On the next few days oricon should be updating the rankings... I'm super curious >_<

1st Week
Position: #5
Official Sales: 30,385
Official Total Sales: 30,385

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Just what I expected =)) Btw TV promo held up the sales on the first week, if it wasn't for MSSL it wouldn't have cross 30k on its first week, let's hope Kouhaku and CDL did the same for the second week too.

soon we gonna know the daily positions =))

#1 hey! say! jump! - 162,993
#2 momoiro - 36,774
#3 flower - 36,243
#4 yuzu - 33,866
#5 ayu - 30,385

it was a really poor week... (HSJ! numbers were also low, people thought they would sell like 250k)

Not bad at all ! =)

Thanks brener !

thank you! wow looking at those they are all group right? Yuzu is a group too?

30k for a solo is really good, happy for Ayu ;)

Yes Yuzu is a very popular band !
So she's the only solo artist in the top 5, well done !

Yes, very good! Ayu proves that she´s real star and always will be on top. Congratulations for success! :)

I would expect her in the top 3 at least. so this is her lowest rank since Vogue #4 :)

Really hope it can pass 45k.

I know that because of circumstances this is actually doing quite well but still I can't help but feel disapponted. I mean the chart position isn't low but she's AYUMI HAMASAKI 'kay, not some unknown girl. In the long run this cannot surpass 50k I think. the only other ayu's single which sold 40k in the long run is poker face, and it is her debut single... I don't know. ;_; sorry I don't mean to rant or whine but this makes me really sad... I wonder what can be done to bring her to shine again

^She is an unknown artist nowadays.. Think that even people on streets recognize 2 or 3 people out of 30 most popular akb members after all (I saw that on tv)

the charts in last 3 years are terrible. They're very bad. I don't understand how did the Japaneses like the music.
I'm so sorry but I must say that They loved the young,cute, handsome bands/groups nowadays, they supposed them although the songs were just normal quality (the meaning and the beat). The "loved"-songs are nothing special and not deep !
On the other hand, the talent artists are getting "unknown" day by day. They are forgotten although they did very well. I think Jpop nowadays is always worse than last decade.
I wonder if they listened to music by eyes or ears.

^ thsi is going on in whole world not just in Japan. More and more talented artists are getting pushed back by popstars of the year, most of who will be forgotten in next few years cuz people will just get borred of them and stick to new ones. It's just a sad reality of today's music world.

If you want to succeed these days, quit being yourself and making music and start giving people the crap that everyone else is doing. Aparently she tried this with this single but i guess the lack of face-plastered-all-over-japan aproach is what's making it unnoticed. I preffere her doing her own thing like she always did. Tho more promotion and her name on places wouldn't hurt for sure.

you're right, sadly this is the truth. I did think many times how I prefer some of her songs from love again, party queen (yeah heard me right, party queen), love songs more than some of her oldest songs which sold millions. The problem is that when she decided to do her own thing most people just forgot about her. Still her music is very good imo. I've heard many times people lamenting the fact that the quality of her music has gone down, and I respect their opinion as music is subjective.... but I think she's very good even today if we talk about her music. So the problem of her not selling anymore is not her lyrics getting "less deep" nor her music being "worst", but the fact that she lacks promo and who knows what else... and I think this can be confirmed easily by looking at charts. I love akb48, I like namie, I'm not too concerned with boy bands and JE idols but I think we will all agree that they're not on top because of the profoundity of their lyrics or the exceptional quality of their music. I'd take the entire rock'n roll circus album over those all the time.

YAY for getting to 30k! It did well considering the usual lack of promotion, all numbers on top 5, except for HSJ obviously, are pretty even :)

I wish she would promote more, she clearly still has the potential to sell well (not as well as before, obviously, but for today's standards), she only needs promotion :(

Reading these posts filled with angst over her sales makes me wonder if some of her fans listen her only because she used to sell 500k wth every album back in the day. It's a stupid reason to listen soneone. Sales and chart positions shouldn't matter at all. It's the music that matters the most. Hell, if she reached only Top 20, I would still listen the single because I like the songs. :D

I look at it as when the first weekend box office numbers are reported. A movie that may not have gotten the top position for its opening weekend but is declared the #1 movie of its genre/target audience. So Ayu may not be #1 overall but for that week, she was the #1 female solo artist. She still matters to me though I do dream of her dominating the charts again.

I agree with you for what concerns charts and sales, I know they don't matter. But the reason we are writing post filled with angst is not because we listen to her only for how much she sells: ayu is for me a very important presence in my life and to me is insulting to think that I could listen to her "only" for her number of sales! It's just a normal thing I think, that when you really care about someone you want them to be winning in everything they do, especially when you know they deserve it. I'd still listen to her even if she sold 1000 copies, really. I don't know if I explained myself well, anyway I do agree with you, it's the music that matters, it's just that sometimes I wish for her to be recognized like she deserves. Even though probably she doesn't want to be recognized in that way anymore, thus lack of promo/appearences and so on..

There is still hope for solo artists! it seems that AKB's peak is over
http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...psa0be693d.png

Talking about yearly sales, also other 48 groups have also ended their peak (Apparently)
SKE48 http://asianumbers.galeon.com/ske48.html
NMB48 http://asianumbers.galeon.com/nmb48.html

And recently debuted group HKT48 has got really low sales (200k) compared to the other 48 groups (400-600k) so maybe it's their last 48 group (at least on Japan..)

^
AKB48 didn't release a studio album this year unlike 2012. I'm sure they will rise again in 2014 since they have a new album in Jan. This group/idol trend is far from over IMO. I think it'll really start fading around 2017-2018. :(

yeah, AKB48 sales are decreasing by every release... they're last sigle was unable to sell 1M on its first day and the numbers on the second week were really under expectations..