Wow. She must be getting pretty desperate for sales if she needs JJ in her clips :S

We should probably get it sooner than usual because of the obsessed Jaejoong fans lol. If it was just ayu it would probably take awhile.

Finally bigger covers, thanks for posting! My least favorite is the CD+DVD now because it seems part of the sunglasses are actually.. entering her mouth lol. Still loving the other two.

yupp.i agree with you about the make up but i still think that these photos are abit too magazine shoots.
its like she's promoting the bling bling glasses:P

omg totally, I'm with you.

Isnt that meant to be? Thats is a pretty typical pose to have glasses in one's mouth. :P I still enjoy the CD+DVD the most actually. The text is better placed too.

Really don't like the closeup, I hate the soft focus, it looks like they smeared the lens with Vaseline or something, make it look really fanmade..

It's been a while since I'm updated about crossroad. I don't know if what should I feel about the blossom PV, covered b-side song and the covers. I'm not that so excited about anything else except for the songs themselves.

It's really a marketing strategy putting JaeJoong for her blossom PV. But perhaps it will be a new atmosphere having a new actor than Ayu herself. Maybe it will have a re-cut version PV just like Endless sorrow PV where she appeared at the end. (Assuming)

I like the CD only close-up cover minus the mouth!But it seems so magazine-type of shoot.LOL

thanks for this!

I would love to buy it :yes

PV preview?????I'm dying to see it!!

OMG..i hope to see the PV Preview SOON!!
come out soooooooonnn!!!!!

and, i really love the covers so much after seeing the bigger version..
my fave is now the CD Only version C..
Ayu is so pretty and cute there!
2nd is CD Only version B..and last CD+DVD..
on CD+DVD her pose is just weird..LOL..

Really? In my case, I really do pay attention to composers, remixers, even to every person involving the single or the album because they are simply part of it. I think they, especially the composers and arrangers, need their proper credits and appreciation for giving ayu or any artists good songs to give to people.

Well, it's just me.:)

http://tweetphoto.com/42315753
She jsut posted that!!!
Is she going somewhere to film PVs???

i can't wait to see the blossom pv preview!! *O*
ooh and i love the bigger covers
*______*

k thank god the posters aren't these covers b/c it would be the CD+DVD cover. Other two are cute I like them

Or maybe she wants to play the (guessing) game with us :laugh She said she would go abroad after a-nation. Could be for a PV though, but we don't know that yet.

What are the posters then? o_o Where did you hear that? Sorry, I didn't read everything in these huge topics, heh.

crossroad's melody actually sounds REALLY good in HQ. But the line before the chorus still has a horrid melody xD

^ First press bonuses. For crossroad, it's going to be single covers 1 - 25, and for L, it's going to be singles no. 26 - 50.

I really hope there's going to be some cool design for the poster DD:

Here comes the guessing game talk again...

Next flight departures from Narita South Wing: SEOUL, VANCOUVER, TAIPEI, BANGKOK, SHANGHAI, LOS ANGELES, HK, HONOLULU, PARIS
PD: crea_spain found them

Maybe Paris again? Or Canada? Bangkok? :luv2:luv2:luv2

gosh i hate the CD+DVD cover!!

it's like "Startin'/Born To Be..." covers,the "DISASTER"version~~~ T.T

Finally thanks.^^

I lika the. Not my favorite covers but they are nice.
the last one stay my fav.

I love the dress...i wonder if it's Balmain or McQueen.

From an a-nation fanaccount by an international JYJ fan:

"ayu - as suspected, she got the longest set of all being one hour long and even though it was my first time seeing her live, it was like being at TD when i watched some of her dome performances back in the day ♥ she's adorable and we all know she's j-pop's diva but her charm overrides that factor when it comes to the fans. she sang a couple of oldies like boys & girls, greatful days, a song about xx AND evolution (WHERE SHE WAVES JYJ'S UCHIWA AGAIN ♥♥). other songs were great too (don't remember the title) but she did preview her new song, crossroads, which will be released next month and i'm thinking of purchasing it :')"

[...]

