Well... I think Picaflor is just expressing his feeling, as everyone has one's own emotion towards particular thing.

For me tho, she is this type of person since the beginning of her career, so I'm not really bothered by that. Of course she had a faster schedule in pre-UB era (or probly pre-DR :P). Then again, she was considered "slow" back in the old days when ayu was releasing stuff almost every single month. So she's really not that slow now (if ayu only released a few cds per year, I dun even need to hope that hikki will release the same amount lol).

And she's not really a performer, not even an artist. She's a musician who only loves to release thing when she is willing to. We can really think about her in the same way. It's like... yeah probly she was not even doing anything at all about music for a few months before she decided to go on hiatus and wrote 5 new songs for the farewell. Nonetheless, we can't blame her for the lack of production. She's more realistic compared to, let's say ayu or kuu. Those artists are surrounded by staff almost 20-24 hrs every single day. I dun even know if ayu can manage her own life. I'm sure hikki can manage that, but she really wanna feel what a normal person would do in normal daily life. I'm actually happy with her decision because I dun wanna her to live in a protective bubble like ayu does. Everyone's telling her she's right (or maybe OK), but they'll never tell her what's wrong. This is not really healthy.

Also, I have a feeling that hikki's music will have a new direction when she's back. I will wait for that :D.

she's just, one of those artists, you know?

you just have to deal with them lol


And it's different being a celebrity like Ayu and Kuu. They are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves lol It's just that their demanding schedules let them employ other people who can help them, and that's not a bad thing at all. It helps them get through the madness more efficiently.

tbh, hikki doesn't know what it's like to have to go from, tv show to tv show, to mag shoot, to rehearsal for tomorrow's performance, to another mag shoot, to the studio, etc.

So I really don't know why it's so hard for her to take care of herself...or why she has to have staff do this and that O_O But the good thing is, that she's recognized this, and is trying to fix it.

Hikki really is more of an artist than an entertainer...she has a pace, and she is wrapped up in herself, and we just have to wait for her art whenever it comes.

Her announcing a hiatus, honestly, was probably more for like her label, to tell them "hey, im not working for a while so leave me alone"...even if she does work during the hiatus...

otherwise she probably wouldn't have said anything. I think this kind of just gives her an official way to get away from just the pressure of *having* to work...

And they told the media...probably just because lol Sales. I bet hikki couldnt care less.

Or maybe she wanted to tell people how she felt or maybe she feels bad for the fans...idk...imo it was kind of retarded to announce the hiatus either way...I really get the feeling that the label just did it for exposure, and they told her "here, you can go on hiatus, if you do this, this, and this."

She mentioned why she actually announced a hiatus in her Tower Records interview:
If she wants to take a break, she can. It's not like we (i.e. fans) own her or something. It's her life.

Well, I don't really agree here... Both Ayu and Kuu show the biggest evidence someone can that they know where they are mistaking and that they aren't perfect: They work change with time... If they were living in a protected bubble 24 hours a day where they are always right, they would never improve at singing, dancing and performing, and would be re-releasing new versions of their old hits year after year...

You need to see ur low points in order to work on them, and u can only do that if u know that u r not perfect and if u have people u trust helping u on that...

About the staff taking care of Ayu's or Koda's life, we don't know what they do when they are not working, simply cuz they never talk about it, and they never show themselves doing it... I'm pretty sure Ayu is not surrounded by bodyguards and stuff like that when we have no news about her, cuz it would atract so much atention we would most likelly get pictures of it from paparazzis... the same goes for Koda...

On the other side, Hikaru has her own staff, the people who fix her schedule, who filter the messages she gets from fans (she even talked about that once), her marketing team, etc.

It's pretty normal for an artist to have someone who takes care of those stuffs for them lol my mom's not even an artist or busy but she hires help just to make her life easier.

It's not wrong to have people do things for you especially when you work really hard.

I don't know much about Hikki but her schedule is probably more lax than Ayu or Kuu.

I have nothing to say about her hiatus, it's her life anyway.
But I always thought that Hikki fans wouldn't have a problem with her hiatus since even when's she's active, she doesn't really do much.

ANYWAYS At least there's twitter now.

She acknowledges it. What can she possibly be doing in those two years that doesn't qualify as a hiatus? I think she should have just not announced the hiatus since she practically has already been on one since UB. Over the years, her schedual has gotten so lax it makes me wonder if she died or something without us knowing it.

Why does she want to experience real life? Real life is student loans, bankruptcy, minimum wage retail jobs, 10% unemployment, and home mortgages that take a life to pay off. If she wants to experience real life, she needs to cut off her family money, get an apartment, get a minimum wage job, and live life to the full recession she can. I doubt she'd do that though.

