Decoding the leopard prints on Ayu's albums.
 

Hello all~

Sometime ago, I read a thread (I'm sorry but I forgot what the thread name or the writer's name >~<) regarding to why Ayu chose leopard prints for her sad albums such as...

http://jpopcdcovers.files.wordpress....09/02/duty.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img267/3657/s...21213at912.png

http://www.channel-ai.com/img/rinoa/big/guilty-cd.jpg

http://cloud.comtrya.com/wp-content/...en-limited.jpg

If you look really closely, you would notice that it's not exactly leopard prints but rather lynx prints. Lynx and leopards are in the same cat family, therefore, their fur print looks alike. I did a few research on animal prints meaning and according to a resourceful source, lynx prints means secrets

I came to a conclusion that maybe Ayu was trying to deliver secrets within her songs/albums... Or she might conveying her secret feelings within her songs...
Hmm... I wonder why she didn't used any animal prints for her album, Secret???

[NOTE] This thread is just MY OWN OPINION!!! If you have different opinion please state it but don't attack me >~< I just want to share my thought and research ^^ Thanks!! <3

Source: Animal Prints Meaning

Ah, that is interesting! Perhaps Ayu finds comfort in "leopard print". I know I do!

wow! I never thought about it lol

But the PQ one is leopard, no?

It's different from the others.

Anyway...I actually like that bit of imagery for the Duty and GUILTY albums. The idea of secrets.



I actually always liked the Duty cover, cause it's such an atypical look for her. At least it was for me since the time I became a fan.

It's a mask, she's shedding her skin/mask with her music~

Well, the leoparn/lince print comes back everytime she is going to release a darker album... Duty, Guilty, Party Queen, all of them are pretty dark even for her standarts and her darkest releases ever... So, to me, it end up meaning "Ayu going through emotional down"

I never realized that A BEST was also using animal print during it's promotion. Interesting. :)

But as Emi pointed out, Party Queen's print looks more leopardy than lynxy lol. Either way, I don't think it makes too much of a difference. To the majority of people, it's all leopard :P

And yeah, Duty was so creative. The entire photoshoot was so well done, imo. But that's besides the point haha.

Thank you for pointing this out!

i like the idea of secrets. i always thought it conveyed something wild though, like an animal.

Leopard prints are Illuminati symbolism, lol. Especially the sex kitten in a cage imagery of Duty and Party Queen. It's all symbolic of the mind control to which some artists are subjected in the music industry. Or so I've read...It's all very interesting and seems like it could be true when you notice how pervasive the imagery is throughout the music industry. Ayu's even directly written about it in songs like alterna.

^Either way there's a lot of shady music business symbolism going on.

Huh. Why did this never occur to me before? That's interesting.

Interesting interpretation, but you may be decoding something from nothing.

I've always thought it was a way to inject "strenght" during dark times as well as the feral side of her. She has said before that animal print makes her feel "powerful".

Ok? What's that supposed to mean? I never said I was right.

The ideas I've always thought of have been this (and I know I'm going far too into it, but what can I say, I'm a writer with too much imagination to throw around):

Once upon a time...

In the artwork for Duty, Ayumi Hamasaki is little more than a captured animal, but one that has been showered with gifts and riches. I saw this as representing her then-status as a still relatively new artist still finding her way in the music business and fame game, but already trapped by such institutions while at the same time overwhelmed by her success. She's also incredibly sultry and sexual, and this is how her captors have decided to present her as, an image for other people rather than for herself. On the cover the bars of the cage have been bent, but she's neither escaped nor decided to stay. She's on the edge of both worlds, not knowing whether to stay within the confines of her comfortable prison but ultimately stifled by her small surroundings, or go out into the big wide world and risk making her own mistakes that she'll have to take full responsibility for.

When we get to Guilty, we find she did choose to escape after all, but she has found herself lost in a desert-like wilderness, shading her eyes from the light on the cover and searching for a path to follow. Perhaps this could have represented how Ayumi may have felt at that time regarding her life and career. Taking this risk and escaping from her cage has led her to evolve; she's still in leopard / lynx / whatever print, but is now more like a human than an animal.

