I cried in the grandma scene, but overall, this episode is good but bad at the same time to laugh. Reika is an interesting character, there's something about her and the actress is beautiful, I want to buy her photobook.

She also temded to refer to herself in the 3rd person in the early days, didn't she?

^Yes.

It kind of looks like she was imitating Kahara Tomomi in her interviews. Very similar ways of speaking.

the series has gone downhill for me unfortunately.. i enjoyed the first episode but i wasn't a big fan of the second one. the third one was the most insane imho

I know it's fiction and only some parts are based on things that actually happened but I just can't get over it how needy and puppet-like they make ayu look. It's just like she is ready to do anything Masa asks for and is doing it only for him. Like skipping the visit of her dying grandmother just to write those lyrics to Masa, like really? yeah it's fictional but it makes ayu look like a big fat joke and in my eyes actually make her look worse.. I would enjoy it myself more if it was even a little bit more realistic and not all about hero-Masa

didn't her grandma past away while she was recording poker face?

I see it differently as there is a bigger picture to see about this situation. Before that moment, Masa in front of the board put his whole career at stake, betting everything on ayu. Considering his position that's a lot. Let's say she fails, he's gone, everything he's worked for and built. Even then, when she told him about her grandma's condition he encouraged her to go. He did the right thing. But she realized that she should also make choices and it's life - nothing is easy but taking into account how much he believes in her, she is to make sacrifices as well. In my eyes, she also did the right thing and made this decision herself.

She did but she also said in interview she always did that since she was child so for this particular thing I don’t really know lol

I believe that was the goal but considering she stopped acting like this quickly I think that’s was something created to make people wonder how it was possible a pretty pony~«dumb» girl can write lyrics that meaningful. It was definitely not her true personality.

I also got the feeling she felt it's what her grandmother would have wanted: to work hard and make her dreams come true.

I don't think they are making Ayu look like a puppet either... Yeah, they are giving Max a lot of credit, but let's but honest in here... She was a teenager with a littlte to none music industry and production background, he most likely did have more credit than he actually got. This get very obvious when you notice how much her aesthetic changed once she got creative control.

The role of Max in the series, so far, is making Ayu notice how much value and raw talent she has... Something that don't really fall very far from what she said herself about the start of her career. Even the "you use words in an interesting way and should write lyrics" isn't much different from "so, I read your letters and I think you should write lyrics". Having a talent for writing doesn't mean she noticed by herself she had that talent.

BLITZ Fansub (who are subbing the series) stated in their translation notes that it was trendy to refer to yourself in the third person at that time. Not sure how true that is.

Yeah I agree with this. That's why I'm cutting Kalen a bit of slack because even though she's lackluster right now it might have more to do with the script and the direction she's getting as well as what ayu was really like during this point in time.

I think that's a common thing in Japan. When I was studying abroad I knew people who did it all the time. It's just another one of the choices one has in terms of selecting a personal pronoun for themselves.

Didn't know that o.o

Oh, I like how the drama states Ayu is neither an idol or a singer, but an artist


On a different topic...
I remember once reading Hitomi Shimatani was well liked by producers because she accepted anything and was easy to work with because of that...

Does that make Ayu a nightmare to work with by their standartd? XD

Why are you upset with ayu looking like a puppet? You forget she was still nobody

Also, AbemaTV is going to air a Remix version of M -Ai subeki Hito ga Ite-. Not sure what it is, maybe a video to promote the drama?

Because we shouldn't forget she herself said she had some creative control early on...
She said it was because she didn't trust people. But as she got older and her career went on, then she started to let her team have more control.
I even recall her making arrangements choices on ASFXX (album).

I didn't watch the drama yet, just scrolled through it. But the portrayal they seem to make of ayu is really annoying. Like she's a stupid girl, a puppet with no personality who can't make decisions by herself.
As I said in her idol days you can see she already had a strong personality and she knew what she was doing. Of course she seemed bit dumb when her avex career began. But that was obviously an act. She likes to act like an innocent (and dumb) child sometimes.

