Ayu's Pachinko Debut
 

It seems our Ayu will be following in the footsteps of other celebrities, such as Koda Kumi, and is releasing a pachinko machine.

It's to be titled "浜崎あゆみ物語", or "Hamasaki Ayumi's Story" and it's planned to be released on July 3rd.

On May 24th, the company producing the pachinko will be introducing / discussing the details at a meeting for pachinko dealers.

http://www.co-koei.co.jp/public_html/

After this meeting it's expected that the story will hit major news sites.

More details to come!

Edit:

5/12/11

Ayu has stated through twitter that she is in fact releasing a pachinko machine, and that the videos were filmed with her dancers and Kishidan's Ayanocozey Show (aka DJ OZMA) around the same time that she was doing NEXT LEVEL Tour.

Which means this really has been in the works for awhile... haha

Original tweet:

5/13/11








* Pachinko:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko

Haha, I wonder if a pachinko machine is really necessary!

Thanks for posting, but how lame news! :tipsy

wow. AYU's really powerful~LOL

Thanks that's nice xD

is now a good time to release pachinko machine? I remember that they were protesting the opening of pachinko shops just recently bcos of the amt of electricity used....

meaning? What is pachinko machine?? Story??? She will make a new life story of her?? Sorry, I'm confused :confused

EDIT : Okay, just knew what is pachinko.. But why "Hamasaki Ayumi's Story"? How they can feature Ayu and Pachinko?

what's a 'pachinko' anyway?

this dampens my spirits... :(

My least fav places in whole Japan pretty much... But oh well, good promo... :/

Oh dear... Not the pachinko slots this time...

That's really odd.
A Pachinko? Seriously?

it is a game :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko

so that's what it is... Are they just gonna slap ayu's face on those machines or something?

It'll be really cute if they can get ayu's personal participation in making it. Imagine you winning the jackpot and hearing ayu's voice go "CONGRATS!!!!! :heart"

I was actually gonna post this a while ago but I thought it was a rumor! Apparently it was scheduled for April... guess it was delayed? Seems like an Ayu slot machine has often been rumored but never come to light till now~

From 4/30 or so:


Can't wait to see it!

Basically, she'll be the theme for the machine with music/her image and so on. It'll be amazing, haha.

Actually I find it very cool :D. If I will go to Japan, I'll get a try to Ayu's pachinko for sure :laugh.

Oh, so it must be so awesome! If only I could go there =_=

Pachinkos are pretty popular....
Aya Kamiki, which is a not very popular artist, just had a song in a pachinko machine (only one, not her name even featured on the machine) and the song raised its popularity on recochoku

I feel iffy about this. Someone told me it's pretty much only for artists who have lost popularity. :(

I don't think it's really an indicator of popularity or not since there are some big properties out there with pachinko/pachislot [pachinko+slots] machines. Not necessarily individual J-Pop stars though, haha. I mean if you look at Ayu's career right now, does it really look like she's lost her popularity?

I suppose pachinko doesn't exactly have a good connotation to it though... (probably due to the smoky atmosphere of parlors and the possibly-run-by-yakuza cash out shops)

See this Akina Nakamori article about her second "wave" of pachinko machines. Comments are a bit harsh.

Trailer for Akina Nakamori's pachinko machine:


I imagine Ayu's will have a few Ayupan? And wow, TRF has one too! But they've kinda... not had much luck in the later half of the last decade.

Hm, I don't think it has anything to do with popularity either. It's just something interesting and fun :laugh.

Well, that's definitely interesting. I want to see what the machine will look like and what songs will be used.

Oo.oO lmao oh wow wow....

how long till ayu gets arrested in a yakuza money ring? hahaha! ;)

Haha, when I go to Japan,, I'm
Gonna find it...

oh, i want some pics of this game with ayu

pachinko parlours aren't easy to get into as a foreigner. As far as I know, many of them really are run by yakuza, and they don't really want foreigners in their parlors because they're far less likely to play on the machines for an extended length of time. A few times we walked past the parlours and I would see parents in there with their kids lying on the floor with a blanket over them, sleeping, while the parents just played and played and played. It was really disheartening, I felt so sorry for the kids. :(

Also, unless you already have an understanding of the game, it wouldn't be very easy to get started. From what I heard, the way they get around the whole gambling thing is you have to buy buckets of the silver round balls, and then you take those balls and use them to play the machines. But that's if they'll sell you the balls, and like I said previously, the ones who run the system want players who will stay there for a long time so they can get the most money out of them.

