(m)u size photobook please not GUILTY size!!

that would be a great surprise. 15th album for 15th anniversary released on 2013.04.08

I'm starting to feel like we're over-reacting but I just hate that they're recycling all those tracks.

I'm crying of laughter and I'm crying of sadness.
AYU SERIOUSLY WHAT THE ****.
You called again and LOVE for minialbums
THUS THE SONGS FROM THOSE SHOULD NOT BE ON A REGULAR ALBUM.

WHAT THE ****. SERIOUSLY. WHAT THE ****.

HahahahHAHAHAHAHAHhahahahah oh man, i feed bad for those who have CD+DVD LOVE, CD+DVD again and preordered CD+DVD from LOVE again...

lolol wishful thinking....

Ayumi you were...

April album with tracks reminiscent of I am..., Duty, and LOVEppears please.
Go back to your roots, when you were the ****ing queen

I'm laughing at how messy is this whole anniversary. Too bad because LOVE and again songs are great. I feel them wasted for such a lazy release.
I mean.. You & Me recycled and just one new PV. Good job avex.

At least the covers are gorgeous :heart and I hope new songs will be good just like LOVE and again ones.

the sad part for me is that I wouldnt care if the mini's where labeled as singles...
lol

I hope her SAKURA is great, just because I'm a sucker for the title, haha.

LOL this!!! I knew from the getgo that during this whole 15th anniversary celebration that all of these videos/tracks would be thrown together in some compilation, and that I'd only spend my money on a CD+DVD/CD+bluray release when that would happen (which is a lot sooner than I anticipated but still).

At least they announced it today and not yesterday, that would have ruined Christmas for everyone

I know, that's the odd thing.

Beautiful covers.. really..
BUT THAT TRACKLIST IS AWFUL. They release again YOU&ME?? Why? =_____= Ah, what's wrong with avex??

so true...

To everyone, like me, who bought LOVE and again, especially multiple versions:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13...rupaulslap.gif

is it really necessary to sl** shame her omg

I really want that gif with ayumi from blue bird
'look at all the **** i give'
lol


also... i started listening to ayumi's guilty, a LOW for me in her music career...
this release cant be as bad as that.

I'm with you guys =___= Really.. Fortunately I didn't buy those mini-albums ( let's call them MAXISINGLES), but half of LOVE AGAIN is already released , so I don't know if I'm going to buy it for 5 new songs.
By the way, the DVD is useless.. it is already released with LOVE and again.. why should I buy it?? If avex wants money.. then avex needs to spend some time to think about it.

YES the DVD is useless, and I don't have to have it on blu ray since I'll probably never watch any of these PVs or makings since they were so boring.

The Blu-ray has everything in HD.

Someone cancel their blu-ray + goods cdjapan order so I can order it plz

As someone with promo experience (both poor and successful) I'd like to try and defend her team. But there is no angle to take. In one way, it could be said that they're being kind to Ayu by not demanding her to put out that many songs in such a short space of time. But if they want to do that then they've used the wrong marketing strategy. For one, based on their length and the number of tracks, LOVE and again are (maxi) singles or at a push EPs, not mini albums. Had they been classified correctly, the fans wouldn't have been as annoyed. Also, when the album was first announced they changed information after publishing it - and even though it was only a few hours after posting, the fans had already seen it. I think that's also what has made people angry: they promised something then took it away again, acting as if they never even said it in the first place. Then of course the poor quality of the PVs offered along with the songs is also a problem. Any of the teams I worked with this year could have produced something x10 better in under a week.

Had they gone about this in a different way they could have gotten away with it without angering fans. But they fluffed up. If they want to suck the fans wallets dry they should go about it in the same way as Johnny's Entertainment: release an album, and then a week later bring out a brand new single with absolutely no relation to the album. Works every damn time.


Avex, hire me. I'll get her a #1 without resorting to dirty tricks. :laugh

^Yes, all of the extremely boring PVs, can't wait to own that~!

This will be much better than Party Queen!! I took LOVE and again as singles, and i was SO expecting this

What's the problem with that?

I get being angry with her with the album, but there are some things getting waaaaay out of hand here.

you seriously want to order it? lol

I don't think there was any strategy or 'marketing' to these releases at all.

Not in a bad way or anything, but they just wanted to release material in a quick succession of five months. That's pretty much the 'plan' and they've stuck to it. There's practically no promotion either.

yes, there's just no defense for a foolish, idiotic release like this.

if it were marketed as a mini album without recycled tracks, with a different title, and and cheaper price, i'm sure I'd be THRILLED.

