^Ditto.
Stop calling it a flop. Sure it didn't do as well as some expected but its not a flop. Pessimism is a disease here.

To be honest, a fun summer song doesn't really equal as a excellent song (of course it depends on people's tastes). Probly with the song itself, I think sunrise can get a 7/10. But we can't deny pvs and cd covers do affect cd sales. With unprofessional photoshopped plastic doll-liked cover + two fairly boring pvs, it will drag down the sales for sure. Just like t2m. I think that song worths 7.5, but the pv sucks a big time.

And I dun think ayu's situation is as bad as momosu. It seems like ayu's dropping more than momosu, but you have to count in a fact that momosu's drop has already begun since 2003, from a over 500K seller to a barely 70K seller. And I think ayu has a slightly bigger fanbase (using 1st week's sales as an estimate). And don't forget momosu's new single has 4 covers. If they only throw out 2 covers, I dun think they can break 30K that easily.

And I agree with you regarding boybands. It's not boybands suddenly doing very well. Rather, it's the solo artists (or dual like B'z) doing bad right now. Boybands always have a big fanbase and usually the fangirls won't give in their love as quickly as the fanboys and other casual listeners. So throughout the years their fanbase are pretty stable compared to other soloists. And I dun really think soloists' fans are crazily driven; they will rather spend money on digitals rather than physicals. So that's why you see artists such as hikki dominates the download charts.

Sales are a bit low but oh well. I still don't get why people keep saying, these songs are bad, these PVs are boring, of course it won't sell well, yada, yada. Some people actually DO like the music. You can't just assume that everyone hates this single!

Although the sales are rather...yeah...I think the fact that she's still making #1 with those numbers speaks tons for the industry, as others have been saying. It's one of the reasons why I don't really pay attention to sales as opposed to rankings.

Actually most of the negative opinions are quite detailed and mention that they are usually big fans - nothing really seems trollish in any of them. When most of her stuff on amazon ranges from 4.5 to 5 stars, and then this one hits only 3 stars average I think it is an indicator that for whatever reason this single just isn't as well received as usual.

Yes, I agree. I just mean that usually her summer songs do well it seems despite the quality of the actual content. :) At least when compared to the other types of singles she releases.

Actually I was only referring to the fact that Ayu's second day actually dropped more than MM's second day did. :) Looking at the bigger picture though, MM's total single sales have actually remained surprisingly consistent from 2006 onwards. (The only exception being Mikan)

I honestly though this could at leats get 100K in its first week. I guess the boring PVs/ugly covers were the nail in the coffin for this. Hopefully the TV promotion over the weekend will keep the sales steady at least for the rest of the week.

At least it will outsold 3 SPLASH first week sales :D

Hopefully she will get better in the week...

(By the way, for reference, Arashi's best album releasing next week has a NINKI rating of 575 (!!!), which is slightly over 4.6 times of Ayu's NINKI rating for this single, and this could mean a "blowout"...)

with the exception of 2006 and part of 2007, ayu's always outsold kuu's singles, but kuu's had better album sales since 2005.

also kuu's released twice as much singles as ayu since 2006, so eventually people will just stop buying them. minus a couple of spikes and drops, ayu's single sales have remained consistent since 2006 (150k-190) with BLUE BIRD selling 258k as the highest and talkin' to myself selling 110k being the lowest.

albums have a separate NINKI chart for singles and albums, if i remember correctly, NEXT LEVEL's NINKI was 450.

... you're comparing Arashi's ALBUM to Ayu's SINGLE. Those are two different categories.

Actually it was 355.70. I can't remember any album that's had a 575 before.

575???? How do they really calculate the NINKI chart?? I mean, only 400 people are surveyed each time (with 100 people each in four generations; and 50 people from both genders). I always thought the maximum point an artist can get is 400 (which is rarely, cuz I think the highest I've seen is about 375 or 380).. Now I'm confused how Arashi's new album can exceed that range in that chart. I guess my assumption about the highest point is wrong then :P.


I guess the consistency shows the size of the real hardcore fanbase. Of course, since there're multiple versions so we can't really tell how many fans there buying one version only, and how many buy more than one versions of the cd. I assume we can safely say that the momosu have a fanbase that can make them selling over 40K on the first week.

For ayu, I guess her fanbase can get her around 70K on the first week at least, and she may have a better reception to the casual listeners providing sometimes she can sell over 100K on the first week. Again I could be wrong tho :P.

down.. down.. as low as i expected.. but.. shes still #1

A little bit expected... not horrible but not great. Not a really good single imo. But I hope Ayu's next single will be fantastic!

On the amazon.co.jp page it seems that someone complained about Ayu's expression on the cover. I hope Ayu sees the complaints. :( ... and that today's sales figure will be higher!

I actually hope she sees the comment

she needs to know what she's doing and what her fans or people think about her works... at the end is just gonna help her (if the comments are in a constructive way.)

I don't know if the Japanese hate the PVs.
On recochoku the full PV of Sunrise was #1 weekly and now it went up to #1 again.
The parts of PV of Sunrise also were #1 for two weeks and also there it charts good.

I think hate is a bit too strong for the pv. It's boring, but at least it's watchable compared to Kaz's directed pv.

Looking at the comments on mixi, amazon and talking with my Japanese friends (some ayu hardcore fans and other that like ayu)
The main problem here are not really the PVs, they don't really care about it. Everyone told me "These PVs are cute, these are not her best PVs but they are great".
Each times the negative point is the cover and the songs. Most of them wass expecting something else, something with more consistence, something that could have been like the singles she had released in the past, a new hit summer song !
But they all have been a bit disappointed... The songs are "flat" And they told me that the lyrics were okay but she uses some words/expressions that don't really fit a 30yo singer...
Even some hardcore fans told me "Well I bought it because it's Ayu that's all"

<- That's not necessarily my point of view, that's what I've been told.

Well, I'm glad she can keep on with her streak with a 2 versions only single.

I hope that too.