also "ayu" book was with "real ayu"


http://i.imgur.com/fT2LVpfl.jpg

I'm dead right now. She's SOO PRETTY here! :love:love:love

I'm so sick of real Ayu. It's boring. They've been running with this "concept" (if you can even call it that) for far too long. It's basically an excuse to be lazy and avoid creativity. There's no passion behind this.

I miss the fierce, gorgeous and superficial Ayu, even if it's apain in the a** to admit it.
I really liked the "real Ayu" concept all over the years (LOVE (again), A ONE, sixxxxxx) but I would like to see something else... Like CoLOURS booklet for example, or Harper's Bazaar photoshoot.

To me this "real ayu" shit seems way more superficial. Especially after the iconic, untouchable, fierce megastar image she was rocking during her 10th anniversary. To me, that demanded respect. It marketed her as the spectacle that she is. Now, trying to market this real ayu image seems so unrealistic to me, and fake.

her boobs looks HUGE

What bothers me most about "real Ayu" is that she's always still wearing tons of make-up. There is nothing natural about just not wearing heavy eye shadow and lipstick. Not to mention the amount of photoshop.
And I so can't stand how "real Ayu" most of the time also means "Ayu who looks like a teenage girl". She looked more like an adult when she was at the beginning of her twenties.

I think Ayu is really misunderstanding when/if people around her say that she was most successful when she was "relatable" and she's interpreting it to think we want THIS. We don't - we want a crazy big awesome image, but we want those crazy big awesome looks that SHE chose because they were visual representations of how she felt, or how she wanted to look, or what she felt more confident dressed as, or whatever.

I think it would be more Ayu - and it would be more appealing to people - if Ayu went with all the makeup & costumes. Looking so done-up and theatrical but with such personal, emotional songs, that stuff always made me feel like "I could be awesome like that too someday, cuz she's scared like me but she faces those fears and puts herself out there", you know? Even as big as that stuff was, it didn't seem like she was showing off.

THIS kinda makes it look like she's saying "Even without makeup, look how pretty I am" to all those types of insecure, anxious people who identified with her back in the day. She looks absolutely lovely, but I think this "real ayu" concept is not the right way to go. i think it's really unintentionally sending the wrong message.

Yea, I noticed that, way out of proportion to her body.

She's cute but THIS.IS.BORING.
Same concept, again and again and again.
It seems Ayu is lacking of creativity in her photoshoot AND music.
I'm afraid for the new album. I miss the fierce Ayu, her pop/rock songs, and her albums with more dark concept.

Maybe that's how she feels now. She wants to looks younger. Who doesn't? She's more comfortable with eyelash extensions and full makeup? Let it be. Real doesn't mean nude.

This this this and this. If real Ayu actually gets fish-lipped in her very real personal life, I'd rather see staged Ayu X)

Sometimes I think simple photoshootings work, like A ONE which I found pretty decent, but to be honest the last time I've been excited about a cover was probably the CD only NEXT LEVEL... Quite a while back!

I don't think we can blame the use of Photoshop because she clearly doesn't have control over that. Every single magazine edits the pictures before they publish them, so there's nothing we should be complaining about, really. No one is ever going to publish a picture of a famous person with absolute no makeup and no Photoshop; that doesn't seem magazines. Also, not even we publish our pictures online without doing some effort to look better.

Anyway, I don't mind the "real" and "natural" Ayu as long as they don't use such concept for her next album. LOVE again and A ONE were enough.

i mean this is nice and all but Numero can do better. Isn't it supposed to be a high fashion magazine? Why are her photoshoots so boringly pretty? I mean i like them. I liked the one we got with LOVE & again era. They were somewhat grown up. But why can't they go 100% for once and make it ACTUALLY high fashion?

Harper's Bazzar is probably the only magazine that ever did something really powerful with her. It's going to be forever my favourite photoshoot.

I can enjoy the "natural" AYu once in a while, but this has been going on for a bit too long now. It's time to move on.

Maybe she's waiting until the 20th anniversary is looming closer to vomit out things that are a bit less safe?

There was a period though that she was "natural / nude" Ayu nearly every other cover and now it's kind of spilled into her albums now too minus Colours.

I feel like the last time she had the glorious, powerful image of hers was either Baazar (bazaar??) magazine or her Colours booklet. I understand why people miss that look, it does send off the image that she's a little tired, bored, or worn out.

I see this as a relax period for her, so I'm not too concerned. She did so much stuff last year, I have no qualms with this lighter stuff.

I think it was okay for the first two things in the "rebirth of Ayumi Hamasaki" period in 2015, but now that it's 2016, I hope we're moving on from it.

That said, I wonder if this is where her image will stay from now on. She still loves shoes and she still loves fashion, so I don't get why we can't see that in her work.

The music is still amazing IMO and PVs are becoming way better than Colours era but the way it's been packaged and presented hasn't been the best or most interesting.

This. Real is different from natural. A woman can use makeup to show what she is. Especially if she like makeup. Using makeup and retouching doesn't mean she's fake or superficial.
However I don't think that she want to look younger because she is young.
She doesn't need to change her behaviour because of her age or to fit in with people's opinion.

Didn't she said in an interview few years ago like 2013 or 2014 something like she don't feel the need anymore to hide herself with fancy stuff ? I'm pretty sure I've read something along this line !

My opinion is that Ayu fell into her own trap ... she has put a lot of emphasis on image throughout her career and since some years she seems to not be as interested by the image in her works as before, causing a misunderstanding for fans (yet I'm pretty sure japanese fans are perfectly fine with this direction).

I'm fine with it too she tried nearly everything since the beginning of her career ... I would not be against something more fierce but it's just image after all yeah it's superficial it will not make her songs sound better or worse XD

Nothing says the "real ayu" thing is about the image maybe it's about the content of the interview ?

http://i.imgur.com/G6wN5sEl.png http://i.imgur.com/0T5AbLTl.png http://i.imgur.com/iJhKV8wl.png http://i.imgur.com/gI4Q1FEl.png http://i.imgur.com/avsJQbol.png