The song in HQ is actually really nice I do like it! But I get the feeling that BALLAD will be nicer! The PV is awesome. I love it she looks so gorgeous and so much like the Ayu prior to 2009. <3
Great way to exit this year imo. The only issue I have...is the clowns...why Ayu, why?

the PV is something refreshing from her. But we should getsome interpretations LOL everything is so random!

I'm still downloading the PV as of now

ehh I actually like the song a LOT more than Days *prevents from getting pelted with eggs :P

I like that the song builds up slowly with emotions , kinda like what happened with part of me's case

The PV is really fantastic. I think the reason why I liked it a lot because it felt so much like the older Ayu... no dramatic facial expressions or crying... no overload of her dancers (none here actually)... there's something very simple in the midst of the confusion that goes in the PV. I like how there's only Ayu in the whole video... it's really nostalgic.

EDIT: one thing that bugged me though. the little "jewels" she has all over her body made her look more oily than sparkly. :P

please dont hate me when i say this...but for once i dont like any of it ToT the PV was not good at all. i liked her hair but thats probably it. the song in full version is okay but its not going to be my top fave ballads. altho i preferred you were... than Ballad during the song clips, im hoping to see BALLAD's PV and hope it'll change my mind about the single but at this point im disappointed.

Ok I've said it in the thoughs thread already but the PV is absolutlely amazing.
I hope that BALLAD will be good as You were's PV.

I wonder. Do the clowns symbolise the person she's singing about in the PV? Like those days are nostalgic and they're symbolised by this theatrical fantasy which eventually explodes and they leave each other and then there's just the singer left in the cold reality?

mmm, I guessed this is one of those Ayu's video that I have to watch a few times to understand. I'm Neutral right now on the PV. The song is nice, she's beautiful as usual, but whats with the cardboard trees???? I feel like I'm watching a theatrical play or something...

alot different than her other PVs. i'm glad she wasn't overly dramatic, it was more natural and beautiful. :D i wish one of the 2 songs were happy love songs though~

i'm actually making my own PV for You Were... it should be done tomorrow~ :innocent

the video's weird but artistic

omigosh, now that i've watched it a few times, the beginning with the little bear...it makes me really sad D;

I really liked the PV; very beautiful, artistic, original... but just not Ayu imo. I wish she was more in it too and that there was another look or outfit.

In most of her PV's she is the center of the attention and a lot is focused on her beauty but that wasn't emphasized in You were... (not that she didn't look great.) I think it's great that she's trying out new things but I wanted another PV emphasizing her beauty like JEWEL ( :P ).

i thought the pv was going in a good direction...but the cardboard trees are going to get time to get used to/understand. haha. though it's one of her best PVs in a while, that's for sure. however, i wish ayu was doing some of the interesting things the dancers were doing, like fire in their hands and stuff. haha. i felt the dancers were way more interesting to watch xD

and so does this mean the "diamonds covering her body" is for ballad?

~*Cotton_Berry*~
Umm...I think you double-posted within five minutes of each other...

Whoah I should check this thread more often!

Of maybe not, because I don't want to ruin the surprise for the PVs....they're there tempting me!!

I love the You were.. so and im still in chock mode because I don't get the PV at all.

She posted this before the diamonds thing:
And then the day after:
Maybe it was diamond-powder? Haha.

The PV was nice, and I love the song even more~! <3

if it was diamond powder, that's really lame. she could get the same effect from cheap body glitter. lol.

I thought her skin looked really nice! Such a thing as diamond powder exists...?

Is it just me or did she look a bit um, mature? I mean old. Still looked amazing but I was a bit surprised; I know, she isn't 21 anymore but I've never thought of her looking older until now.

Did anyone think of the HEAVEN covers when Ayu first appeared?

you expressed what i'm feeling~
the older ayu!
she is back with deep-meaning PV. no exaggerating facial, no dancers or band members.

and ayu DOES look oily XD but this doesn't make the whole PV worse.

hahaha..this is so TRUE :P:tired

She's wearing a gown...there's no need to have the powder all the way down her body...I really wonder what she means...guess we have to wait for the BALLAD pv.

I kind of thought of it as the dancers performing the song while Ayu sang. Like her song was bringing their performance to life.

