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I feel something in commom with that. She uses sexy appeal as girl power, IDK, but in a traditional (sexist) society like Japanese lyrics like HAIRCUT stimulates changes and non conforming situations "be whatever you want to be", "cut your hair", "it doesn't matter what they say". |
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But you do remind me of something regarding both of them. One of the top voted comments on the big IGN video of Ayu's Pride performance with parts of her speech was one saying that Ayu sounds more and more like Kuu. It was meant in a negative way, refering to Kuu's direct way of talking and her way of pointing to situations most Japanese are uncomfortable to talk about (like the acceptance of homosexual love). But I felt so proud reading that, cause this was indirectly a compliment to Kuu (and Ayu of course) and this is one of the things I love about her. |
That is a valid point. I don't think Kumi is interested in pandering anymore to mainstream tastes. Ayumi seems like she's over the constant pandering too. Massive popularity in Japan does mean having to conform and place yourself in sync with the public.
With W FACE and AND/DNA, I think she's made it pretty clear that she wants to do things her own way. |
avex Taiwan uploaded another video of Kuu via their Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/avextw/vide...6619585568284/ For this , it's a DNA Question & Answer video part 1 which's highly likely more of such videos will be uploaded hopefully in days to come My Traditional Mandarin reading skills is not good cos I was taught Simplified Chinese in school but I try my best to translate what Kuu was asked & also her response Anyway here's what I was able to translate , it's not 100% accurate I tried my best Spoiler:
=== lol Kuu didn't really answer the question until the 2nd 1/2 of her answer haha I had no idea Kenji's mum is Taiwanese and also that she chose to spend the year end in Taiwan :O |
^ thanks for the translation, Karen! It's so sweet the way she regards international fans <3
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At most I tink Kuu will have a bit more attention for anime and/or dorama tie-ins, maybe also for non-album stuff (like releasing a proper single lol I can't even remember which was the last single to have an outdoors shooting), but being where Namie was... Well, that's just pretty much where she didn't head to. She packed her stuff on Bon Voyage and departed on another journey after all :P What makes me happy the most about this survey is that given how Namie grew over the years after her fall and has so much respect from the Japanese audience, it's amazing they thought of Kuu after her. Plus, it's even better they remembered her at all :laugh |
DNA Question & Answer video part 2 that avex Taiwan posted on their Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/avextw/vide...4444794296203/ Here's what I was able to translate , give or take Spoiler:
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how much has Kuu sold so far for DNA?
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http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5884938283 |
lol it doesn’t matter if Kuu wants to gain more attention or not.
if the general public will focus on her, she gets the main attention, simple as that. and it also doesn’t matter if she has abominations like WATCH OUT... even namie had songs that weren’t that "mainstream" friendly at the time of release. J-Pop doesn’t really have that many great artists with a full package tho. her image has changed... she went from being the "shame of kyoto" to the "??? of kyoto", can’t remember what the title was/ it’s from an interview around the WoL release. she's married, has a family and is a great entertainer. with things like her viral Megumi tiktok thing and stuff and being #1 on LINE music etc she got attention from the youth, which is mainly were trends and artists begin to flourish if y’all have ANY idea how the music industry and trends/newcomers works now. she has probably one of the better chances to get the spot. i don’t want to say she will, but looking at the other options... hmmm not really tbh. let’s see what the GP will choose in the end. but with avex tumbling down more and more they probably gonna push someone to get more attention and money again. |
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Past all of that, the bigger issue is that the general (music-buying) public just isn't that interested in solo acts these days, especially female solo acts - unless you are Namie or Hikki. I do hope that AVEX will start throwing more money into Ayu and Kuu, who are their best bets for success (short of finding some phenomenal new talent) - but I can't see them doing that for very long if they don't see a return on that investment, especially without having money coming in from Namie anymore. I was looking at AVEX's site a while back, and their report basically said their strategy is a lot of the things that everyone complains about. Their strategy is to increase concert ticket cost, which over the course of a tour makes a huge difference. They also focus on FC membership, etc. I'm not sure they're really focused on or all that interested in just album sales vs. higher-margin activities. |
She's still popular but I don't think that the fact that she's being on the spotlight will reflect on her sales. As Corvina said, her TiK ToK song (Megumi no Hito) was a big hit between the young people (even tho some people didn't even knew it was a cover by Kumi - I've said that to people that made tik tok videos with the song and they were shocked it was hers lol). I feel that everytime I say I like Koda Kumi here in Japan people kinda of laugh of me because the only image they get from her is being the Butterfly/Cutie Honey girl or being the extra gyaru personality (now that I'm learning japanese I can tell that the way Kuu speaks is extremelly youngish, with a lot of slangs and stuff like that) so is like I'm telling it as a joke, like you're not supposed to really like her music or you should listen to it as a joke. I don't know.
