Yay =DD I can't wait to watch Sexy little things!

I really don't find it strange. If you don't like a release and post your review of it, you are very likely to positively rate someone elses negative review as well. It's like "oh I agree with what this person wrote - they felt the same as me. Thumbs up for them too." The same thing happens when the majority opinion is positive. All the positive opinions get rated highly and the negative opinions get buried. Its just unfortunately the majority opinion is negative right now.

Many of the reviews do actually seem to be from fans as they are quite in depth. Also many from people who are former fans as well. But like I said, very few hater comments are there like Hamasaki sucks!!!! or something.

btw, yay for Don't Look Back not being directed by Kazuyoshi. :)

I guess most people's idea of haters are the trolls on her last.fm shoutbox. at least they're entertaining. :P

Oh that's really nice! Those PV's are all very creative :) (gotta love the crocodile!)

I can't wait to receive my album now so I can watch ittt :D

The disconnect between the amount of reviews / stars per review is rather telling though.

Before Sunrise/Sunset, Ayu's average was 4 - 4.5 stars with mostly 4 or 5 star reviews..

http://i40.tinypic.com/4r87tg.png
http://i44.tinypic.com/2h6c9ab.png
http://i44.tinypic.com/w9za1k.png
Ignore the first You were... one.

I checked someone's reviews and they rated Namie's P<F 2/5, Ayu's releases all 2/5, and BoA's releases all 5/5. Obviously, there's a group of antis going around. Ayu never even had 100+ reviews for singles up until Sunrise, so wtf? Why the sudden HUGE increase?

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/cdp/membe...stRecentReview

Holy jesus, this person is a Namie fan who rates everyone who isn't Namie a 1/5. Blah. Take that to a BBS, not Amazon! I don't understand why you would want to paint a picture of Ayu being universally disliked when that really isn't the case. That is what these antis want to do. FYI, this happens with ICONIQ and GND, I believe. (ICONIQ because she's Korean or something, and GND because people hate CHISA) It's weird that they all seem to organize on Amazon, but I don't think people in Japan are idiotic enough to be swayed by people who have an agenda on Amazon, haha.

My view on this is that most of the reviews of 2/5 and up are the legit ones, with many 1/5 ones being the "filler" ones. If you look at Ayu's past history with reviewers, the trend is normally that there are a lot of 5s and 4s with almost as many 1s as 5s. It's true that some of them are from disappointed fans, but this activity is way too suspicious in my opinion. The thing with Japanese antis is that they are a force to be reckoned with when they organize things like this. The reviews are in depth, but that is because they know how to disguise themselves as "fans". The first step to being an anti in Japan it seems is to constantly be following up on what the artist does even if you don't like them. They basically take anything that could be said negatively about a release and compile it all into one review.

Another reviewer who rated almost everything they reviewed 1/5:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/cdp/membe...stRecentReview

A Seiko live DVD, three Ayu releases, and an Akina release got 1 star from this person, with the only thing they praise quite a bit being a Shibasaki Kou best.

No matter how many haters waste their time with reviews; Ayu will be the bestseller anyway :P sop who cares

lol. Ok, that is kind of funny actually. :) I'm sure you are right and that some of them are indeed "anti" fans but quite a lot of them do look legitimate to me as well though. (but as you said, maybe not all of the 1 out of 5s are legitimate) But my main issue was that they shouldn't be written off as "hater" reviews that just say she is fat or something, because that actually isn't the case and many of the reviews do actually have legitimate/good points.

Thank you for clearing :)

Oh yay for Hideaki Sunaga XD I love the PVs he directed :heart

I would say they are cleverly disguised reviews that antis make to try and convince people to think like them. They don't exactly say something as simple as she's fat or anything, but they definitely are like a concentrated version of the negative vibes you'd see at a fan forum. "WHY IS IT THE SAME MELODY FOR THIS SINGLE?" / "She did winter ballads again! Disappointing, etc." It's like they bottle it up and take it out for use whenever a new Ayu release comes out. With AT09, I think they shouldn't have allowed reviews for that since people haven't even seen the DVD yet, so how can they "review" the DVD? I'm aware that some people who did review it saw her live, but blah, it's like I'm reading the anti-thread at 2ch! Robaku this, burikko that, I hate everything, etc.