At least she "looks her age" and not trying to be "a cute teenager" which is apparently gross :laugh

Yeah! Definitely was my first thought. :yes

I agree. For some reason I thought of an elder enka singer when I saw ayu lol.

after hearing the full hq version of you were... i rekon the music box version is gonna be kickass

I think BALLAD is just beautiful I love it!

wow!!!amazing video!!! me loves it!!! :luv2 :luv2 :luv2 :luv2 :luv2

p.s.- Now i realize i really love the song :luv2 the begining is sooo cute!!!! :heart

I like the PV. It was weird, and strangely abstract (although I have to say, her skin looks REALLY OILY in the PV. Like did the makeup artist forget to set her foundation or something?), but it came together really well and it was intentionally artistic.

And I like the new hair color. Yay no more ashy blonde hair!

i think its the sparkly sparkly powder that makes her face look oily

what a terribly boring music video... why havent her recent PVs been interesting.. :headache i wish there was at least some story behind them..

except this was her most artistic and metaphorical PV since... forever really, everything's been pretty straight forward since Secret. I wouldn't call it the best PV ever, but I gotta give the girl credit for art and metaphors <3 and of course, props for NOT HAVING KAZUWHATSHISNAME DO ANOTHER PV <3 Maybe her brain is comin' back =D!

Yup, she definitely looked older than what she had been looking.... She looks, like...thirty..... But then again, she is in her thirties now, lol. ;) So I don't mind seeing her age. It's not like she's OLD yet, just older.
And yeah, totally thought of HEAVEN. :O


And all this talk about the diamonds in the PV..... All this time I had been thinking that the diamonds were for BALLAD..? Which would make sense, because I, as you all have agreed, certainly saw no diamonds in You were... >_>

i seriously don't see how anyone thinks she looks old. she has no wrinkles that i can see. maybe she just looks like a woman and not like a girl? her skin is more youthful than any 25+ celebrity in america. to each his/her own, i guess.

^I guess they were referring to Asian standards :P Women in their 30s look better than women in their 20s, anyway. And, boy, is Ayu looking fantastic.

The PV is stunning! It reminds me of Alexander McQueen. The best since Part of Me. I don't know why anyone would prefer a "story-driven" video. Just tune in to Chinese music television and you get one every 10 seconds.

The bound dancers seem to represent the emotions that bind her in the song's lyrics. The feelings that she can't let go of, and keep her trapped at the same time, but which she needs for her to believe that there is kindness/goodness in the world.

lol i was actually going to say she looks like 18 in the music video. she looks SO DAMN YOUNG. her face looks so youthful and flawless, it seems like she got a ton of botox or something, but in a good way lol

I don't find it that surprising. It's pretty common in Asia. Genetics. And smaller pores.

BALLAD is so sweet. I like this single a lot already!

I like the You were... PV, I guess.

nothing impressive as I expected but oh well u___u

I won't watch that PV a 2nd time... so boring :dead2

the song is good though, and BALLAD sounds alright so far too. not as epic as I thought it would be but still nice!

I love the PV, a nice change, though it was strange that Ayu didn't do anything except sing and pose a bit, would have made it perfect if she had another role in it.

love the PV, love the song, what's more there to say? xD

the PV's quality remindes me of her older PV's :yes she brought back the old style quality her PV's used to have :luv2

The Christmas card extra has been changed to a set of 2 postcards.

you guys, someone at kmc posted a 320 kbps rip of You Were... the song only, and I'm not sure if it's like a PV rip or something...

but I was just wondering if you guys had it already?

I'll just go put it in downloads...and if it's already here, we'll delete it.

It has more noise than the PV rip I made xD

^yeah thats why I wasnt sure about it...and like they posted no info on how they got it which..ew lol

So I can take it down then.

The PV looks cheap.. it looks like Avex only gave the director a 1000$ budget or something..

I REALLY love the scene with the cardboard trees and the snow, it looks epic (imho)

but the rest just looks boring and cheap.

Can't say I'm disappointed though :) This song is incredible!!

Allready posted this a few pages back tough....

But I am glad about that, makes one more freebie^^

My thought exactly.

I like Ayu herself, but the card board/plastic trees look weird, the clowns/dancer/whatever they are totally look out of place and even weirder.

