
DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER [t][x]
D.L.N [t]
GENTLE LIE [t]
GRUDGE [t]
Hanakotoba / 花言葉 [t]
HOLE [t]
IN BLOSSOM [t]
Kareuta / 彼詩 [t]
Kawareta haru, kawarenu haru / 飼育れた春、変われぬ春. [t][p]
Kugutsu e / 傀儡絵 [t]
Maggots [t][x]
Nakigahara [t]
Shiroki yuuutsu [t]
Sugar Pain [t][x]
THE TRUE MURDEROUS INTENT [t]
UNCERTAIN SENSE
Utsusemi / 虚蜩 [t]
WASTELAND [t]
Yoin / 余韻 [t]

A playlist of YouTube PVs and live performances for some of the songs he composed

While not many of his songs have been made into official PVs (only two that I know of), most (if not all) of them have been performed during lives. I tried to find most of them; apologies if the quality is low on a few. I tried not to include subtitled videos (because I didn’t do the translation on them), but a few are subtitled in Spanish because it was the only version I could locate.

Bath Room [HALLOWEEN NIGHT 17 DARK HORROR SHOW SPOOKY BOX 2 ABYSS] *(starts around 1:28)

Defective Tragedy [Tour07 DECOMPOSITION BEAUTY Final]

D.L.N [Tour06 NAMELESS LIBERTY SIX GUNS Final]

Kareuta [Tour15-16 DOGMATIC Final]

Sugar Pain [2017 DAINIPPON ITANGEISHA 「BOUDOUKU GUDON NO SAKURA」15th Anniversary Live]

DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER [Tour13-14 MAGNIFICENT MALFORMED BOX Final]

GRUDGE [Tour15-16 DOGMATIC Final]

Kugutsu e [Tour07-08 REPEATED COUNTLESS ERROR Final]

MAGGOTS [ HALLOWEEN NIGHT 17 DARK HORROR SHOW SPOOKY BOX 2 LUCY]

Nakigahara [Tour14 PULSE WRIGGLING TO DIM SCENE]

WASTELAND [Tour15-16 DOGMATIC Final]

Hanakotoba [2010 NAMELESS LIBERTY SIX BULLETS]

Shiroki yuuutsu [Tour09 DIM SCENE Final]

A MOTH UNDER THE SKIN [Tour09 DIM SCENE Final]

GENTLE LIE [Tour07-08 REPEATED COUNTLESS ERROR Final]

Finally, even though he didn’t compose this one, I’m including the second encore of the 15th anniversary live because a) it’s great, and b) this is the source of a bunch of ugly-crying-but-not-ugly-because-who-the-hell-can-cry-and-look-this-good-doing-it Aoi gifs. How can you not love someone who puts so much passion and love into what they do? 😭❤️