I just want to come back in her, and address some recurring themes.

Not once did Ayu have the attitude "you wouldnt like it anyways." Ive read the original japanese of both entries, and what she is saying is anation started off rocky, in the planning stages, so it couldnt include many things she could before, so she didnt know what to do. So in the end she decided that anation this year will be just to have fun with the fans, more casuallly. Quite frankly i dont know where this myth came from, but....

Another thing, ive thought about it, and i think any artist who doesnt consider what their fans say and doesnt make changes based on those thoughts, doesnt deserve their fans. Saying "your opinion doesnt matter" is what your giving off in that situation.


Food for thought.

@Surreal: maybe. Just, my opinions after seeing the same things over and over again.

I think Ayu is a lot more headstrong than it just being "a part of her culture" thing. She's always taken matters into her own hands her entire life and followed what she wants to do.

Hey, that's fine. We wouldn't have Ayu if she wasnt that way.

But idk, I just don't think that telling her personally what you dont like is a very effective means of getting through to her...in any case, I think it's much better to send her TA messages, rather than say anything to her on twitter, cause I don't think she wants to have anything to do with negativity there.

but oh well. You guys are free to do what you like, and see her as you like lol

It will always be my opinion that, she really likes to live in Happy Magical Ayu Land though. Maybe that's a good thing :shrug

Let Ayu breathe for a moment...a-nation was in different circumstances from usual, she may have done something not ideal but she didn't have as many possiblities so she tried to have something casual and fun - her fans don't all think that way. OK.

But when an artist starts doing what her fans want and not what he/she wants is when that artist loses his/her artistry. Madonna doesn't do it, Björk doesn't, Michael Jackson didn't. You can listen to your fans and if they raise a valid point act according to it but in the end what's important is what the artist wants to do. It's art. It's not doing what fans like but doing what YOU like and hoping others will like it.

Yeah lol I don't really use Twitter to talk to her though, I'm a TA member, but I guess that Twitter has opened up new doors to people who couldn't talk to her personally at all. A good and a bad thing at the same time.

And I agree that you shouldn't just tell her what you don't like, in fact, try to tell her what you really like so who knows, she might do something similar again like that, I don't know.


a-nation this year is what it is already, let's just wait and see what else she's got prepared. I actually want to watch it to see how it ended up like lol I just can't figure ayu doing the whole show with urata still :P

I'm in love with you. :luv2

^Forget it, he is gay :P

Excuse me, I'm not in this discussion but I have a question... Why don't we already have costumes pics and so on?

They haven't showed up on Yahoo!Japan Auctions yet.

^Which is quite odd actually. It might correlate to how much people enjoyed the show or not.

I fundamentally agree with that, but you are leaving out one huge element. Those are all western artists and ideals. In Japan, an artists relationship with their fans is completely different just as the Japanese view towards ones job is often very different from western nations.

^Well... mostly when we are talking about idols, as far as I know... What isthisLOL said would easily fit Hikaru Utada for example, or post Best of Matsutoya Yumi, post Queen of Hip Pop Namie, etc. I don't see them releasing what might please their fans, instead, I see them doing whatever they feel like at the moment and taking the consequences of doing so... Being it for the good or for the bad.

Seiko Matsuda, on the other side, is one I can see mostly trying to please her public, and it's not a surprise that she seens to be at the same place since mid 90s as far as creativity goes...

^Yeah, I think its fine to not release things according to the fans, as long as you expect that there will be a backlash.

In Japan, even beyond idols, very, very few musicians are actually seen as "artists" in the traditional definition that we perceive that term in the west. Ayumi is not one of those musicians (to us she is) but most of the public does perceive her as a product more than anything else. Maikeru said this before, but as a product in Japan the costumer is considered God (even moreso than in many other countries I think) and it really is walking a dangerous line in Japan if that is disregarded. It is definitely a difference in culture. But, if she doesn't mind accepting the consequences, then that's fine. Had they at least advertised this, I don't think fans would have complained this much but they didn't and if I were a customer that had gone to the show I would probably be upset too.

On a little bit of a separate note, I can't believe anyone on her team looked at the plan for A-Nation and thought. "Wow, what a great idea!" The fact that this even came to fruition is somewhat surprising. But I guess not so much so since it seems Ayu does indeed have that much control on her career.

I think that maybe they though people would be please by it... I don't know, artists can be really naive sometimes about public reaction...

