The Official Oricon Thread ~Colours~
 

Oricon Year of 2014 Overall Sales

http://i.imgur.com/ccO4NP2.jpg

1st Week


2nd Week


3rd Week


4th Week


5th Week

6th Week

7th Week

Colours debuted at #3 on Recochoku Weekly Digital Albums Charts ^^ Hello new me might get a RIAJ Gold certification by the end of the year *--* it's doing so great

why ayu book has a great sell than her single?

Why a week before the release though? =)

I wanted to share Recochoku numbers ^^' Do you think it's necessary to creat a Digital Charts thread?

Yeah, I'm really scratching my heads why her book is selling more than singles... :shakehead

probably because nowadays people uses to buy digital music which makes the physical sales decrease, and books like that are not even available digitally

No, I think ayumisrael used to have separate thirds for the digital charts but eventually just included them in the main or icon thread. That's where people would replay mostly anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Cant wait to see the sales of 'Colours'!!!

LOVE again had everything against it, scandal, boyfriend, most of the songs were already released, re-used concept

I wish it sells more than LOVE again!!

I hope it can manage #4, there's stiff competition that week!

NINKI will be released in a few days so we can think about something more accurated =)

Itano started promoting her album... argh...

I know it sounds sad and a bit of a cop out but I wish she'd pick a different week to release the album, has she ever had a proper album lower than number 2 on Oricon?

ayu is passed the amazing popular artist sales phase so if it's around 40,000- 50,000 it would be good enough pretty much. From 88,825 it's not too bad of a drop.

Btw who are the "competitors" for next week? tomomi itano and who else were there?

Kis-My-Ft2 & UVERworld . It's a shoo in for Kisumai to get #1 anyway since their new album will be released before they start their dome tour

Quoting myself from another thread... About the sales ^^
Edit: "Nibanme no Koi" is doing the impossible with Hello new me, the song was #17 today on single charts and #12 on ringtone charts, impressive. The song is holding up the digital sales of Colours, which felt to #15 today on album charts =\ No other track of the album is charting on rechocoku daily 200 anymore, maybe next week when it will be released phisically. By the way, What is forever love was the highest charting song last week when Colours debuted digitally, behind of Hello new me. It debuted at #97 on weekly singles. Anyways, check it out.

Debuted last week on recochoku digital single charts:

Hello new me #19 (6 weeks) *peak #4*
What is forever love #97
NOW & 4EVA #101
XOXO #104
EDMA #149 (I can't believe this thing even charted ¬¬)
Lelio #165
Terminal #195

Hello new me was #11 on ringtone charts last week, none of the other songs was able to chart.

^This is the proof that ayu needs more tie-in's like that

I take it that NINKI doesn't exist anymore?

Actually it exists... For Albums this week we have

#1 157.00 - ＫＡＴ－ＴＵＮ - ｃｏｍｅ　Ｈｅｒｅ
#2 39.70 - スフィア - ４　ｃｏｌｏｒｓ　ｆｏｒ　ｙｏｕ
#3 35.90 - 木村カエラ - １０ｙｅａｒｓ
#4 35.00 - ２ＮＥ１-ＣＲＵＳＨ
#5 31.70 - クリス・ハート - Ｈｅａｒｔ　Ｓｏｎｇ　Ⅱ
#6 20.10 - ＳＴＡＲ☆ＡＮＩＳ - ＰＯＰ　ＡＳＳＯＲＴ
#7 19.40 - 吉川晃司 - ＳＩＮＧＬＥＳ＋
#8 18.90 - 小野賢章 - Ｔｏｕｃｈ　ｔｈｅ　Ｓｔｙｌｅ
#9 18.00 - ムック - ＴＨＥ　ＥＮＤ　ＯＦ　ＴＨＥ　ＷＯＲＬＤ
#10 15.60 - Ａｉｍｅｒ - Ｍｉｄｎｉｇｈｔ　Ｓｕｎ

source: http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/na/w/2014-06-27/

Shouldn't the NINKI be a friday before the releases though? I thought there is no ninki anymore, I couldn't find it lol. Thank you.

