^
hahaha.... it's a joke about Jolin Tsai=_=

What in the world. I know they make jokes about Jolin 24/7 but I didn't expect this would be related to her in anyway :thud

subjective...

Jolin is the origin of this universe ---of coz sarcasm
coz ayu didn't worship Jolin
so she flopped
lol

Foyuki so how much again sold for the 1st day?

u need to filter it not only in the forum
but in the real life u also need to do that
how bout if it's happened to ur beloved namie
u as a namie fans will get insulted either

^
^ oricon didn't announce it at all ...

To be really critical and objective, I'm wondering if you really understand the difference between flat and sharp intonation for vocal production? I agree with you that pretty much all of the time, Ayu is flat in her live performances, but her vocals are definitely not flat in her studio recordings (obviously due to technological enhancements) unless you are solely referring to a personal taste in the timbre she uses to shade her sound. I disagree that she only chooses easy songs to sing though, as the shift in tonality during the pre-chorus of crossroad isn't always easy to grasp with proper intonation for anyone, especially for someone who's also deaf in one ear.

Well, my point wasn't to say how awesome is Ayu, obviously everybody has an opinion, people like these songs or those songs, this album more than that one, they dislike this single and love the other one. It's fine to express an opinion, it's fine to express that you don't like something about her.

But this is one thing, and another say how ****** is Ayu. It's obvious that you don't like her anymore. Then If you have that opinion, you can express it somewhere else where is not a forum DEDICATED to Ayu. I don't see the point in doing it here and giving such stupid arguments...

How big is Seiko Matsuda in Japan?? Which are her evolution, Dearest, M...??

It isn't something like this?

5th Day
Position: #6
Sales: x
Total Sales: 21,851 (3rd & 4th days sales) + x (5th day) + x (1st day) + x (2nd day)

I swear I still don't understand the info -/////////- GOMEN!!
I'm stupid.

Seiko was a huge force in Japan and she dominated the 80s and the early 90s rivaled only by Nakamori Akina. Some of her big classics are Sweet Memories, Anata ni aitakute, Akai Sweet Pea, Glass No Ringo, and many many more. :)

wow that's weird...
first time knowing ayu's release doesn't have sales announced on 1st day, is it because of releasing it on saturday?

"3rd" day (7th december)is not the 1st day? Seriously... it's odd for me.

Well, it's the 3rd day of the Oricon week, I guess? But the CD wasn't in stores until then so... I don't know what happened with that. Anyway, this is a bit of an odd sales pattern for Ayu even with the Maro thing going on. We'll see when sales are announced just what 'happened', I guess?

I thought oricon only did sales for the first 3 for daily?
THis is nothing new...
the reason why ayumi has no sales for Day 1 and Day 2 is because it wasnt released till friday. Day 3...
man people, calm down.

Husky and boring?
As much as I love namie, I just CAN'T with that statement coming from a namie fan.
I mean, I love namie cuz she knows how to ride a beat in a song and can dance up a storm. But she looks deader than petrifaction half the time.

But I'm not talking about sales. We all know that namie is a weave snatcher... Who's boring with hot beats.

6th day again is #10 o.o
http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/d/2012-12-09/more/2/

i wonder if it will reach at least 50k...............

We dont have full numbers for the week yet, but it should by the 2nd full week... which would be in the oricon third week

You know.. with album sales SO front loaded on opening day I wonder if this mini will pick up on the first day of the new releases?

Seiko is the ultimate idol... And even if she didn't have a big hit since mid 90's, she still sells out her tours yearly (performing on some of the venues Ayu does) and have some of the most expensive tickets on the game.

@orbitalaspect

Once you say Ayu is aging like Seiko u lost it. She may be aging like Seiko sales-wise, but she is far from maintaining the same image since the 90's, and even when she goes kawaii, she perverts it by wearing her most revealing outfits, using it on a more fetish-like way.

Comparing:





You lost it once you said she is releasing the same kind of music over and over again too. The stuff she released from 98~2001, and then from 2002~2005, 2006~2008, 2009~2011 are very different, even if she had similar tracks (usually summerish, winterish and concert enders) here and there. She is always adding new aesthetics to her song and very few tracks on her discography were released sounding dated... a lot of them don't sound dated even today.

And sorry, but comparing her to Namie creative-wise is just... meh. 90% of Namie's concerts are pretty much interchangeable, 95% of her videos are pretty much interchangeable too. She also goes safe a lot more than Ayumi music wise, being it either 90's Eurodance, 00s hip-pop or 10's Electropop. She have some AMAZING experiementing moments here and there, mostly between Play and Uncontrolable singles, but most of the time she just delivers what is expected for her to release.

