yup cover is nice but the 'again' looks awful

She has boyfriends in her videos and covers, now we just need them on songs.

What's the problem with her using her boyfriend on the cover?
Anyways, the covers are cute! Nothing really special, but I kinda like them.

Please marry me xDDDDDDDD

Sorry for the off-topic :p

^ sadly its not over... she just did the song for the movie...

but imagine an album... MAN!

I really like the CD+DVD cover, it's very original for Ayu. Not too fond of the CD only, but it's really refreshing.

I agree with the people saying it's all very... convenient.

Ayu released in her statement: "Work is work, private is private." And that's been her motto forever. It's really disappointing... I don't think I'm going to purchase this single/album(Whatever) just because it feels wrong. I don't like this direction which Ayu is going, it's scary. =/

I'm so disappointing, I'm really sad... :( Awww. I hate this feeling. I feel she's not the same person as before... it's a depressing feeling. =[

too much like "LOVE" I hope all of the 5 mini album covers don't have the same colors and theme as the first two. I was really hoping for something totally different. Maybe I am complaining too much but LOVE was all pastel-y soft and pretty and same with this one, I hope the next release isn't like that I don't care if it's a story, it's boring.

If the next single cames out in anything between 6 months and 1 year, that's still her normal time when she is not on hiatus xD

Thanks for the info regarding Sakura Nagashi, sadly it sounds bland to me

It just goes to show how different the are, Utada releases a classy nice ballad with no fuss while Ayu is doing all this business..hm.

but that is Hikki's style, she strives to be ordinary, girl next door, generic and low key (kinda why she had zero chance of ever making it here)

I like Ayu's over the topness and I am starting warm to these covers cuz just lol they are so ridic

I never get this whole Hikki being normal thing, she has famous parents in the industry and just as much promo as Ayu.

She has an EVANGELION tie in. How is that normal?!

This just gives me a bad feeling in my stomach. Seriously...? Her TA entry where she made the announcement said "I think this is the last time I will speak on this subject" and then two days later puts out an album cover with her lover...

First cover is not good at all - her hair looks like straw. Second cover is decent.

^ you also have to understand that the covers were taken last week or two weeks ago...

i dont think normal is the right world...
Down to Earth... she was never really over the top in terms of promoting.
She might have HUGE ties in, but its not flashy.

OMG I'm so in love with them *-*

Yes which makes it worse to me. The whole thing came about "tomorrow an article will be published about Maro and I in a weekly magazine! I want you guys to be the first to know" and it was made out to sound like Ayu wanted to make the announcement before some tabloid did without her consent. Then here she was all along planning to hawk this relationship as part of some spectacle in her career. I'm just getting tired of it - she's making a drama / reality show-type thing out of her life / career...

I dont think so.
Maro is nothing new to her career... she has used him before in shoots, lives, PV's, and concerts...

the only difference this time is that she publicly said that she is now in love with him.
thats the only difference.
As for the TA... I get what she was doing... She is so open about things with her fans she probably thought that some would be hurt that they read it in a magazine before she told them. And she is soooo last minute, so they most likely knew about the article for a bit before finally announcing it.

You don't see every other artist using their significant other in so many products of theirs - they are seen kissing actors / actresses. This is just going way over the top and honestly it is becoming more and more of a joke. I can't believe what she is willing to do to her career. Yes it is her life, she has a right to date whoever but to make her career a musical version / real-life version of facebook is just ridiculous.

Exactly, Shu-ya was annoying, but it was all acting.

We all thought You & I was Maro filling that role, but it clearly wasn't. These covers are clearly related to it. How long as she been planning this? It all fits too well for a coincidence. Was it all going to be the same, but she wasn't going to tell us? I find that hard to believe with the timings of the news and the amount of images we suddenly have of them.

She hasnt really used him in a lot of projects though.
She used him before they were dating, but after the fact we have seen just 1..
the cover.

before that its nothing but speculation.

Well... People using significant others on their videos/concerts/songs is not that rare... Madonna, Britney, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Ai Otsuka, Koda Kumi, all of them did that recently.

Kylie Minogue had her boyfriend nearly naked on her tour video in 2011, too. And it was hot.

But Ayu's significant other - his job is to be with Ayu, regardless of if they are dating. So he will ALWAYS be there. It's like his paying job now to play that part on, and OFF, stage. A collaboration between lovers is different.

And do not use Britney as a credible source on this - that was the clear start of her tragic story / era and proves how much of a terrible decision that was for her.