No it's being updated the Friday right after the releases, don't ask me why :(

I've just listened to the single promo for tomomi's album and I must say that I'm worried. The song is good, and it has the potential to be an hit. I just don't want ayu to fall too behind... idk. I know sales are not that important anymore etc but I just wouldn't be able to bear AYUMI HAMASAKI raking behind some group/girl. Or worse ,not even making it to top 5.

From the amount of effort ayu and avex seem to be making to promote the album, it's clear she oh oh oh really doesn't care about the results. I don't think we should be worried as well, even though it's pretty bad to see an artist you like getting low sales. (:

Hello new me jumped to #10 on daily ringtones =)

Is there somebody out there like me that think that ayu will outsell AKB soloist!?

Hm, I'm thinking a debut around rank 4, yeah? Not too bad.

Me!!
Tomochin's covers are just :no

^Yeah!! This is our contrincant

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps1ea96d7d.jpg

It's just a mini-album tagged as full album because more than half of the tracks were already released in singles (They even include songs from 2011 singles :irked)

^^

Seriously....Tomochin's covers are serious sh*t!! it's like a children's coloring book!!

And people are complaining about Colours covers... ^^'
But I don't see nothing wrong including the 2011 singles, it's her first album, so it's ok to include all her previous singles, what would they do with the 2011 singles then? And it has 15 tracks.

Wait I read on some thread how someone joked about if Tomochin's album is titled SxWxAxG, Ayu should title Colours somethint similar. And I tHOUGHT THEY WERE JOKING she actually chose the name Swag -_- That cover is just uh uh.

Colours as a title would fit Tomomi's album too ^^' SxWxAxG is so tacky, seems like one of those hiphop albums..

In some random ranking of a store posted at For"A"ver club

70位:S×W×A×G/板野友美
71位:S×W×A×G/板野友美
72位:Colours/浜崎あゆみ(+DVD)
73位:Colours/浜崎あゆみ(+藍光)

Ayu is just behind of SWAG!!

^was in shocked when i saw that! Thank God that wasn't ORICON. lol i think i'd cry to see Ayu's new album in 73rd spot.

Most of Ayu's orders will come in from Team Ayu/mu-mo which are not counted on that ranking. Let's wait for Oricon.

Guys, I listened to Tomomi's album and the thing is, her album is good, it's not even close to that generic thing produced by AKB48. There's a lot of hip-hop and dance influences. If the girl end-up outselling ayu this week (and I think she will) I won't be sad or anything, her album deserves to be well received just like Colours. She is promoting a lot on TV and there's a special tour and even handshake events, everything a debut album needs. So I wish good luck for both of them :yes

^But UZA from AKB48 is not generic AKB song and it didn't sell their best

Tomomi's music isn't bad and she is cute, but her voice is so annoying !!

Amazon daily

Colours: 22, 40
SWAG: out of top 100

:spazzed

Agreed. I'm not sure if Tomochin could be the next Ayu, but she clearly is a threat. Not only that, UVERworld could pose a threat for Ayu in the top three Oricon charts (let's not talk about Kisumai, because it's clearly obvious they're going to get #1), and the fact that Oricon doesn't count international sales into their numbers anymore makes it an even more difficult climb for Ayu, as IMHO she has higher percentage of international sales compared to Tomochin or even Kisumai, which we already know as a Johnny's group, they're going to sell quite A LOT - and pretty much the majority of it is a domestic fanbase!

Colours is at #13 monthly for albums in June:

http://recochoku.jp/ranking/album/monthly/

Lol at Tomomi's covers. At least she's pretty though. But some people act like ayu makes the worst covers these days lol.

They actually remind me of the feel the love pv. They'd be better without the fishies.

Anyway she'll probably still outsell ayu

UVERworld will outsell ayu, no doubt. Kisumai will likely be #1 and UVER will be #2, the only competition is between ayu and Tomomi for the #3 position. Whereas Tomomi isn't selling that good on Amazon, she was always ahead of ayu on HMV on last week's pre orders, so I really don't know, and there's the fact that ayu was better on CDJapan and mu-mo, we'll know tomorrow.