The thing is... most of the time Ayu's Western fanbase (AHS?) starts *****ing a lot about her, she usually is going through some big image/style/sound change... And this is what is happening now.

Namie is so basic, it's an insult to ayu to compare the two.

Just imagine if the mini did not pass 50k.

2nd meltdown of the year/1st of the next year.


~AHS A Meltdown is All~

I hope it gets gold tbh.
It deserves it.

[QUOTE=she always choose songs that are easy to sing and sounded flat through out...[QUTE

I agree with you even though voyage and forgiveness are really hard to sing but the others are kind of easy.

im pretty sure the mini will get gold because its for shipments.
avex most likely will ship the same amount.

I want to hear you sing Free & easy, Hanabi ep II, Progress, Duty, You were, Endless sorrow, GREEN, Mirrorcle World, JEWEL for exemple ^^

I'm sure it will.

Honestly with every new release, i'm expecting lower sales.
Poor again, is a good album anyway

Hahaha you are my favorite.

Why can't she stop this whole thing, get her **** together and release a solid studio album with a good concept? T__T
And also promote it properly, at this point the general public doesn't even know that she's still alive.

well, lets hope then... cuz what i see from here its not even that close =\

7 - ● ａｇａｉｎ 34,402 34,402 12/12/8 AVT
浜崎あゆみ 7 1

1st Week
Position: #7
Official Total Sales: 34,402

disappointing =(( just cant believe this is an ayu release.... take me back to 2003 =(

If A BEST 3 doesn't bring her back to the game! i'll accept that she's over!~~!

It isn't getting any promotion at all, maybe like 1 truck going around shibuya which I've seen twice in a week, and I'm in Shibuya almost every day :shrug

And I went to Tower Records again today and there were only 2 copies of again, as in they only put 2 for display :/ And it was hard to find too lol Totally opposite to YUI and flumpool who are pretty much everywhere.

SAD :thud
But as some of you said, if Ayu doesn't care about the sale, why should I care...

Ouch...
My copy should be arriving today
I'm one of 34k people.

I bought the CD+DVD today. I wish again and LOVE were the part of one regular album. This album I would like way more than all her recent albums like PQ, LS and etc.

Even Ayu herself said that she's not going to care about charts (and sales I guess) for these releases, just think this as a gift for her fans, care about music and not sales.

I think making A BEST 3 as part of this 5 release(s) promotion would just about seal the deal on her career and honestly I feel like nobody would buy even that.

With how many fans quit buying her products after seeing the publicity for AGAIN I don't think any release is going to salvage what that poorly planned strategy has cost her.
If her management could have left well enough alone the last 2 years and let her sell products with talent and not publicity stunts, she would have been doing great.

Predicting about A BEST 3 sales now is TOO soon! i mean everyone thought that AC'd flop hard but it turned out to sell even better than A BEST 2! btw, i want A BEST 3 to be released on April 8th!

Death if this album doesn't sell more than Angela Aki's Life album.

Guys, this week was pretty much a half week for again...
this is normal.

Even when you consider the half week sales are still lower then usual. That excuse is sort of valid for the first week but when the mini barely ends up selling 55-65k in total sales that doesn't really apply there.

^ just going by the tend it could have easily hit 60K for the week.

also this is just the first half week for the mini, we dont know the final says yet.

We really don't know that as again dropped pretty fast after the first two days it became available in stores. The only thing we can do now and wait and see how much it ends up selling.

^ also where did you get your numbers since oricon hasn't posted their official week yet?

By the way, again hit number 6 in the charts for Monday, so it went UP 4 slots.

To say that, that is (>_<)

Now I have to say this: is anybody willing to buy ALL FIVE of the five-release collection? I think some aren't buying it...

Also consider the fact that this was released LATER than EXILE, YUI...you should understand that. Maybe the Ayu-Maro relationship (as someone may have said it earlier) also had an impact in sales.

Otherwise, I don't care. (But especially for me I've been listening more to Sayuri Sugawara and Yanawaraba; it seems some of Ayumi Hamasaki's new songs are a bit uncomfortable for me...but to be honest, that's my point of view.)

I'm not being paid millions of dollars to sing like she is. And those songs are not hard to sing at all. This is what I think I'm allow to think whatever I want. ^^

^^ im still doing it.
I have been happy with the past 2 and Im sure ill be happy with the classical album as well.

