I'm going to quote this the next time someone claims you never have anything nice to say xD;


:love

Not really a fan of Ballad video. Pretty but I don't like that faded color softlight thing going on with her. Looks like several of her magazine shoots. Also the circular lenses need to go woman, you're in your 30s.

Concepts for the sets were good and I believe well done. I just wish the washed out PV look didn't happen for the garden in the sky thing. Detraction from how vibrant and ethereal it could have been.

Motorcycle scene was unnecessary in how it was shot. Almost as if they went over budget on other scenes so they had to alter the cycle scene with bad animation.

I like you were... much better than this video.

I need a fly swatter for that bug Shuya. He is used too many times and it's just bland to see him act with her again. She needs actors that are fresh for the story that add new demension. How many more times are we going to see her love him? Not have him love her? Not have him be with her? Die or Comatose?

So many people complaining this BALLAD PV were cheap?
So the conclusion is Cheap PV = Bad PV?
FAIL.

The Black Cat is symbolism I think, but why using animation?
Maybe showing its red eyes as a curse of bad luck?
Also, the image of goddess is perfect for Ayu, is she a flower fairy here?

About Shu-ya letters, I think it was like this :
Shu-ya doesn't realize that he is the one who left the world, because after knows who is the postman (The postman were himself, right?) he remember back then about the accident, and then he realize that he was dead (Or maybe coma), but Ayu didn't.

Anyway, this is the best PV with awesome song so far for me. :D
I can't stop listening to BALLAD, I've already played it almost 500 times. :laugh

I could have done without Shuya too. :) But at least in this video I didn't really find him distracting.

Why don't our Ayu use a photo of "Pino & Papico Sans' sleeping pose" to replace that 2 black cats animation!!!???!!! It would be more HANDY and family-like. Don't our Ayu really like cats so much???

hehehe.

Imo, You were... is an okay song with an amazing PV. BALLAD is an amazing song with an okay PV so it balances out ( :P ). Also Ayu looks more mature and older in You were while in Ballad she looks a lot younger, right?

Maybe I'm the millionth person to say this but I think the black cartoon cats were beyond unnecessary- it took away the drama from the whole thing. The only other thing that slightly bothered me was that I didn't like the way her blond hair looked with the pink dress xD I wish she would have kept it brunette even just for this PV.

We should look at the whole PV theme in motor accident, those house are animation-type as well,

I don't get it, but I think the cat has connection to the postman as well (hint: the cat-mask on postman)

The story begins from the scenery Ayu and Shuya drive the motor bicycle.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-04-47.jpg

After avoiding the cats too suddenly, Shuya and Ayu got accident. Ayu may be okay, but Shuya is injured so he faint.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-01-10.jpg

In the world represents for Ayu’s mind, we see the "pink" Ayu is singing, a song for praying, hope her lover will come back. Why it is the garden full of colorful flower? I think because this is HOPE in Ayu.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-02-17.jpg

Back to Shuya, he wears a white clothes so I call him Shuya “white. He is the subconscious Shuya who is in coma.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-02-21.jpg

He is in a place different with Ayu, this is not "hell" as someone think. This place here, where both time and direction are invisible, is Shuya's consciousness. It’s an immense grasslands there has only a wooden house, which has numerous watches but not even one of these are the same time. This background of Shuya is opposite of Ayu garden because he is LOST.

Therefore, Shuya lost all concept of the present and place where he is. He only know day-by-day send letter through the post-box by his instinct, hope that it can come to Ayu.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-00-33.jpg

The men in black who wears a mask, or we call him “mailman”, is a conscious part of Shuya. (that’s why he is the only one person Shuya can see in his world). Because he is also Shuya himself so I call him Shuya “black”. In the first time of the PV, he is just stand in a distance to see Shuya “white” waiting in desperation. After that, he transmitted two letters from Ayu.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-02-48.jpg

Shuya “white”, after first time reading the letter “Please don’t go”, he really don’t understand much about the meaning of this letter. Because he is in a strange place and he wants to get out of it, but why the letter tells him “Don’t go”?

