^ An underrated track and same applies to It's too late, one of my fav b-sides of hers ever!

Her infamous "fat" PV that was almost an animation. I'll never understand that.

A whole scene of the video wasn't used with her sitting down with the Dior yellow tank top. Basically all scenes with that outfit were cut, only few seconds with the image so squished that it hurts.

https://i.imgur.com/af338Lf.jpg https://i.imgur.com/IuQkOTX.jpg

I loooove the cover and the song, one of my favorites from that time.

^ What , are you serious ?!

The amount of fat shaming Kuu had to endure years ago , it was and is still not acceptable :no

I'm really glad she stuck it out cos showbiz can be very unforgiving & for women they have to work twice if not even more harder than men +_+

@ Gustavopc COLOUR OF SOUL is indeed great & extremely under rated afer all these years without a doubt

Also one of my favourites! :heart

Regarding her vocals...
Yeah, all voices change over the course of a lifetime, some more, some less. And it also depends on the day, the overall lifestyle and outside conditions.
Kuu's voice already changed once between her debut and her peak, loosing the rawness.
Apart from that her workload did have the effect that her voice gets tired more easily at the moment, but I hope that will get better again with time.
So some performances are great, some not so much right now.
As I already mentioned her stage fright seems to have gotten bigger in recent years as well.
The thing she said after the XXKK performance when they cut out? She said: "I was so nervous" again.
Guess all the negative stuff within her career didn't leave without a trace.
I'm just happy that I still like how she sounds after 20 years.

omg baby Kuu in that yellow Dior top :heart

^ I know, right? ♥

https://i.imgur.com/yMHIYby.jpg

@KarenPang Yeah, she said in her Koda Reki book and some interviews, as well in that Kinsma 3 parts episode with the TV adaptation of the beginning of her career. During the run of her first singles she put on 8kg (from the 45kg she had during her debut time) so by the time she was doing COLOR OF SOUL her team threatened her that, if she didn't start losing weight, the PV would to be an anime.

I wouldn't be surprise that she developed an eating disorder before/around feel my mind' era, because she was very skinny on Crazy 4 U, and feel... DVD.

https://i.imgur.com/Wqi2maD.jpg

Holy SHIT. I have never seen this and I am so disturbed.

^^ Wow ok , that's just awful :no

I will not be surprised as being called fat when you already weigh so little is very damaging :x

Japan's society is still very sexist to some extent & the amount of scrutiny female celebrities have to go through from being judged about their looks to how they look can be very unforgiving

I'm just glad that Kuu stuck it out & stand up for what she believes in

I was literally thinking the other day that her recent performances on TV in the past year (and even the Black Cherry tour a little) or so she seems to be much more shy on stage. Not dancing as much, dressing more safe etc. It could be that's she's older now and feels subconscious about her image, which might be why she was nervous performing XXKK and perhaps is what inspired the MY NAME IS... slogan, or maybe worried about her voice. I don't blame her, she could be going through things mental health wise in relation to it all, I just hope she takes care of herself and can begin to feel a bit more confident soon. The fact that she is still going out there, giving her best to be true to herself despite her worries just makes me admire her even more. :yes

I wonder if she maybe damaged her voice at some point? Ayu is over 40 now but she still sounds great, so I'm not sure if age is the only factor. It could be many things like Corvina said.

I think Koda has kind of lost her direction, her best work up-do-date for me would be JAPONESQUE. it was cohesive, well done, full of different genres. I think this formula would still work for her, no matter the age, it just suits her well.

lately there's no good music and no budget, and looks-wise I don't think I understand her fashion sense either.

@KarenPang It's a weird situation there because in Japan judging people's weight was considered "normal" 20 years ago, and people still do nowadays. This whole thing is treated more of an overcome situation of how she went from "overweight to skinny", but to be honest it was more like her own team fat shaming her to lose weight.

Ayu has some good days of singing, but that's not always the case and we all know that. She is in such a better place vocal wise now, but let's not act like she's singing great for the past 10 years. Obviously Ayu has her deafness that affects her, so a lot goes into that.

@ayu_ready? That's up to personal taste, as you said that to you it is best work to date, it's not for everybody. W FACE, DNA and reCORD were solid records for me, so far AND was the only misstep.

Also, let's not act crazy like she lost her voice or something like this, she just did a very good performance of Story on FNS a couple of months ago.... And the Butterfly performance on MNIT was totally fine.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14NX...ew?usp=sharing

And yes, lately she seems to be very nervous on TV, more often she's even saying that on stage.

Yeah, I think she sounds fine compared to her peers (especially the mentioned one). She is among the top-vocalists for me. I love listening to her, I jsut can't stand Japanese TV-sound engineering anymore.

Yeah for sure. My point was more that there are singers like Ayu who currently sound very good vocally despite being over 40, so age might not be the main or only issue (and not that she is a better vocalist than Kuu).

I do feel that she seems to experimenting with more higher notes recently like someone else said, so it could just be that, or it could be nerves, or bad microphones. Anything, really. I still enjoy listening to her regardless.

She did sound great in XXKK and when she did that duet with Ai not too long ago, so.

EDIT: Also thanks for sharing the video, she sounds great! Was that recorded from the Mu-mo live I take it?

fat shaming is one of the sickest Asian culture. When you are have a bit fat on your face, then people would say "you are fat".

Someone uploaded this clip a couple of days ago on Youtube, of some BTS from 2002-2003 of Kuu, perhaps from CDs and TV footage? I've never seen this so it was nice to see!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCa3...=RareJ-PopZone

She's always looked so pretty!

^ That's so cool, thanks for sharing it here!

Does someone know if there were any changes in the setlist for the tour this weekend? Especially curious about the ballad section.

Yesterday's 1st session at Fukuoka Marine Messe



https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6996987624

Don't know about the 2nd session yesterday

^
^ You're welcome!

I think I'm in the minority but I love 'WHO', so I'm glad she's performing that song.

Is Mu-mo live-streaming this weekend's tour dates as well? I keep missing the tour dates due to my own schedule/time difference, but I'd really like to catch it live if I can. Or if they are streaming December 5th I may wait to watch that one, as I feel that may be a special one since I think that was when TAKE BACK was released?

@Ayu_Love That video is from her first DVD, 7 spirits. And yes, there will be two concerts for this weekend on 10/10, one 13pm and other 19pm both Japan local time.

The only difference in the setlist was:

18. 1000の言葉
19. WALK OF MY LIFE

For the first performance of 09/12 the setlist was:

18. Through the Sky
19. BRIDGET SONG

and the second

18. CHANCES ALL
19. WALK OF MY LIFE

Thanks Kaled and Karen!

I hope 1000 no kotoba ends up in the DVD even if in a bonus disc. At least would be a way to make up for it not being on Spotify lol