By this logic you can say the sky is green, as this is just what you think and you can think whatever you want.

Ayu's songs aren't the hardest to sing on the industry, but they are far from being the easiest too... Actually, by the average jpop standart they can be a pain to sing... and this is not a matter of opinion, this is a matter of the average singer voice ability and song composition.

this might be a good thing that this mini album is doing bad, it just means the next might have better pvs and songs.

I think by the time A SUMMER BEST was released, Ayu's image to the public was already clean after the divorce scandal. But with this new scandal (which a japanese friend told me is even worse), I'm afraid she will have to wait some months (even a year) so that people can forgive her and buy her music again.

I find it ridiculous that people here on this forum are still in denial over the current state of her career. Regardless whether or not you think this 'scandal' is a huge deal or not, it is in Japan. We have heard people dropping out of TeamAyu. We have seen statements made by Ayu herself regarding her current state of affairs. We have seen comments posted about her FNS performance. We have heard countless accounts of people on this forum who have talked to Japanese fans (even IN JAPAN) who all have been saying the same thing. The general consensus is that she is in some big trouble... Wake up and smell the coffee... It's an ugly truth, but it's a truth.

LOVE
1st Day
Position: #3
Sales: 21,743

2nd Day
Position: #3
Sales: 16,629

Total Sales: 38,372

again
1st Day
Position: #4
Sales: 9,087

2nd Day
Position: #2
Sales: 12,764
Total Sales: 21,851

Even the argument on "people are confused by the release date" is invalid.

^
Sad but true :(

Her sales are pretty laughable.

But I don't care that much. They don't matter....in the grand scheme of things.

Her career might be in the toilet...but a lot of people's are. They won't kill her, so. Japan, live with the monster you created.

You know who makes good music. Familjen :yes

BAM
educate them!
I'll love this chick no matter what though.
Even if she turns into Ami Flopzuki (as suggested on ATRL).

Tbh I figured that ASB was the beginning of the end.
Even wake my up & snowy kiss may not help this mini..

?

really im gonna wait and see what happens next week...
there is a reason why cd's are so heavily front loaded... its because the majority of people buy them on the first day...

it could be the fact that people were not confused, but simply didnt want to make two trips?

not saying this is true, but just saying its a possibility for some people.

big music site
they have a minuscule jpop section, and they've been talking about Ayu lately.

lol ayu wishes. Ami became a flop with dignity, for doing something that's never been done before in the Japanese industry.

^ Ami is a fantastic flop :P
She's so delightful

... I'm done with the puns

Pretty sure the release date contributed though, 2nd day sales improving by 3.7k show that. Not that the release date is the most important reason for sales but it really didn't help.

I find it bizarre that this thing with Maro is even considered a scandal. Hate to think what Japan would think of the typical tabloid headlines in the UK :laugh

Pretty sure cost in general is a reason too. A lot of fans might not be able to afford a mini-album every month, especially with it coming up to Christmas.

It still sold a lot less than LOVE. I mean, that is a huge drop compared to LOVE's first week sales. Especially for a mini that should be considered a better value for your money!

You can make all the excuses you want for everything else, but the reason the japanese fans point to is "MARO" plain and simple. Many I'm sure noticed the setup where Ayu+Maro is the promotion that so many here say is so lacking.

You know, I just hear you ***** ***** ***** all over the place...and that's all you do.


What would you propose for her?

In the end, if it WAS all a publicity thing, obviously a ****** one, then hopefully, they'll abandon all their strategic ways of getting her more sales, cause they're obviously not working.

I find his perspective quite refreshing and entertaining, lol.

I find Emi's perspective on this to be like 90% of AHS. "Ayu would never lie to us, she said so. Therefore this has to be real because she never lies to her fans." It's getting very old, very stupid and with how many fans base it off her old NHK interviews, while parts of those are noticably staged for the press and the fans, it makes you seem incapable of intelligent thought. Try thinking for yourselves instead of believing everything Avex wants you to believe. Atleast the japanese fans are finally pulling off the blinders and quit buying their garbage. These stunts should and hopefully will tank her career. Her career should be based on her talent not a bunch of gimmicks, lies and publicity stunts. When allowed to show it, she's got more talent than Madonna, Britney, Gaga, Namie, Hikki and Kuu put together. So try supporting her and not buy anything Avex has their name attached to. Buy what comes from Ayumi after she drops Avex like a bad habit and relies on her talent again.