"suvi and i stuck around to see ayu in the end cuz we wanted to see if she'd wave jyj's uchiwa ♥ she previewed her new song, crossroads, which i believe will be bought by plenty of us since it'll have the blossom pv. lmao i read the details of the CD+DVD wrong thinking that making of was for blossom but how wrong i was. anywho, i wasn't paying attention when ayu made her appearance on our end on a float sporting a stunning yukata. i was mesmerised by how cute she is in real life to notice the orange uchiwa in her hand XD it was during her evolution performance (her medley of some of her hits) and it was nice to see that she could get the crowd in sync during the chorus. and she's still the queen of j-pop to me despite the fact she's no longer the artist that rakes in the money for avex. her set was almost an hour long *___*"

This is so well-said :yes I would describe her like that too after meeting her in London :yes

PS: I left the wrong spelling of Ayu's songs, because I think it's cute how a non-Ayu fan tries to remember her songs :laugh

^ thanks~ it's nice to know that some non-ayu fans also like crossroad. A FB friend (thanks Mel!) of mine was there yesterday, he said crossroad is amazing and well this is the part of the lyrics that he was able to memorize

^ Pretty melancholic lyrics for a cheery-sounding song! Nice :heart

^ Cheery sounding? The song sounds really sad to me.

I can't wait to see what the "L" single is gonna be like. o.o
A,H,&, now "L" lol I wonder if she'll realease another single with a letter title. :P

thanks, Liz for sharing the fanaccount...
she always could light up the atmosphere in the concert..like whole ppl are her family :)

Thanks for those bigger covers! I still like CD A the most, but I'm starting to even like the other two. So they're not as bad as I thought.:)

Maybe go all out nuts and add like Kumi, all of DBSK and like half of the other most popular boybands to the PV cast.:P

Sticking these in the first post thanks to Gkone~

http://a.imageshack.us/img808/8893/crossroad2.jpg
http://a.imageshack.us/img190/7628/crossroad3.jpg
http://a.imageshack.us/img826/9923/crossroad1.jpg

Well its ok... Also, i dont understand a single thing about music, so I guess I don't understand composing etc which to make makes it harder to pay attention. I don't even have any idea how it is that music can get remixed. Or like, if u said to me stuff like "A-Flat" or C-Minor" for example, I have no idea what u just said. I've just heard people say those things on tv before.

EDIT: Anyways, I love the covers even more now seeing them in better quality.:D:D:D:D:D

after thinking it's too difficult to chose 1 cover, I think ill buy 'em all!

I'm only curious about crossroad PV !!!!!

i love CDA cover

hey just to point this out, but did anyone notice this?

I'm very surprised to see that "L" is beating "crossroad" on the daily and real time ranking on CDJ at the moment. Especially since SO much info is out about "crossroad" and like none about "L".

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...f/cdj-rank.jpg

OMG I love all covers now D:

I REALLY wouldn't mind. :innocent

^
^
yes i notice bout that too since yesterday haha..
it's not crossroad that top the ranking..but L instead..weird..
but at amazon, it's indeed crossroad..
confusion~

Is it true that blossom PV preview will air tonight???

Proof that Ayu doesn't need pretty boys to gain sales :innocent

Maybe they cater to a different market? CDJ probably leans more towards overseas orders and amazon focuses on orders from Japan? Lol I'm not making any sense XD

but you are, I dunno many International fans who order from Amazon.jp :P

I don't know, I kinda assume some of us might, like they do with hmv.jp even when there are many better alternatives. Does Amazon.jp even ship outside Japan?

^ but I think CD Japan and Amazon are both targeting on both Japan and international..haha..bcoz some of my friends getting their stuff through amazon too~
but that doesn't matter, if CD Japan targets more on international, still got many the pretty boy's international fans gonna buy crossroad too~

maybe ppl impressed by crossroad song and think that "L" single's songs gonna sound somehow like crossroad-type?

edit: I just checked HMV.co.jp too.. Ayu's crossroad CD+DVD ranks no. 3!

CDJapan's domestic site is neowing...not sure if that chart includes sales from both CDJapan and Neowing

NeoWing is the Japanese ver. of CDJapan, I am not sure if they have shared charts or not though :)

I think it does. Neowing and CDJ are same i think. Just Neowing's site is in Japanese and CDJ is international site for English speakers. Whenever I've used my mom's credit card on CDJ the charge on her CC bill is displayed as "Neowing Co Ltd", Not CDJ.

Still, if we wanna check we can go on Neowing and see if the chart is identical to CDJ.