You can even look at Maro collaborating with Ayumi via his danceing...
He's been in her You and Me PV and now the covers...
hes not really everywhere.
I think after these 5 release we can get a better judgement of how its going to be...
but its nothing really new... Ayumi gets someone that she likes and STAYS with it till she finds something new...
the only difference this time is that its her boy-toy. :lech

exactlyy! =O

Let me introduce you to Britney's actual fiance, her manager:




Madonna and J-Lo are also dating her dancers:




And really, it's even "worst" (as I don't really see anything wrong on doing that) to have your lover collab with you if he doesn't work for you.

I just hate her hair like this. Omg.

I was still expecting something different. But oh well, they're some pretty covers. Reminds H

Except Ayu has explicitly repeatedly stated her private life and working life are two different things yet continues to contradict herself.

We know nothing about their relationship aside it's existance... You guys are talking as if she was using honeymoon photos as album booklets and bloging/twitting about their sex lifes.

And really, her personal life is the main fuel of her creative outputs since day one... Remember the song rumoured to be about the death of her beloved grandma ended all of her concerts (either by her performing it or playing the recorded version) for most of her career.

yep.
She still has her personal life.. all she did was tell us that she is dating..
We dont know anything else about it.

What this person said:
I know of Britney's man, and I know of the other celebrities dating dancers. But it isn't as "in-your-face" as Ayu and her man. I mean, a freaking album cover. The whole way things came about is what looks so strange here. To the general public, you have to understand how bad this looks. For people saying Japan is just "tired" of Ayu, this really won't change their minds and will probably bring accusations of "stunts" to light in Japan if it already is bringing such accusations by FANS here on AHS. Tamoya was in no way a part of the "Hamasaki Ayumi" image when they were dating (correct me if I'm wrong)...

Just thinking about watching Ayu videos with friends:
*watch Love Songs PVs*
"You know, that became her real life husband in real life"
*watch Return Road PV*
"You know, that became her real life ex-husband in real life"
*watch You & Me PV*
"You know, that dancer became her real life boyfriend in real life"
*looks at again covers*
"You know, that man is her dancer and boyfriend from the You & Me music video"

there is nothing wrong with dating dancer/model etc lol it's not the point
and also ayumi is not madonna/britney/j.lo~~ just because they puts their relationships onto carrier, it doesn't mean it's a good thing. (mixing private with showbiz, NOT dating dancer)

i meant after NEXT LEVEL :) I don't consider RnRC as fancy photoshoot, (only her clothes were fancy)

Am I the only human being along with ayu who constantly changes his opinion and vision of life constantly?? Everything ayu has told the oublic about her private life has been through the art: lyrics, PVs, album and single covers, photobooks...

We only know it's Maro on the cover because we are a bunch of obsessive freaks that recognize her dancers by their hair xD His face is is covered either by the light or by Ayu on both photos... For someone who doesn't care enough about her to know who her dancers are or look like, this cover goes easily unoticed as a stunt.

And really... She is a celebrity whose money comes from the capacity people have to relate to her personal feelings or the image they make of her personal life, so, using her love life (on the same way she used her career delusions, her relationship with her parents, the death of beloved people, her deafness, etc) as a creative fuel to her projects is just natural. And it's also natural to all the other ladies I pointed, whose relationships we also know nothing about aside the fact they exist. It's not like ANY of them makes more money by appearing on tabloids than they do by releasing music and performing.

Pretty much this... How do people expect her to release personal music and videos (that is what brought a good part of her fanbase to her) without puting a little (almost nothing actually) of her personal life on it?

I thought, she would choose a more winter-looking cover.
But they are ok. I don't care, who is there with her.

I think there's a difference between basing your lyrics on personal experiences (loads of artists do this) and putting your partner on an album cover and revealing you're dating a few days before.

Aside from the Love Songs era, I can't think of any PVs that explicitly cite her real life relationships. Some covers have had a message, but this is the only one where it's, again, explicit.

There's definitely a difference between making an allegory using actors and using your boyfriend.

i wonder when she break up with him how this covers will look to her...

Yeah, someone said it doesn't show his face, so it won't be that big a deal if and when it happens... but Ayu will remember the time and feelings from when they were shot. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

^ She'll stick a photo of them at the end of a PV and wear black...

WAIT.

Lol.

Ah, right. I've checked the ayu trance 4 booklet scans. So has this been the first time that he remixed a song for Ayu? The problem I had with the "Greatful days" remix was my aversion for the original mix. I simply don't like this song but the second half of the remix is OK.

Another example is "Beautiful Fighters". I can't really say that I like this song either, but the MSTRKFT remix is actually one of the toughest musical pieces among the ayu-mi-x 6 albums. Truly a gem!