I have this feeling too. or a half-baked full of unpleasant remixes from old tracks, which is deemed as "gifts" or "new music" for the fans. Like an Ayu Ultimate Collection of remixes - Trance, Eurobeat, House etc.. all combined.

exactly...

Yeah I don't know why people don't get it either.. why people don't understand and still in very denial mode of Ayu's current state for her career. At this point in time, people can still comment or stuck with.. about her one ear deaf which is causing her pitching problems, which was an issue done and over with long time ago... she's too tired, she did not warm up her vocals, she is freaked out singing live on tv.. etc in fact now, its her voice, her vocals, how she sings... and other things that has been affecting her image... that is how real it goes. U know what, with a 15th Anniversary coming, she is supposed to be in a different league with more respect in her career and not surrounded by so much negative news.

This is pretty much it.
Even though some people aren't fond of you, I love it when you post. I love hearing your opinion.

my thoughts exactly. I wouldn't have ever expected what we got now from Ayu, honestly, I thought she wouldn't still be sold as much as back then, but I wasn't really expecting her to have 2 yrs with relatinship scandals surrounding her asd well
this all is kinda sad. many fans are angry and hateful, but I'm just sad & devastated this time. really

I can not have said this better myself. At this point of her career, I think she has two choices. Either pull a Namie and go completely mainstream, or rise to the ranks of Matsutoya Yumi and seriously focus on the music. As of now, it seems like she's making a half-assed attempt to do both, which combined with her negative image now, isn't working. I think that FIVE was a success because she was entirely focused on the music.

I don't think though that the japanese public really cares for any image she has, her image mainly hurts her fanbase at this point, if at all.

Reminding that she barely promotes and doesn't have many or useful tie-ins.

2012 Yearly Rankings
#38 Party Queen
#42 A SUMMER BEST

Recochoku
1st Week
chaku uta: #39 Wake me up
chaku uta: #62 Sweet scar
chaku uta FULL: #65 Wake me up
chaku uta FULL: #93 Sweet scar

I think she needs to take a small hiatus and do some soul searching. Then, she can come back with something amazing!! :D But, knowing ayu, I don't know if she'll even consider something like that. :P

2nd Day
Position: #19

It's pretty ironic, isn't it? It was the people who created a mega monster star like her. They shared the very limelight Ayu achieved during her prime, mainly by being a fan and screaming her name and buying her CDs. She have done everything for everyone. She made her fans proud, spoiled to a further extent, of consecutive and sometimes spontaneous #1 hits here and there. We developed confidence every time Ayu will be releasing something. "Ayu is, as usual, slaying the charts." For some fans, whatever she touches becomes gold. She was even touted the "Empress of Pop." However, reality had stricken. She's no more. She's no longer there. She's no longer the slayer she used to be. These thoughts, whatever they mean to anyone, doesn't really bother me. What bothers me is the day when Ayu decided to stop music. She knows she can't please anyone, I believe that. But what if she realized no one is left to support her? I sincerely hope that day won't come.

Pardon the drama, but the current situation: the way Japan looks at her, the way overseas fans treat her, and the way she is right now, it really makes me sad. If things would only get worse if she decided to continue, I rather wish she'd take a hiatus after her 15th anniversary. It's really weakening seeing a once mighty star falling down slowly and painfully from the heavens just like that.


sigh :shrug

Yeah the drop was too sharp for first day sales for 'again', its a shame really -
she puts out songs that i'm sure her Japanese fanbase would eat up and love, and they're overlooking it because she's dating someone. :thud

I'm pretty sure that if Ayu released the best single or the best album of her whole carrer and only sold 1000 copies, it would be considered the WORST. That is how it works for some people here.

I blame its cover and PVs featuring Maro, it's PQ all over again. Most of Japanese and Chinese fans are hating him. I had some negative feelings towards ayu, too. But then I realized that her music is still the same good and that's reason enough to support her.

I don't think it's DATING someone made her fans angry but DRAGGING him into the cover and PVs, esp when she knew that they hate him.

^I think it's more to do with Ayu's insistence that her personal is separate to her public, and well... it's not.

By personal, I don't mean her introverted lyrics and emotions in songs - I mean Last Angel, Love Song, snowy kiss. Loads of artists have emotional and VERY personal lyrics (more so than Ayu), but still keep their private life out of the press, media and their work.

And, I'm sorry, but if you DON'T want your life all over the media, you can stop it - even if it costs $$$$. People do it. But being in the media for your personal life is the life blood of a pop star though, it can make and break you if you take the risk of using it.