EDIT: Just checked and the charts on NEOWING ARE different than CDJ so i guess i was wrong there.

^ wow I just saw neowing site..
it's all different!
guess that only International fans are more excited about Ayu's singles? haha XD

^Well maybe people also tend to order more from amazon, HMV and mu-mo in japan. Besides, those releases beating Ayu on Neowing come out completely different times than Ayu's. Also, its still a bit soon. Guess we'll just see what happens.

Maybe I'll win the lottery and spend all my money on thousands of copies of both singles. :P:P:P

I love CD jacket C version :love I finally pre-ordered them through TA haha. Both CD versions :) One for me, one for roommate. I figured this time, I might not get any of the DVD versions, so the album will be a bit more special for me haha. Now that remixes have come into the picture again, I've been lenient with the DVD versions... haha

3 days of being off , and covers r out oO I really like close up, and the 3rd one. And AT LEAST they did NICE TYPOGRAPHY! I dunt like only her face on 2nd cover (the dolly face >.>)

Thanks for the bigger covers... CD-A is the best out of them all. I actually really do like it XD

I like so much the crossroad covers, but I totally dislike the marketing-policy adopted by Avex... I think it's somehow humiliating for Ayu to sell so many cds only because other's fangirls that care nothing for her.

I hope that L will be a best-selling single, only because of her! Go Ayu =)

Idol bands sell their looks and personalities all the time, the money is still pretty much going to the same pocket :rolleyes and it will look nice on the yearly charts. As much as I hate to admit it, everyone's a winner, besides poor Ku :thud

^^ haha..maybe other idol bands..but definitely not JJ/his group~
thanks God that JJ is not only selling his look and personality, but also his talent in singing plus acting haha XDDDD avex can see potentials in them...
and even ayu loves one of their vocals~
that's why probably, they came up with the idea for a collaboration..

Freex, no worry~ from what i could read from the fangirls' comments about this collaboration... IT'S TRUE that most fangirls definitely buy the single because of JJ.. BUT..they also stated their happiness to know Ayu's the Queen of Jpop invited their fave idol to be on the PV..the majority is positive responses :)

to be honest, they are all losers here because they are just products of their record company. AVEX is the real winner here.

*Joined Team ayu fanclub today*

I'm trying to find where to order the singles there lol.
(mu-mo?)

Yes, you have to make a profile on mu-mo. It's also in aura~'s thread (how to join TA) :yes

congrats! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do & welcome to TA!

Thank you two very much! ^_^

wow...congrats...how it's feel becoming Team Ayu?!?!
still hoping that someday, that Ayu will open the Team Ayu for international fans...i know that now we can do that too, but i looked the way to become one, and it looks complicated X_X so maybe there will be easier way in the future...when it's really official that international fans can be a part of Team Ayu

So crossroad is obviously not going to have the extra long sleeve that Mirrorcle World and D/G had, so I guess it'll be in a digipack after all? Or was that tidbit axed?

How is that obvious?

Well she did collab with Toho for Last Angel...just that they weren't as popular back then.

Since the covers are not rectangular but square...?

That really means absolutely nothing ... but the special packaging is still on, afaik.

I thought the special packaging was for only for "L"? And the covers for that one arent out yet....

On CDJ, it says "special packaging" on "L" single, but not "crossroad".

Of course it does...? I mean when all of the versions of Days/GREEN were released we saw clearly it was in an extra long sleeve by the dimensions of the cover. Unless the covers we have now are cropped...

?_?

OK I see, I went on CDJapan too and it seems that only L is getting them based on the item description, so I guess so. Idk why I thought crossroad was getting a special packaging too.

I read in several fanaccounts that Toho fans still cheer Kuu on :yes Especially when they heard LAST ANGEL in her medley at a-nation :laugh
Let's hope they will cheer for Ayu too next a-nation :yes But I've seen Toho fans cheer for her already in the fancams of this a-nation (the towel last year and the uchiwa this year :P) :D

I think... CD-A Cover is the best one. And the CD-DVD-Version is worse.

I guess it's not for crossroad anyway, but regardless, when D/G and Mirrorcle World were posted on ayu's official site, before the covers were released, it just showed "now printing" in a rectangular shape, so we knew even before the covers were released.

so I think even for L there won't be a packaging similar to those singles...hopefully it's something cool though

I just hope its something that holds everything in place well, but doesn't take forever to open up to get at the disks.