Which means, a bad song can possibly change into a masterpiece after its remix-transformation :yes

I guess it depends on the way they'd break up and the way Ayumi looks at past relationships. She doesn't seem to regret any, she seems to have a "ok, it didn't work, but I'm thankful for the happy times" approach.

And we don't even know if they will break up :P

It's really fresh to see one of her cover with another person even if we don't see him very well.

I like the covers, although i like the cd one more, I just think it's sweet, but I'll be buying the dvd version since I always buy the dvd versions ; ;

I know I've seen Ayu wear rings on her left ring finger before that didn't necessarily reflect hr marital status at the time (she was wearing them a lot during DT2001 for example) but looking at these covers...it looks to me in the CD version that she's wearing an engagement ring and a wedding band. That, coupled with the title, and the fact that it's Maro in the picture with her...I swear, if my eyebrows were raised any higher, they'd blend in with my hairline.

Lol, when Ayu's selling 100 copies per release and everyone still continues to say "well you know for as long as she has been in the business that is good" we will all look back and see that once Ayu started becoming almost irresponsible in a way, regarding her real-life and the "Hamasaki Ayumi" image, is when her career took a much sharper decline. I'm not saying this is the worst thing in the world but I think it's weird how some people don't even have the slightest, ... "uh...?" feeling about this whole thing.

She's wearing the same bands she tried to pass off as the wedding bands with Mannie and those same bands are in pics dating back to atleast 2007. In case the recent events don't open eyes enough. Every relationship that has been in the press is a publicity stunt , same as this one. No one has to wait to find out if they will break up, because they were never together. Their kiss in You & Me people keep talking about, no one can miss a mouth by that far without trying to miss. Use this experience to open your eyes as to just how far Avex will have her go just to put her back in the headlines.

She looks so young and cute in the CD+DVD cover. Maro sharing the cover with her is a little distracting but not a big deal.

They'll need to grow on me.

They are perfect! Definitely better than LOVE covers! She looks so beautiful...

I don't like this guy's appearance though. :eviltongu
At least, his face is not visible... :D

http://www.sanspo.com/geino/images/2...5030006-p2.jpg
http://www.sanspo.com/geino/images/2...5030006-p1.jpg

This cover is just the most adorable thing ever.

^:yes

So cute! Love them!

These are so pretty and cute :heart

CUTE!

BEST. EVER.
So pretty!!!

They are so much better bigger up...
And i want to laugh so hard.

The same people that are complaining about the mini being a 'single' are the same people saying that its now an album to compain about Maro and ayu having him everywhere... Lol.

wow oh no she didn't!

:laugh

I like them. They're proper Japanese covers aren't they~

he puts his hand under her shirt j/s

So cute!

Also lol at people up in here being so dramatic. Stop thinking so hard on things that barely matter~

LOLOLOL! XD

aah, ayu, now your new relationship definitely feels like a PR move...

wonder if she will ever regret putting her lovers in music videos and covers?
history has proven it to be bad mojo for relationships :p

lol that hand buged me...i was like what is it? how is that supposed to work there? where exactly is it going because i can't see it at all xD

Aw those are really nice covers :heart.

I love how mature & simple her covers have looked lately. I really like that style. That said, I like again's covers. :)

Personally, I think Ayu's going through some giant midlife crisis or something. She doesn't seem to know who she is or what she wants anymore. It's like she's just going through the motions at this point and doing whatever makes her the most happy at that moment. Which is cool, she can do whatever she wants.

To me, though, it seems like she's almost flailing at times. Like this. I don't personally buy this whole relationship with Maro thing. I don't question that she feels something for him, but like...wtf. Where on earth did this relationship come from? And I just don't personally think putting your new BF on your album cover is a smart move, but what do I know.

As for the covers, I think they're okay... I agree with the few people that said they're sick of the LOVE theme, and by that I mean the way all the covers and PVs look the same, like they were all made with instagram or something. :laugh And yeah, we get it: you're in love. Again. And again. Thought your love life was going to stay separate from your professional life? Oh well...morals change.

And as for the people who say 'who cares? It's her music that matters.' I care. I don't follow her anymore for her music. I follow her because I idolized her for half of my life. But in the last 2 years she's been contradicting so many things that I came to idolize her for. Maybe that's her changing with time, but I don't have to be a fan of the change.

Gawd, I have no clue which cover I should take for my MP3 rip D:

Well said. :yes

Uuhm, ok. Mmmh..yeah...ok. There have been worse covers, but these make me feel uncomfortable. :(

I really like covers and I don't mind Maro being there. Not like he's overused or anything. People wanted simple & natural covers, here you go. When she gives you diva photo-shot w/tons of make-up and editing people will complain again. It's not Ayu who doesn't know what she wants, but people just don't like anything she does nowadays.

