No kidding.

Guuuuys Utada is back. Somebody must have taken Kuma away from her.

Um... Like I said, she writes about intimate love far more often than any other subject, even going as far back as Secret. I'm not sure why you're pretending there was no context to the "love" songs I refer to, but make sure you read things word-for-word before throwing your opinion into things?

Certainly didn't call anyone on this thread or any other thread "dumb". Certainly didn't call anyone on this thread an "asshole", and certainly not for disagreeing with me. I have not said anywhere that I don't like Ayu.

Look, I get that you don't like me. And I gotta be honest, I don't like you either. You think other people agreeing with you makes you more right, even if you're wrong in the details. And I attest to God you say things at times just to be a part of the popular opinion. If you've got opinions about me, what I say, and how I say it, you're free to dump your opinions on the table for all to see. No judgment here. However, making up shit is a different story.

You are welcome to search the entire AHS forum for every post I've made before charging me with "bringing this to every single thread of the forum." In fact, you can actually ask Koumori--one of two mods to toss out threads I've been in--exactly how many times I called anyone on this forum a name. I've called people's opinions or viewpoints stupid, dumb, or uninformed, but criticizing an opinion is not the same as criticizing a person's character. Opinions are choices, choices are debatable, and anything that's debatably good or bad comes down to being informed. And the only time I've ever been admonished for calling people names was when I joined a chorus of Maro-eats-grass-and-ass jokes.

The only times I have ever called someone an asshole, anywhere on this forum, are when groups of people deliberately gang up on another person for an opinion they don't like... kind of like you and a small group of other users who called another person's opinion "sexist" for criticizing Ayu's appearance in some of the La Perla photos. A few of us thought she looked like an AV model, and didn't think it tastefully reflected Ayu. Fair criticism for a pop singer who hasn't built her career on being a sex symbol. Rather than be the adult you think you exemplify, you contributed as much to that getting out of hand by dragging that into a roundtable talk on sexist opinions, as I did by calling you out. Your posts were trashed too, if you've forgot.

I get that, to you, criticism of someone's work or actions is no different than criticizing who they are as a person. Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't agree with you, and it's all because choices are debatable and identities are not. I can't debate the intelligence of your skin color or gender, but I can certainly debate the quality of a new song by the quality of an old one. If you've seen me posting this "in every single thread", shouldn't you be familiar with what I've posted? I don't know how you translate opinions like:

..into "I don't like Ayumi Hamasaki anymore." I know you don't tend to read things, more-so selectively skim them, but you need to get accurate with what you post about other people's activity. Like I said, you can not like me, but lying is only going to make you look bad.

OK OK, we said to move on, so move on and lets get this thread back on track and excited for Hikki's return

Oh darling, we are here to discuss about Hikki's comeback, not to hear you bitching about Ayu not being yout spiritual animal anymore or to watch you give a (rather nice) example of what projection is when calling people "uninformed". :)

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Hikki usually works years ahead of the market trends, and I'm really curious to see if she will do that this time again. I hope she had solved whatever issue she had with her voice during the streaming version of Wild Life... I was really worried about the health of her voice when I first watched it.

Her voice was not the worse in Wild Life. It was actually much better compared to UNITED.

Man, Utada is back! I mean, I have to wonder what she has been up to since that marriage...

But yeah, we can't wait to hear her voice once again! I'm not sure how this translate in terms of Oricon numbers, but cannot wait nonetheless!

I kinda doubt solo artists have much power in oricon nowadays. Of course I believe she can sell over 200K on the first week, but doubt 500K. I think people tend to buy digital music.

^But during United she actually had her allergies to blame, while durinh Wild Life she should be healthy... I love Hikki's voice and her tone is gorgeous, but girl needs that singing classes she has been postponing since her debut

The thing that happens is that Hikki doesn't do vocal warmups or have vocal lesson.

The only time in her life that she had a vocal coach was during Hikaru no 5.

I believe she thinks she doesn't need to take a proper care to her voice, unfortunately.

Yeap, I'm aware of that... But during Utada United she discovered she was alergic to cedar, I believe, and she discovered that by singing on a venue that used the material a lot, and that was the venue the dvd was recorded, or so she said on the blog at the time. It was too late to change venue (as the alergy attacked mid show) and it was the final dates, so it was also the last chance she had of recording ir anyway... That's why her voice got SO bad from half to the end of the concert it couldn't even be fixed on edition.

TBH Hikki always was a hit-and-miss vocalist with a too hard repertorie for her own skill level, but Wild Life was scary at some points... I was really afraid her voice could be hurt.

Maybe that's the reason she doesn't like singing live? :P And I forgot who said it in this thread, but hikki always composed something that her voice is out of reach. I think she's more into emotional approach than vocal techniques.

She is, and the amount of emotion she can put on her voice is huge! But proper singing technique isn't only for sounding good, but also to preserve your voice, and I want her to take care of it, because her tone is gorgeous and I want it to healthy xD. And she herself already said she doesn't think about her voice while composing, so she has no idea of how hard the song is until the recording sessions.

Hell yes! Both BLUE and DEEP RIVER are insanely hard to sing.

Is Utada going to release single first or go the hell straight away to release a new album?

Any information?

As of now there is still now news of a single or album release. Just the song info and the airing date of the tie-ins.

Yep all we know is that she's releasing with new music.
But I think it'll be a single or just a song for that tie in, I can't remember.

Deep River is not hard for hikki I think. She can hit all the notes without problem at all. BLUE is indeed insanely hard to sing. Those extremely high notes, and the dynamic keys in the chorus made it one of the hardest songs she's ever made. She definitely couldn't reach those high notes during live, but the studio version is magical to me. And that BLUE represents her.

I hope she has an album this year, been waiting foreverrrrrrr

Can't wait! For those who missed it perhaps:

- wiki

Just a little more than a week and we'll hear her voice again!