Mine never leave the plastic anyway...lol

I use CDs at home, and then ipod while I'm out. Sometimes i don't even bring music with me... especially like if i'm just going up the street to buy a couple groceries or something.:)

Also, i cant stand plastic wrap. I have to rip it off everything the second the item's paid for.:P:P:P

This is really interesting
http://www.allkpop.com/2010/08/princ...-sales-explode
and cool for Ayumi's sales! :D

^That's crazy! But the whole thing is very clever. I think now we can rest assured that both singles will get #1.

The graphic was already posted here :yes But Allkpop's title is a bit over the top :P They like to exagerate in their titles. The good thing is that allkpop is a website which is followed by Kpop fans around the world and now more people will know about it ;)

Wow, that is so interesting! I really didn't think it would have this much of an effect on sales

Yep, I knew we wouldn't have anything to worry about (^_^) I knew avex'd have a trick or two up their sleeve ;) Same with L; I'm not worried (^_^)

The 2nd CD-only cover looks a whole lot better now larger. She still has that glazed look but still. I can't believe people are comparing these to Sunrise/Sunset or even saying those were better. :headache

^I guess S/S is automatically better because it actually had a "concept". Forget the fact it turned out to be absolutely fug. But to each their own. :laugh

I wish crossroad would leak already. Especially now that there is a radio rip of 好きで、好きで、好きで。 and the quality is decent T_T

just watch, it's like they don't even have him in the video. they just said that to boost sails. lol

lol. Let's take a look at them side by side.



Yeah.. still not seeing it.

I think they'd only say they were better because they were kinda themed towards the single...it being all summer and stuff.

Other people might not like her expressions here either...you know...those people...lol

They ARE much better covers though lol


edit: I still cant believe they used that ugly font for S/S...

hehehe~ lovin this, girl

That tidbit was for L. And it was for special packaging (TBA). They still have yet to specify just what will be special about the packaging for L.

Why would we do a comparison of covers between the 46th and the 49th singles (S/S~LiA~ vs. crossroad)? I'm guessing about it - could the 49th single be taken by the (dreaded) Kazuyoshi Shimomura? I'm suspecting that...

Lol, this!

I always thought there was a mutual agreement between Ayu fans that the Sunrise / Sunset covers were her worst covers ever! :O

because...people were comparing them...because the S/S covers are the worst ever...and some people are saying these are worse...


even though they totally aren't. I'm sorry, but the S/S covers are just BAD. Comparable to the awfulness of hikki's This is the one cover.../shudder

For me they are the on the same with M/b but this one have some pluses (no fringe, nice pose on 1st one, interesting dress) - same with M/b for photoshop, not natural face (like a cg graphic persona) blurry effect. Oh, and the crossroad have good font, but they are not consequestial - diffrent text on each cover.

And they look A LOT better on this forum's users signatures.

Hikki might've had a blank expression on her face, but it's nowhere as horrific as the fake-background, barbie-expression, photoshopped disaster that S/S was.

That's exactly the same as saying the Crossroad covers are worse than S/S. It's just like you said, they totally aren't. :laugh

Ok.. so let's look at Hikki's next to the S/S ones..



I need the tracklist for L, like now omg. -F5's TA-

I definitely like s/s over c. (way to lazy and tired atm to type full words). ^ but I will say your set does make them look less eye sore-ish. As I've said before. I just can't believe these are the covers, if anything, they look like they belong in a magazine as a photoshoot and nothing more.

lol sure okay.

S/S's covers are better only if you like to play the guessing game on whether she's human or blurry wax model.

We have to wait for the pv and the song in HQ (i know, crossroad is a ballad), and maybe the cover is ok for this song.
I only love the body of ayu in sunrise / sunset covers, definitly is hott!!! grrrrr. but the design is horrible, it looks fake

Yup, finally got that figured out. It's just that as always info changes so suddenly and I had thought that it was for crossroad too.

Oh btw who was the photographer for these covers?

People think it's Kazutaka Nakamura again, but it's not confirmed or anything.

:roflmao

All this crossroad info has me full for the moment, the wait for L info doesn't seem... so bad now. Don't know if I'd be able to say the same if there's nothing by the end of this week though. lol