I know right! :laugh

I don't know where these too-high-to-achieve standards for ayu's covers came from, but they sure don't apply to anyone else!

:roflmao

How did you read my mind? lol
At least they're... unique. Iconic, if I may say it.
Now I'm really curious about Tomomi album, btw. Everybody is talking about it, I'll give it a try!

Shouldn't the sales be out by now or am i missing something? e.e

we shall all wait. I dont think ayu is going to outsell her, but lets keep the hope high! I mean, we are all ayu fans and want the best for her. its a mistake of avex that she is releasing the album with such a huge competition. Namie Amuros "Ballada" kept 4 weeks in top 3 with emberrasing numbers. currently number 2 single on oricon sold 913 copies ....

I think we shall wait for numbers. Of course it is Avex mistake. But we can not do something. Last week, the album would have been charted no. 1 . current no2. single on oricon sold 913 copies. wtf???

^

Recochoku numbers cover only digital sales =)

Hello new me might be getting Gold Certification (+100k legal downloads) for both ringtone and full song until December if it keeps charting on top 20 for the next months ^^

Lol those kinds of standards are always set by those "hipster" fans who always complain anything that she releases, always say "bring back old ayu" bullshit, call her lazy (and blah blah blah).

These covers are beautiful IMO. Best one in years!

1st Day
Position: #5

http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/d/2014-07-01/

The position is better than I expected tbh

And she's ahead of Tomo-chin✨❤️ Though she's my only bias in AKB lol. Go Ayuma!

Top 5 is still impressive considering the strangeness of the early digital release and being in the music biz as long as she has. Go Ayu!

aYU outsold Tomochin:yes
She better keep it up too...

Less than 33k, I guess she is around 25~27k?

How the mighty have fallen.

And people looking at the bright side of life saying she outsold Tomochin... At least you're trying! :D

If the chart included of the oversea sold number, it would be better.
Less than 30k is so bad for the great album and the impressive advertising method

I don't know why but I was imagining and hoping we'd all be surprised and it would sell like 50k on first day...oh well, it was a Tuesday after all, surely everyones sales will increase closer to the weekend

It's good, I though she would be out of top 5! :)

Wow, the difference between Kisumai and UVERworld by sales numbers is so overwhelming.. I loved their new album too, yet to listen Kisumai's.
And I got Colours too, gonna listen to it soon!
Top5 is still something!

Probably it just happen that people rather actually look on the bright side than go all pessimist and bitter "cough" "cough".

And oh sweety, people are not even trying too. ROFL.

ranks no. 5..that's okay!
she has lots of competitors there..all the jhonny's groups..

For someone that supports/listens to Kisumai since their debut single , I'm frankly surprised at their 1st day sales because they basically outsold the total 1st week sales of the other Johnny's groups that have released albums the past 2 weeks within 1 day lol

And honestly , I was expecting Colours to debut at the bottom 1/2 of the top 10 given that this week there're a lot of tough competition . #5 on the 1st day is already not bad

Feel the love/Merry-go-round's first day was 17,922 and Colours is 2 position behind 33,000 which might mean that it sold around 28,000-30,000 on the first day which is pretty positive (for now) it's going to drop like a rock but hopefully not a lot, we can't know until the end of the week anyway.

It's surprising that it debuted and sold more than tomomi's album. I expected tomomi to be the #5 and ayu #6 today. lol Should we be happy for ayu or sad for Tomomi because it's her debut album? Well I love ayu more and Colours rocks...


Btw if Colours really sold 28,000 or a bit more today so it's great since LOVE again sold 28,016 on the first day. Drops are worse nowadays though and again, we have no way to know that it sold around the 29,000s and not like 20,000, but since Tomomi is close to her and she had singles selling 60,000+ I think it leans towards the 29,000s, hopefully.

This is all rough analyzing theories lol :P

It could even sell 15,000 today if things are really bad (and worse for Tomomi).

