Gone But Not Forgotten: REITA.

 

2024 got off to a very rough start. The beginning of the year saw the deaths of many legendary figures including Akira Toriyama. Whilst Toriyama's death was unexpected and rightfully had multitudes of fans and friends mourning around the world, including myself as I grew up with Dragonball, perhaps even more shocking was the news of the sudden death of REITA, the bassist of one of my favourite bands, The GazettE. It was news that left me stunned to the point of being unable to fully wrap my mind around it. 

Born in the Kanagawa Prefecture on May 27, 1981, he was childhood friends with fellow GazettE band member, guitarist Uruha. They met at their schools football club and REITA always had aspirations of becoming a musician as he stated in an interview with JRock News. He and Uruha would hang out often at the latter's house and play covers of songs they listened to on CDs. 

He actually began by playing guitar in a Luna Sea cover band with J being a big influence for him, but became frustrated and switched to playing bass in the third year of high school. Together with his childhood friend Uruha, he formed short-lived bands such as Karasu, which disbanded in 2001, that same year he joined Ma'die Kusse and then L'ie:Chris, which changed it's name to Kar+te=zyAnose and disbanded in 2002. During his time in those bands, he had the stage name, Reiki. Thankfully, 2002 was a fruitful and fateful year as it was the year The GazettE formed along with him changing his stage name to REITA. Whilst in the band at this time, he worked as a bread packer at a konbini along with several other part-time jobs until the band joined PS Company in 2003. He would stay with The GazettE from their first single, Wakaremichi, released in 2002 until his death came following the release of the 20th Anniversary compilation album, Heterodoxy -Divided 3 Concepts. In total, REITA was with the band for 10 studio albums, 25 singles, 6 EPs, 4 compilation albums and over 39 video albums. That number might change following the band teasing a new release for later in 2024. He also was involved in composition having composed tracks such as Malum and Karasu. That was one of my favourite things about the band, the fact that every member was involved in composing the songs and it was fun trying to guess by ear who composed what song. 

Whilst performing live, he would always be on the right hand side along with guitarist Aoi. This fact was also noted by vocalist Ruki in his heart-breaking farewell message to REITA, in which he stated that the bassist will always be there on his right side. 

Whilst with the band, REITA managed to grace the cover of Rock and Read magazine twice, the first time being in August 2014 and the second coming in 2017. He also owned a clothing and silver accessories brand called Snaked Lows that he founded in 2008 and was produced with the help of Deal Design's Satoshi Yamashita. 

On the topic of clothing, REITA had a signature style and flair, often being seen wearing a mask covering his nose. Originally the mask was made of cloth and white, before he switched to a black leather mask from Project: Dark Age in 2015 onwards. The sleeker shaped masks came about 2 years later in 2017 and he in the same year he humorously stated that he couldn't use a phone that required facial recognition such as the iPhone X, due to the mask covering his nose. 

In the early days of The GazettE such as at the time of Nil in 2006, he used an Ampeg amplifier and a Mark Bass. The following year, after the release of Stacked Rubbish for which he used a white ESP, he reportedly bought a new bass every month. A Zon bass was used for the recording of Beautiful Deformity in 2013 and a Music Man Stingray was used for Dogma, my favourite album. Mass saw him buy several new basses from Dingwall, a Canadian brand. He stated that ESP was his favourite brand and he had a partnership with them. 

His death was officially announced on The GazettE's website on April 16th, the day after it occurred. Not many details were given with the cause of death being undisclosed, which naturally led to rumours and speculations. I do wonder how exactly he died, especially with him having posted that he hoped The GazettE lasts forever one day before dying. Anyways, along with his band mates, Sugizo, Riko Kohara, Sho Ayanokoji and even the team behind the production of the Kuroshitsuji anime mourned his death, amongst other artists and talent. His funeral was a private affair, held amongst close relatives. 

I still can't believe that he's gone. 42 is far too young. RIP REITA, your legacy will live on with your work as a member of The GazettE standing the test of time. Thank you for being a part of my life for well over a decade at this point, for helping the second generation of Visual Kei be cool and for being an all around nice, humorous person.