Well, so far she didn't record any song on the drama, she just wrote some lyrics.

Okay but still... If she's really portrayed like a puppet it doesn't fit and it's really annoying. Hope it will change quickly and that it's just something changed to add more to the narration and character arc.

Actually the remix version is a commentary version of the first episode according to AyuTrollada.

yeah of course she was nobody before Max found him and yeah she needs someone to teach those things to her - you are absolutely correct.

the biggest reason why I feel very uneasy with this kinda storyline is that I have always thought ayu more self-made and doing things her way rather than being just a puppet in a men's world. Yeah she didn't go to avex and ask them to do stuff for her from the beginning but this is a little too much imho. and this is my own opinion and why I feel uneasy with this. as you all said already, you don't agree with my thoughts and I appreciate it but personally I wish they didn't portrait her as needy and puppet-like as she looks like in my eyes here. I really hope that changes when this series goes on

that Kalen running and "crying" was hilarious :D best part of episode 3

So I watched the first epi and as ridiculous as the show is I do agree with what Max had said “I could listen to you sing forever.”. This is what I am always thinking when I’m attending her shows.

Kalen running and crying makes the whole drama worth watching already.

I hope she bring that energy when she plays ayu on stage as well :tired like What is forever love from PREMIUM SHOWCASE #mess

Anyone else find it odd that Masa has a iMac G3 on his desk but they weren't released until August 1998? Yet the drama seems to be leading up to Ayu's debut in April 1998.

The drama doesn't seem to be following what was happening in real life like ayu already having 2001 short blonde hair during predebut era

One of my friends pointed this out to me the moment he saw it too. xD I would have never noticed haha. I knew they came out in the late 90s but that’s it.

I think it’s funny how Ayu’s aunt is the only one that looks 90s ish. Everyone else is void of basically any aspect of 90s fashion lol.

^I would say crazy secretary looks very 90s too.

Be more respectful when talking about our real protagonist lol

^:laugh

From what I understand -I may be wrong- in later scenes when ayu is seen with her secretary (?) she might be with more control over her career. So let's wait to see what happens ;)

「M　愛すべき人がいて」 Sound Collection＋A VICTORY Special Sampler
5.27 On Sale.
Soundtrack album + 40 page photobook (CD Jacket size)

Reika needs a spin-off. Period.

I want this OST can record usg version "EZ DO DANCE" and OTF version "出逢った頃のように"

Yeah I've seen that when she debuted people thought she was dumb because of how she spoke and behaved lol

But the facebook page AyuTrollada_Oficial posted yesterday a bit of the Ayumi Hamasaki Special VHS that was released in 1995 when Ayu was an idol. You can see Ayu speak about wanting to help people through her celebrity.
HERE

I don't understand japanese at all, but she sounds far from stupid here, and she was only 16 years old at the time. That's crazy.
Also, she was such a beauty.

This version of "EZ DO DANCE" has a existence long long time ago.
https://youtu.be/3Z13EK7tkis

EDIT: And originally for these compilation albums for 90's avex covers. Yup, avex recycling to use in the dorama.

Adding to @attractive nausea's post, here's the whole 40 minutes long video of the Ayumi Hamasaki Special, in case anyone feels like checking it out.

There are some really funny & cute moments in there.




Also I was wondering, is it a general thing not to film the whole drama before it airs?

@Katsuyuki012
This was the video I had in mind when saying she was acting dumb early on during her avex career.
She seems really natural here. I don't understand a bit but she has definitely personality. Far from the passive and annoying yes girl they seem to portray in the drama. And... what a beauty already. Amazing features.

0So while she speaks relatively slowly in this video (I've seen it several times before over the years) and she does still have a silted cadence, she sounds more mature and natural than she did a couple of years later in Avex and doesn't speak in a super nasally tone and speak at an absolute snails pace.

