Remembering Reita (the GazettE) with silly and funny moments

Even today, it still feels unreal that bassist Reita of the GazettE has left us… This fact has been hard to swallow but somehow, we’ve already reached April 15 again, the anniversary of Reita’s passing.

In honor of Reita, we wanted to use our past stories to highlight the side of him that made him stand out, not just among the band members, but throughout the entire Jrock scene—namely, his funny and charming silliness!

While Reita was a pioneer in many ways, from his unique aesthetic to his performance, once you see beyond the facade that first caught your eye, you’ll find that his unique spirit and sense of humor are what really make him such a great and charismatic character.

With that said, we dedicate this compilation as a lighthearted way to celebrate the joy he brought to us all!

Jump to:

The silly reason why Reita joined Twitter

Back when Twitter (now “X”) was still growing its adoption of users, especially within the Jrock scene, it wasn’t a given that bands members would have their own account. By the time Reita decided to join, it was a bit late in the game, but it didn’t seem like he fully understood how social media worked, which led to this silly situation at a radio interview:

Reita: I originally just wanted to create a fake account [to troll].

DJ: Aah!

Reita: I just created an account at home and I tweeted “I’ve started using Twitter”, although, no one followed me!

DJ: [Laughter]

Reita: Even when I tweeted “No one is following me, so I don’t have anything to write…”, still no new followers.

DJ: [Tries to stop laughing] Wait? Wait? Aha. Are you really that dumb?

Reita: No, no. Listen, listen. So apparently there’s a lot of fake Reita accounts, but I was wondering why I am the only one with zero followers, so I went and asked Ruki and he said “No shit”. Ruki told me to follow him, and so I did. He retweeted me, and the ball started rolling from there.

Read the full story: The silly reason why Reita joined Twitter

Reita faces existential crisis over iPhone’s face unlock feature

In 2017, the iPhone X debuted with its new “face unlock” feature, allowing users to unlock their phones with just their face. At the time, it didn’t support unlocking while wearing face masks, something that’s only been added in later updates.

Reita, known for always covering his face with fabric or a mask, faced an existential crisis over whether to buy the new iPhone. Of course, that’s an exaggeration—but that’s exactly what makes this story so silly and funny.

Reita shared this tweet to convey his feelings:

I want the iPhone X, but considering it’s me, I have a feeling I won’t be able to unlock it with the face recognition…

Read the full story: Reita faces existential crisis over new iPhone X

Reita’s tears on stage are apparently computer generated?

I’ve always been particularly observant of how Reita gets the most emotional on stage, especially at their tour finals. In 2019, when we got the chance to speak with the band, I took the opportunity to confront Reita about this!

When we asked if tour finals felt more special than other shows, vocalist Ruki said it didn’t feel particularly different to him—so we turned to Reita for his thoughts:

But we’ve watched your DVDs and you’re always more emotional on the final show. Especially Reita, we’ve seen him crying.

Reita: That’s all CG (computer graphics) [laughs].

That’s amazing [laughs]! How about at the end of the tour? Do you get post-tour depression?

Reita: It happens to me after each tour, I’m not the only one, right? All five of us are living and traveling together on the tour. And all of a sudden, being alone, I would feel a bit sad. I was crying a little last night [laugh].

Really? [Laughs]

Read the full interview: the GazettE unveil thoughts on family, fans and friendship

Reita’s humble quest to buy a bass online

Despite the GazettE being one of the most popular visual kei bands, Reita still saw himself as just a “regular guy” and had a healthy sense of economy. Maybe that’s exactly why he’s so beloved and relatable.

After having just recently purchased a new bass guitar that sounded great, Reita found out that a higher-end version of it existed—but cost four times as much. As the bass wasn’t cheap, he kept contemplating while checking the website every day.

There are people in the world who will buy the most expensive type without thinking too deeply about it but in terms of not suddenly buying a high end Dingwall model, I feel that you have a healthy sense of economy.

Reita: That’s because I’m just a regular guy [laughs].

Besides, there was a reason I bought a more expensive one afterward. I didn’t know much about Dingwall so I thought that for the time being, I should go to an instrument shop to try one out. Once I tried it out, as expected, it was a really good bass and I decided to buy it.

After I bought it I did a bit of research and found out that they had a high end version, but it was the show model that was displayed in the 2020 NAMM Show. In other words, it’s one of a kind. I really wanted to try playing it but that bass was in Osaka, so because of Corona, I wasn’t able to go try it.

I felt it was risky to buy it without trying it out first but because it’s a show model I thought it would get sold quickly, so I checked it online every day.

[…]

The point is that it’s online shopping so I thought “if it sounds weird, that would be so uncool” and I was really anxious while I was waiting for it to be delivered. It came about two days later and when I played it was a really good bass so I thought “ah, thank goodness…” [laughs].

Read the full interview: A never fading passion

Perhaps Reita’s humble past could explain his healthy sense of economy. This is an excerpt from our 2019 interview, when asking about their career choice:

Reita: […] I only lived with my mother and my older sister and we didn’t have much money at the time so I was thinking inside me, “Is it really fine if I’m not working?”. I really felt guilty and sorry for my mother, but at the same time my passion to start a band was too strong, so I continued.

Reita’s ultimate happiness—eating crabs!

Our good friend Seiichi Hoshiko, also known as “visual kei oyaji”, shared his conversation with Reita with the overseas audience. It was a short but sweet chat, focused on mundane daily life things, but things that truly meant a lot to Reita himself.

Tell us about a personal eating record.

I like to eat crab. So around once or twice a year, or maybe just once, I get the chance to eat crab. But I love red king crab, so that’s really a feast for me [laughs].

When you eat, that’s when you feel ultimate happiness?

That’s right.

Read the full interview: Happiness in daily life

Silly God Disco

And lastly, let’s appropriately wrap things up on a silly note—with Silly God Disco! Enjoy Reita’s excellent bass lines.

We hope these memories of Reita brought a smile to your face, just as they did to ours.