Party queen - too experimental, LOVE - too generic. Okay.

This pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole thing, but the last part as I feel a little bit different.

I've always `idolized` Ayu for her music, performances, PVs and lyrics. Her private life was never of any interest to me and atm I'm trying not to think about the whole thing, but when she was with Tomoya at least he wasn't in her PVs and live performances.

She did keep her private and stage lives separate and now I can hardly say the same thing. Her husbands/boyfriends are practically thrown into our faces. Sure we can all say crap like "She is doing what she wants and I am all happy for her" and she might as well be, but in case she does want to keep her fans she should reconsider some things from other perspectives as well. I don't care who she dates really as long as that person doesn't become a mandatory ingredient of "ayumi hamasaki" the singer's career. We all bring our personal lives to work at times, but doing it occasionally and doing it constantly are two different things and imo Ayu's been doing it way too often lately. Yes she is an artist and her songs are a reflection who she is. I just wish some things could've been done in a more subtle way...

And what about those? :laugh

lol That's what bugs me about them because they all have the same look and it's not even a particularly good look.

People keep saying that Ayu would feel weird for putting Maro on the covers if they break up, but what I think would be more weird is having to work with him after. I don't think she could fire him, I don't know if that would count as proper grounds, but I suppose he could quit.

I think that these days she just gets excited by the people in her life and keeps throwing them into the picture. Like Timmy, for example. Its whatever she's hopped up on at the moment.

For haters about ayu using her private life as PR, I ll copy what I would like to share in another thread:

I mean, she is really right in appears/return road lyrics that we audience can actually never know the true/whole stories. But that is exactly the whole point of all these, given this being part of true relationship or PR, or both.

She is 34, and personally I do not think she is stupid, so all the public/fan reactions now, including negative ones, should be what she and her company can foresee. I should say, at this moment, "hamasaki ayumi" is a divided image, due to its longevity and maturity, inevitably; there is not one "simple and innocent ayu" who wrote Poker face anymore, and even she herself has been saying at the very beginning: hamasaki ayumi is a product.

So I think in order to the fans themselves to be more comfortable, it is crucial to not take EVERYTHING about ayu too seriously and naively. She is much more complicated than what the fans can dream about. All these little things, big events, craziness, imperfections if you would say, just make ayu more real.

^ Party Queen experimental? It was way too nudy (but I'm not the one to moan about it, her body is sexey~~) but experimental? It was fun. I think that's why I realllly like that album. Diversity in music, not focusing on "medium/ballad" love songs... Even the PV's for NaNaNa and Shake it was lame, I still prefer them than lovey dovey theme.

true, true.
I personally wasn't EVER into her private life. I don't know a single fact about her relation with Tomoya, I maybe saw 2 pics with her and him. This is just too much for me.


(and her break-up music is always better, haha)

H and again have basically the same theme, but drastically different art/composition though. hahah

I prefer H btw.

We can blame era of smartphones and twitters :P

Random model on a motorcycle is entirely different than this publicity world tour through Paris and London hiring gettyimages to follow her around as paparazzi as if she's that popular in western countries. She's not, she's announced where and when she will be meeting fans in western countries many times before and the paparazzi in the west does not care. This is all staged and to the point of being sickening,and will likely cut her sales, not increase them. Yes there's a sudden jump in the charts for You & Me because of the fans who buy absolutely every word she ever says, but overall when people notice how staged and fake it all is, this stupid stunt has the potential of destroying her career, because who's going to take her seriously anymore.

I agree with you !!

She don't go to london lol she stays in Paris until monday evening

Ohh god you're probably not french so you can't know what she is doing in Paris but what you say is foolishness !
Actually the paparazzi are posted in front of her hotel because kardashian family is here ! Some of them have say to some fans that they totally don't care about Ayu because it can bring them only 60 € if they take a picture of her etc... & getty images are not a paparazzi society ...

You are here for bashing Ayu ! It's obvious that you don't appreciate her anymore why you're still here except for create discomfort O_o ?

I love these covers!

