I see, you must mean super new fans. Because even fans who only know about her for a few months can get caught up on so much of her old stuff lol. It only took me the summer of 2007 to catch up on the stuff I missed.

The weirdest thing is my friend who usually hates those cute upbeat types of songs and isn't a fan of ayu just loves that song. it's so strange to me lol

I'm a semi-new fan, from somewhere around pre-Secret, and I really love You were... and CDL 09-10, so there might be some truth in it, but I like to think of all of us fans as the same: just Ayu's fans :D

Honestly, AT 09 is her best concert ever since AT 05, so... :laugh

As would I, but I think it was just used in the context of comparing. What else to call old fans and new fans than what they are, when describing things? I don't think there's any segregation going on, just explenations.

A world is one! :yes

Been a fan since '03 myself, consider myself semi-new...if I must.

I prefer AT08 so much over AT09. AT09 is her worst for me. :dead2

Haha, I guess it just goes to show that no Ayu fan has the exact same taste as any other Ayu fan even if we all love Ayu. People prefer so many different things. :P

Yep, even though a lot hated AT 2009, it was her most entertaining tour to date for me and I'm glad that there was the boxset thing since I could get both, if not I could get only the album.

But yeah I'm happy I can have my favorite tour of ayu. :D
(and I'm a fan since the end of 2003 so I don't think that it's always old vs. new/newer fans there are some times that it might be it though) =P

Same here. Well just that for me CDL 09-10 is her worst ever, AT 09 coming in shortly after it. XD
(and I'm an Ayu fan since 2004, just to add to the discussion)

Well, I finally gave up on waiting "just in case" of more limited box sets, and ordered the CD+DVD from CDJ since they explicitly show First Press and on YA it doesn't mention any bonus whatsoever...

I guess if Avex does end up putting more box sets out closer to release I will have to just have two copies :D

I don't want to get the AT09, so I'm not worried about the box. I just have no time too see DVDs so I never buy them (just CD+DVDs versions, because I can put it into my DVD and don't need too pay too much atention) my friend always buy DVDs... so see get hers when I have time...

I want to pre-order the BOX SET, but sold out everywhere ... will return has to do more?

I'm a big ayu fan, and I like her since RAINBOW Album... I don't think YW is one of her best ballad xD I like BALLAD more, but it's because I like this kind of tradicional song!

And I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooveeeeeeeeeeeeee Sunrise xD I've listened everyday for 3/4 months xD and now I still listening but just sommetimes xD I love it!

Yes, that is what I was talking about. People who are generally not too caught up on what Ayu has done, and are experiencing everything (evolution, Humming 7/4, her concerts, the PVs, the high production quality) for the first time or something like that. They don't have this notion of "This sounds like Together When.... or This was from CDL04-05..." everything is just fresh and new to them. IMO, sometimes I wonder if being exposed to Ayu or anything for that matter for a long period of time or a LOT at once (her entire discography/videography in a week) is a bad thing for a fandom, as it increases the likelihood of fandom abandonment. Everything in moderation, people!

I wish I worded it more correctly, but I was tiiiiiiiiiiired at the time, haha.

I think often enough, when sharing opinion, things shouldn't be stated a 'This is her worst to date' or 'This one was the best' and stuff like that. That is one persons opinion stated as a fact; a lot of people may share this opinion but a lot won't.

Personally, despite not particularly liking the NL tracks, I quite enjoyed what I saw of AT09. HOPE or PAIN - GREEN - Days was, to me, one of the best sets of songs that was expressed perfectly. I love those three songs in that order and expressed in that way, to the point that I re-watch it over and over and I don't get bored.

Each tour has something big and special to me, regardless of maybe an outfit recycled, a stage re-used, a routine done a million times, or vocals that aren't at the best they've been or something of that sort.

Sunrise/Sunset was always quite the debate wasn't it? I usually love ballads regardless of the type or of the artist so I expected to love Sunset a lot. In the end, despite Sunset being touching, I preferred Sunrise. I'm undecided of You were.../BALLAD since I love both tracks.

