Yoshiki Hayashi



Yoshiki Hayashi (who usually goes by his first name, Yoshiki) is the bandleader, drummer, pianist, occasional guitarist, and co-creator of the rock band X Japan. While a true statement, it's also an understatement - he has also been everything from a product designer and male model to an American music producer known for his work on Saw IV, Catacombs, and Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Other projects he has been attached to or involved in in some way include Globe, V2, and classical solo performances, including one for the emperor of Japan. As of 2002 until the reunion of X Japan, he has been doing most work toward his solo project, Violet UK. (Yoshiki is the only current permanent member of Violet UK.) He has also produced work with Roger Taylor and George Martin among others. As of 2012, he has become the composer of note for the 69th Annual Golden Globes.

Currently, Yoshiki is also a video blogger and an executive advisor with U Stream. That said, he posts far more regularly on Twitter at @YoshikiOfficial.

Not related to Yo-Yo Plot Point, though if his film auteur aspirations ever became successful, who knows?

Tropes relating to or included in Blood Red Dragon, the Comic Book featuring his Author Avatar (or Mary Sue if you want to be less charitable) are to be listed on a separate page created for that story once it is in publication. They are NOT to be listed on this page, which deals with the real artist.

Yoshiki's charitable and awareness efforts have become more widely known over 2011: not only has he worked, through the Yoshiki Foundation, to raise funds and help with the Great East Japan Earthquake relief effort, he also has donated money, band memorabilia, and more for the Thailand floods relief effort, and seems to be very concerned for disaster victims especially in the countries which he has visited or to which X Japan has been on tour.

Related acts with which Yoshiki Hayashi has performed: Acts once signed to Extasy Records by Yoshiki as a solo producer (NOTE: as it no longer is signing artists, none of these are signed to it as of this time):
 * L.O.X.
 * Globe
 * V2 with Tetsuya Komuro
 * Violet UK (Yoshiki's solo project)
 * S.K.I.N ("superband" featuring Gackt, Miyavi, and Sugizo, one performance only
 * Various collaborations with other artists, most recently Marilyn Manson
 * Abandoned Pools
 * Dir En Grey (now Free Will Records in JP and The End Records in the US
 * Glay
 * Kidney Thieves
 * Tokyo Yankees


 * All Drummers Are Animals: Though somewhat averted in that Yoshiki managed to create a combined image of fragility and beauty fused with brutality and power rather than being the "big dumb drummer" stereotype.
 * Played straight in the 2010 video for Jade, in which Yoshiki is morphed into a CGI werewolf.
 * Angst: Yoshiki's life has been, in so many ways, angstier than any of his music. If you wish to find out how, go elsewhere.
 * Ascended Fanboy: Working with Stan Lee.
 * Attention Whore: Back in the day. To somewhat less of an extent now.
 * Bi the Way: You Should Know This Already
 * BSOD Song: Art of Life for X Japan.
 * Bunny Ears Rockstar
 * Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Yoshiki's Violet UK song "Blue Butterfly."
 * Creator Breakdown: Yoshiki's had at least six of them, some mental, some physical, some both. These have influenced his music and performance.
 * Dramatic Shattering: May very well be the king of this trope. Has done it onstage and in videos for both X Japan and Violet UK.
 * Dye Hard: With the occasional rare exception, Yoshiki's hair is usually some shade of blonde or light brown.
 * Epic Rocking: When he tries, it tends to hurt him very badly, but this is the person who brought Art of Life into being. And who, before his injuries got so severe, would perform it AND the rest of a set during shows.
 * 12 minute drum solo at the Yokohama live August 15th.
 * Any given drum solo on the North American tour 2010.
 * Genre Popularizer: Visual Kei alongside Buck Tick and D'erlanger, and the first to name Visual Kei as such as listed below. Arguably alongside others such as Loudness, Anthem, and Rosenfeld, Japan's heavy metal scene in the 1980s.
 * Grief Song: Tears, which was written for Yoshiki's father who committed suicide when Yoshiki was 10, and then rededicated to hide. Without You, which was written for hide.
 * Guide Dang It: Averted. Is the second member of X to write his own autobiography, which serves as somewhat of an albeit biased history of the band and himself.
 * Heroic RROD: Playing drums, Yoshiki will always push his body to and beyond its limits. The results are artistically great but physically worrisome for most fans...
 * Heroic Willpower: Arguably one of the pictures of this in the dictionary. If he wants to do something, he will. not. stop. until it's accomplished, no matter what the personal cost or health cost or whatever, unless outside forces intervene to the point that he's pretty much legally banned or absolutely physically incapable from doing it - and he'll even try to find a way around that sometimes.
 * I Am the Band: For Violet UK, Yoshiki is the only permanent member.
 * In-Joke: RICE MONSTER! Also, the "piano guy."
 * Love Hurts: Yoshiki became entirely overcome with grief after hide's death. One can argue that it is obsession or love, but he has written at least three known songs for hide (Without You and Jade for X and Unnamed Song for Violet UK).
 * Never Got to Say Goodbye: Not to his father nor to hide. Yoshiki has used these actual words in his memorial song "Tears."
 * Percussive Therapy: Yoshiki has stated in interviews that he took up music (and Heavy Metal and drumming specifically) to deal with his emotions after his father's death and as a way to express emotional pain and suffering.
 * Record Producer: Extasy Records. Among bands he has produced at one point or another: Luna Sea, Tokyo Yankees, Glay, Abandoned Pools, Kidney Thieves, Dir En Grey.
 * The Red Stapler: Tama drum kits, Kawai pianos, Hello Kitty...
 * Rockers Smash Guitars: Smashing his drums/drum kit is a pretty common part of Yoshiki's shows...
 * Rule of Drama
 * Sanity Slippage: Arguably, from 1998 until 2002 or so, and then only slowly coming back. The loss of his band, the then-loss of his friend Toshi to Masaya's cult, then hide's death hit in almost unrelenting order, leaving him suicidal and an absolute emotional wreck until he could slowly begin to recover. Listed because it is reflected in his music and in public communications.
 * Self-Serving Memory: Compare his recollection of some events in "YOSHIKI" to Taiji's recollection of the same events in "Sei To Shi." And as an example of an endless loop, now go to Taiji Sawada and look up Self-Serving Memory.
 * Shrug of God: There's a lot of this from Yoshiki over the band's recent reunion, as well as the progress of Violet UK.
 * Something About a Rose / The Tragic Rose: Yoshiki and X Japan often have a lot of rose motifs. This is also Author Appeal for Yoshiki as he has mentioned maintaining a rose garden at his home.
 * Sunglasses at Night
 * Surprisingly Good English: His English is usually understandable and coherent, unless he is very drunk, very tired, or very angry.
 * Survivor Guilt: See the X Japan article for details.
 * Trope Maker: Visual Kei
 * Trope Namer: Visual Kei
 * Whammy Bid: Some fraudulent ones, made by people trolling a charity auction of one of his pianos for the earthquake and tsunami relief effort.
 * Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Cancelwank 2008 and 2009 and trolls. That said it is mostly over now, because he is back on the Internet, albeit in far less troll-vulnerable ways.
 * You Can Barely Stand: Yoshiki playing through injuries.