^Well, it's fiction, after all...

I really doubt, for example, that Ayu got her debut by winning a 10km run with her sholder dislocated. Not because I doubt she would try something like that, considering much she performed injured and in pain over the years, but because this doesn't make sense as a singer selection, even if that would explain why jpop stars tend to be so bad at singing, as that wasn't evaluated at all lol. :P

In the end of the day, I believe they are showing both under favorable light without making they feel unhuman. I like how it's being constructed that Ayu didn't made it because she was good, but because she was resilient.

It would have been fun having a major soloist under the TK inspired character, and a big rival from another company once Ayu debuts.

The worst part still is the reproduction of iconic performances. Karen has no stage presence and everything looks cheap as fuck.

This is a very good point, I think!

I've been listening to a lot of ayu today and I just realized something about my sacrilegious taste in ayu music. Obviously albums like Loveppears, Duty, I am... etc. are iconic, but I always gravitated toward Love Songs being my favorite album and A ONE a close second. When I looked into the details of the albums I noticed that I really like either Tetsuya Komuro compositions or Yuta Nakano arrangements and most often the combination of the two. I think they make the best ayu music together. I still feel swept away by the strings in crossroad for example and Virgin Road is still one of my all time favorite ayu ballads. Even with the album Love again, I don't like the album as a whole as much anymore (lack of TK probably lol), but I love Nakano's arrangements! (I mean come on, Sweet Scar!) I sincerely hope if she's working on a new album that it has them all over it.

Yesss 2010-2015 was so good in hindsight and we were fed well.

Songs like Virgin Road and Last Angel are instant classics.

Songs like sweet scar, no future, the show must go on, anything for you, missing and snowy kiss are bops.

What an era! NO FUTURE was my ringtone for a long time and responsible for why no one could get a hold of me because I'd let the phone ring just to hear the song xD.

The highs were really and the lows really low...I cringed so hard watching Made In Japan and those two god awful songs from Colours Lelio and XOXO had their moment.

I saw that show live! I was too busy crying the entire time to notice lol. First and probably the last time I'll get to see her live so regardless of the quality, it's my most cherished concert of hers.

The dorama is always trending on Twiter during its broadcast. The last episode had like 26K tweets about it. Even made the Worldwide trending topics.

It's funny reading the tweets because most of them are kinda of making fun of the dorama but people are also saying like "I just can't stop wanting to watch more of it". lol I have 5 friends that have 0 love or even admiration for Ayu and they are still watching it. Maybe the lockdown is making people watch it...

Yeah, the second episode makes this even more apparent. Honestly, kind of disappointing for an Ayu fan. They are making her take a very non-active role in her own success at this point.

I agree a lot with your taste. :) But we are very unlikely to see this pairing happen considering TK is in forced retirement due to scandal.

TBH, what I love the most about all of it is how gigantic this whole marketing campaign was...

They waited the Namie's retirement to settle down and people moving over it, as a way to not dividing attention.

They started hinting the Ayu+Max relationship back on Trouble's cover with him grabbing her boob. Also promoted the EP with a track about a past love.

Some time later, a new girl debut, with a strangely big budget series of PVs for someone unkown until then, visual and sound largely refreshing the Ayu aesthetic from late 90's.
The girl gets hyped because her image is so edited people don't even know if she is real or not. She is never fully shown without a shitton of filter.


The tell all novel comes almost out of nowhere, being confirmed Ayu has a part on it. When people read the book, her latest single is featured on it as the final chapter of the Ayu-Max relationship and the mysterious cover makes sense.

People stalk a little and notice Max actually posted the photo of the book's cover on his instagram a few months before.

As the book is anounced, so is the drama based on it. People start speculating who will play Ayu. The newcomer with expensive videos starts being pointed out.

The girl will actually play Ayu on the drama, what kind of makes it clear the drama deal was already set before the book was anounced and that the girl was molded after Ayu because she was planned to play Ayu before we even knew about the book.

Once the drama starts, its basically a heavy PR to Ayu, showing her in a very positive light, featuring some of her biggest hits almost randomly and the new girl is introduced to the audience having her image even more strongly linked to Ayu.

Possible outcome: Ayu generates a lot of public interest, is introduced to a newer audience and becomes a legacy star. Kalen Anzai rides Ayu's image and the interest around her and becomes a big star on her own. But even if only some of that really happens, they already won. x___x

The lockdown is definitely helping. Normally many people would be out on a Saturday night haha.