When all else fails, keep your name on peoples lips by the press spinning stories about your latest man/woman. Cynical? Maybe. It won't shift CDs, but at least people still know your name.

I don't think Ayu wants her time to be over, even though she may love music now (I think in her early days she loved the fame more), these are the last ditch attempts to stay as "Ayumi Hamasaki". When really, if a few things hadn't happened, people maybe wouldn't have bought her CDs or liked her music, but she wouldn't have cracked the reputation of "Ayumi Hamasaki" from her peak.

It's such a typical trajectory that... well... what else is to be expected?

Why people have to hate Maro? I don't get it!

I'm a Madonna fan, but what the hell... if I had to hate her everytime she changes boyfriend...

I don't see Maro interfering in Ayu's work. She wanted to use a model for her covers, why it cannot be him? what if she wants to be half naked in Party queen? Are you all that SHALLOW? Grow up!

Less HATE and more LOVE people...

I don't know where you are from or whether you're familiar with Asian cultures, but here in China and I learned that it's similar in Japan, people generally don't have a good opinion about divorced people, and they tend to frown upon relationships where the female is older than the male. Asian fans don't hate Mannie (maybe some of them can't get over the fact that ayu didn't choose a Japanese but that's not hate) but they hate Maro because he is a) divorced and probably had a child and b) he is six years younger than ayu. Many fans automatically turned to "Maro must've been taking advantage of ayu"

Personally I don't mind she had her half ass on her album cover but Japanese may accept that from Kuu but certainly not ayu, I blame this cover on lowering ayu's sales. If you don't believe this, consider these statistics:
debut week sales:
NL: 24k
R'n'RC: 20k, dropped by 16%
Ls: 18k, dropped by 10%
FIVE: 12.7k, dropped by 29%
PQ: 9.7k, dropped by 25%

Now keep in mind that FIVE is an EP, so PQ dropped almost half from Ls debut week sales, and that's huge

And speaking of shallow, who isn't really? Even ayu is shallow enough to think that western people and everything about them is better than her own race, why do you think she used much more Caucasian actors in her PVs than Japanese? And why do you think that she loves the US so much that she almost moved there?

i understand the cultural differences, but i think it is still OVERREACTED.

Funny you should say that... But didn't the overseas fan say the same thing about Mannie taking advantage of ayu? I mean, I understand why ayu dating Maro isn't acceptable in Asian culture. But with ayu and Mannie, she was also the older one in the relationship. To be honest, it's also ironic, given the circumstances. :P

I didn't remember reading on AHS or anywhere about that, and I assume that age gap wasn't as great as six, and the most important thing is: Mannie wasn't divorced.

I still have the opinion that if she's just dating Maro and didn't drag him into the again covers and PVs, the sales would've been better

And a majority of music buyers are that shallow, how many people are buying music just because of the singer/group's physical attractiveness? AKB48 sells CDs that incredibly by offering a handshake coupon to those who buy 50 copies of one album/single

just...

:rolleyes

thats all.

okay, Ayu should go to Tibet and sing there songs with Alan so they can both come back mega inspired later ;)

Bla bla bla, always the same drama every time ayu does not reach number 1, so what? Her music has been going stale since Rock 'n' Roll Circus, so what is the big shock here? I know a lot of people do not agree but to me it feels that way. Do I still care about ayumi? As far as the new releases go not so much, regarding the quality of music that is, now looking back, yes, I still love her lots, the old days feel the same for me and I listen to her probably still everyday.

The thing is people have different ways to see the world, so there will always be people that will continue to love everything, and those who will just stop caring, but maybe after a while she will do something good again, at least I hope so.

As much as it pains me to say this (and I love ayu to death), but I agree with you. :( Her music has been kind of bland since Rock 'n' Roll Circus.

^ I think the complete opposite...
When Rock n ROll circus came out, I had had it with her... the disappointing that was guilty, I didnt even want to give Next Level a try and then RnR... please...
thank god Love Songs came around or I might not be a fan today.

I guess I can agree with that upsetting fans, its just painful to see it affect sales to this extreme :(

How many copies do you guys think 'again' will shift in the long-run? (as in, before it drops off the charts)
I think about 60k, though I'm keeping fingers crossed both this and LOVE can sell 100k

I think the problem with Love songs was that pretty much everything was medium-tempo and there are strings ****ing everywhere. That said, I think it made the album more cohesive than R'n'RC, though I can understand how it could be seen as a bland record because it has the same sound the whole way through. I can't really see how anything past Love songs can be seen as bland or stale though, apart from beloved (dull & unnecessary) on FIVE, hyba (and maybe call and letter) from PQ, Melody (although i really enjoy it) from LOVE and Ivy from again.
For me, Ayu has tried a bit of everything since R'n'RC (and has definitely not had stale music this year lol).