I tried to go in myself in 2008 so I could look at the Gackt Gladiator machine, but I got so many evils from the staff that I didn't even try to ask how to play. It was obvious they didn't want me there at all. :(

It's a bit like the game center in Pokemon, haha.

You get coins/silver balls and you exchange them for prizes. Those prizes are then exchanged for cash at an "off site location" usually next door. (In Pokemon, it was run by the evil syndicate of the game)

I think there are laws against gambling for money which is why they do it in this weird roundabout way.

they are like 10 years late with this? lol It would've been much better for them (AVEX, pachinko owners) to do it during her peak in 2001 :/

I hope not many ayufans get obsessed playing with this! -____-

AKB48 has a group of girls sing a song advertising pachinko machines and they are very popular right now. :yes

Oh gosh! So it's true! I am working on a Pachinko machine maker and I hope I can get a sneek of what it'll look like! :D

That's... funny... xD

I want to try that machiiine!
I'm always so excited over the silliest things, hope I get a chance to go to Japan one day.

Thanks for telling!

I think it's kind of quirky and cool. When I finally get to Japan, I'll be looking for one of these for sure :P

thx ^^;

Most pachinko parlours I came across with in Japan were the most God-awful places in the universe... The stench of the ever-lingering cigarette smoke was ghastly, not to mention the mindless drones on the machines. I don't really recommend going there at all unless you're into that kind of atmosphere.

The stench of smoke is everywhere in Japan xD

But yeah, I don't play Pachinko. Mostly because I suck at it... I was talking to a friend and he spent like $200 playing and didn't win anything. I was like, "Why not just buy something useful?..." haha. But I guess that's what gambling is all about :P

Yeah, same with casinos here... once you win though, you have to stop playing.

-looks at past form of wallet with no money due to overplaying-

Wanna bet?

That's true, but I think the thing that irked me the most were the mindless drones that spend a ghastly amount of time at the pachinko parlour. Makes me feel more sick than the smoke does xD

Of all the random promotional items-- but oh well. Because I've never played one, I have a hard time imagining how to make an Ayu-themed game.

thanks for sharing

Seeing children lying on the floor with a blanket, trying to sleep while their parents gambled away like mindless drones, THAT really upset me. :headache

Ayu has stated through twitter that she is in fact releasing a pachinko machine, and that the videos were filmed with her dancers and Kishidan's Ayanocozey Show (aka DJ OZMA) around the same time that she was doing NEXT LEVEL Tour.

Which means this really has been in the works for awhile... haha

Original tweet:

Kayzu's blog said that it took three years to produce... wow~

http://ameblo.jp/ayu-soulmate/entry-10889812613.html

Seems like no one posted these yetz.
It seems like some invitation to the opening of the machine?
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14...qqvuf63771.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14...ijdyz94679.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14...eueyd94679.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14...807gr94679.jpg

Whoa... Three years, just to produce it...? Hmm... I'm kind of really thinking how the past three years went for those Pachinko designers...

A cm that Ayu apparently never gave the OK for? haha. It was the first time she saw it :P

Pachinko? Ayu? That's the weirdest combination I've heard of.

http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/4...h5uphvsi6j.jpg

xaser @ ayuchina

is it new photo? looks like something old but I can't remember...

edit: bigeer photo

^ Ohh wow! Thanks!

I'm pretty sure it's a new picture. ;)

The machine is really pretty ahaha.

It also appears that the title has changed. It's now "Hamasaki Ayumi's Story -prologue-" (浜崎あゆみ物語 -序章-).

wow so this machine will be released but using the video that filming long time ago??
quite confusing if reading ayu's tweets bout it..
and that pic of ayu..so pretty!!

AyUmIXx [offtop]I made gif in your signature[/offtop] =)

picture remind me of Days + JEWEL era

not many fans seem to like this collaboration with "pachinko"?

Aderianu: OMGness i'm so sorry.. i totally forgot...sorry~~~ coz yesterday i saved few avas n siggies from many ppl lol..sorry~~~

yea the new pic reminds me of SECRET era~~

her head on that poster picture reminds me so much of teh a best 2 shoot

Well, it reminds me of A COMPLETE ~all single~ cover :yes

Prologue... usually means there could be another part to this pachinko release...?