I agree it would be smarter to let people know there were going to be only duets, this is a marketing and communication basic fail.

Ayu reacted bad to the complains on Twitter, but I can understand that... in the end of the day, people used her name in order to bash Nao, and sometimes, being hugely criticized on a open space like Twitter can really be offensive... humiliating, even. Once a friend of mine gave me a amazing piece of advice: Always praise people in public, so everyone can see how this person did an amazing job. But criticize in particular, cuz when u do that with everyone watching, it will feel like an atack to the criticized one.

And I totally agree the general public mostly seen her as a product... Sometimes I see some publications here and there refering to her (directly or indirectly) as an artist, but most of the time, that's not the case (her releases are largely ignored by Rolling Stones Japan, for example). Still, I believe her fanbase and some of her casual listeners, people who are mostly touched by her work see her as an artist, and that she herself see her more as an artist than as an Idol... something that can be clearly seen on her works, videos and overall posture after the A Best incidents.

is there no picture of an outfit from ayu from the a-nation???

What exactly is the main issue here? That Ayu's show isn't up to par? Considering all the crap that Japan has gone through this year, in addition to Ayu's already hectic schedule (and sacrifice of her personal life), shouldn't her fans be grateful that she's providing a set list at all? And did I actually hear somebody complain about her only singing six songs? I've noticed that that's a pretty good number in comparison to other artists.

People are always fussing that she's always doing the same things over and over again, and I remember people always begging for collaborations with other artists, and now that she's finally providing a unique show, fans are furious. What exactly do you want from her?

Some of you say that she should consider herself as a product, and go in a direction that will please her fans; however, notice how no matter what she does, there is always a section of her fan base who will complain about her current career move. She can't please everybody, so wouldn't the best option for her be to please herself and hope that the fans who claim to only wish for her happiness continue to support her?

it's so complicated X_X lol

But basically, I think, in the end, she needs to keep her Japanese fans satisfied first. And if Japan sees her as a pop product...then...well...

And we can disagree all we want...but we're only a few thousand at best...probably not even a few hundred...and then we don't even live there. I think it's safe to say that, internet backlash is not the main problem.

idk...it's been quite a while that she's been around...I think we're in for some interesting next few years.

And one of the five editions: only urata naoya is on the cover in a bunny suit.

Still, some of her most praised works are those who didn't follow what her fans were expecting... Songs like Surreal, M, evolution, endless sorrow, independent, July 1st, Memorial Address, Grateful Days, Moments, STEP you... all unnusual songs by jpop standarts, stuff she couldn't do at the first place if her main focus was to please her fans... If that was the case, she would most likelly re-release Seasons/Boys & Girls/A Song for xx/Trauma-like songs non stop every year...

And how far would she get if she did that?

^well I meant that, then they aren't going to like certain things from her...

but idk. tbh I really don't know what her Japanese fans want from her exactly. They obviously aren't crazy thrilled about what has been going on...but even that's kinda hard to prove exactly...

And, back to the post, even though they weren't expecting those songs...were they not pleased when they came out? I'm not sure...cause I wasn't around then to analyze all the reactions...

I think she's in a very odd place...and Im really not sure exactly who is telling her what, or what anyone really wants for her.

I guess it doesn't really matter anyway. People are either gonna love it, or not, and she can't really do anything about it...and it's not like she's crazy, insane AKB48 popular or something...how much is any of this really gonna hurt her?

Or at least, the worst that will happen is that she gets dropped or something and stops making music...but we all know that'll never happen.

^Well, IMO Ayu biggest problem, the thing that hurted her the most, are a mix of her age + her superexposition during most of her career... She is "old" and her career is "old"... unfornutelly, that's nothing she can really do about it, as she can't get younger or make her career younger... Also, IMO, having a low-profile 10th anni and keeping a little distance from TV was a genious decision... If Ayu appears on TV once on the whole year right now, there will be people saying "this b**** is everywhere, everytime!", even if she is not for some years now

In order to be insanelly popular, u need to appeal to teenagers, something she can reach with one or another release, but never again with the same power of a 15 years old girl that's trendy now... Even Namie's new peak is nothing compared to her fame in the 90s... Considering Ayu is appealing more to adults than teengers now, her fame level is suberb...

Still... Ayu is overselling most of the girls who peaked after her, she is selling out concerts, and even if she didn't have a smash hit since... Blue Bird, maybe, all of her albums had at least one strong song... not M level strong, but strong anyway...