I was really looking forward to her being covered in actual jewels... so disappointing.

To be honest, I still don't have an opinion. It's weird. I really like the song and the lyrics touch me, but I think I prefer a video like Days had, which I can watch over and over again. I watched You were.... maybe 6 times now, and it's still not boring. But it's weird. And it's not pretty. Well JEWEL can never be beaten in tearms of prettiness. Mmmh, I don't hate it but I'm not totally in love with it either.

I think the PV is very pretty:) Well that was my first thought, because we haven't seen such an akward PV in a long time! I don't count Sparkle. I guess NO WAY TO SAY PV & song is better than this :D

we know already who the director of You were is? I read something in another website about Masashi Muto (Depend on you, is this love and Ladies night...) but I couldn't find here if someone said it already...

I also heard he was the director, so I guess it's true ! Anyway, great PV, it makes me like more and more the song !

I love You were... PV!
It's so artistic. Although it's very abstract. :)

I totally agree with you a Xmas song with a very strange atmosphere with this dancers and this weird trees I love the contrast ! good job Ayu =D

No wonder the light effect in the You were... PV reminded me of Namie's White Light PV! It was directed by the same guy... :P

i still think the diamonds are going with the ballad pv. i really don't think ayu would write 本物, meaning "real" diamonds, if she was just using powder... plus she said covering her whole body.

but meh iunno

^ I agree with you. Surely she means actual jewels and that's going to come with the "BALLAD" PV. I hope so anyways.

I'm really loving the way "BALLAD" sounds!

oops I forgot to comment about the You were ... PV

it's quite abstract . Already in the beginning where that whole weird teddy bear hand puppet thing was going on , I kinda sense that it's going to be something different from what she usually does

That whould explain why it reminds me of Ladies Night PV XD

I like this single better than S/S. especially the PV about te song, I still prefer S/S

In some quiet scenes of the song I had Ladies Night playing in my head when I watched the PV actually xD It was the first thing I thought of when I saw all the "weird" scenes. Unfortunatly she didn't pull a hitler this time...

Yeah Masahi Muto is the director for You were...

I want to ask a question about external bonus for CD only version at cdjapan.
Is it just sold out or canceled?

There is the "First press sold out" button, so it´s sold out I assume.

^this is "first press"(card) and what about "external bonus"(poster)?

the poster is also a first press good, so if there is no more jacket card editions, there is also no more external bonus poster.

Is it known, if there's still first presses available at YA?

All first press are still available at yesasia ^^

so will there be chaku uta for RED LINE?

^ Good question.. looks like people forgot it XD

Okay ^^, Gonna order it Monday..

Ended up at $50;

30 for the single
10 for a phone strap (to get free shipping)
10 for another strap (to get a free towel)

How I hate all Yesasia's offers.. XD

-----------------------------------------

About You were...
The beginning of the PV made me laugh so much! Such an adorable hand...! XD

The rest of the PV just kinda creeped me out.. it isn't horrible, but I don't think it's so good..
The song is also 50/50.. I don't love it, I don't hate it.. just kinda don't care about it (:

Still waiting for the full version of Ballad, before I'll hear it. (:

^ I doubt it, but it would be a pleasant surprise! :D

@PinkShinigami
So true

But I ended up buying 2 more singles instead. XD
I bought Yw.../B with Sunrise/Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ and Voyage

My original plan was in CDJ but they ran out of 1st press CD Only.

[EDIT]
2900th post, WAW! 8D

well.. the S/S mush up mix (gillter, bb, GD...) had chaku uta downloads... why RED LINE wouldn't?? maybe we will even get downloads for the acoustic ver. of sunset and the musix box ver. of you were... or at least I hope so...

Well, I understand the waiting game is a hard one, I'm is about to burst from excitement myself. But if you think about it, 3 singles a year is not that bad. She's been touring almost non-stop too :)

They charge for the posters on yesasia, that's why the price is so different between YA and CDJ.

grrrr. i was just about to buy a copy at CDJ, too. but i really like this album art so i want the poster. i guess $10 extra isn't too bad.

