Mana "Alteration" Interview

text: Mitsuru Hirose
Taken from the Ultra Veat special Malice Mizer File Malice Mizer: Eternite 1997~2001. Japan: Sony Magazines. 2002.

- Do you listen to the songs after you've finished recording?

Never. Well, I'll listen once or so, but after that I don't keep listening to them over and over. I hear them enough to start hating them while we're recording.

- Have your feelings towards "le ciel" changed now that recording's over?

Not at all. Like compared to the version on the album, we expressed the loneliness and sadness of the song a lot better in the single...I mean, we did the best we could.

- I see. What kind of concept did the white costumes you use form from?

Basically from the one flowing through "merveilles"; they're related.

- And as for the fallen angel?

Fallen angel? I wouldn't say it's that kind of angel...

- What did you want to convey with the white costumes?

A floating feeling. Like you're suspended.

- And does the product of the promotional video fit into that?

Well, it sort of does. But we can't make anything that completely fits the concept all that easily to begin with. I think you understand the story pretty well, but not the entire production. The production itself may still be incomplete. If we meant to really focus on making it like that, I don't think we could have had a premise for making the video. This video was mostly planned out to promote the band, and we were thinking about that when we made it so it couldn't be perfect.

- Were there any sticky spots in coming up with the image?

If we had been thinking about making the product from the beginning, then we could have presented it through our goals. In fact, we did that for "bel aire." But there were prerequisites for the promo video. It would have been nice if we could still make it fit the concept after we were done with the prerequisites, but there are other subtle tracks to it.

- As the leader of the band there are a lot of subtle things to balance out, ne?

I can't make the whole thing by myself so compromising and balancing things out is unavoidable. With those kind of conditions it's important to at least make the best of it.*
* Gackt was saying before he didn't have any friends, and Mana doesn't seem too happy with the band either...

- Exactly. You do the best you can.

And I did, but later I noticed a lot of problems, and the thought that it wasn't ripe yet keeps haunting me. It's as if it were still growing. But it's not all that bad, and I don't think I can create anything perfect in any kind of situation anyway. Maybe when I see something as finished it'll be the end of my life. If I could finish it then I wouldn't produce anything new. But on the other hand, if I don't feel that I'm done, then I can gather up all my new thoughts and make something later on. I think that's a good goal to have.

- Even with that, what kind of situation is your new live video "l'espace" in?

It's materialistic*. It's geared towards people who couldn't see our lives.
* literally "shiryou-teki" is taking the noun "material, data," and making it into an adjective. I did the best I could, but I think it has an "informative" connotation to it

- oh...so that's what it's become?

Materialistic...I wish there were a better way to say it, but I can't say for sure that the atmosphere you'll see and feel in the video is the same one making up Malice Mizer.

You can't say you copied the experience of the live on the tape, or you won't say it?

I'm not confident with anything more than what I've said. The things you see in the real box (event, live) and the things you see in the two dimensional video are pretty different.

- In Malice Mizer's case, the things you feel at the event seem very important. But that means that the audience are also responsible for creating a part of the live.

Yeah. It's the archive of what we've done. I can't say that for the product. I think it's there so the people who really like Malice Mizer but couldn't come to the live, or couldn't get tickets, can see what we were doing.

- Collecting the songs on Merveilles and the solo songs, did you mean to make a chain with a "final moments and then the end" theme?

I'd like the people who came to our live to listen to all the songs (including the ones not on merveilles), and to think about them as something that will remain in the world for eternity, and to recognize the things underneath the concept for "merveilles" comprising the CD and the video.

- Piercing through to the concept is a good idea.

Yes. That's a good way of thinking about it.

- When you and Kozi do what he called your solo performance, do you think you will you be carrying out imaging tricks?

Yeah. If you're not in the place I don't feel like you could really experience it, and you'll see it with that false kind of meaning. We mixed the imagery from the Budoukan and Yokohama Arena to show what we were trying to do more clearly.

- Is the performance at Yokohama Arena a continuation of the one at the Budoukan?

More like they're part of the same concept. It's not like one was the beginning and the other the end. I don't mean they aren't a continuation, but I'd like you to think of them as melting into one another...we used the sound from the Yokohama Arena more though.

- Do you give the title of the song?

We will from now on. People have been calling it the solo, but it's name isn't "the solo," after all.

-What should we look for when we watch [l'espace]?*
* "[l'espace] no midokoro o matomeru to, dou desu ka?" none of the words in this sentence were in my dictionary, oddly enough. I guessed.

We made too many points at the live for everyone who came to remember. Plus they didn't know what to look for. So I think they might pick up on some things that they hadn't before if they can take the video home and watch it more slowly. So if they can do that*...
* In Japanese it is common to end a sentence if the rest is already obvious. In my translations it is common when I'm not certain I'm going to end it correctly.

- How did you feel when you saw the video? Like, do you feel you've grown as an artist?

It really is different from the first time we played at the Budoukan. I found how to express myself and the songs while doing the shows, and that naturally comes out now.

- Lastly, what kind of developments do you expect for the band from now on?

Well, we'll make songs. I still don't know any more than that. But I'm thinking of a lot of things for next year.

- Are you coming up with new concepts?

Bit by bit. There are things, but as for when the day will come that we announce them...

- That seems important. When is it?

I feel that the day of judgment is very near.

- (laughs) What's that suppose to mean?

It means I can't tell you when.

- Well then, who will?

I don't know if there's anyone who will (laughs). But the day is drawing near for sure.