About the A-nation "fiasco" (cuz it still is in time to be a success), if Bold & Delicious, kissing a chinese guy on the lips and having 2 gay videos didn't kill her, she is safe with a poorly received A-nation...

i read through the past pages of people typing novels, whining like babies because they suddenly hate ayu again, the rest of you foaming at the mouth to protect ayu's honor, etc, etc.

and the above quote was the only thing that made me really lol.


ps. it's just a-nation, not the end of the world. you either like it or you don't, a majority of you won't be going to see the show anyway so stop acting like it's ruining your world. I'm still excited to see what gets recorded, personally. :heart

^It IS the end of the world.

Ayu's Japanese fans hate her, and she is going down in flames.

Now we all have to listen to AKB48.

ARE YOU HAPPY NOW.

I WANNA buy it. Now.

You people are so funny. I've had fun reading this thread today. XD

Personally I'm a bit skeptical about how that collaboration stuff will turn out because I really thought TRF ruined her songs on CDL02-03 when I watched it so I'm not very fond of this idea. At the same time I'm still curious to see how this turns out since it's different from what Ayu has done before. And I love her when she's experimenting because she's the Ayu I fell in love with then~ <3

I don't usually even watch a-nation concerts (only Kuu's parts to be honest lolololol x)) but this ranting and whining over this year's concept has really made me curious so maybe I'm going to watch it this year (or at least Kuu's and Ayu's parts). Of course I've seen some of her older a-nation performances on youtube and they've been great. And I've seen few Nao x Ayu performances too and I think he doesn't sound that bad at all. o.O

But I've been wondering how this is gonna affect FIVE's sales then. It would be pretty... shocking if something tragic happened. And for some reason, thinking of what's going on now, something may happen. o.o

i'm dying to see anation picsss~~~
i wonder why it's taking so longggg~~

110806 fukuoka

01. Last angel

same here! I want to see her outfit!

Looks like Ayu switched up the setlist for August 6th? http://ameblo.jp/ayu-soulmate/entry-10977805262.html
I think Naoya is now only singing on "Dream ON," "ANother Song," "Sunrise," and "WOW WAR TONIGHT."
And still no pictures? :(

Edit: lol I totally didn't even notice the Google auto-translate of WOW WAR TONIGHT's subtitle. "~sometimes~" lol Fixed some of the transitions

I'm glad she has added Last Angel. All she needs for a tracklist to please most people would be Last Angel and then an older song like monochrome instead of Dream ON or WOW WAR TONIGHT. There is quite an overload of summer songs too. I'm still interested to see it and not too bothered about Naoya. We still have the last part of the tour to look forward too :D (As long as he isn't there for all of that :P)

Last angel is a epic way to open a concert omg. <3

Is it wrong that I was first wondering why she chose to sing a song about WoW?

nice!

I hope she also adds progress later on :P

I'm quite worried about this too. Imagine it won't even reach 100k :rolleyes

wow Last angel..
that's NICE! even tho i wish she would sing progress to promote her mini album..
hopefully in the next date!

Kinda odd that she's not singing progress since I thought it's gonna be the main promotional track. She's gonna promote the album with ANother song? :o

Hell breaks loose! :OOOO

you mean it will surely break it?

yeah, let's stay positive :D though it's sad to see her sales decline

It seems likeAyu was wearing a yukata somewhere on the show(according to a japanese fans on twitter)

Wasn't there a report somewhere saying there were 50k-80k preorders just from Tales fans just for the LE version? I think we're guaranteed at least 100k sales :)

Oohh, I love seeing Last Angel on the setlist!! definitely more excited about the show now :D

I meant if it doesn't reach 100K hell breaks loose, sorry. :D

But yes, let's be positive about it. :)

OH NO... Last angel is a great song but she killed it in CDL. She almost did it in RnRC, Maybe Naoya will sing the lower part LOL

AHS ~ DRAMA IS ALL :D

I'm keeping my eyes peeled on YAJ for any A-nation pics, but nothing at all so far. T_T

In retrospect I'm kind of happy that GUILTY only got number 2 on the charts, even though that was a real drama back then. But now all the pressure is gone. I don't really care that much about sales. Sure I want Ayu to sell, but if she doesn't who cares? Yes, some people do, but I'm not one of them. Today more than ever before, I think sales of physical copies are not important at all. If she won't be able to sell her concert tickets, that would be the day to start worrying.