The lighting for the rain scene was awful. The light was coming from below max. The trees behind him had a shadow.... it was so funny I couldn’t stop laughing lol. Ahh, but I can’t stop watching either.

I never realized how freaking fantastic rollin' is. When I first heard the track at the time of its release, I did not give it much thought at all. Now listening to it (with much better headphones mind you lol) I'm obsessed. It's just so... "aesthetically" pleasing to listen to if that makes sense.

rollin' <3

Both, Love songs and A ONE are in my top 5 ayu albums. :heart

feeling the same with LOVE 'n' HATE. the chorus is so well done, when you listen to it with headphones it's like you're drowning in those beats and that guitar. NEXT LEVEL was some kinda next level shit for real

Ayumi released albums at such a high speed back then that it was quite difficult to have an unbiased opinion but now with the time I don't think the quality of her music dropped that much like a lot of people tend to say. Of course with a prolific carrer like hers everything can’t surpasses what was done before but she definitely made excellent albums way past her prime and more importantly she has been able de maintained her own style the Ayu sound I think it’s a great quality as an artist. There are a lot of singers who only make albums based on what is trendy with no singularity.

Another thing i want to say after watching all of her concerts on youtube is that her music aged well especially her rockish songs.

In hindsight, GUILTY is kinda the weakest link of that time? The rush and thrill of Mirrorcle World really kinda justified that album's existence lol.

Same for Party Queen stuck like a sore thumb between the lofty greatness of RnRC, Love Songs and Love Again.

^ I think it's up to personal preference and the kind of Ayu you most like. GUILTY had some really good songs on it. I think RnRC is much weaker, personally.

(Miss)understood and Secret are great albums, but I often forget about them. They're a little too "polished" for me - they need some more grit. GUILTY is good, Next Level was a fun experiment, and RnRC is kinda ok to me.

I don't think she's had any BAD albums, and I agree to the point above that a lot of her music has withstood the test of time and aged very well. But for me personally 2006-2010 was her weakest era overall.

I mostly agree that the quality of her music hasn't dropped that much, with the caveat that I think the quality of her production and mixing/mastering got worse as the 2010s progressed; this problem is the worst on TROUBLE, where I think pretty much every song sounds lacking, but I think almost every album since LOVE again has had these issues on some songs. But even then, I think her songwriting and artistry have remained strong, and she's definitely made excellent albums in her late career (MADE IN JAPAN is among my top 5).

And completely agree that a lot of her music has aged very well!

+1 x a million

I'm not usually sensitive to these things too much, but the mixing on TROUBLE is completely awful. It sounds like it was recorded with a computer microphone in someone's house, and the levels weren't even touched. WATQ is almost unbearable during the loud parts because the distortion is so bad.

IMO it's the opposite... Party Queen IMO it's Ayu at her best as an artist, while
RnRC is made of 4 strong promotional tracks surrounded by... pretty much meh.

Still, agree Ayu doesn't have any bad album. A lot of her worst works would be well received if released by most popstars.

TROUBLE is the very definition of hodgepodge. In fact, I’d theorize that the EP’s release was
an afterthought, made of songs that were “sitting on the shelf” and out of necessity to have a release that could be a vehicle to promote a tour under.

I’d even theorize further it was more Avex’s decision, not Ayu’s, which might explain why despite W, she HARDLY is even promoting the songs or the EP on the THREE tours that were named after it. She literally axed TWIA from the setlist early on, hardly(if not at all), and J can’t even remember if she’s ever performed Words?

If it weren’t for The Way I Am or W(which will forever just be Warning Pt. II), this EP would be entirely unlistenable.

I think she's neutral or closer to warm toned than cool toned. but everything suits her anyways.

Ayu tends to axe or entirelly avoid songs about complicated personal issues... Ever free... Return Road... Sakura...

I wish they would have blurred Maro's face out of all the concert uploads lately. The Appears Hotel Love Songs performance would benefit from it.

Summer Love is a bop yall. It's got that perfect mix of anime opening feel and EDM.

I actually found it funny that he played himself during that number lol

OMG! it's April 29, 2020, 5:00 pm and I've just realized that lyrics 僕は愛に救われてていた sounds quite similar to 僕はあゆに救われていた

omg omg and the lyrics of RAINBOW were written with the help of thousands of fans. was it meant to sound like that? and I've never noticed it just because Japanese is not my native language? wow

She performed WORDS during JTB2 (which is when they did the whole QR code thing) but that's it.

Does anyone know if there's anyplace in Tokyo that still has the Ayu pachinko machine?

