^I hope not. Her last single is actually pretty good and would be a really nice direction for her to follow.

If all the liking and following is an indicator, I think Yasuhiko Hoshino has some songs for her that are coming soon or eventually. I assume they have an "ASFXX" for her.

So I was re-listening to Duty, and it occurred to me that SCAR could be about Max Matsuura. I remember reading somewhere long ago that it was theorized that it was about a close friend of Ayu's at the time, but...it seems like Duty is almost a breakup album of sorts? Or an aftermath or reflection of one at least. I mean, it has a few different themes, but knowing what we know now, how I view the album has changed for me? Not in a necessarily 'negative' way, but it has fundamentally changed.

I like that M book revealed some aspects of Ayu's early years (love getting the tea lol), but I also liked that Ayu's songs, particularly from her early years, had this ambiguity to them because her personal life was seemingly so mysterious. In some ways I wish that the book hadn't been released, as it takes away the private veneer of that Ayu era away to some degree. Then again, I hope that Ayu releases an auto-biography someday because it would be so interesting lolol.

Just here to say that 'ANother song' is underrated af and it deserves way more love. That is all.

I think her most underrated album is A Song for XX. Maybe because it was the first one or people don’t like her voice there. I really love the song As if… That song is always on my playlist. I would like her to sing that song at the concert, but I don't believe it will ever happen. I also love Two of us (although it's not on the album, but it's from that era).

^I think half of ASFXX is pretty forgettable, but I also don't like Utadas First Love for example. Japanese albums around that time tended to have some really boring ballads that felt more like filler.

+ LOVEppears and Duty just were so much more polished and good from start to finish that ASFXX paled in comparison. It is what it is, a debut album with unpolished lyrics and vocals and maybe even mixing that came out before 2000. It has a certain rawness that makes it charms but listening to it years later you can mostly like it exactly for that. (not to mention it has a few masterpieces, like the title track itself).

ASFXX I think is very good but is a bit dated due to arrangements. Been a very longtime wish for it to get an update as an album to that LOVEppears+ sound that she eventually settled into like how ASFXX the track itself got updated in 2003.

As if... is amazing. Always on my favorites playlist and one of her most underrated songs along with FRIEND II imo.

I wish ayu had re-recorded POWDER SNOW back in 2001.

Yesterday I bumped into this podcast about Japan, its culture etc. and this episode is about jpop. At around 15 min they started talking about ayu and gave her about 30-minute segment. The lady is very knowledgable about ayu's lyrics and in generall her opinions are interesting. For your tea/coffee break :)
https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts...s-IgNrPywceWi/
Spotify link
https://open.spotify.com/episode/67dMdotKZVPfsHFojUTGUV

^ I didn't know it's her :o My ahs knowledge barely reaches beyond the forum haha :D

https://www.j-cast.com/2020/08/03391452.html?p=2

J-CAST with Ayu being talked about recently put together a group of 6 songs that may be good for "Ayu beginners" and why. I think this was also from a larger list from Apple Music that had things like M or evolution but the consideration for this was more for "people who have never heard Ayu".

I think they probably could have put a rock track in but it seems they wanted to avoid that since HEAVEN addresses that to some fans it was her last "Hamasaki-sounding" song because she's been going more into rockish type songs in the years since.

https://twitter.com/hanyo_yashahime

The new Inuyasha sequel anime will have more information released soon! I hope Ayu gets the ED at least. I imagine Do As Infinity will do the OP again.

Misono, sister of Koda Kumi, posted this video of her singing M!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDcB-94H...d=ap20mg3eud8p

I'm super excited for the sequel and I hope Ayu will contribute a song to it <3

InuYasha actually got me interested in Ayu, so every time I watch it, I think about the time I became her fan. Such wonderful memories... time flies!

Now, that would be a good tie-in for her comeback.

I didn't know about this until now, thank you!!!

Today is sixxxxxx's 5th anniversary! It was the first new release after I became a fan. :heart

Kishidan just posted this Boys & Girls cover on their YouTube Channel :love