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-03-35.jpg

When Shuya “white” reads the second letter “Please stay with me”, Shuya can recognize something, so he chase after the Shuya “black”.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-04-28.jpg

After pulling the mask of the mailman, Shuya knows that it’s also him, it means himself wants to recall who he is and recover his consciousness.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-05-21.jpg

When open the mailbox, he recognize that these letter is not the mail is sent by him everyday, but it from Ayu. Hundreds, thousands of letters, want him to come back. It’s too painful for him to recognize his real state, Ayu’s love for him, the distance between him and her (death and life + love between them) he fall down into the ground and cry.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-04-53.jpg

(Notice: if we take a carefully look, we will see there is one letter has the message “please don’t go” – it means it from Ayu)

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-00-15.jpg

Therefore, this PV has the meaning about 2 lovers, even they are far away from each other’s, but in fact, they always try to transmit their feelings, but none to the other person. All of their feelings are stored in the same mailbox

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-05-26.jpg

If you wonder in the heaven, there is no mailbox, how can Ayu send letter for Shuya. The explain is: Ayu opens her hands so the petals will fly, each petal as a message sent to Shuya in his world.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-05-29.jpg

Back to the reality, Ayu is sitting besides the bed of Shuya, waiting in anxious. In the tables, hundreds of letters like the one we can see in Shuya world. I think she write as a wish. Each letter in the reality is the petal in her world.

*** Something interest in the PV:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-04-09.jpg

1/ The mask somehow looks like the cat face :cool

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-02-29.jpghttp://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-05-37.jpg

2/ Shuya has the clock of himself. This clock is sill working, so he is still alive, just in coma. You also can see the doctors don't cover his face so he is not death :innocent

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-04-45.jpg

3/ I must say Ayu's expression in this PV is really honest. No crying but really emotional :yes

And I love this scenery :love

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-02-27.jpg

black cat in Orient culture means "unlucky" or omen of death.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...V/00-05-30.jpg

sorry letter means "I'm sorry because I can't do anyting for you, just waiting and praying".

Sorry for my bad english :P

great interpretation^^

miayu, that's great! Really interesting to read, your thoughts. That was well done with the screencaps.

You were...'s PV is well done indeed, but BALLAD is her best PV since (miss)understood era imo. Other PVs was good, but not so beautiful as BALLAD srsly. The plot is cute and sad, animations and sceneries are amazing both. Ayu looks beautiful and luckily the pink dress didn't make her looking like a candy lol and even if I've never liked Shuya so much, he's pretty good at acting in BALLAD (in my opinion LOL). I lol'd when people start to complain about the two cats because they're bored to complain about cardboard trees :laugh srsly guys just enjoy it.


Oh and thanks miayu for your interesting interpretation :yes

great interpretation miayu!!! :yes I totally agree with everything you said! I like the subtle symbolism in this PV. Everything worked out beautifully!

Nice interpretation. But to add to that, I think the flower/Sorry are a little different, and it's a morbid picture. I think that Ayu with the "living" flower is giving whatever she can to keep Shuya alive via life support. But in the end, she apologizes because she no longer can - financially, and/or maybe the doctors don't think he can make it - hence the flower "dies" and we see Ayu weeping at the end, and we see the Sorry... note.:weep

I'm just reading comments...but how does You were... OR BALLAD look cheap? I don't understand you people.

I think both are fairly expensive.

I'm so proud of Ballad PV! When I saw the CM I thought "another artificial environment with Ayu just singing", then I started watching the PV and thought "Ok, Ayu died, went to heaven, Shuya sends her mails but finds out she's the postman (postwoman?) and they are together again, too obvious" but then the real ending really surprised me.

I love this PV. I love You were... too!

This is an awesome single, I totally cannot wait to show the PV's to my pupils at school, I already subbed You were...., got to sub BALLAD asap!

I really hope Ayu will go in the direction she's heading right now :)

I find it hilarious when people thinks the postman is Ayu, when it's quite clear to me that it's Shuya :laugh Another my name's WOMEN-esque confusion? XD

The Ballad PV is good, with the CGI stuff, and the ayumi scenes, and her outfit. ^^

I was expecting the postman to be Ayu and she was wearing the mask because she had been disfigured by the accident, and Shuya was all angsty because she had been so ashamed of how she now looked that she left him, but concealed her identity and passed him notes so that she could still be near him without his knowledge and not have him feel guilty because the accident (and thus her disfigurement) had been his fault. Her post-accident figure would have provided an even more stark contrast to the seemingly-perfect, pink, dreamlike Ayu.

My imagination runs away with me sometimes...