This interview was originally published in Japanese on barks.jp. Translated by VK Chronicle.

Arlequin Presents “The World of Bundles - SONOSEKAI - 2026” Vocal Dialogue Vol. 1: Akatsuki × Chiaki “If I couldn’t feel regret, we’d never be equals again”

Arlequin’s second event in four years, <The World of Bundles - SONOSEKAI - 2026>, brings together powerful bands including MUCC, Kizu, DEZERT, and Amai Bouryoku on Sunday, March 1st at EX THEATER ROPPONGI in Tokyo. What kind of live will Arlequin create alongside these deeply connected bands? Including the high expectations evident from tickets selling out immediately, this promises to be a memorial night.

Ahead of the event, BARKS is running dialogue features between Akatsuki and vocalists from each band. Our first guest is DEZERT’s Chiaki. Having been involved since the band’s formation, and having held the two-man project in 2016, the two have appeared at each other's hosted events with remarkable consistency ever since. Both have continued walking forward steadfastly and clumsily while honing their unique identities, with their careers spanning over a decade. As comrades living in the same era, they spoke candidly about their respective "nows."

Q: First, tell me why you offered DEZERT this opportunity.

Akatsuki: They’ve always been on my mind as a matter of course, and they’re an important band to me, so I’d really be in trouble if they didn’t perform.

Chiaki: We’re always invited to major hosted events, and since we’re comrades, if the schedule works out, we perform. This time Akatsuki contacted me, and at that point I didn’t even know who the other performers would be, but I immediately said, “Let me check my schedule” (laughs). Then I had a live the very next day anyway, but it worked out.

Akatsuki: (laughs) I also wanted to do this dialogue because, even though we’ve done interviews in the past, there’s been a blank period these past few years. During that time, the band’s stride and direction have each become our own, so I wanted to talk about those aspects.

**Q: You performed at the previous <The World of Bundles - SONOSEKAI-> too, and looking back, you really have performed together many times. Most recently in 2025 there was the three-man live including Kizu—what was your impression seeing each other's performances?**

Akatsuki: I got the impression you’re steadily doing what you’ve decided to do. It’s simple language, but I thought it was a good live. You were holding a debriefing right after it ended (laughs), and including things that haven’t changed, it seems like the things that don’t change are properly changing even so. It was still early in your 47-prefecture tour, so I felt good about the atmosphere of you all working things out.

Chiaki: Regarding Arlequin, my impression hasn’t changed. I met Akatsuki when Arlequin had just formed and was rapidly growing, and through eating together and talking about various things, he still holds the question “What do you want to become?” Even setting aside my own situation, I’ve been thinking “How will this go?” for about ten years now. It’s not about what to do as Visual Kei, you understand? For example… I don’t know what he thinks, but with Kizu you can kind of see their vision, right? With Arlequin, I can’t quite tell. In that sense, maybe we’re similar.

Akatsuki: I do think we’re a messy band (laughs). Actually, Chiaki keeps throwing that question at me, and after the live, he said it to me too. Something like, "Hey, don't you have more to say?"

Chiaki: Ah yeah, that’s right! Well, it was a three-man right after both DEZERT and Kizu’s Budokan shows, so I figured everyone would be watching with that context. I think both we and Kizu thought about what to do next after Budokan, so as a band that publicly stated we’re aiming for Budokan, I was wondering what you’d express. You don’t have to say anything, but I was curious what kind of expression you’d show, and you just kind of did it normally, didn’t you?

Akatsuki: Yeah.

Chiaki: So that’s why I said “Why not?” (laughs). It’s up to you guys with your stance, but there’s that kind of impactful line, right? (laughs) I was thinking you’d prepare something, but it ended pretty matter-of-factly. I even thought at first it was an Arlequin-hosted event.

Akatsuki: I also felt that if these three bands were to do an event together next time, I wanted it to be under Arlequin’s name, but I couldn’t quite envision how to make that happen. Then Kurumi approached us about the three-man, and I figured it was better to throw myself into it rather than just agonize over it. Like Chiaki said, I could predict it would definitely work better if we showed an eager stance, but I personally wasn’t oriented that way. Rather, I wanted to show what we’d been doing during the blank time before that band exchange.

Q: I see.

Akatsuki: Lately I’ve been wrestling with the question: how can we cherish that live time the most? The reason I’m suddenly conscious of this is that in my early days as Akatsuki, I was being pulled too much by factors outside myself and wasn’t properly spending the time I should have been forming Akatsuki the vocalist. I couldn’t draw boundaries between myself and others, and couldn’t make decisions and give clear answers on my own. Over the past few years that curse has finally lifted, and I can now think first about how I can cherish that time. So that day too, I needed to do that first. Showing that this is what we’ve been doing during the blank time since the last band exchange was my must-do.