If I buy it at CDJ, it can easily be $50 dollars more (which is about the extra price I gave for GREEN/Days). So the 10 dollars is fair to me (;

I'm really sad to say but uhm... I'm dissapointed with the PV of You were... I hope BALLAD will be better.. maybe I should've waited for her next album :shrug

So...CDJapan is a better choice in general for anything? I order from YA everytime I need to get an ayu item. I never get the first press goods or anything like that though, so that's why I'm wondering if I should buy from CDJapan when buying CDs with extras included.

YesAsia charged US$10 extra for the poster which's ridiculous

when the external bonuses were added to CDJapan , the prices still remain the same so :o

I get my stuff from HMV, because not only do they not charge for the extra stuff, they sell the single for LESS than the listing price :P

yeah sometimes HMV Japan has some special discount prices going on that they give to members so I guess that applies to You were ... / BALLAD's situation too

Yeah, I ended up paying ¥1,620 for the single and around ¥900 for shipping. :D

[EDIT]

Whoa! It's nice to see CD Japan's shipping dropped a little!!! But HMV is still cheaper for me lol. I might give CD Japan another shot next time around, I always loved how organized their site is.

for my case , shipping for 1 or 2 CDs is the same @ HMV Japan ie. 900 Yen

does that apply to you too ? cos I'm not sure myself

If I want to ship one CD from HMV, it's around 1,200. If I want to ship a mixture like a few CDs and a DVD or whatever, shipping is 1,500 yen.

At CD Japan, the shipping on one CD is now 1190 I think. But let's say I want to get all three versions of Ayu's single, it would be well over 2,000 yen (almost 3,000!). I would be paying 6,500+ yen total over $75 USD. Where as at HMV it's still 1,500 plus the discount on the singles! HMV has always been the better way for me when I want to buy Japanese goods. But usually I just wait for the OS.

the pv is so beautifull!!! its...so....BEAUTIFUL. minus all those weird star wars? costume-y ppl @.@ lol but i do like the artistic appeal of it though :love

this time has good PV but bad song. I dont like you were... I still prefer sunset

the PV was so freaking beautiful !!!! :luv2

Not online for 3 days and so much came out!

BALLAD sounds nice so far, I like the chinese part in it. But i'm still not that excited, cause it's just a ballad. :shrug

You were... PV is weird. I don't like the beginning, this hand teddy bear is tacky. And the rest is rather boring and random. Ayu looks stunning, but the dress she's wearing is ugly. Won't watch it again.
The song sounds better in HQ though.

i keep watching the PV over and over and like it more. it's fun to be able to have your own interpretation of it and what it means. when i first saw it i was just like "what??" but now i really appreciate it. that dress is amazing too, i wonder if she'll wear it in the lives. :luv2
and You were... is officially my favorite winter ballad from her. it even beats out JEWEL for me now.

I like BALLAD and I can't wait to see the PV

You were... PV is a little bit strange but cool

I think the moves of the dancers have some meanings.
Like when the dancer shows a glowing brain (2:49). It's related with the lyrics: "It would be easier if they would all be forgotten, right?"
And maybe other scenes have another symbols but it's hard to find the meaning. :rolleyes

Playasia is the best list price and cheap shipping. CdJapan has list price but ridiculous shipping. Yesasia is expensive with ok shipping.

^YA has free shipping... I emailed them weeks ago to ask why they have charged extra money for something that it's supposed to be a free gift...

they answered me that it was because of the tube they use to send the poster and the fact of shipping this long package... the psoter is free but not what implies shipping it... XDD

Last year with GREEN/Days happened the same but i ordered both versions before the posters were announced and they didn't changed my price ^^ but this year I was late...

Ayu looks beautiful in the PV but yet again it's another low-budget production. Sunset/sunrise was low-budget, NEXT LEVEL had little promotion and now another low-budget PV. A bit disappointed actually, was expecting something a little more visually interesting.

It is true...low-budget & the PV as no meaning about the song & all the related Tinkerbell stuff...

It was low budget, but obviously they meant for it to be. It's not like avex can't afford it, and it's not like they would hide away money from Ayumi Hamasaki, still a top-selling artist, just for the hell of it. They were going for a very different, artistic feel, and that's what happened. The fact that a low budget set worked best for that feel was probably a huge bonus for them, lol. And I, for one, am very glad there was no Tinkerbell, hah!! That would have automatically ruined it for me. :no