I wish ayu support an success. I think it sos sad what's happened to her. Also, I think it unfair that avex doesn't seem to support her as much as koda. Meaning it seems like ayu's vids are cheap (ex: don't leave me alone) in $ & quality compare to what avex puts out for Koda.

Considering all that ayu has sacrficed for avex, that's sad. Still I hope ayu continue's to make music. I love her lyrics and her sound!!

Of course every music artist has their time when its time to say さよなら, and as sad as it is, we all know Ayu will one day stop making music...BUT I don't think it's going to be within the next 5 years, and yes, her popularity has declined slightly, but she's been around for 10 years, I mean, of course their is competition with Kuu and whoever else, but I still think Ayu outsells them in CD/DVD sales, lives/arena tours and goods. Plus Ayu's music is high quality, in my opinion, compared to others.

i agree wif u! what matters to me most is her music :yes

I hate Mainichi Daily. All the writers there must have an IQ of 90 or something. I've yet to see anything but condescending garbage being spewed from that site.

The fact a person isn't a hardcore obsessed ayu praising fanboy doesn't make them to have a IQ of 90.

i think she can stay in the top for more than 5 years from now, even celebrates her 15th year carrier on 2013
look at namie, she stay strong, and i think she is back as a queen of RnB, she looks hot and her sales is becoming better and better...

queen of hip-Pop to be precise XD.

I hope Ayu stays on top for another 10+ years, we'll just have to see. ;)

It's sad, but I do see some truth in this. Let's just wish all the best for her ^^
Her sales don't really matter nor her popularity to me (it's nice to see high sales though). As long as she's still making music I'm happy =D

well, i think the article has good points and bad points. on the one hand it seems to inform of facts, on the other hand, it leaves way to gossip...

thanks for posting

I'm going to refrain from taking jabs at your reading comprehension (or that shallow generalization you so casually made), but that isn't what I said at all. It's not the fact that they don't like Ayu. It's the fact that they don't seem to like anyone at all.

We all have no problem passing off tabloids as garbage, and sry2say, but Mainichi Daily's Entertainment section oftentimes resembles an internet tabloid (IMO anyway, which is a shame because the main paper itself is fine). I've noticed lately that their level of journalistic integrity has gone down when it comes to Entertainment news, for anyone. Not just Ayu. Regardless of celebrity status I think they should treat the subjects of their writing with more respect.

^ as I said, the article has a good and a bad side - let's take that good side!

Well, actually, they were a lot more professional in that article than even BBC. Yeah, because BBC quickly assumed her deafness to be caused by sound exposure just like Beethoven. First of all, Beethoven didn't become deaf because of sound, he most likely had some other illness that affected his ears. Second, ayu most likely doesn't have deafness because of sound exposure, because only one ear was affected ANd she didn't retire (we all know she doesn't have an IQ of 90 do be stubborn to still go on with something that caused damage to her ears, which proves it wasn't sound). BBC which is extremely respected worlwide, showed a extreme lack of knowledge on journalism when they wrote that article on ayu, assuming wrong things without further research.

On the other hand, Mainichi actually cared/bothered to ask a real ear specialist on what would it most likely be the cause based on symptoms ayu has been hinting us with over the years (tinnitus, gradual hearing loss to permanent hearing loss only affecting one ear, trips, etc). This is what journalism should be about. If the writer doesn't understand a subject (they don't have to know everything in this world 100%), they have to interview a professional who understands. This show that I'm not the one making generalizations here, when you just assumed everyone there have IQs lower than 90.

They don't own anything to these celebrities, so they can criticize them as much as they want, as long as they don't resort to batlant lies such as saying ayumi has STDs or was found on an abortion clinics and the likes. I don't understand why people get so angry when they read something that doesn't praise ayu. They don't have to. They were blunt, yeah, and maybe exaggerated a little, but ayu's popularity surely is declining and there are other younger JPOP stars on the rise, and GUILTY did "only" reach #2, because by ayu standards most people do indeed expect only #1s from the JPOP queen. We can't help that.

Mainichi Daily's Entertainment WaiWai section actually is articles collected from japanese tabloids. there's a little disclaimer at the bottom of this ayu article too, indicating it's not from the original Mainichi , which is a respectable newspaper.

Wow i want to be like her closest friend now so that she doenst have to keep things bottled up anymore!! I hop she's not too lonely....

Well, I think we don't need to discuss her illness and the sales of her album.Why don't we just take as she is? She shares her feelings with the world around though it's hard and she opens her heart with her songs.So let's just be grateful to her for her being and support her somehow ,but I don't know in what way we can do it.