(I did just see a pretty okay AT09 review of "I'm telling the truth because I love Ayu", but I think that person just wasn't into the tour at all, haha.

This one is pretty funny though:
"Awful! - I have already said it before, there's no meaning to this production, so don't buy it." HAH.

Yeah that's exactly what is in Amazon reviews. The reviews are not hater coments, they sound like people who really was expecting a lot from Ayu, but due to many things, like the ones SunshineSlayer said, and also because of her voice, etc, they are really disappointed. Some of them said actually that they feel like they've seen the tour before, nothing is new, which is 100% true. She has done being on flying objects before, and she has done "Uptempo Song Intro, Cute song middle, Rock section Middle, Ballad Middle, more Uptempo Song Endings" kind of tour too many times now.

EDIT: I want to make clear I am talking about those people who gave 3 or 4 stars. They too have many complaints, but they are Ayu fans as well, and say that they will go to see the tour again this year, but NEXT LEVEL was disappointing. And those comments are outnumbering "It's so perfect!" comments. And it goes for most other products. 10th Anniversary Tour has VERY few negative comments, so that's a plus right?

The reviews sounds, like SunshineSlayer said, just like Ayumi Sekai. Of course there are haters, but they are very few.

i love all PVs in this album! yeaahhhhh ayu is the best! XD

I was not talking about the AT09 reviews when mentioning the "anti" comments (though some of them are very... uh... fishy.) and AT09 shouldn't even be open for reviewing imo since the DVD isn't even out! I was just pointing out that the CD releases seem to have taken a really awkward dip in "star value" and I was explaining what I thought to be the cause behind it.

I would say NEXT LEVEL's tour didn't really offer anything new to the table when it came to her lives, but I don't think it really tried to. (This year after all was the time she said that the tour is striving to be the best in Hamasaki Ayumi history.) It was a solid set of performances with her "formula" that she's used for the last few years. I think she'll probably change that with Rock'n'Roll Circus' tour, but it's possible she'd just use it again... with what she's said lately though, I doubt it.

If I were reviewing it on Amazon, I'd give it a 4/5 or something.

The ship + Marionette probably satisfied people. With NEXT LEVEL tour, a lot of the tour was simply Ayu performing with a lack of "SURPRISES" as Ayu usually has. Not to say that it's a bad thing, but a lot of people probably expected robosuits or something.

Come ooooonnn 14th of April~~

XD

I watched the TV version on AT09 and I find it quite entertaining.

About the amazon reviewers, It's true that not all of those are haters or anti, but most of them are, most of them probably just heard or saw one clip and automatically say it sucks without even genuinely trying it.

Yeah, maybe they just watched the not-so-good part of the concert XD

While AT09 was still a good concert, compared to the last few tours, its pretty lacklusture. I think that's where the critisism comes from. Ayu has a reputation of putting on a show, not just a concert. AT09 was just not up to her usual standard.

i guess it really depends on their taste.i actually find AT09 is more entertaining and enjoying than AT08.although AT09 doesn't has any big ship etc,but at least she's back to basics.like what she said on the magazine .its like back to basic.without any extravagant props etc

Yes even though AT 2008 had awesome performances like MW, Marionette and (don't) Leave me alone, I really enjoyed AT 2009 overall way more.

It had a lot of rehashes but they probably were the best in use (imo).

I understand the majority who didn't like this tour much though.

I'm very glad I'm getting this DVD in the boxset.

Populare people have haters and lovers!!You will never have only good comments!!
Even it hurts when something bad is written!
As for me, I love the AT09!!
And I`m really looking forward for the album and for AT10!!
I hope the Album will sell a lot!!She deserves it for her hard work!And the songs for now are all amazing!^^

Well, as Maikeru and I have said, no, actually the reviews are generally not like that. Many of the comments seem to be coming from people who actually went to the concert or at least watched the broadcast. :shrug