Love Again sold 28k on its first day, so this might be similar.
I'll be happy if sales don't drop too much from Love Again to Colours (weekly 56k)

Is it possible we will know the sales of top 10 in a few days? I remember sometimes we had it like 2-3 days after oricon releases their top 3.

I'm not sure, we might have to wait until the end of the week.
If Colours can get 50,000 on the first week then it already exceeds me expectations of 45,000-50,000 in total (yeah I thought that it will be like that), it still somehow might :P but if it will be better it could be awesome.

i think it's just good enough she'd be in Top ten concidering the acts she has to compete with lol

I agree with you =) The numbers might be awesome, PREMIUM SHOWCASE did its job promoting Colours and it's embarrasing to see a post-AKB48 solo singer at #6 with her debut album. Most people thought (including me) that Tomomi would sell out ayu.

1st Week

1st Day
Position: #5

I'm not surprised that Kisumai (Kis-My-Ft2) would take #1 and Ayu wouldn't even take the top three spots. UVERworld was #2, but I'm surprised about Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi taking #3, and Kazumasa Oda (really? he's older than Ayu!) #4...

But what I am really surprised more: Ayu outsold Tomochin (at least for the first day)! I mean, we thought Tomochin would be a threat to Ayu initially, but after what I saw, our minds were thinking: :shakehead

@brener: I think KuuXAyu-fan already said that first. :D

^ @KuuxAyu-fan didn't post the sales using the standart way we've (me and @ayumisrael) been using since a long time, that's why I made another statement on sales.

Sales for idols just don't work the same as for regular solo artists/bands. She's released 5 singles since January 2011. So whilst she was in AKB, it was more of a side project. Before she graduated last year (August/September), she stated she wanted to be a solo artist after she graduated, but since then, has only released one single in April and this album. I'm not sure how much this contributed to the sales, but there are only 4 new songs out of 15.

Singles typically do better than albums for idols. There are obviously exceptions, but it is less common. Her first single after AKB/last single she released sold 42,497. For comparison, the AKB sub-unit 'Not yet' released a single in September 2013, which sold 127,855, and their debut album released in April has sold 86,676. 'Not yet' has 4 members, 2 of which ranked #1 and #2 in the 2013 AKB General Election and were both members at the time of release (one only having graduated last month).

Sorry to go off topic, but I noticed a lot of people seemed to be expecting huge sales from Tomochin due to the AKB name, so thought I'd give some more insight :)

^ Thank you =)

Btw, I just remembered, don't CDJapan, HMV, mu-mo and all those online stores, send their numbers to Oricon only on the weekends? If so, Tomomi might have a higher rise on Sat-Sun I guess.

Although I see where you might be coming from and why you're saying that, but ayu isn't as relevant as she used to be. Expecting her to be in first or second place would be unrealistic with the competition. Her public image isn't as good as it used to be(not sure if it was really clean in her first few years), there have been scandals about her and her relationships and she got older. Her old audience that used to listen to her on their teens and 20s doesn't necessarily still listen to her, people grow up and taste changes. Ayu seems to have less fans nowadays and I think mostly fans will buy this album. Being #5 isn't bad. Apart from that she didn't promote it apart from the tour. How are possible casual listeners supposed to hear the songs when they aren't promoted in TV? (I know there are otherwise but not everyone listens to the radio for example)
I guess people expected high sales from Tomochin since she used to be in AKB, but you never know. (Someone said idol sales aren't that good so that might be the reason :) )

Lol. #5.

Bad: She's #5
Good: She beat AKB soloist!!

Oh wow, I was excpecting an AHS meltdown and pages and pages of people crying her career is over!

At least she's on the top 5, it's good.

I hope now people recognize that it's NOT ayu's problem, it's NOT the songs fault, it's just the trend in Japan for solo artists that is OVER, they are all going downhill, including AKB soloists which are the most popular

I guess you don't know that lots of idols groups (Aside AKB) are having their best-selling releases this year

It's the idol group era now so don't blame ayu

Here, here, let me help you! :yes

Sorry about that, I haven't posted the daily positions in a while.