Q: Not comparing yourselves to DEZERT and Kizu, who’ve experienced Budokan?

Akatsuki: Of course that was part of it too, but I felt I needed to take this step first. During , it was a vaguer sensation than what I'm articulating now, but lately I've been able to process things more concretely. The scenery has changed, I've made a commitment, and the stage itself has shifted. While taking in what Chiaki said, I can now clearly articulate what I was like. So at <The World of Bundles - SONOSEKAI - 2026>, I think I can show something different than at . For Professor Chiaki here (laughs).

Chiaki: Oh.

Akatsuki: When I was troubled about things, I went to eat with Chiaki even when we first did Shibuya Public Hall, and consulted with him. Remember eating pasta?

Chiaki: Yeah, we did.

Akatsuki: I’m sure it’s not an interesting story from Chiaki’s perspective, but I felt a disconnect with how the band was progressing smoothly. I was pretty seriously troubled and asked for advice.

Chiaki: I remember being really happy when you first shared a worry with me. I was doing things blindly without any friends, so it was like gaining a comrade to struggle alongside. There were other bands around the same time like NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST, but we weren’t really telling each other about our worries. So when you consulted me about “Are you worried about this?” I was happy. But over these ten years I’ve realized: this guy doesn’t listen to people’s advice!

Akatsuki: Hahahaha!

Chiaki: You ask people right away when you’re unsure, but ultimately you have your own answer, and you consult to clarify the outline of that answer, right? I almost thought “I’ll stop giving advice” (laughs). But as a friend and comrade, I think we can have conversations that make the outline clearer. Lately I’ve started thinking maybe you’re not actually troubled at all.

Akatsuki: Maybe not (laughs).

Chiaki: Also, with you, Akatsuki, you worry when things are going well but not when they’re going badly.

Akatsuki: You really get it (laughs). Even if I have an answer inside, I consult because I can’t be confident. Like I said before, I couldn’t draw boundaries between myself and others back then, so I couldn’t properly receive what I really wanted, and I think that’s why it ended up as “You don’t listen to anything.” Chiaki’s been a victim of that too (laughs). In that sense, I actually worry less these past few years, and even when I do worry, I can now think about what to do about it. Chiaki said we’re “comrades struggling together,” but I finally feel like I’m standing on that foundation now. So I want to ask what DEZERT is thinking about now. I think I can understand better than before.

Chiaki: Hmm… After doing Budokan, I really didn’t think anything special about it. Whether it’s Budokan, Makuhari, maybe even Saitama Super Arena or Tokyo Dome, I don’t think I’d feel anything. So then the question becomes, why are we doing it? So for me now, it’s not about what I want to do, but why I want to do it. That’s become my struggle. I present that kind of conflict and struggle as songs, and I think being a band means vibrating and resonating with fans. I’ve continued that struggle in 2025, and while the whole band might not struggle together, I think that’s okay too. I’m as usual. Each of us searches for answers while doing superhuman work.

Akatsuki: I really understand how you arrive at something simple while searching for various things. Arlequin does a lot of lives, and all the members are live junkies. But when I faced the question of how to cherish each one of those days—whether the venue is small, whether we’re going somewhere different musically, or how many people are there—that each day becomes genuinely satisfying, I realized. So when I thought about what it means to play in a bigger place, I thought maybe it’s like a reward. I started thinking that around our twelfth-anniversary live on October 26 last year, and I realized that the emotion all of us and the fans hold every day explodes a bit more dramatically that day.

Q: You went to see DEZERT’s Budokan live. What emotions came up?

Akatsuki: I was really glad I went. Before, I heard from Psycho le Cemu’s seek about not being able to go to MUCC’s first Budokan, even though they’re rivals. When SORA first contacted me asking “Want to come?”, I couldn’t answer immediately either. But I thought I really should go, and I did, and it was exactly right. I could witness how DEZERT had connected dots one by one to get there, and of course I felt frustrated, but if I reached the point where seeing that didn’t make me frustrated anymore, I don’t think we could ever be equals again… Probably at that moment, I’d be dead as Arlequin’s vocalist. I’m glad I could feel every bit of the good emotion and the unsettled feeling without missing anything. I could reconfirm how precious this relationship is.