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Kuu is often making fun while talking or writing as well, which is why I'm not surprised by such reactions (and it fits to her character, which is why I mentioned it before). Not so uncommon for somebody coming from Kansai, cause Kansaiers are often seen as more harsh (cause direct) and well, funny, at least that was told to me (and also experienced). But also more welcoming and down-to-earth usually, especially by foreigners. It's always interesting to hear about such experiences, cause mine were a bit different. Most Japanese I talked about her to were surprised, but they know her for her cool/strong image and didn't think she's a joke. But I was living in a smaller town more on the countryside and not in a big city. Well, and I was in the Kansai region, so probably not a surprise to hear more positive views on Kuu. :laugh Just searched a bit to show you guys what I mean, cause it's hard to explain and this cracked me up! :rofl https://www.quora.com/Why-are-people...m-other-cities |
I love Kansai. Whenever Japanese people ask me whats my favorite place in Japan and I say Osaka, they're always amused and say, "I don't think people in Osaka are Japanese" because they're more outgoing than the rest of Japan.
But this reminds me of the Walk Of My Life tour I went to in Osaka, there were these two elderly ladies walking through the park wondering who was performing and when they read the sign one of them said "It's Koda Kumi-sama!" and I thought it was really cute for them to refer to her like that. |
Go to Hokkaido
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dnqx5oLU4AAYsZ6.jpg:small https://twitter.com/KODAKUMINET/stat...41874495279104 Somemore photos from Kuu's Instagram https://scontent-sin6-2.cdninstagram...66896907_n.jpg https://scontent-sin6-2.cdninstagram...05292814_n.jpg https://www.instagram.com/p/BoA2iHkAFsf/ List of brands that Kuu's wearing Glasses：SILLENT FROM ME(@sillentfromme) Choker：PAMEO POSE(@pameopose) Jacket：GU(@gu_global)× KIM JONES(@mrkimjones) Tops：EMODA(@emoda_official) Pants：GALLERIE TOKYO(@gallerie_tokyo) Shoes：UNIF(@unif @shopunif) Kuu wrote that she has been wearing SILLENT FROM ME glasses for years Upclose shot of her glasses https://scontent-sin6-2.cdninstagram...56322041_n.jpg https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn_fbAKA9Cy/ |
DNA Question & Answer video part 3 that avex Taiwan posted on their Facebook today
Here's what I was able to translate , give or take https://www.facebook.com/avextw/videos/707065306340551/ Spoiler:
Wow I thought the 1st question avex Taiwan asked which Kuu answered was long , this's even longer o_O Kuu can get long winded & don't really answer the question until much later on but nonetheless I appreciate what she said especially when comes to the creation of her PVs === Today's setlist in Hokkaido http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5890136527 Kuu sung What's Up ! |
i'm going to the DNA TOUR 2018 *o*!!! 7 AND 8 OCTOBER IN TOKYO <3. I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!
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DNA Question & Answer video part 4 that avex Taiwan posted on their Facebook today
Here's what I was able to translate , give or take https://www.facebook.com/avextw/vide...3016693306461/ Today is also the last video that avex Taiwan has posted on Kuu :s Spoiler:
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I personally love Kansai as well, which is why I didn't even had to think about where to go last year, when I had to decide between Tokyo and Kansai. Had some really great encouters there (like an old lady stopping me on the street to get me into her house, cause she wanted to show the nice foreigner her garden with the plants she planted for her children and their families, all nicely told in her dialect - this probably only happens in Kansai :laugh ). Not to mention Kyoto and Osaka are there! :heart And Kuu directly came to my city with her all prefectures tour, so I've never regretted it even for a bit. And thank you Xianghua for the story and your posts Karen! :) |
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