I'm also not a new fan at all, but I'll admit I haven't seen all her older stuff. So 'new fans' and 'old fans' can't be split this way, since it doesn't have that much to do with it, rather it's a difference of opinion that needs to be taken in and not argued about.

Been a fan since '01. I pretty much love all of ayu's songs except for the few I don't lol. As long as ayu does what SHE wants to do and not what we want her to do, I'm satisfied. :)

so enough new fans old fans crap, it's okay :D The real division is "stans" and "fakes" and those who fall in between. Stan praise EVERYTHING, sometimes without logic, and fakes HATE everything, sometimes without logic. And then everyone else falls in between. like 90% are middles, 5% stans, 5% fakes.

I actually haven't seen either concert tour 2000 in full or the earlier COUNTDOWN LIVEs. I'm so bad, haha. I also didn't have any of ASFXX - I am... to listen to until about a year or two. Anyway, I feel as though fans that have seen everything have a tendency to be harsher, or at least always feel this need to bring up other works that she's done that were better, when imo, that's one of the things that shouldn't be done with an artist like Ayu. She's constantly changing and what's happened in the past was fantastic, but just like she's moved on from certain trends and music styles, some fans would rather not let go of the possibility of that Ayu returning to them, so the past becomes a sort of "road block" for some fans. I've known about Ayu since around 2001/2002 with only For My Dear and teddy bear (I also listened to First Love and HAPPY SUMMER WEDDING at the time, but I ended up selecting Ayu as my favorite artist for some mysterious reason) and every song I have listened to since then has been phenomenal and they each touch me in different ways. It's not like I'm choosing to like everything because "Ayu is the best" or anything, but it's just that to me, everything is so listenable! I don't really know many artists that are like Ayu who, time and time again, are able to create such likable albums. Stepping away from the topic of her music, I feel as though the work she puts into everything she does (whether or not people think she really did put it in or not) really shows, at least for me. That could perhaps very well be the reason why I was so attracted to her, as though some sort of sixth sense drew me towards this singer... hm.

That classification in my opinion is a load of hooey. "Stan" is a vulgar word that I feel should only be used on YouTube and ONTD, because it's offensive to people who do like certain things a lot, and it's just a disgusting way to describe people that's only used by people who are unable to express themselves well imo. I would say that there really is no "real" division as it is different for everyone. In the end of it all, there will be people who like Ayu, and there will be people who dislike Ayu, and that's about as simple as it gets. I never really did see what was so wrong with liking something so much anyway. Why is it such a bad thing that someone chooses to blindly follow a celebrity or a group of people? That's their choice, and you have no right to criticize them for loving something, just as most people have no right to really criticize someone's choice to hate -insert something popular/not well known here-. (But in the case of hate, the opinions expressed can be challenged because sometimes the reasoning behind them is rather ridiculous imo.)

Whether someone likes or dislikes an artist is as simple as it gets, since everyone does have different opinions and will love an artist at varied degrees. To me, I won't force myself to like something if I don't, but I have always learnt to appreciate something for what it is.

An example being NL; that sort of music wasn't the style I was used to of any artist, so I didn't love it, and I can flat out admit that because it's just an honest opinion. But I always accepted NL for being another big part of her career; she tried something new and for a lot of people it did work because obviously there are loads of people that like it. I think a lot of people who ended up liking it, where the same people who didn't try comparing it to all her other work.

This doesn't mean I don't love her her works at varying degrees, because, again, I'm human and have different opinions, but I've never flat out hated something she's done.

Keep in mind, Ayu has never liked to stay in the same place for too long. She always wants to do something new, write something new, express something differently and that sort of drive has helped her to grow. It is probably one of the reasons for her success.

As a side note; I recently re-listened to NL because I like to give things different chances, and the AT09 tempted me, and I found I now love three tracks that are exclusive to the NL album.