The thing is that they don't seem to want her to release new singles. They could've made the first two releases as singles instead of minis, but it seems they're scared of breaking her streak (she probably wouldn't be able to hit #1 with the way the promo is being handled nowadays.) This strategy totally ruined this album, it backfired... lol

I don't have Love, Again or ASB so this is actually kinda perfect for me

Hm

if she recorder sth like "untitled for her ~2~"

than... maybe she will realese album with ALL new songs like that? ;______;


oh foolish meh

Yes.. boring pvs. The only one I liked is Sweet scar.. but how much should I pay only for HD VERSIONS ? =_=
This release's rank for me is "NO"

Maybe the PVs are less boring in HD. Can someone watch any pv from 1998 on the A CLIP BOX blu-ray to confirm?

same

if you think about it they don't have enough material even for fill a 3th mini album

only 4 new songs and 1 new PV for MELODY

If you don't like what I wrote then ignore it. I still think this has a lot to do with the whole maro and Mannie thing. But I won't talk about that again.

If you're going to try to point out how many 'new tracks' there are, you should at least know there are five.

lol called it....I wouldnt say i feel betrayed, I'd much rather this over the abomination that was Party Queen. I'm just sad that she has fallen so hard to all the media and marketing bull crap and money making schemes rather than artistic expression and raw talent. Example: RAINBOW. I miss THAT ayu.

Love only had 3 new songs tho

I wake up to this... seriously ayu and avex???!! I was looking forward to buying this album but now idk. I'll probably go with an overseas press this time around... >_>

same thoughts, but I will shut myself as well.

Agreed :yes

Anyways, based on what I'm seeing and hearing I just don't feel about buying this album, if I wanted to buy it. Even since the Party Queen album I have NOT listened to all of the songs released since then. I have to say - what's going on?

Yes, I have to say, even though I'm not planning to buy this, I'm just not in favor of this album. And I'm predicting that there might be a possibility it's NOT going to be a #1 release, unless if there's no other powerhouses (you know - Johnny's acts older than Ayu - especially SMAP who beat out Ayu on A SUMMER BEST - are still strong, not Ayu...), but especially the fact that it's releasing 2/8, there's that release date disadvantage that we have to be careful of.

Now, I have to say, there are some things that I'm observing about:

• The title of "LOVE again": Ever since the release of mini-albums "LOVE" and "again" the title is quite coincidental to Sayuri Sugawara's "Love Again" song (from "Open The Gate" album that I got in November, and you know I'm more of a Sayu fan this time than Ayu...) Umm...
• "task'n'bass" - What is that, really?
• I'm not sure about the covers...

Overall, if I had a choice between buying this or not, my answer would be a resounding NO. :no

Even the tracklist - I'm kind of skeptical about.

For Ayu's case in the future, if I'm planning to buy new releases, I'd rather wait until they announce the official tracklist and covers before deciding if I would buy something as such or not, so I'll be able to take input and hear what you guys here say. (The only exceptions that I would do for me is Yanawaraba, which is a HARD-TO-FIND artist today (unlike five years ago in the "Uta Gusui" era with a lot of success!), and sometimes Sayuri Sugawara, which in the case of "Open The Gate", I was actually pretty impressed with it...!)

I almost gagged when I saw this headline in my twitter feed
http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.co...inment+News%29

:') Oh my god I still can't believe this is true.
THANK GOD THE COVERS ARE GORGEOUS.
If they weren't, people would be even more pissed

I may just have scared off my cat that was in my lap, guffawing at that.

Agreed a bit, it looks beautiful, but I'm still not sure...

Anyways, kimmeh - are you planning to buy it or not? If you already bought it, are you thinking about changing or even cancelling your order?

I'm slightly unsure. I kinda like the PV's, a bit at least. I just got 'again CD only' in the mail, so I might order LOVE again CD+DVD, as I regretted not buying again CD+DVD. I'm going to wait for HQ covers. They weren't so expensive either.

You?

DISGUSTING!!! I am SO SO SO UPSET

omg that's a ****ing mess

now i know thanks..
but still...only 1 PV to fill a mini?

.................................................. .

jfc

Not only is this such a rip-off for people who bought the minis, it's also going to be the ****ing blandest album she's ever put out AND it's already glaringly obvious from the track list that they only put 2 seconds thought into how it should flow...

****

Well, I guess Party queen will just have to be the last album I buy by Ayu, and from now on I'll just kick back and relax as I watch the remnants of her career crash and burn. >_>

I think Ayu is best making at music when she has broken up or something *sigh*

The graphic designer at Avex needs to get a new job. The font and placement is horrible. Who uses outer glow anymore??

If you're talking about the hypothetical mini that never existed... yes....?