Good position considering that she didn't make any appereance to promote her album. The Tv lives era has ended, that we know for sure ;___;

I'm not surprised to see her at that spot on the charts. I think it's ok, but I know people may be concerned over how much money she'll be able to make off of her music. I'd say she's doing as well as she possibly can in the kind of economy we live in where people are always downloading music online and not paying for it.

I heard that musicians in America are also having trouble selling music the way they used to. :S

No problem, I would appreciate your help with the sales =)

Musicians in America are still selling well. It's all about digital numbers over here.

^
No, they're not. The music industry is decreasing everywhere. US singers sell better than any other country due to the fact that USA still the biggest music market in the world, but they're also decreasing. Go to billboard archives and you will see. Here's a note about it.

By the way I wonder in what position Colours would be if Oricon had counted the last two weeks of digital sales (recochoku, iTunes, Amazon, etc...). It debuted at #3 on Recochoku Weekly Albums a week ago and it was #13 this week. On Daily Albums Colours was #6 today, she was supposed to #5 if Recochoku didn't count whole singles as albums (there's AAA's new single above her).

http://i.imgur.com/HNNBeTx.png

Number 5 sounds great to me!

#5 doesn't sound too bad, but what I'm really curious about are the sales.
The chart positions are relative.

^ yeah I can't wait for the numbers next Wednesday >.<

So.......the 24 Hour Party Music! cover is seriously terrifying! :roflmao

I can't help but crack up at the fact that Ayumi's on the charts with some......unique competition.....like the reggae party hits cd. XD XD XD

I work in one of the oldest & largest (in terms of inventory) CD & vinyl retailers in the NY/NJ metro area. By today's standards, we're considered more of a 'niche speciality' shop because that's how foreign buying physical music is to people. My older co-workers remember the period from 1980's through the early noughties where new music releases were considered EVENTS (think of Britney/boyband/teen pop explosion in USA and A BEST vs. DISTANCE in Japan).

People are just on a different level of consumption now.

Personally, I don't think physical sales or even legal downloads are the be-all, end-all predictor of popularity or relevance. I've seen J-pop fans claim that Japanese fans are less likely to download illegally, but I've seen no evidence of Japanese consumers being staunch advocates of anti-piracy, and I bet they'd be less likely overall to admit they were illegally downloading music due to the shame they'd feel for taking part in that.

'Pop music' is undoubtedly suffering the most in terms of physical sales. An overwhelming majority of our clientele seem to be fans of independent rock music and/or over 35 years old, a demographic for whatever reason that seems to still appreciate tangible music. With the exception of 1D—the supposed 'big names' in pop like Beyonce, Timberlake, Gaga, Lea Michele, Rihanna would be considered total flops if you just went by the physical sales from our shop (and we are doing quite well, thanks to 'hipsters' and the revival of vinyl).

Studies have actually shown that people are now listening to more music than ever before, but the democratization of music has changed a lot of things—for instance, from this HuffPo article:

And this article is only from 2008. The democratization is occurring on an even larger scale now. I can't speak for Japan, but I think it's a huge problem in that the current media consumption landscape doesn't seem to allow for a canon. A few acquaintances of mine and I were discussing Beyonce the other day and her massive 'popularity' and 'cultural relevance' but we couldn't hum the melody of any of her current songs and noted how incredibly weak her back catalog is, or rather, seems to be.

LOL I was more surprised with SxWxAxG's position XD

Except in Japan which is increasing since 2011 :P

And the only place where digital music industry is decreasing too

tomochin's covers are so stupid and funny lol

im totally getting this album


I guess ayu's album placed....just where everyone thought it would lol

Honestly I feel like what I'm about to say is just going to fall on deaf ears and will be dismissed, but eff it, I'm going to say it anyways.

I am not one bit surprised by this ranking because honestly this is her most lazy release yet. There was not ONE promotional activity for this album. Usually she'd have Yahoo Stream, or some other stuff, but this time there was absolutely zero coverage for this album. Maybe there was one 15 second news segment about her PV, but on the internet it just turned into a bash fest of her voice and how she looks.

