...as not only being a mortal man, but one likely to be a bit older than most would expect. But then again, who could blame anyone for thinking that Gackt, a shimmering slab of enigmatic man-meat, was anything less than a youthful sprite.

In fact, he's 36 years old.

So, OK, in a way, this does make him look pretty young considering that the singer/actor usually tries to sport the "I'm a vampire and at least 200 years old on a good day" sort of shtick. And let's not forget that some of his contemporaries, like Hyde of L'Arc~en~Ciel who will soon turn 40 and Takanori Nishikawa (aka TM Revolution)  who is hovering around 78, aren't exactly spring chickens themselves. But it does come as a bit of a surprise that Gackt would public dash the hot hot hot fantasies of young girls (and boys, come on...admit it) after working the undead aristocrat angle for so long and considering the rise in supermodel vampire emo fiction as of late.

Oh, and let us not forget that this announcement came during a press conference in which it was reveled that Gackt would be taking part in a play called Full Moon Swordsman, as the character Nemuri Kyoshiro. Raizo Ichikawa played that role through 12 films from 1963 to 1969, when he died at the age of 37. In May of 2010, when Gackt takes the role, he will then be 37 himself.