The story of Moon first came to me at the time of "Another World" (September 2001).

When I am working on something, I always use the term "sudden inspiration." [lit: orite kuru, from oriru – to start to descend/get off a vehicle]. The whole story can be seen. Then, I think, how am I going to express this story?

The stories itself are always within me from the beginning. I don't worry about making the story, but rather I think about how I should present it.

"Moon" is a magnificent story.

I knew that everyone had seen the video clip "Another World," but while I was making that video clip, I was thinking that it would be perfect as the preview to the movie "Moon Child."

From that time on, I had the plot to the movie. However, if I was going to make one movie out of the entire story that I saw, it would be about a six hour movie. The plot of "Moon Child" is an expression of one part of the story of "Moon." The beginning, end, and middle all still have the story in them.

This time, I express it in the sound, in the album, and the singles. Because the project is just taking off, it's like the cover of a book.

Next, I will express it in artwork. A photo album, a photo exhibition.

Then, a concert. That will be a three-dimensional awakening of the story right before your eyes.

Furthermore, there is the movie, and then a book.

I have decided to make the entire story of "Moon" visible by assembling all of these parts one by one. Just like a puzzle, I want to scatter different pieces around many different locations.

People who come to see this will begin to catch a glimpse of the story little by little as they gather the pieces together. While they do this, they will begin to make the puzzle complete. On this journey to look for it, they will enter the story in the middle.

The concept work of "Moon" is what I have aimed at this time.

From the very beginning, why do you think I am doing all of this?

The world is slowly changing into the information age. However, there are many times I think that the "information" that is flooding the modern age is a plus to all concerned, right?

There are many people who have merely become people who take the information that is given out.

To us, mere humans, have been given gifts of talents. There are two "powers of creativity." One of them is the power to create and draw images, and the other is the power to create original ideas. [1]

Because of these two things that exist, humankind progresses forward, and we seek for our feelings under our own power and have been made to realize that.

But what's happened now? There's a single clique that has all the information. Though that's the very thing we've been searching for, we didn't have the experience of finding it ourselves, but instead got it through someone else.

That's why all the imagination has gone out of this world. That's why we can no long create.

Before this happened, there were fewer and fewer inventors coming out of our younger generation, making them a group of people who have no imagination. Not being able to focus one's mind in the middle of a job, in the end, means that one has no power to create. You can then only use something that's been given to you by someone else, because you cannot think for yourself.

I also think that this is true.

Throughout history, people have taken things from out of their own thoughts and put them into tangible form. This has happened over and over. It is the first time that human genius does not even come into play, and is thrown aside. If it's only a matter of breaking the gathered information into pieces, then in the future, the processing speed of a computer would be faster.

All of us now live in times like those. In an age where our very existences are lost to sight, we must live.

We cannot stop the acts of imagination and creation. That's what I think. And that is what I want to convey to everyone.

There are a few people among us, standing on a stage in an arena, who are called artists, and I believe that we have an obligation. It is definitely necessary for us to give strength and passion to the people who we see, and that becomes a boost for them.

It is the things that people do not realize that we showcase, and I think our existence should become a starting point for them to grow to adulthood.

Of course, we do not force this on them. However, through our works and our lifestyles, I think that all men and women will grow up, and I want them to grow up like that.

In this present concept of "Moon," my feelings are the same.

It is possible for us to place things in front of ourselves that other people have decided that they don't want to do. Anyone can go up to someone and say "you can do it!" It is in the times that people have said that they've decided not to do something that we should step in and do them.

Everyone then notices what we are chasing after, and in their individual hearts, they will put together the puzzle pieces. That is the most important thing.

So, that is the shape things took. It took a very long time. The publication of my work is therefore related to all of that.

Lastly, there is the question of why I made a story called "Moon."

In Japanese, Moon is "tsuki." The moon is a symbol of the existence of the characters in this story. I wrote about the relationships between people, and I think that the name of the most essential character is not the sun.

The sun can make everything around this person shine brightly. However, this person [the sun] will eventually fade away. People cannot become gods.

Even if there is a person there who is like the sun, isn't that kind of an existence like the internet, where information flows so quickly from one place to the other? Around this person who is like the sun, the people would be able to see everything, and therefore not be able to think for themselves. They would just be able to be fed information and nothing else.

Relationships between people like that are no good.

For example, I will try to think about myself. There were people who guided me in the past. Because of those people, I am who I am today. To me, those people are, without a doubt, a "moon."

I do not mean to say that I illuminate everything around me like the sun does. However, I light up whatever I am looking at in my field of vision. Of course, I didn't know what there was in front of me at the time, but just a little bit, I was shown my way to the direction of the dark places in which I should go.

To me, that is the best guidepost there is.

Aren't the people who are "moons" also people who guide other people to the way they are supposed to go? Isn't that the most important thing in a relationship between people?

In the story of Moon, there are many people who do not know the meaning of their own existences. People appear who illuminate the road in front of them, and they then find the road upon which they are supposed to advance.

That road might lead to their downfall. However, even if it is the path to destruction, they are still living just a little bit with their own power. They are not being revived by someone, but with their own feet, while feeling the life within them, they are struggling to live. I think that this is how all human beings should be living.

I also wish that every one of you will want to be like the moons and the light of the moons in your own lives.

The moon does not only shine during the nighttime. At night, if you do not create something and decide to start walking on your own, you can't be shown the way. This is because you can't see anything around you, and you're afraid of being shown what lies ahead. If you stop, that becomes your safety zone.

Even so, the act of picking up one foot and taking a step forward requires an insane amount of courage. However, if you want to leave this darkness that much, it is possible for your feet to take a step onto the path illuminated by the moon.

In short, the one who advances forward is, in the end, you. It is you!

In the people who watch my concerts and listen to my music, it is all right if even a single person understands that. I will be happy if that person starts walking forward with his or her own courage.

I am the moon. I dimly light the road, and the only thing I can do is point it out to you.

But when you all take that one step forward, I will gently, quietly watch over you.

[1] This chapter expounds on the difference between what I have translated as "creativity" and "imagination," but in order to really understand what Gackt is trying to get at, it is necessary to understand the original Japanese. In Japanese, the word for both is "souzou". However, the kanji are different: 想像 means "imagination" and　創造 means "creativity/creation." So when Gackt rambles on about creativity and imagination, he is just trying to illustrate to his Japanese readers that even though the words are pronounced the same, there are differences between them. As a side note, the title of the entire section five is the "souzou" for "creativity" [創造]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES
*dead*

OK so it took me about 2 months to finish that. I was actually working on two sections at the same time, but RL took over and I got uninspired, so I would translate maybe a paragraph every week or so. But I finally sat down and said I AM NOT LEAVING THE COMPUTER TILL I FINISH ONE OF THESE and the Moon chapter happened to be the one that I finished first.

As you can see, Gackt's preachy style gets worse as the book goes on, and I will go so far as to say that even if I was completely fluent in Japanese, I would have a hard time understanding what he was really trying to say in this chapter, because he would say something, then repeat himself twice, and then double back and reillustrate a point that he had already closed 2 pages ago. >.> Nevertheless, here it is, the concept of Moon in all its great glory. It's obvious that this is a topic very important to him, especially the parts where he rages against the fact that people nowadays (especially kids) can't think for themselves anymore.

For a guy who really hates the internet though, he does an amazing amount of stuff through the web, don't you think?

Next will be the chapter about lives and music shows. It's about half done, but it's really long, so can't say when I'll have it up.

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