^yea..now she has the liberty to do whatever she wants..esp after the 50th single records and all. as long as Ayu is happy :)

and woots..Last angel is EPIC!
and lol, singing ANother song is already promoting for FIVE..besides, its a song that doesnt have a tie-in so...

The addition of Last Angel makes the concert a bit better but I still think that she should perform just ONE song with Naoya, not four...

I almost cried when she sang Last Angel cause I thought she switched up the setlist, but really she didn't do anything. The posted setlist is right except glitter came after Blue Bird, which I think is a mistake cause the transition was weird.

The Urata thing was really true and it did irritate me throughout the entire concert. My friend also hated his addition. Even when he isn't singing, he's still sharing the stage (almost like another main act so his face is on the screen half the time) with Ayu except for the first song. He also sang most of Sunrise, Ayu got lazy at some parts and made him sing - for the other parts they sang it together so you can hear his voice throughout the song.

ANother song is a duet and is a ballad, not a very good one either. The lyrics are terribly lame an she just sings "aishiteru" 64 times in different tenses.

The outfits were pretty nice, but they usually are I wouldnt've expected anything different.

Anyway, I'm glad I was warned beforehand or else I would've been pissed. I got nice 2nd row seats but they were pretty much a waste since her part of the show wasn't very good. Oh but Tohoshinki and Koda Kumi were great.

By the way, I obviously would've tried to make it to her actual concert if I could, but not all of us can get a break any day we want. It just happened to be that I got August off and so a-nation was the next best thing I could make.

I'm happy when she sells well. But I know that she has more than 10 years of career. Now young people are here & listen to young artist. It's totally normal. The future of Ayu'll be the same that Seiko Matsuda. Her sales'll go down, but the concert hall will be full.
I don't think she follows her own sales now. The only thing she wants is to do music & to sing when she want & what she want. I totally agree with her!

Am I odd then because I'm a teen and love ayu? :,D [Although I listen to those teen J-poppers too..but certainly, they aren't my favorite bands/artists, they are just good and fun to listen sometimes. But they don't aren't even close in my TOP5, maybe somewhere in TOP15...]

Am I the only one, who loves WAR TONIGHT? :,C [I have listened to AAA version only though~]

No it's not weird!!! Im a teen and I love ayu!! :)
I'll look up war tonight!

No you're not weird. I say that in general! For sure, teens can love Ayu more than other artists. For example, I'm only 22 but I like Seiko Matsuda even if she was the queen in 80'. I don't know if you understand what I want to say. It's difficult to explain in English correctly>.<
I just want to say that :when Ayu'll have 30 years of career. Do you think she'll be number one in the chart again? (It doesn't mean she'll be less popular than now!)
Maybe it's clearer with that question? @_@

I love Last Angel!! I hope it stays there for the rest of a-nation :D

And I think it's great that people got somewhat of what they wanted. Ayu got to sing 3 songs to herself ^^ Hopefully now people wont complain as much :P

Oh, that sounds junk. =/. I don't want to see his face all the time for her songs or singing it because I don't care for his voice. Blah.

No but you're not a Japanese teen. The point is that Japanese teenagers don't get into Ayu nowadays as they did in 1999~2002 because she's not a teen idol anymore. She's still popular but because of what she was during her golden years. Most Japanese fans are people who got into her quite early, when she was everywhere. She sells because those fans are still faithful to her but not because of her music (I don't mean her new songs are bad, I love them as much as her old material). She was able to made a name for herself and everyone will remember her like they do remember Seiko Matsuda or Akina Nakamori from the 80s. Seeing how the current music market is, I find it pretty difficult for Ayu to get a new mega-hit like SEASONS, M or H. However, she will not "die" thanks to all the fans (Japanese and international) who support everything she releases and attend her tours.

Finally a picture *_* I hope we get more!
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...jr7fptr3jj.jpg

lol, ayu looks like a male here, I hope for better one, but at least something finally!

Picture in a bigger size, the original source is this ameblo: http://ameblo.jp/lakimoe/entry-10971541185.html
http://i40.servimg.com/u/f40/16/00/82/81/o0800010.jpg

She looks like Shuiya xD

You kinda made that sound as if she hadn't had a hit in years which isn't true at all.

^Yeap... Even if she is not selling like hot buns, Love Song singles for example still had a very impressive performance...

