lol the Baidu thread has been deleted , figures haha

Also regarding viagogo , I wanted to add on that my mum purchased tickets & went to see a concert last Friday in Hong Kong and her seats were surprisingly good

I don't know how would that work out for Kuu's case though but for my mum , the tickets were shipped out to her the next day from Hong Kong after she made her purchase online

I wonder why my mum didn't request the tickets to be sent to the hotel that my mum + her friend stayed in Hong Kong cos I thought it was odd . Turns out , viagogo don't have such an option made available

^
As someone who follows Jolin's news closely, I can tell you that was totally fake anyway...

Random post of the day: I'm listening to Color the Cover and ugh that was such an amazing era. Music, visuals, TV lives, everything was just on point :heart I'd love to see another cover album from her in her 20th anniv (or sooner :P )

I actually wouldn't mind a cover album in March and a regular album in August again. Tie the projects together with a vintage J-Pop idol theme (think Seiko) and then a cool modern J-Pop theme.

I'd love to see her cover Shizuka Kudo again.

avex Taiwan posted this video commentary of Kuu on their Facebook regarding the Taiwan press of DNA

https://www.facebook.com/avextw/videos/339252963480198/

The 1st part of the video Kuu said hello & her name in Mandarin x) and then she switched to Japanese

Kuu said that the Taiwan press of DNA includes a separate Mandarin lyrics translation sheet for all the songs found in the album

Also , Kuu commented that the material in DNA comes from her heart , be it what emotion or thought she has that went into each song in the album

Lastly Kuu hopes that fans can read + understand each of the track's lyrics in DNA better with the help of the translation sheet

Someone could think about English... It would make our lives much easier...

^well, after all this is for the TAIWAN press and not an international one...

Same!

Japonesque, Colour the Cover and Bon Voyage were such a good run of albums!

That would be a nice scheme for next year, indeed. Something I'd love to see is her doing eurobeat covers, it would be so cool and it can fit your idea

((avex hope you're reading this thread))

I like how she talks about it like the previous Taiwan presses of her releases didn't include translations :laugh

lol yeah that's so weird . Maybe Kuu didn't know all the while her releases that avex Taiwan made all come with traditional mandarin lyrics translation sheets

Kuu is making headlines again.

Sky Perfect asked people between 15 and 69 years through the whole country, who is suitable to be the female singer after Namie Amuro (Who do you wanna listen to on TV? was the question apparently).
It was a internet survey conducted 08/29 - 08/30.

Kuu topped the full ranking!

01. Koda Kumi
02. Kana Nishino
03. Perfume
04. Ayumi Hamasaki
05. E-girls

You can see the news e.g. here:

http://news.nicovideo.jp/watch/nw3904778

http://news.livedoor.com/lite/articl..._amp/15333780/

Till now I didn't believe Namie's retirement would change anything for Kuu, but maybe it might eventually?

I'm not surprised by this. I always felt that Kumi and Kana would probably gain fans following Namie's retirement. Both have a youthful appeal that could attract a new audience.

As much as I'm happy Kuu topped this survey, it's kinda sad all these names have already been around for a while, e-girls is the "youngest" artist there and they've been around since 2010 or 2011 I guess? So many female jpop singers were around during 2000s and so few came up in 2010s :/

I actually predicted this. I wrote my master thesis on japanese idils and all the sources on Namie stated that she left a void when she went into her maternity-break which was rhe only reason artist like Ayu had a path to rise to fame.

^true, you talked about this when we were discussing what will happen after Namie?
Kuu has the whole package and with stuff like her viral thing etc the stars are aligned for her. it just depends how her label is handling this. so if she’s the next one, she probably going back to be more mainstream. so let’s see

As long as she chooses songs like HAIRCUT and WATCH OUT to be the main promotional tracks for her releases there won't be any chance of a mainstream comeback. She had a smash hit waiting to happen with Kokorokara i love u but didnt give it a PV or perform it on TV.

Didn't she say she purposely wanted to challenge the audience? I understand her logic, but I am frustrated that she is being a bit stubborn in some ways.

That said, she's in a good position going into her 20th anniversary. A BEST with a strong promotion campaign could be the spark that cause a commercial rebirth for Kumi.

Hm, I don't think Kuu is ever going to be really popular again.
She is a similar package like Namie as an artist, but her character is pretty much the polar opposite of hers.
And flashy and progressive characters like Kuu's just aren't trendy at all at the moment.
Kuu also seems to be happy with where she is now. Not to mention that she is quite critical with (Japanese) society in her songs in recent years and I don't think she ever wants to fully bend to that pressure again.
I do think she might gain more attention with the general public again now, but that will probably only be reflected in higher streaming numbers and more concert attendees and stuff like that (like her viral Tik Tok hit this summer).
But of course I could also be totally wrong.

By the way both Tokyo dates are officially sold out now.

^ I agree. I think Kuu's situation is really similar to Ayu's in that sense - they are both doing what THEY want to do in the way they want to do it - which is counter to the current trends. They certainly have it in them to be more mainstream, but it's not what they're going for - not in their "DNA" if you will. :)

But I would love for both of them to garner more public respect again, even if it doesn't translate to sales.