Just that I was expecting higher sales than this that would at least pass Rule/Sparkle. Just like you agreed with.

And thank you, krazeyo. :)

You would hope the same would happen for Ayumi then. :)

But to answer the original question, no there has been no special promotion for B'z. Really this single hasn't been promoted at all outside of it being a drama theme song. The quality of the song is better than B'z last few singles though imo.

Oh oke :) We can only hope for some longevity now.

Yeah longevity... I hope for it too.

SunshineSlayer, I have a super off-topic question to ask, but do you know/heard of Hata Motohiro? His single is flopping hard surprisingly... Halation debuted at #7, and now it's at #15... is the single really bad or something? I'm downloading it now, but I've heard the song, and it's nice... so maybe you've heard something about him? lol

lol, yeah that is from out of left field. :) But no, I've actually never heard of him.

^ Oh man, I wish someone who knows much about J-Pop music scene would tell me more about him lol.

Well, anyway, isn't it really scary to know she performs so much for Sunrise... but they aren't exactly helping? Sometimes it feels like a good TV tie-in (B'z) helps more than anything lol.

^ Well, Ayu's was supposed to be a good tv tie in too, but in her case it doesn't really seem to be helping. I think the tv lives not helping much may just highlight that not a lot of new people are running out to buy her singles, but rather her same fans that usually buy her stuff. Or who know, maybe the tv lives ARE helping and the sales would actually have been lower without them.

I'll try to look into Hata Motohiro. :)

Legal downloading is so very popular in japan !

Yeah it could always be worse without any TV promo - I guess we'll never know for sure. However looking back at the sales of Gackt's singles from Jesus onwards, he did appear on many Music and variety shows and the only single that has sold a lot was Journey through the Decade which was tied-in with Kamen Riders. So I am slowly starting to think that TV promo isn't really doing much for the sales if you're not really popular. I've noticed it's pretty much the same with BoA, Koda Kumi, Hitomi Shimatani, Ai Otsuka and many others too.

Also, not all the drama tie-ins are equivalently efficient, of course it depends on how much people like the song as well, but considering Sunrise is doing really well on Digital charts as many have pointed out (on both iTunes and Recochoku) I'd say the song isn't an issue here. So no, I wouldn't say we should expect the same from B'z and Ayu and their respective tie-ins. Hana Yori Dango, Otsuka, Hikki and arashi are a good example too. Still I think that the main reason for the low physical sales could be as some said the fact the fans didn't love the single that much, which isn't the first nor prolly the last time they don't.

Well, it doesnt matter how much you promote a product if people don't like it, they won't buy it... Considering that's on Ayu's case it's music, promoting is important to make people know the song, but they will only buy it if they like it...

Pretty much like forgiveness... It was promoted to death but still is one of Ayu's major flops

still need at least 2 years for ayu to break the record. hopefully she can break the record before her popularity decline

watashi mo sou omoimasu. i think so too.

Well, who cares about sales if she's guaranteed no. 1 weekly, which is, after all the most important no. 1. :P
Surely, not the most impressive, but the most important. Low sales Ayu doesn't bother me. :D

Excuse me but Seiko Matsuda only got 24 consecutive #1 singles. Her streak ended by Tetsuya Komuro's "GRAVITY OF LOVE". Seiko's "Precious Heart" actually managed to sell more than TK's in the end due to longevity on the charts, but the single never reached first position at the time of release. However, it was always extremely close between the two.

Not necessarily. If let's say that Ayu releases one more single this year and three next year then she will, assuming they all reach #1, already break the record in 2010. It would be welcome if Ayu slowed down slightly so that Seiko could maintain the record for awhile longer, I mean to lose it during a milestone like the 30th Anniversary (1980-2010) would be a bit unfortunate perhaps. :no

^That's probably why they might have aimed on 2011 but we will see. XD
Maybe it will be like 1 more single this year, 2 the next and at least 2 more after that.

Well, in Gackt's case I think it can safely be said that his popularity has fallen a lot and that musically his sound has been kind of stagnated for a while now. It seems he is kind of in the same boat - only his hardcore fans seem to be buying his stuff and not new people. Digital download wise though he seems to be doing better than he usually does (at least with the kamen rider songs) since I don't really remember ever seeing him much in the digital rankings.
B'z song too though seems to have done very well digitally, especially for them in that area. I must say, drama producers must wonder whether having an Ayu song is the kiss of death or something for your ratings. It seems the only drama that got good ratings while using one of her songs was the one that used Love Destiny I think. Not that Ayu's song is at fault of course, but it may start getting looked at as bad luck or something.

^to be honest, I dun think Gackt is that popular in terms of music. I think he's popular because of his personality and his fashion..



I was quite surprised when forgiveness sold only 100K on the first week, and my brother (at that time) thought she could retired anytime soon. Looking back, 2003 was the year that ayu's sales had "obvious" decrease. From a almost 2 million RAINBOW to a not selling A BALLADS (well yeah consider that era), and & sold only around 330 - 360K on the first week compared to H (over 500K), then a horrible selling forgiveness. Even tho it seems like No way to say's sale was pretty decent, in fact it was half of Voyage's sales.

Back to the topic. So far the sales are:

1 浜崎あゆみ 69368
2? モーニング娘。 45872
3? B'z 46767

Right now we don't really know the exact sales right now (the multiple is around 1.00 - 1.03), but I'm pretty sure ayu will maintain no. 1 for the week, while B'z will beat momosu in the end.

Right, I mean that even in terms of his own fanbase. Because so many of his songs have sounded the same lately that only the most hardcore fans are likely to buy them.

Funny thing is that I would say the promo is working. Like I said, Sunrise slowly creeped to number one on iTunes. Know before you blow your whistles I know iTunes isn't the only digital download place available but it still its a fairly big deal. And the promo is meant to appeal to non fans and casual fans, not the hardcore fans who know about her already and will buy anything. The non fans and casual fans usually buy digitally not physical, thus the slow rising of Sunrise. So that makes me think the promo is working. of course that'll probably get beaten to the ground by someone but its just my opinion.

I wouldn't say his songs all sound the same...in terms of recently the only song I can hear sounds similar to another is Oblivious which sounds a little like Last Song... XD

But yeah, B'z are gonna over take MM, but at least Ayu is gonna get weekly number 1.

Yeah... and that's how I link to the "no weekend boost". Causal listeners don't buy physicals anymore. Unless that particular single is a must buy, most people will just purchase digitally.

On the other side, it shows this single doesn't appeal to some casual ayu fans (the ones who usually only buy albums, and physical single occasionally). Probly they just download the song instead of buying physical copies this time..