Actually, I find that's common with most J-Pop artists who don't already have SUPER MODERN (see Yellow Brain or the team behind Perfume) design teams.

listening to MY STORY now...miss the old ayu

i really don't care about it, but honestly i think MELODY PV, it would be a collage of images, random live footage of ayu, and not a PV properly

I don't know how to react to this right now, first when I saw it I laughed so hard and now I just wanna cry.

untitled for her...story 2?

you better sung this for your poor marketing team gurl.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...ifs/please.gif

After getting the ayu bluray box set, I decided I wouldn't be purchasing combos until they started releasing cd+bluray combos. Especially since other artists were already doing this... Because of that I only got the CD versions of Love and Again, it kind of sucks to be getting old tracks, but I am glad because it'll all be on one album and I will get all the PV's I did not have on bluray :)

This sounds like ayu material lately... LAZY.:innocent

Hopefully it turns out better than P.S II

I believe there's a Melody making since there's this:

Apparently whoever posted it on the Facebook for the Chinese fan page forgot to put it in.

That's pretty disrespectful towards the person who the song is dedicated to.

Calmed down. Not angry but still disappointed.

What bothers me most is how this makes the '5 release in 5 months' pretty redundant.
4th release includes 1st and 2nd release...

I wish they hadn't bothered with this stupid idea. Its just a normal release cycle.
2 singles and then an album that includes the 2 singles, plus a remix album.

Sigh.

Can she not just scrap her team and get a whole new one PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

I hope it will EPIC like HANABI~episode II~ then.
anyway I can't get mad at her, hope the 5th release will be good
and everyone will happy about it.

What would have made this a 'not normal release' cycle? I don't really understand the way people think.

the fact that they called them mini's
they should named them as singles in 1st place.

That doesn't really have anything to do with the release cycle?

But anyway, I don't think she's releasing singles anymore.

Has anyone hit you to hard on the head? You may be as disappointed as you like about this release, I don't care, but to respond to channy's post with "Go suck an elf" is in every way disrespectful! I think you should apologize!

yeah I know that's it's sound bad, I'm so sorry about it, but what I mean is she really need get a new team, she deserve something like Namie and Koda get, not like this she's not just a singer in AVEX that they just don't care about her, not just release stuff and let it go. She's AYUMI HAMASAKI. GOSH
Avex is destroying Ayu, and she's let they doing it. I'm so sad.

YES! PLEASE!

I would not blame avex in this instance since Ayu probably has some say in how things are done (I mean come on, it's Ayu...).

This is just one set of releases in her career. It's not going to affect things that much in the long run imo.

IKR?
I don't get this. The designers behind a lot of avex and J-pop do sh-y work. TBH; I could do better when i was 12 and played with Photoshop 5. Seriously. My teacher would go ape sh- if he saw the text placement and effect.

Ayu, Namie, Gackt, Koda(she's a 50/50)...

They need to look at KPOP. That stuff is flawless.

LOL at the tracklist and the title. LOVE again, seriously? lmao

I just cancelled my order, there's no way I'm buying this ****. Really disappointed by this whole anniversary project... What a joke.

It's a marketing ploy to get more sales, the fact that they're including the old songs, and supposedly ayu doesn't care about sales, so what gives?

I don't know to be honest. I just feel like for the 15th Anniversary, with this 5 releases in 5 months, it wouldn't be single + single + album, thats what we get normally.

Ayumi Hamasaki's new album: ~TROLL is ALL~

I think it should have been single --> remix album --> single --> remix album --> new album

couldn't they just separate them.

I see no point in the "mini" albums now.
the pictures are to die for but it doesn't fit an album cover.

GACKT at least has some decent covers as in photography artwork, with some thought in there. tho fonts do suck most of the time.

It seems like the people who work with Avex are just sons/daughters/relatives of the company heads with no actual diplomas or updating on their "skills". They take a photo crop it and slap the first font they see plus add some "cool" effect to make things worse, and they freaking get money for that...

Well, many angry people here, but I understand why xD. I wonder how TA feel about this....

Personally I saw this coming, even the You & Me inclusion, so I´m not angry but disappointed, however this kind of thing is so Ayu xD

Only melody the new pv? I cant believe this and i can see another flop here

Well, c´mon at least LOVE and again have the instrumentals, remixes and some acoustics :D... so cheer up!!

Gackts covers are gorgeous, but the font is the main issue. I totally agree on the relatives thing. Hopefully I'm getting my diploma as graphic designer this summer. First thing I'm gonna do is buy tickets to Japan and apply as graphic designer album art for avex LOL

My predict this album will sold well and more than her 2 mini album, or maybe higher than party queen and ASB album, it's because not much people in Japan buy her 2 last mini albums, and when they know the song from LOVE and again which they are not bought including in this new album and they know how good that songs, they will buy it. I hope it sold 200k-300k. Who knows, like ayumi, people in Japan is so unpredictable too. I'm still buy this album and don't have a plan to cancel the preorder since the price reasonable for CD+bluray (not too expensive) and it's pv in bluray!!!