On Party Queen, the leopard / lynx / whatever print is still there, but has been stripped down (pardon the pun) quite dramatically. It's now limited to certain designs as well as her boots, suggesting she has now become almost entirely human, but one that is little better than her sex kitten stage, reduced to a sexy being in underwear while also looking skinny, gaunt, pale, and certainly the most vulnerable she's ever been, trapped in her new prison of a trashed but once luxurious hotel room. In trying to become her own person in the music industry and in her private relationships, she's simply become a different version of the product she's always been, but one that is more fragile and exposed than ever before.

I told you I have too big an imagination!

i agree with this statement having read very much about MK and the symbolism in the entertainment industry. after gathering all this information, it also seems quite plausible to me. you see the same symbolism in most movies, songs, music videos etc. too bad most people only shrug it off (or even delete the comment....) when it comes up.

the entertainment industry is shady; period.

People see illuminati symbolism everywhere... O_o

i think she's just obsessed with it...
http://loveforabunny.files.wordpress...saki-ayumi.jpg

check her nails
http://www.ai-candy.com/images/appears_full.jpg

She's not your party queen...she's an ILLUMINATI SEX KITTEN!!!

Just kidding...

Please illuminati, i know you can get better sales for our ayuma !!! j/k

I don't think they find her useful anymore. That's why they don't promote her at all, lol

wow she's been using so many leopard patterns for her works.
interesting !

You're right, it is kind of annoying when people just dismiss something like this. Especially because that's probably what the so-called Illuminati want.

I hear her hair is filled with secrets.

That's why it's so big!

(I'm sorry, I couldn't resist, especially if you're quoting what I think you're quoting. ;))

That's why her hair is so big.

^ HAHAHAHA!!!

Honestly, maybe Ayu just likes the design or she wants to become a cat or something. She'll probably write a song called, "CAT REINCARNATION" sometime soon.

mte.

i would love to have a serious discussion about the symbolism in her work and the significance of it in the entertainment industry, but i don't know if that would be possible on this forum... :innocent

maybe because sometimes there is none?
Its just a cat suit and someone thought leopard print was cool.
it is pretty popular after all.

Yeah, nearly everyone on here is oblivious to anything that isn't materialistic. Pity :thud. I for one would love to have such a discussion in this forum. She doesn't choose her album/single covers for no reason and they (along with her lyrics) are pretty much the only way she can express the truths about the industry in which she works. I don't get how people can watch the alterna or ourselves PVs and still deny that there's anything disturbing going on behind the scenes.

^No, there are many threads here where (for example) symbolism in her PVs has been discussed in depth by many commenters. Those threads are just not so common anymore. I'm sure if you opened a thread about symbolism again it would become an interesting discussion, since we clearly already have at least 2^^^ people who have something to say ;) I believe she has a reason for the crazy things in her PVs and that she's a wise woman who's familiar with symbolism and uses it, and surely music industry is crazy. Personally I doubt that there's one big secret society making her place those things there because they're vain or something.. (okay here I admit that I haven't studied Illuminati or anything, but based on some theories I've read that's just the conclusion I came to:P) but nevertheless you guys made me curious as to what you have to say:)

That makes sense. I actually do remember seeing such threads a long time ago. I guess since ayu's last really symbolic PV was BRILLANTE there wouldn't be much discussion on the subject nowadays. I think I'll look up some of those old threads and see what people've written. And it would be nice to have a new discussion on symbolism in ayu's work -- there's just so much to talk about! :yes

If people are interested I would be able to make a detailed post all about that kind of thing. I would gladly make it actually. I am not an expert but I have enough knowledge to make an article on this subject for Ayu.
The rules say, "Do not post anything that is related to global politics, racism, sexuality, religion, or any other sensitive or controversial issue."
It would be a little tough to make because of this, I would have to keep religion out of it. But I believe I could still do it.