Ayu looks so gorge in the Love Again PVs, Hotel Love Songs and CDL 12-13. Long wavy beach blonde cali hair suits her so much :love

2015 is probably my favourite, especially the second half where she had dark brown hair. I loved her look during AT15 but a-nation/TA15 ayu was gorgeous. :heart

It looks like last year they made an Ayumi Hamasaki LIVE in CASINO machine for pachislot, but not sure if there's a database for locations.

「A Song for ××」COMPLETE 2000-2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSqi3uRhOMI

・ayumi hamasaki concert tour A 第2幕
・ayumi hamasaki countdown live 2000-2001 A
・ayumi hamasaki DOME TOUR 2001 A
・ayumi hamasaki ARENA TOUR 2001 A
・ayumi hamasaki LIMITED TA LIVE TOUR
・A museum ～30th single collection live～
・a-nation '06
・ayumi hamasaki BEST of COUNTDOWN LIVE 2006-2007 A
・ayumi hamasaki ASIA TOUR 2008 ～10th Anniversary～
・a-nation '08
・a-nation '09
・ayumi hamasaki 15th Anniversary TOUR ～A BEST LIVE～
・ayumi hamasaki ARENA TOUR 2015 A Cirque de Minuit ～真夜中のサーカス～
・ayumi hamasaki Just the beginning -20- TOUR 2017
・ayumi hamasaki ARENA TOUR 2018 ～POWER of MUSIC 20th Anniversary～

Tbh I have a feeling that avex is trying to promote Kalen moreso than Ayu with this drama...

It’s so obvious lol

Apparently its her one year debut this week...where are the hits tho? where are the live performances? where is an album? are they waiting to have a hit before deciding on a sound for an album?

Her IG style has changed from CGI render-esque posts of makeup CM posters to a more candid personal style recently. I guess they're trying to figure out a new approach?

I can't remember which year it was but that one performance at a-nation in the rain is everything!

^ I think it's '08, one of my favorite performances from her!

There's an ARENA TOUR 2001 A?

it's probably a typo. should be 2002

Question: Is there a studio version of the A Song for xx remix Ayu performs at AT02 and CDL06-07? If there is, what is it called?

I guess Avex deleted the concert uploads?

Skip to 55:12 for instant life affirming footage.

I don't think so but it kinda gives me the feel of if ASFXX Ferry Corsten Chilled Mix and the version on A BALLADS had a baby..that would be it x

Honestly, this is *the* definitive performance to me. No others need apply, what compilation?, etc

Ah, that's a shame, it's an interesting take on the song. And your description is pretty fitting. :laugh

And yes, all the temporary concert uploads for Ayu are now down. The 50 singles live selection is still available though.

The a-nation '08 performance in the rain is everything. :love DT01 is a close second though.

This a-nation performance in the rain is everything!

^It's so iconic!

The last episode of M was focusing on the writing of A song for xx so that explain why there's this compilation now.

a nation 08 is the best ASfXX performance ever. i watched and listend to that rendition 1000+ times.

It's interesting to think that Ayu would pick Secret or ASFXX as her favourite album. Secret is one of my favourites too, though.

From "Harper’s Bazaar Hong Kong 2013 October: Ayu Feature Article", translated by Misa-chan:

https://misachanjpop.wordpress.com/2...ature-article/

Lol ASFXX has some bops! I've been listening to Hana and SIGNAL a lot lately.

the taste...is not there..half of ASFXX is unlistenable nokia ringtones Sonic Genesis music with Ayu singing on top

It’s kind of heartwarming in that sense. Lol. Like, it succeeded for that genre of music. Of all the “Nokia ringtones sonic genesis music” out there, A Sonf For XX is top tier.

Come to think of it, was Avex trying to push for an Every Little Thing-esque sound with ASFXX? I have heard some claim they were trying to make her the second Kaori Mochida

In hindsight i think my post is kinda harsh (but who cares?) but the quality between a song for xx and loveppears is astounding

yeah it's kinda basic compared to the other albums but I grew to love ASFXX... I love Hana, FRIEND, FRIEND II, As if..., SIGNAL... it's full of bops

Oh God yeah, I agree with you lol. But they are two totally different worlds. LOVEppears is also top-tier for the style it worked to (and ultimately) emulate. In the same regard, A Song For XX could be considered top-tier for what it was looking to achieve.

What is ASFXX got a modern revision? I'd pay for that.

So..are we going to get Duty 20th anniversary version? 27 September 2020?