She looks gorgeous in the new image~

I lvoe the picture as well!!
but im confused.. i know its a game... but what kind of game?? and a story game with prologue?
Im thinking RPG, but thats so not right... lol...

Unfortunately, it got removed... :no

^ you werent missing much.. it was the beginning portion of Evolution (song and PV) mixed with some concert...

WOW, the photo is beautiful~~~~:love

it's cool ☆*;｡.o（≧∀≦）o.｡;*☆

omg... I hope it is rumor.

^it's fact

This photo seems to be from the photoshoot of Days/GREEN single.
Her hair is not like this anymore...

Must have been an unreleased photo of Days/GREEN?

I don't think so... same period but definitely not the same photoshoot, because the dress is different.

Omg the new pic :thud she's looking stunning.
I wonder when they shooted it though, because she haven't those hair anymore :laugh

Probably, like FEVER LIVE IN HALL II haha.

If the videos for the pachinko were filmed around NL tour, then maybe the promotional picture was as well?

^Wow to that Ayu's photo! The pachinko machine is very interesting!

I also like that pic... she looks really good on it.
What is that video about? About that Pachinco-Machine?

What are Pachinco-Machines????

the promo set
http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/7279/37785795.jpg
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/3172/90665413.jpg
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/4282/84277826.jpg
http://page10.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/m84582806
http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/j...ion/n100527358

Wow, it looks really.. interesting, haha. Ayu's a little nun-maiden!?



Looks like she has a lot of cute looks in this~

I want scans *_*

Ayu and Dj OZMA are the best things since sliced bread so I REALLY love this video

:thud
I want that promos set!

that's a new image of her?

This is like, a Shu-Ya game, instead of ayu. :laugh

The Ayu-Maiden-Pics are interessting.
But I can't open the videos... only the one truehappinies posted.
Looks interesting. And I also like the Promo-Set.

It looks amazing lol I'm not gonna lie xD

I don't like her cute, meh. The "nun" outfit it's cool thought.

The long haired it's a meh, GREEN/Days cover copy. Dun't like it. But the pachinko looks very awesome.

yeah...agreed.

it looks really neat, but i really hope ayu isn't playing the damsel in distress that needs to be saved! GIRL POWER ayu! ayu should be the one kicking butt, not shuya. :(

I think there's a portion of the game where Ayu has a gun and she's very dolled up, haha. It looked very retro to me even though you could only see it for like 2 seconds in the trailer.

can't even see either of the videos...wish someone would have them

^ same

could someone dig out the videos again..? >_<

I wonder if anyone will be able to rip the new footage from the machine.

What has DJ Ozma to do with Ayu???

He seems like a side character that is involved with the story.

I wonder if he has to do with the creation of this whole project, haha.

I don't really understand the point of such a machine O_o
It's not even a game, then what it is ??

^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko

http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/1...1637348.th.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1...1637348.th.jpg

‖道道′ @ ayumifans

here's『CR ayumi hamasaki 浜崎あゆみ物語-序章-』Official Website

you can see more video and aniemation in "demonstration" area

http://www.fields.biz/catalog/bphma/index.html

It is really good~~~

Thanks for the site!

LOL at Shu-ya being around for Ayu's debut.

Hahahaha. The way they advertised "Hamasaki Ayumi Monogatari" made it sound like it was based on her true story. But the anime shows that Ayu was a...construction worker before her debut? XD

Those Pachinko machines do look pretty flashy... but very confusing... :thud

Pachinko's are essentially a Japanese equivalent of one-hand bandit machines originating from the USA. They're gambling machines. Gambling is banned in Japan, if I'm not mistaken, which is why these machines operate using small balls - you put some in at the top of the machine, they fall down passing through obstacles (akin to pinball tables) and you can win more of them to play again, or exchange them for money. During the play, animations, videos or music are being played on the screen to entertain you (just like pinball tables used graphics and pictures in their design) and display results or such.

The Wikipedia entry about pachinkos explains everything, from how they work to why are they somewhat controversial (and thus why would Ayu's collaboration with pachinko be controversial). :)

Gambling is banned in Japan, so you just win those little balls you change in valuable articles afterwards. No money. At least not officially.

From Wikipedia:


So, yeah... not officially, at least ;)