I've seen a lot, maybe not everything but I don't think I'm that harsh, maybe because I'm realistic and don't expect her to be perfection 24/7. I don't go watching some performance from 2004 where her vocals sounded really good and compare it to her vocal performances now and be like "omg, what a shame.. shame on ayu for not sounding like that anymore, it's all her fault, i'm so disappointed!" like some people probably do. She's never going to sound like that again and I'm over it, she has more than a good enough reason for not sounding as good as she has before. What matters the most to me is she's still creating beautiful songs (no, they don't have to always be as amazing as some of the songs on I am..., and they're not "crap" just because they aren't) and she at least tries her best.

I find that with Ayu, her works grow on people over time, even if they initially disliked them. It's a rather strange phenomenon that has happened with the last 3-4 albums, with people initially really disliking the albums because they were new/not great/crap to people... and then after about 4-5 months or a year, people were suddenly IN LOVE after rediscovering the albums! It's really weird, haha.

Same goes for me. One of my least favorite tracks ever is GUILTY, but I still sometimes can see how good it is when relistening to it! Haha.

Oh, and about NEXT LEVEL, my feelings towards the album is that it was a full-on experiment and that Ayu was trying to present something new/different to her audience which had never been heard by her before. She succeeded in presenting something different imo, but because the album tracks were so experimental and all fit together really well [save NL/Curtain call] the single tracks kind of didn't fit into the album [sans Sparkle]. There are people who simply say that NEXT LEVEL is a horrible album, but I feel that these people are just simply too used to/too set on hearing an older Ayu. Because of this, I feel it's kind of "good news" that Rock'n'Roll Circus will be a return to Ayu's basics, since people who did not appreciate NEXT LEVEL might actually like it! Though I think some people feel that NEXT LEVEL was a direction that she was going in musically, when I really don't feel that way at all. It was a temporary detour along the way that she took, and now she's back on her usual "path" or something of that nature.

For me, her vocals have always been sort of "eh" haha. So it's always been like, "Oh, people are angry about her vocals being bad?" whenever it's brought up. I've never really had a problem with it because it's something I can't really control as a fan (and neither can anyone else) and I just have faith that Ayu is doing the best that she can with what she has, and I truly do feel that way. Whether or not people like what she's putting out, I think that she is putting her heart into it and in the end, for me that's all that matters when it comes to her work. As long as she's putting her all into it, it's fine with me.

Honestly I can't say that it was all fun and joyful but I was never alone. I want to show you a dream. I hope you will have a never-ending and lasting dream. This is my wish.
-- MY ALL
But this song is definitely a love song sent to you, my dear from my heart
--Curtain call

It only makes sense that people like things to varying degrees, right? Since that's a matter of taste that can't be helped. I also think NL was just something she wanted to try; I think she wanted to be able to give her listeners something they hadn't heard from her before, and I think she also wanted to try it for herself, to see if she could love it in such a manner. I'm not sure if she planned on continuing it or if she planned on just trying it out. Maybe she wanted to see what she could do with it all in a tour.

I have faith that I'll love the new album; I've just got this feeling that I will.

As for her voice, I love an artist that just uses what they have and doesn't focus on perfection. I definitely think she has a wonderful singing, I definitely think she's talented, but it's just impossible to sound the same way forever, and it's definitely impossible to sound perfect at every show. I just focus most of all on the emotions, and the expression of the song. Because I want to feel something when I hear an artist.

I'd put this under a spoiler because it's somewhat unrelated but I realized I don't know how. The singer of Plastic Tree, Ryutarou, does not have a talented singing voice. If you want to get technical, he doesn't sing, since he uses his talking voice. But Plastic Tree has a massive fanbase and they'll all tell you his lyrics with his voice just make them fall in love with the music because it makes them feel something, it makes them cry, it makes them laugh, it makes them feel pain, the loneliness, it makes them feel love, being loved or the want to love. To me, that's more important than a technically perfect voice; that doesn't change just because Ayu is in a different genre.