Is this album also as iconic as Loveppears? I don't think avex will continue to rerelease everything. Anyway, I would like to get Duty + Surreal 20th anniversary album. Surreal is great, it deserves to be at spotlight again

Duty is probably iconic for the leopard print pattern that is associated with ayu. It has SEASONS and SURREAL which are 2 well known songs among fans and the public?

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/1ywAA...Uec/s-l400.jpg

Isn’t it her best selling original album?

^It is.

It was qualified as a societal piece back then so it probably has a legacy without speaking of all the fashion trend attached to it. Anyway the only reason why Loveppears was rereleased is because of the book imo so I can imagine them doing something for M 20th anniversary because of the drama ...we will see ...

the week of the release with the number one album (duty), single (surreal and DVD/VHS (concert tour 2000 or a clips/video?) kinda kicked off ayu's imperial reign leading up to A BEST. I think it's kinda not stated enough that the album stayed at number 1 for 4 weeks which is crazy especially for 2000

Could you go further on that? I'm actually not familiar with Duty in its relation to society at the time.

Interesting enough in her interview for «pretty pony~rockin on japanpretty pony~» Ayu said she was not satisfied by the sales result even though Duty was close to 3 millions back then ! In a way I understand her ! It wasn’t a BIG improvement since Loveppears but a lot a thing was going on I mean 3 releases the same day and the market slowly begun to decreased etc... Of course it’s clearly amazing but I think she thought she was able to attract more people ... A BEST did the work lol

Its in the very same interview for ROCKIN On JApan that Duty was qualified in these term by the interviewer ! I believe it was said that some bosses of big societies asked if they could use the lyrics of Duty for them I don’t know if someone have an English translation of this interview somewhere ?

Here you go, translated by Masa:
http://morimasa.art.coocan.jp/rockin.html

You have to scroll down quite a bit to get to the part where they talk about Duty. Before that they talk a lot about her childhood/aidoru era.

I assume this is the part you were referring to:

This is haunting and almost as bad as the UNITE! performance


so everyone in SMAP is tone deaf, can't keep rhythm AND maintain key? I feel bad for my boyfriend because know i realise what he's been complaining about when he overhears me singing along with Ayu.

Thank you for the link!

They featured this scene on the last episode of the dorama!

I actually prefer both Dome Tour 2001 and Just the Begining tour. The A-Nation 2008 one is also amazing though. This is just probably her best live track in general.

Not a tour but this is the definitive A Song for xx performance for me.

It exudes "Ayumi Hamasaki". You can just feel how iconic to Japanese pop culture it is- truly a moment in time.

my fav ASFXX performance is the one from Music Fair when she was promoting RAINBOW and she performed the album's version. everything was on point. some of the other performances from that same show are also among my favorites (Haru yo, koi and RAINBOW)

edit: this one https://streamable.com/acflcc

the last chorus... simply iconic

^ Yep, all of the a song for Xx performances have been pretty great, including the tv ones.

There are many a-nation videos at this channel https://www.youtube.com/user/A000king

Microphone at a-nation 2010 is such an iconic opening. But so is Mirrorcle World.

Also avex uploaded a series of videos of "Para Para At Home" with girls dancing para para. lol And two of them features Ayu's remixes:

Depend on you:


Fly high:

Is my name's WOMEN the most unintentional camp thing Ayu has ever done? The scene with her and the trf girls kicking down the door, sending the shirtless bouncer to the floor and smashing the glasses from the bar on to the floor is hilarious.

It depends if she was being serious with the Angel's Song PV :roflmao

omg LEMME GET THEM

Is this ayu's first tv live after debut?


And yes, this performance is serious in the wrong key lol. I guess this song has always been challenging.

I think this was her first one:


I recall seeing screenshots of a supposedly even earlier performance but this is the earliest I found.

ˆ As stated on Eneabba, yes, that is her first TV live ever.

https://i.imgur.com/pESYuPF.png?1

http://eneabba.net/ayu/video/live/pa...Poker_Face.htm

I wonder if avex has the SECRET LIVE full concert recorded. Imagine having her first concert ever released 22 years later??

Just went back to check and this is why I was unsure:
http://monochrome0408.web.fc2.com/PC/TV/TV-1998.htm

They have another performance listed on April 1st, 1998. I think the show's name translates to "Pocket Music" but so far I haven't found it.