Chiaki: I think “big venues as a reward” is exactly right. How people interpret the word “reward” differs, but for me it’s a place to shine, so to speak—a place to present my work. As long as tickets aren’t impossible to get, I’d want friends and family too if I had family to come see me, and honestly even if it’s Makuhari, if people involved can make it, I want them all to come see. So I don’t think “We did it!” about Budokan at all—not even one percent—and I don’t really care much about people’s comments. But how I feel seeing someone else’s presentation is naturally an important emotion. Last year I went to see some other friends’ band lives too, and I think it’s necessary to receive what comes from that. Because people don’t go just for fun, right? Akatsuki probably doesn’t think “I got to hear this song at Budokan, yay!” at a DEZERT live (laughs).

Akatsuki: Actually, I was kinda happy to hear “Nerve and Gravity” at Budokan (laughs). But that’s different from being an audience member.

Chiaki: Haha! Isn’t everyone going to find something? So I want to go see Arlequin’s Budokan live soon.

Q: You mentioned wanting to hear about the blank time in this dialogue, and hearing Chiaki’s story now—do you feel parts that have changed from before, or parts that haven’t?

Akatsuki: I basically think nothing has fundamentally changed. But Chiaki carries the DEZERT name, writes songs and lyrics, a huge part of it, and I think he’s been accumulating lots of small realizations as the world he sees expands. I kind of sense that from songs too, probably. And just as Chiaki said, the stance of presenting what you’re struggling with through songs is exactly what’s being embodied, so I think that’s really good.

Q: Both of you seem like frontmen who constantly worry and think while continuing with your bands, and you’re strongly conveying that recently it’s not one-directional—you really want to reach each individual person who comes.

Akatsuki: I’m not sure if the expression is right, but I do feel like things are becoming more exposed.

Chiaki: I was never that sharp of a personality anyway, and I’m probably more earnest than most people. What I want to do hasn’t changed from the beginning, but I try changing the equation, sometimes the answer comes out but the math doesn’t work, sometimes I get a clean equation but the answer won’t come. I repeat things like that. Wanting to write good songs, wanting to do good lives, wanting to present on bigger stages—I’m just an ordinarily ambitious human, always have been.

Q: It seems like being genuinely human is a shared trait between you two.

Chiaki: Isn’t everyone?

Akatsuki: Is that so?

Chiaki: People called geniuses might be different. Oh, but one thing that’s changed recently—I stopped looking at the internet.

Q: Like checking comments about yourself?

Chiaki: Yeah, I realized SNS just doesn’t suit me. Even if I try not to be influenced by different opinions, I definitely get influenced by some of it, so I barely look anymore now. I’m just trying to enjoy it for myself. Unnecessary information flows in through recommendation sections and AI analysis too, so it’s noisy. Living through the transition from Heisei to Reiwa’s difficult music industry, I’m swept along where I get swept along, but I’m standing firm where I don’t want to be swept along. I’m not sure if I’m actually standing firm though.

Akatsuki: I’m more of a person who looks at SNS, but the thing is, I don’t listen to people (laughs). The balance between being honest and being stubborn hasn’t changed since way back, so I think I have a filter where I quickly check things I think are cool and just let things pass that I don’t quite get. But regarding what Chiaki said about “knowing where to stand firm and where to be swept along,” I don’t think I’ve reached that level yet. I’m probably still pretty vague about it and maybe haven’t even gotten to the point of worrying about it.

Q: So, tell us about expectations for the actual event day. With bands this close in relationship gathering, what does Akatsuki want to show as Arlequin?

Akatsuki: I want to do a live where Chiaki can really feel that “don’t you have more to say?” kind of thing from . I want to reach a level where I can convey my own message. Honestly, I think the sold-out tickets are just because of the bands performing. Even accounting for the relationship with us being part of it, that's probably the main factor, but I have no intention of just accepting what's been given to us. Even toward DEZERT, it might sound grandiose, but I want to return something to you guys before I die. Selfishly. Rather than something specific, I want us to do what we need to do and become the kind of presence that can create a cool event standing shoulder to shoulder again. I've decided that's what we'll be, so I want to show both what we can show that day and the future we're seeking after. The other bands too—some give words up close, some watch from a distance, some speak through their backs, they've given us various things at different timings. I want to show that we've received those things and we're standing here now with our chests out, and Arlequin is a band doing that properly. Of course, for the fans who chose this day and this place too.

**Q: So rather than bands clashing intensely, this is about showing Arlequin now, with members

Read the original Japanese interview on barks.jp