Granted, this is still a video trying to sell her as an idol, so I'm sure there was at least a little bit of a cute act going on here.

OMG She can ride a bike. AND Wasn’t she the one hating liars the most? Lol
Thanks for the video, I saw parts of it like 10 years ago. Can’t believe I actually learned Japanese and can understand now. Feeling proud.

She also lied about the bikini thing (I think it was mentioned on forum not too long ago), haha.
But well, we know how ayu feels about that time in her life.

I think almost all tracks come from previous cover compilation "Avex Revival Trax"

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...050roBc5flhPkA

By the way, I just made a Spotify playlist with the Avex's original version of all featuring songs in order of appearance until episode 3:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1w...Tga2hYUZiPogvw

All songs are available with an international Spotify account, except:
- "Yumemiru Shoujo Ja Irarenai" by Nanase Aikawa
- "Itoshisato Setsunasato Kokoro Zuyosato" by Ryoko Shinohara with t.komuro
(you need a Japanese Spotify account to listen them)

Some artists are not available in Spotify Japan, so I added popular covers:
- "Yureru Omoi" by Zard (actually by SARD UNDERGROUND)
- "Sekaijū no Dare yori Kitto" by Miho Nakayama & WANDS (actually by Noriko Sakai)

Do you think I must add covers, or just ignore them?

If you miss any song, please let me know! :love

I could see it having been played up on HEYx3 at the time because it's just funnier.

The first disc is a BGM collection with instrumental tracks from the drama, including the theme song (Ayu's "M") and "CAN'T STOP THIS!!" from the avex revival trax album. Disc 2 has three songs from that album, but beside that and the MAXIMIZOR song, the rest seem to be original songs made for the show.

Are they gonna stop at episode 3 temporary?

^ it seems so... That's too bad, I don't think people who watched the dorama mostly because of lockdown will keep on watching when it airs again.

They didn't have the entire season filmed in advance? I'm not familiar with how film production works in Japan.

The majority of Korean and Japanese dramas (maybe Chinese too?) film pretty close to transmission and continue filming once the show has started airing. Mostly so they can adjust and change the plot based on viewer feedback for a satisfactory ending.

There was a pretty good Kdrama that was about the making of a drama which showed how it works, sometimes literally filming scenes up to 5am the same day the scene will be aired.

Preview for the fourth episode:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CABcxSAgDoj/

She also said she couldn't on an episode of Utaban.

WTF is SEREAL

:laugh

Wow, didn't know that! Thanks!

They really don't want her character to speak do they? Karen is already not really expressive but here...
Looks like an extra who found her way in the different shots haha.

Crazy horny secretary is the true heroine

Nice article
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture...asaki-tv-show/

so did they stop the drama temporary or forever?

Filming is currently on hold because of Covid-19. Episode 4 is already filmed because there's a trailer but I guess producers prefer to film the whole thing before broadcasting the show again

Do we know the ratings now? How is it doing?

April video ranking
#22 4/9 Thursday Police Department 2 hours Mystery Special 2,2%
#22 4/11 Crayon Shinchan 2,2%
#26 (tie) 4/14 Koi wa Tsutsuguyo Dokomademo Munekyun! Digest 2,1%
#26 (tie) 4/18 M Aisubeki Hito ga ite 2,1%
#26 (tie) 4/25 M Aisubeki Hito ga ite 2,1%
#26 (tie) 4/30 Good Doctor 2,1%
#29 4/29 Pokemon 2,0%
#30 4/7 London Hearts 1,9%

Thank you visionfactory!

Is it good, average for a drama? Given the epidemic crisis?

Looks like possibly slightly above average if it's around Crayon Shinchan/Pokemon ratings but with stuff like streaming, ratings often don't factor into much nowadays.