Aren't we getting a little too out of hand here?
She said her personal life is separated from her works, but we all know this isn't completely true. A song for XX, teddy bear, Memorial address, they're all songs for her father, a personal matter for her, and I never saw someone complaining about them because they're songs about her personal life. Same thing happened with untitled ~for her~ and probably lots of other songs we don't even know, but are about a personal matter for her.
The only different thing is about her love relationships, until Tomoya she kept them away from the public eye, and we can actually say the same about Mannie. Yes, he was featured in her PVs, but it was before they actually got married. I don't really follow her news outside the music scene, but I think their relationship was kinda out of the public eye too? I didn't really see much, excluding the marriage and the divorce announcement, of course.
I don't really see a problem with Maro being featured in 'again' cover because we can't really see him, it could be anyone there in his place. The only strange thing about the relationship are the pictures of her with him in Paris, it's like she's doing it to show everyone they're together. lol not that I see a problem with that, she could even have sex with him in public if that's her fetish or something, I just see how people could see it as the wrong thing.

@mizuki-7

I care about her. What I don't like is the constant publicity stunts she's asked to do by people she at times refers to as family and they treat her like all she's good for is making them more money.

Talking about a personal relationship in a song is a bit different to directly linking your work to your boyfriend, because inevitably the lyrics Ayu has always used in her songs have become anonymous to an extent. There is no direct lyric saying "I love you *insert name of Ayu's current boyfriend" but she presents feelings that are inherent to relationships in general... and that's what makes people connect to those lyrics because they are all things that people feel. I'm not so sure if having her boyfriend on the cover would affect that but, despite her wishes to keep her personal life private, the whole cover seems slightly weird to me...

Yeah, maybe she does need a publicity stunt to spark things up again. But perhaps she should have simply reinvigorated her PR on magazines/TV performances instead :shrug

I dont understand why people have to say this is a stunt...
that implies that they are not even dating and as of right now they have already said they are.

By using her life as press, everyone does this. It doesn't make it a stunt. It makes it good PR.

A stunt would just being they are doing this to try and make press, which only time will tell if this is true.

I don't know what to think of these. It's something I never, ever expected Ayu to do.

Wow, I agree with every single sentence in this post LOL And I really feel that I can't take Ayu seriously anymore, especially after the last 2 years. Sad, because prior to that I had always had a lot of respect for her - she always seemed more mature than her actual age, through her lyrics, music, and "public image."

And if the Ayu we are seeing now is how she's always really been, then damn, she certainly had me fooled for 8 years (not including the last couple years which is when I started to feel her "public image" [for lack of a better word] began to really change).

And a more specific response to the album covers:
I think they are very tasteful in their presentation; they're fine, a bit bland.

But she doesn't need to be advertising her boyfriend du jour on the covers. At least she won't have to stare at his face if (when) they break up.

In her defence, Maro basically works for her, and these wouldn't have been the least bit controversial if news of their relationship hadn't leaked. They're quite unique covers, and still tasteful, Ayu hasn't done something like this in her career. Love how it goes against a typical winter theme as well.

I wonder why the picture of her and Mannie used in the Return Road PV didn't generate this kind of backlash?

I kind of agree a bit :(

Maro is really just a prop in these. That's why there's text all over Maro's face in the other cover. Wasn't there a guy she was hugging in LOVE ~Destiny~ too?

Also, I feel like after having titles like "LOVE" and "again" we should have probably seen this coming from a mile away.

^ And the shirtless man in H single!

I think it's just a coincidence that Maro is on the cover, he and Shu-ya were being Ayu's false lovers for YEARS before this to came up.

I think it was just a matter of time for some of her back-up dancers to appear in her covers.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...neveragain.jpg

Special 6th consecutive release mini-album for her 15th anniversary :P Out April 8, 2013 though a sooner release may be expected :innocent

I'm curious, should the subject of Ayu's personal life should be a banned topic considering Ayu has said that it is PRIVATE and not part of her career? Just like how TeamAyu entries are not allowed because she wants them kept on TeamAyu??

The Love Destiny and H covers are totally different - the guy is pretty much just a prop where as with these it's clear who it is with Ayu and why..

I think you all forget about fancam that stalk her when she is still with mannie...

She don't know that she was following by camera, and we can see from that video, that she is real with Mannie...it's not just for publicity...

actually I think to the average viewer it might not be clear...
You can't tell from the Cd+DVD cover and you can only really tell from the CD cover because we have seen him so many times.

Reminds me of Love Destiny + H.
Really nice <3

Does look a bit fan made. And I ain't one to normally shout publicity stunt but...

Equally, who cares? Looking forward to the music!!

mi|kshake~

@ayugame

and you forget that even if it's Gori or Timmy walking beside her that her staff is always holding her by the hip beside her and no one knows those 2 guys from the fancam so they could have easily been hired. that whole san francisco trip seems awfully similar to this paris trip and the london trip planned for when they leave paris.