For those of you who don't live in Japan, please don't take this the wrong way, but you don't actually know what's going on in Japan unless you see it for yourself. Ayu is 100% over, there is no one on the streets that will admit to liking her, and most of the time it is actually because they don't like her. Out of a nation of more than 100,000,000 people, filling a 17,000 seat arena is absolutely nothing to a pop star that once commanded Tokyo Dome. She used to be the one you skipped school for, you stayed up for, and waited at TV stations for her arrival. Now, very few people actually care because it looks like she doesn't care.

I am going to be 100% blunt and say her voice in this album absolutely sucks. It is nasally, not powerful at all, jacked up with auto-tune and reverb, and half the time she is yelling. Like her voice in Terminal is the hardest thing for me to listen to. Everyone is like "Her voice is so much deeper than before, that's why," But I challenge you to listen to Feel the Love or Merry-go-Round and then skip to a song to Rainbow, like close to you, and you can hear that her voice isn't deeper - she just sucks using her voice now.

I feel so absolutely frustrated because these songs could have been so much better, but they all sound like she decided super last minute that she wanted to make an album, did not prepare her voice for it, and just was like "HIDE IT WITH EVERY PLUG IN EVER!!!!" She is struggling in everything, and I dunno. The first time I heard the album in full, I'm just like "AKJHAKDJHSKJHASKJDAHSDSKJKHDSA" and I wanted to cry because this isn't the Ayu that I grew up listening to. I feel ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from this album.

I don't even know where this is going, but I'm so incredibly sad. It doesn't really matter that she is putting in effort for real, or whatever, the fact is that to most people she looks like she's fallen off the rails, she's a drunk, and she doesn't really care about music anymore, only marrying foreigners and living in LA. And it really sucks because there are long time fans who are now believing that she actually has turned into that person, and now for me, with Colours, I don't even know anymore. I'm so so so so so disappointed.

She should have retired right after Love songs release. Guess she can't do it because she loves money and wants more & more.

Oh well, I expected #3, but #5 is so... low. At least though she outsold Tomochin. Poor girl, she actually promoted her album and was really active. It's sad that babaa did nothing except showcase and still outsold her. I feel sorry for her. Hope she continues to fight.

Honestly there're many artistes that release albums on a yearly basis but at least they do put in decent amount of effort to get their albums promoted . Doesn't mean you're the most famous person out there means you solely can rely on your name to get your work heard , promo is still important/vital

From the way I see it , in recent times , the amount of promo coming from ayumi has been getting lesser & now with the release of her most recent material , it looks as though she doesn't care anymore + for a longtime fan like myself , it's really sad & it reflects really badly on her

It feels as though , ok I will release 1 album every year for the sake of doing so in order to fulfil the terms/conditions of the contract I signed with avex :no

It's quite appealing to know that the ayumi then & now is the exact same person , except fame probably has changed her a significant deal for the worst :no

And yeah people can complain that she has been outsold by Kisumai + UVERworld but if she put in some 1/2 decent effort , she probably could get #3 overall but now I'm not so sure

I absolutely want to hug you right now. I feel mostly the same. I enjoy the album on a shallow level (I actually like voices that do what hers is doing for most of this album - Angel is the only place on the album where I feel like she's just plain doing it wrong), but as a long-time Ayu fan. I don't like it as an Ayu album at all for those exact reasons.

The connection between us and her just seems to be totally severed.

Coelacanth mentioned above that there's a lack of canon in the japanese pop music world, and that's so true. There can't be one because there's never critical analysis of any of it. I feel like Ayu has always been very deliberate and careful about her presentation, but over the years she's collected a team of "yes" men who just do whatever she says, but she has no one correcting her, making her aware of things she's doing wrong, or helping guide her so she uses her greatest talents most effectively and hands off the things she's bad at to other people.