It’s strange Oricon reported 5.2 or something like that for the first episode stating it was the best rating of the year for this time slot And episode 2 was about the same. So I would say this drama is doing pretty good for what it is lol and it’s seems quite a lot of personne watch it on Ameba Tv.


Edit :
4月18日 4月19日 俺の作った虹を渡れ! アユ…歌姫誕生への壮大な愛憎劇!! 木下高男 5.6％
第2話 4月25日 4月26日 いいダイヤの原石だ 歌姫デビューへ…11人の悪魔の女達!! 5.4%
第3話 5月2日 5月3日 お前はアーティストになるんだ! デビュー曲誕生!! 愛する人との別れ… 麻生学 4.4%

Ratings can also differ a lot by region, but usually the rating that is looked at most is the Kanto numbers. There'd also be some average household ratings vs. average viewer ratings which may differ.

CD Album「avex revival trax」
1st week rank: #18
1st week sales: 1,398 copies sold

At lest expected it to sell 3k copies :no

Oh ok. Thank you for your answers!

Hope the hype will remain the same when the broadcast will resume.

https://company.tv-asahi.co.jp/conte...alPUJ8ZNF0.pdf

Looks like filming is resuming for the drama.

That would be nice :(

Ep. 4 is up :) https://blitzfansub.com/m-ai-subeki-...ite-episode-4/

According to Blitz Fansub on Twitter: "M is back! Episode 4. The news is that much of the script was rewritten during the haitus, and the screenwriter removed significant amount of Reika in the second half of the series."

Wasn't the biggest fan of her character in the first place so I'm quite happy with the decision. She was only added to stir things up so it's not like she needs to be in it that much anyway.

This episode sucked. Now the series is just Masa fighting against everyone for Ayu to be taken seriously and Reika being a psycho while Ayu is standing awkwardly in the background.

^this lol Sometimes I even think they tried to make a comedy. I never disliked a character that much as I do with Masa’s. Just ew.

The fictional reika is annoying. She really don’t need to be there. Ayu seems to be like a puppet that is dictate fully by masa

They have to stop filming again due to covid infections rising again in Tokyo, and they’re unable to secure additional filming time from all the actors involved due to schedule conflicts, meaning it could be cancelled or postponed for a “season 2” type of thing.

It was nice to hear Kalen actually sing poker face!

^ I saw a piece of information that the cast and the screenwriter of the show gave an interview on Tokyo FM radio how they had finished recording the last chapter.
I enjoyed episode 4. Aside from some very few flaws, this show has kept giving me a good time! And to me, the less Reika the better :)

It'll probably end up being like how some anime end up split into multiple cour per season so there'll probably be more later.

I couldn't agree more. It's been the worst episode by far... It looked like Reika was the main character

I don't really get the whole "Oh, Masa fighting against everyone for Ayu to ve taken seriously" thing... She was a nobody whose producer was investing a lot more than a label should based on a hunch.

It's not like Ayu could do much more other than working hard. You can't make a power move yourself when you have no power to begin with...

^ Except in the show she is not working hard at all. She is just shown as a naive girl who can’t do sh#t by herself.

I want to watch next episode so bad :( we still don't get to A Song for XX

At least for me ep.3 and ep.4 were the most fun to watch

The episode depicted Ayu in such a bad light. She seem to be someone without any form of potential to be a star (no effort, nothing). And masa is the one that seeem to aggressively want to make her a superstar. (And everyone thinks that he invest so much in Ayu is cos he is blinded by love)

As long as crazy horny secretary is still there, I'm happy.

We can’t deny that MAX really pushed Ayu when she made her debut ！Nothing wrong with this but let’s be real she was a nobody and her sales were rather bad in comparaison to a lot of her contemporaries who debuted at the same time. Notheless she was invited to perform at prestigious TV shows and was able to make commercials for well known brands of course it thanks to him. Max and Ayu also stated that a lot of channels producers back then didn’t believed in her potential and succes so I don’t think this episode was wrong at all.