Not everybody has the luck to be born in a rich family like Hikki. And I must say I agree with you in your points. I really wondered why her fans seem to deal all the time with her attitude. I'm not a fan, so it doesn't really bother me, but if an artist I'm a fan of would act like her, I would be absolutely pissed.

Because this is where inspiration comes from: Real life... If she is not living, if she is not seeing the world, if she is not gaining new experiences and growing more mature, she will not produce... simply as that...

And Utada released +- 1 album ever 2 years, what I hardly would call little or lazy...


People should get over the fact Hikaru is not Ayumi or Koda... She will never work like them, she will never do that they do and she is mainly working at USA music pace... And guess what? It works for her...

It's a shame she's going on hiatus, but personally I prefer artists that release few good CDs over those that release a CD every year, and their songs start to sound more and more alike. I hope that she will enjoy her break and release an amazing album when she returns.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!
this is what pisses me off she's giving her career up, sure it would be for a few years BUT COME ON! I would kill to be her

^She is just on hiatus for about 2 years, something she did before... She is not giving up on anything o.O

like I said just a few years and she ain't doing anything with her career now

To be fair, it's her life. She can do whatever she wants. She doesn't live to please her fans. She doesn't have to live as a poor person just to "experience real life". In real life, people work hard for their money and some people manage to get reasonably wealthy. I think she's worked hard enough to sit on her lazy bum for a bit now. You can't blame her for being privileged.

Because it's kind of awful to wake up one day and realise that you're just going through the motions of where life takes you, that you can't even take care of yourself, and that you've forgotten the real substance behind of what life actually is.

She isn't going to experience real life the way that we know it, but the simplest form of it...which we don't even get to experience a lot either, because we have to work and do all this crap.

She's damn lucky she can just, take a few years off for herself to go figure out the world. Normal people cant do that.

When she wasnt "working" or, releasing, she obviously wasn't living the way she wanted to...so whatever, she's lucky she can give herself the opportunity to do this.

I'd give anything to stop going to school for a few years and just...live away.

I always made sure to know that everyone has life even artists.

And you're right it's her life but I still can complain about it, nothing wrong with that.

Of course she can do whatever she wants with her life -- that doesn't stop people from having an opinion about it, though. I think it's easy to call her lazy, and while I've definitely thought that about her myself, I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't be a little easier on her. Who am I comparing her to? Artists with a work ethic like no other? That's not exactly fair. Hikki is Hikki, and does whatever she wants to do -- if she acted like someone else, she wouldn't be Hikki.

Though I can't say that makes me a bigger fan of her lol. I'm not too pressed about this hiatus. I can deal because for one thing I'm more of a casual fan of her music than anything else. It actually took me a while to LIKE her stuff, though once I did I found it absolutely gorgeous.

I was never good at revealing my thoughts so actually I'm talking about something similar to yours (and I actually agree I wrote in a wrong way :P). I'm not talking about their work. I'm talking about their normal daily lives. I've said it before (probly in another ayu thread) that ayu is living in her diva style (tryin' not to be too exaggerate here... If so please forgive me). I dun even think she can turn back to normal living style. No, I'm not talking about "Real life is student loans, bankruptcy, minimum wage retail jobs, 10% unemployment, and home mortgages that take a life to pay off..." because I dun think she will have to face those (touch wood for not), but like... does she do groceries herself? does she do laundries? does she walk down the street in Japan without surrounded by her staff? you know what I'm talking about the normal daily life.

I think this is what hikki is trying to do during her hiatus. IMO, before her hiatus I think she is doing normal daily stuff in a certain degree, but I guess she wanna try further, see what she can do without the help of her management team.

Lol. Give her a mop and an apron, and tell her she was hired at McDonalds. then we'll see how long this hiatus lasts, and how long she really wants to experience life. haha

Of course she definitely is the lucky one. I would love to be able to say "I'm sick of my parents, I'm sick of student loans, I'm sick of paying car insurance, I'm sick of my minimum wage retail job, and I'm sick of my life. I want to just take a few years off from it all and enjoy what I want to do." Of course, about 1% of the world's population gets to do that. Like what she does with her albums, I'd love to be able to take 2 year breaks in between each day I work.

For the past couple of months I've been kinda of angry... but now I'm just starting to feel sorry for her.

^I've been waiting for someone to post this. :thumbsup

Experiencing "reality" does not only entail what it is like to be underprivileged or struggling financially for pete's sake. It's about the simple things in life that we take for granted. Like some of you mentioned before, she just desires to be more independent and not rely on external forces (the entertainment industry) to do her bidding incessantly. What the hell is wrong with that?

I see no reason to mount on a high horse and start charging at her. You should not wish for her to struggle, instead be content that she desires to be like the rest of us. :yes
It seems no matter how high an individual obtains fame, there will always be those who find fault with them.