This album, for example, has proven that Ayu and her team are NOT filmmakers and should never be in charge of making the videos ever ever ever again. Ever. But she'll do it again because NO ONE around her is telling her not to.

It's a bad habit she got into over a decade ago - doing things she's not talented enough to do, while suppressing the things she's best at. Because she has no one guiding her. There are no J-pop critics whose reviews she can read and say "Okay, I won't do that anymore." There aren't people telling her objectively that an outfit she's wearing doesn't look good on her. Her three sources of input are fans who are fervently for or against absolutely everything, hikikomori internet bashers, and the "okay boss whatever you say" types that work for her. That's not an environment where high quality creative output can thrive.

And yeah, what's really upsetting is that over the years, we've SEEN the greatness she's capable of. Every now & then she'll have a great piece of work that restores my faith in her at least partially, but they prove to be teases - in the end, she goes back to phoning it in, making something safe and boring and disconnected just for the sake of making something. And no one is truly helping guide her towards doing truly great work. She has worshippers and haters, but no true lovers of her work that are helping her be the best she can be. And it's really upsetting.

But I've been watching this downward spiral of the Hamasaki Ayumi product for years, and I knew it'd get to this point eventually. The alterna video ended up coming true, and it's killing me to watch it happen.

That's totally nonsense because Tomochin who got #6 did SEVERAL TV appareances, CMs, news coverage and promotional events lol

I think Ayu is capable of better. I think we all do. I hope she reads some of these comments, because as snarky as some of our posts may be, some of us mean it passionately and constructively (there's also a lot of trolls here that just have nowhere else to be though).

I remember complaining about the "yes-men" surrounding Ayu around the time of Mirrorcle World when her photoshoots, PV's, and overall image started to take a huge dive. It's gotten much much much much worse though since then. Her staff is everywhere. She needs to regain control of HER career and HER art.

I have to say, unlike some of you I still think her music is pretty damn good (especially relative to most J-pop)... Visuals though are god awful. Might be a good concept, but poor execution. However, I've always thought there was a disconnect between her image/PV's and her music. Her only stellar PV's IMO are the Kouki Tange ones, Endless sorrow, Don't look back, and maybe a few others. The rest are merely acceptable to downright embarrassing/bizarre. There's almost a camp factor to many of her recent ones...

Anyway, I hope Ayu starts seriously reflecting on her work and the state of her career.

EDIT: I wish some of you here would stop giving Japanese xenophobia a pass. The fact that it's SUCH a spectacle and joke that Ayu is marrying "foreigners" (why does this seem to be uttered with a kind of contempt?) and choosing to reside in the U.S. isn't something to take lightly.

Her voice in Terminal was my favorite thing on the whole album. I was floored at how beautiful it was.

Then again I've been a hardcore fan since 2003 and Party Queen is my #1 favorite album from her. I don't even listen to most of her albums pre-2005 anymore because they just don't do anything for me anymore.

My only real gripe is the lack of cohesiveness on this album. It doesn't seem to have any real theme, but I love the tracks individually. I feel like this is half her albums though so whatever.

I stopped caring about PVs years ago. I feel like most music videos in general don't really do anything anymore other than try to be visually appealing, so I've lost interest.

I've lived in Japan numerous times, and people always looked at me in surprise when I told them Ayu was my favorite artist. Japanese friends my age say they think of me every time they see/hear Ayu because I am the only Ayu fan they know. None of them dislike her though. It's more like they're super indifferent. In fact after I fangirl they often go get one of her albums for a nostalgia bop since they grew up with her on the radio. But I wouldn't expect them to suddenly start stanning her, lol. (I once had a Japanese friend who would get in fights with her bf and come over to my place to watch AT concerts because it cheered her up, lmao)

I guess what I'm saying is that I honest to God do not care what place she gets on the charts. I do agree about the yes men, but as someone else said that's been going on for years and it's probably never gonna stop. But I'm still happy with what she puts out (2011/2012 was a grand time to be alive~) and if she enjoys her life that's all I ultimately care about. Her relevancy is pretty much dead but it's kinda like shrug and move on man.