EDIT: This April 1st performance doesn't seem possible to have happened on that date as the show 「ポケットミュージック」 (Pocket Music) started airing on April 15th, 1998.
So yes, the I linked above should be the first one. I guess the person simply made a mistake.

I doubt they have a proper recording of it but that would be so cool.

I never saw poker face lives from Pocket music, CDTV and RAVE

also I don't have Trust 1998.08.19 Pocket music, Depend on you 1998.12.23 サンタ家のメリークリスマスライブ (Santa's Merry Christmas Live?)

There's no way Avex has a proper recording of Secret live...all these uploads of past concerts have demonstrated Avex doesn't or didn't have a proper archive process in place for keeping original material.

The only thing "unearthed from the archives" that I think has really appeared years after the event are the outtakes from the single covers in the A COMPLETE photobook.

Which kinda makes sense and is excusable when you consider it seems Ayu/Avex released literally everything they had at the time, nothing was wasted..which explains the quality of some of the remixes they had the nerve to include on singles.

Though it would be really cool to see b-roll footage or extended versions put together of things like Never Ever and the WHATEVER CM. But I doubt original footage is just sitting on a hard drive in Avex or Ayu's home somewhere.

^It's a shame but they seem to have grown alongside Ayu. Maybe there wasn't enough thought or money to keep everything from early days. maybe some things just don't get filmed because, well, they don't. Namie did Secret lives for (all?) of her Hip-Pop-era albums - I only ever saw TV-News for QoHP and PLAY. I don't think there was an intention to film these and maybe it is the same with the secret live by ayu.

I think it's a Japanese business thing...a lot of Japanese game companies have had a lot of struggles and issues porting older games to newer systems because they never saved or kept a copy of the original code/assets. For example, Square had to literally build Kingdom Hearts from scratch to bring it to the newer generation of consoles as they "lost" the original game/code. The ports of Final Fantasy games have upscaled blurry FMVs and CGI backgrounds because they didn't think to keep the original render files and hard drive space was so expensive, they used to literally overwrite existing games/assets when making new games.

I feel like globe is the only japanese act that can be like "here's an unreleased song and some demos from 1995 included on this new boxset!" the same way western acts like pet shop boys or Prince do. Maybe it's because TK is a control freak and keeps everything so he can recycle it again and again?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_preservation

Avex sure has an archive for stuff, if it wasn't for it we wouldn't have the first TA concert on A COMPLETE or those off shots there as well. I believe they don't have much more than this tho, besides masters of songs. Maybe all a-nation concerts from 2003 and on, when starter to be broadcast on fullHD.

It sure can be said as a japanese business thing. As an example we can also use Toei's masters of the Sailor Moon original anime. They don't "have" the tapes anymore, allegedly destroyed by fire or something, and we're talking about a brand as big as Sailor Moon.

^ The first TA tour was live streamed (I remember watching it when it took place, and I've always had a rip of it) - so that wasn't "secret" footage, it was intentionally recorded in the first place and aired - just not released.

for example I wonder if Ayu asked "ok i need the instrumental for end of the world for something" — if that's something they have ready (i.e. instrumentals for every song) or if that's something they could open the original song project files for and just mute the vocals to get. Like..what if they don't have anything like that..would they just have to make the whole track again lol

or if she wanted to a 20th anniversary "director cut" of the Boys & Girls PV — do they have all the b-roll footage archived somewhere like this?

I mean you could always try repeatedly asking Max if certain things exist, or were recorded, etc. it’d be best of course to get it in Japanese, but he often answers questions.

Most of her videos were shot on 35mm film. My guess is those negatives are totally lost but maybe the digital scans of the film still survive somewhere. But then the question is what videos were digitally scaned/edited and if any of the extra footage was even saved.

A BEST 15th Anniversary Edition and LOVEppears 20th Anniversary Edition should answer your question ;)
Sure they have these Files (Stems/Multitracks).

It's a matter of how much would her audience care, for avex team to restore stuff and try to bring some unseen things from back in the day. There are some MVs from the 80s and 90s that are now being restored to 4K and the quality is amazing.



Didn't she put a song on Love again that was an old demo? So I guess she might have things hidden somewhere.

Depend on you 1998.12.23 サンタ家のメリークリスマスライブ:

https://youtu.be/kVOaEJWZ1ss


The CDTV performance of Poker Face is actually just a reairing of the Utaban performance, so you have seen it. I've also not seen the Poker Face lives from Pocket Music or Rave either nor the Trust Pocket Music performance. Wondering if they will ever surface. There's screenshots so they did exist at some point.

^ Thank you!