I think NEXT LEVEL is an amazing album! <3 But again, that's just me. :P

I'm with you as well, the only track I can't bring myself to listen to is Curtain Call, dam that song just bores the hell out of me and the very beggining of the song makes me think I'm actually going to listen to Mariah's Without You...

it is... what I meant was that I was SO disappointed with Guilty, that I didnt even give it a chance, and then when RnR came out... i was like: :irked

but Im happy now... this reminds me of ayumi's golden age... everything is just grand for me.

Taking a closer look at the top ten...

(she's in between Korean idol acts, if you're wondering)

No surprise that EXILE, YUI and Mr.Children outsold them (Mr.Children on their second week?). Even Yumi Matsutoya. Anyone shocked at the numbers or not?

i just hope one day she has a namie amuro and comes back. if she pulls it together she deserves it!

A "half-week" is 3.5 days. There were only 2 days of non-sales for her. I will definitely agree that she got the butt end of the stick here by releasing almost half-way through the week. Most Japanese will hit the record store on the first day of new releases and buy up what they want. She missed out on that with again.

Releases always have a bit of springboard after the first week. The day is the day for new releases, so more people go out to the stores and are likely to pick up whatever they may have wanted to grab. :|

No kidding. And I support you 110% here. It's stupid that people on this forum are acting like we're shallow and judgmental because we're calling out the fact that the quality of Ayu's career has so noticeably diminished that she can barely get a Top 5 release now. And I don't buy for a damn second that it's because she's old. Namie can still sell 2X Platinum on an album, and it's because she made a decision to step up her game as an artist. Why Ayu is acting like it doesn't matter if she tries is completely beyond me.

I propose Ayumi go back to the drawing table and figure out how she can make her career more interesting for her, and therefore more appealing to us. We've always been fans of Ayu herself, and yes, we love her music, but we're stupidly confused as to why she keeps driving around thinking this flat tire of a career she has now will get her car down the street of success.

I honestly don't think this is all Avex. I think Ayumi doesn't care as much as she used to. Maybe that's where she is now... maybe that's why she is trying so hard to find a man she feels will fill some void in her lonely life. However, I can't say that this is all Avex. They aren't ****ing up that much with every other artist, so I doubt that Ayu is just sitting in the background saying, "I can't be an artist anymore!" like what happened with A BEST.

It is painful. But just like Namie, maybe Ayumi has to hit the bottom before she can see a way back up?

I agree completely. There are a ton more cultural taboos in Asia than there are in America, and a lot of them we can't understand. I don't really get the race thing because China and Japan may mock Americans but I've met a ton of Asians that would rather marry a white person than another Asian. I actually can't remember meeting a single Asian man or woman who didn't find white people at least slightly more attractive. But maybe that's my experience.

I think the divorce cost her a lot of support. She clearly rushed into that relationship, which looked really bad on her. And worse, it ended in a divorce, which looked even worse. She would have recovered better if she said amniotic fluid goes stale at 35 on national television instead of doing the shotgun marriage/shotgun divorce bit. And more, it looked like she was doing it for writing material after awhile. :|

I honestly can't disagree more with you about Ayumi praising whites. She is not a "race traitor" by any means. I would be quicker to call Koda that considering how many different men she's rubbed her cootch on in a music video, than I would ever call Ayu. I think Ayumi's main goal was to add a lot of diversity to her show. I honestly think that's where Manny and Timmy came in, along with Juno, and others. She's probably trying to show more unity among different people in her more recent music. The gay thing, while it irked me a little (even though I'm gay), I'm glad she did it because it, in a way, helped bring attention to something else very taboo in Asia: homosexuality. However, I'll never love what Ayu did more than what Elva Hsiao did in Let Love Fly... Elva made that video so ****ing awesomely beautiful and in good taste that I almost cry when I see it. It made me feel so good to be an Elva fan.

When Ayumi did it, I thought: Oh look, another sweaty shirtless gay guy dancing in a club. *next video*

She had her ass handed to her by BIGBANG. I'm completely ****ing shocked... dead serious. :grumpy

NEXT LEVEL is amazing! :hi5

I wouldn't be surprised if the Maro thing is actually one of the reasons for again's sales, idk.