Ok Ayu, you totally floped HARD this time and I won't be surprised if this is gonna sell less than A CLASSICAL (if that's possible).

untitled for her... story 2 is the only title I think is interesting, now the rest... gosh x-x'

I don't wanna be, but I'm already disapointed at Ayu for doing this, it's just ridiculous.

:laugh

Why do people think that the designers are owned by avex? They're usually just freelance design studios that just so happen to get used very often for avex artists. (Ayu used to have RICE MOMOYA do everything but they became brg after 2009? Shinichi Hara used to be in charge of art direction and all that but now it's Takuma Noriage who used to work for Shinichi. RICE MOMOYA also did the original A logo and such along with a ton of album artwork for other artists)

http://www.united-lounge.com/

Here's one of the studios that avex and a bunch of other companies have work from.

http://mabataki.co.jp/
And this is Kouki Tange's design portfolio as part of Yellow Brain.

I think Ayu and her creative team were like this when thinking about this release:

http://martinsandsmark.files.wordpre...derp.png?w=600

Guys, I can understand your disappointment, really! And if you say you're angry about it and don't like it, it's ok.
But does anyone read their posts before posting? A lot of you guys are so filled with hatred, I just can't believe what I'm reading. This release isn't in any way life-changing, so why are you so full of anger? At the end of the day I don't think something that trivial is worth it to rant over it the last few hours.

definitely not hatred on my part, just frustration and disappointment.

Yeah... I just came from work, I'm tired, and the first thing I see is this... I need a really long shower to chill down... x-x

I have no idea who designs the covers, but its not just Ayu or avex, its J-pop in general. Compare the album-art designs (not the photo in itself) with K-Pop! K-pop has a much higher quality in general. Advertising in Japan is a very.. special.. thing.. I wrote an essay on it not long ago; trying to find out why its so different from the rest of the world. This also affects how albums and everything look like. Japanese text work is still in the 90s

Overreacting like usual :) It will calm down in a week or so. I just think people had A LOT OF BIG expectations for this album.

They couldn't even stylize untitled correctly...

untitled ~for her~ -story 2-

Unfortunately, IMO, it's because there's a lack of quality elsewhere, but that's just me. A lot of it tends to be same-y though. I find that Chinese and Korean albums are always pretty big on the 'design' front, but then when it comes to the actual albums, it's not really all that great compared to Japanese ones. (design-wise, like an album that comes in a rubber CD case that slides out when you squeeze it or something, or a ziploc'd sealed case that has 3 photobooks in it or a book (literally) that has the album hanging in a sleeve at the end)

'Correctly' is defined by what's on the album.

I mean P.S II is correct so why not untitled for her... story 2?

Also in regards to the flow of the album, it seems like it'll be her usual flow?

01. Wake me up
02. Song 4 u
03. Missing - kind of upbeat section in the intro a la (miss)understood
--------------
04. SAKURA
05. Melody - midtempo ballad section somewhat like Sunset/Last Links
---------------
06. task'n'bass
07. Bye-bye darling
08. snowy kiss - heavy rock perhaps? The middle of the album is usually where Ayu puts the 'odd' tracks
----------------
09. Sweet scar
10. petal
11. glasses
12. untitled for her... story 2
13. Gloria
14. Ivy - ballad section like MY STORY?
----------------
15. You & Me - ending with 'upbeat' like MY STORY or Duty

Lyrically, it looks like the album tells a bit of a story but then You & Me is a bit of a 'bonus track' in that sense. Wonder why it was last instead of first since the 'break up' seems to happen mid-album.

Lol, when I first saw this announcement a few hours ago I just laughed and thought it was funny. Still excited to here the new songs.

I guess I can't and don't buy ayu's material so I'm not really butthurt about this release. In fact, it'll be a perfect birthday gift for me since my bday is later that month and I will have all the songs in one.

I really need ayu to not troll any more releases

That is kind of a badass way of titling a sequel though. It's as if HANABI～episode II～ would have been hanabi episode 2... that would just be stupid, lol.

I think that's just the Japanese way of doing things with subtitles and has been for quite some time.

~LOVE is ALL~ and so on.

I think that's the track I'm most excited to hear. I wonder if the style will change, upbeat, or if it will be another ballad

Ayu what a disappointment!! Her entire career is turning in to a cheap reality show. Her music is turning into a snore and it's sad. This whole time i thought ayu was gonna get her old popularity back. but now who knows, ayu went from a an empress to a peasant!! :no