CDL was a bad-vocal day I think(compared to RnRC Tour, a-nation '10 and her September and December 2010 TV lives) and people say her vocals in 2011 are better than they were ever since 2005 so I have hope :) She may still have the backtrack sing the low parts though.

even after her prime has ended she still had a solid number of hit songs like STEP you, fairyland, HEAVEN, BLUE BIRD, JEWEL, Together When..., Sunrise etc. Sure most of those weren't as big as evolution or independent, but they still did quite well.

you know what.. she can cut all solo songs from TV and DVD and we'll see only AyuxNao live xD

You're right! I didn't notice that my browser auto-translated and switched some stuff around. Fixed it in the post. :) Thanks for keeping us updated!

What's natural, btw... if u look into any musician career, most of they hits will be concentrated at the period they peaked... After some time, there will be less hits

Even Madonna that people like to bring as an example of long career of success popstar... if we consider that her latest major hit was from 2005 (Hung up), what is amazing considering her career was 23 years old at that time, half of her most remembered songs still are from the period between Like a Virgin and Vogue singles (84~91)... Still, just like Ayu, the older she gets, the most money her tours make :P

The report was about Tales of Xillia itself, not the version of FIVE associated with ToX. However, the CD only with the Tales of Xillia goods has been outselling the CD+DVD since they were listed on Amazon.

I suppose for people who want to 100% complete the game they need the outfit haha

Although I don't remember any previous tales tieups that necessarily sold massive amounts ♪(´ε｀ )

Finally! Thanks for sharing!

Oh god...

BoA's Mamoritai was helped out quite a bit by Tales, I think. It stayed on charts for a while longer than it normally would have anyway.

Not bad there, but I'm not sure why we've recently not been seeing costume pics like in the past...maybe heightened security...?

where is Nao? ayu looks so casual

They were singing July 1st, it looks like.

I'm not sure if it was just the Tales tie-in or the fact that people like BoA's winter ballads, but it was her first single since LOVE LETTER that got certified for Chaku-uta full, the single sold 50k physically which she also hasn't managed to do in a couple of years and it even sold almost as much as her album that followed.

Finally one pics!
Hope we'll get more soon!

MTE!
i really don't expect ayu to sell like hot cakes like she used to be anymore since she's been releasing stuff every year. people might get bored lols. and people nowadays are more into group artists.


and anyway, on topic...
so Naoya also sang Last angel with ayu????
anybody could confirm that?
thanks c_zou1987, for sharing ur review..
at least Naoya didn't sing Last angel~~

and wow finally a pic even tho it's not that clear enough haha~
thanks for sharing anyway!

a-nation news =D

Loving her outfit!! thanks

YES! LOVE HER OUTFIT SO MUCH!
that hat's desgin, though not the first time she has worn it, but it really suits :)

Ayu as natural!!!I love it!!!

What do you mean Ayu as natural? She was all gaudy with the tacky sparkles and that hat again. Not to mention enough blush on her face to make her look like a strawberry.

The outfit it nice but the ugly gold gloves and accessories throw everything off.

Really nice outfit there! : D
The audience was a bit quiet though it seems? XD No one likes a-nation? :,c

Her outfit lemme think about "Tour of my story" encore!

her dress looks nice :)

Ooo, video! Time to add it to the first post with a download link~~

I wonder why it cut out before her July 1st footage.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...808_112842.jpg http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...808_112848.jpg

Love the dress!
& quiet audience or was the cheering cut off?

Pretty dress!

love the looks
she looks fit and healthy!!!

The dress looks like her PoM one with some updates but what's with the gold and silver!!! Too much!

Just saw the video on twitter. :D I love the dress, but I wish the orange straps weren't showing. Were they from a later costume?

omg, she looks super gorgeous, I dont like short hair, but she's really gorgeous with it and that dress is pretty!!

I like the dress and the style!! :yes

love the outfit!

She looks really pretty! I like the outfit :D

So...we got footage but only of her talking? o.0

AYU looks great!! And I love her style~~:))))))

thanks for sharing the video
too bad they didn't show her performance part.
i love her outfit anyway~

an impressive a-nation costume? Is this real life?!

Does Naoya still present in the entire set-list? I'm just curious, if she changed something or things are remain the same.

Tell me about it

I thought the same!!! That look reminds me the 2005 era!

I don't like that dress specially (and please, someone DESTROY THOSE GOLD GLOVES!! xDD), but I like that 2005 feel!

someone did this share on tumblr.
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp...hg8xo1_500.jpg