On a side note I observed that even though her name and character are not in the drama they make reference to namie Amuro quite a bit when they talk about the trend of taned girls or that tanned girls are what is selling today or that Ayu is too pale etc...

@attractive nausea Ayu herself said more than once she didn't realize she actually enjoyed being q singer until Dearest... She is pretty much being portrayed as someone with zero experience in the industry dealing with lack of trust on herself... What fits the official story of her beginings...



Preach!

Even though I have my issues with Kalen's acting, I think some people are conflating the ayu we know today to who ayu was back then... which was a nobody. Having her start from zero leaves room for personal growth later on in the series.

https://www.nikkansports.com/enterta...190000667.html

Reika is getting her own spinoff, "L -Reika no Shinjitsu-" starting next week.

LMAO Is this real life? :laugh

^ lol. Hopefully that means she will have less presence on the main show. She was fun at first, but it is really grating now. They did say they were taking feedback into account and she would be featured less. But I would imagine the actress is under contract, so they give her a spin-off instead lol.

Episode 5 is up: https://blitzfansub.com/m-ai-subeki-...ite-episode-5/

As I said before, the fact that they reduced her screentime in newer episodes makes me quite happy. I get the idea behind her character but this whole being crazy/eye stuff (even with the added backstory) just doesn't add much to the story. She could've fulfilled her purpose without all that. Imo, she's way over the top even for this drama. But oh well, I can deal with it. And many people here seem to find her funny, so that's that.

Other than that, I'm glad Masa & Ayu are finally with each other now. It was kind of interesting to see how they included stuff such as the label buying CDs. I really liked the inclusion of "All Night Nippon (Hamasaki Ayumi is not stupid)". The show is far from perfect but I've been enjoying it a lot for what it is, even with Reika lol.

^Thanks!! Will watch it as I can't sleep
Oh... my... god... so unexpected :laugh I can't believe it but I'm glad because I saw the billboards and she looked so prominent, now she has her own space

I thought Reika's appearances were going to be reduced in these new episodes, but she's still everywhere. The show keeps focusing a lot on her, silly Rukawa and Ayu-AXEL's rivalry which I don't like that.

Btw, it's funny that the candid pictures of Ayu and Masa leaving the hotel were taken shortly after the release of poker face, but they plan to leak them after A Song for XX came out. The timeline of the drama is quite messed up...

Avex is dropping a digital single on July 1st, it's Steve Aoki's remix of CAN'T STOP THIS!!

3 releases for the drama, I'm pretty happy to see what comes next :D

I'm really going to miss her Silent Hill creep music on the show...

Watching the whole "let's pay people to buy Axis's single" thing and thinking about Mirrorcle World

I'm sure a few labels have done that or are heavily suspected to but them addressing that kind of thing in the drama is surprising for sure. Or maybe them doing that is reinforcing that they don't actually do that since it's so blatant?

I hope Reika's spinoff show will be subbed by Blitz as well. I LOVE her character. So cuckoo crazy and weird and over the top. :laugh

This episode was better than the last one imo, it's interesting to follow Ayu's debut but yeah I really don't see how they reduced Reika's presence lol

It was so refreshing to hear Shiina Ringo in the bar but for the first part of the song I thought it was a cover of the brilliant green there will be there love there or something lol.

The pacing in these episodes are all over the place..lol in the latest episode it went from pre-Poker Face to A Song For XX being released. In previous episodes, it felt like they dragged a week out over the length of an episode. I guess they want to rush through it in case of lockdown again?

^They're already done shooting, there will be only 7 episodes, only 2 more left so even if there's a new lockdown it shouldn't affect at all.

Only 7 episodes to a drama? Wow

It's not unheard of but all the delays made it even shorter. Was probably going to be 10 at the least until all the halted shooting/etc.

Weird that they are going to just rush right through Loveappears and their break up then.