Your Ayu origin story
 

How did you find Ayu?

I'm sure there's many different and many interesting stories, especially with Ayu fans spread through all the furthest corners of the planet.

I discovered Ayu on a Sunday in March of 2003 (the 16th, I believe) at 18 years old. That morning I had been listening to one of my favourite soundtracks to one of my favourite video games, Yasunori Mitsuda's Chrono Cross. As much as I loved that soundtrack, I was in the habit of skipping the one vocal track it featured (called Radical Dreamers ~ Unstolen Jewel in one of its translations) - not because I didn't like it, but because I for some other reason thought I wouldn't like it. Nonsense of course, but this was the state of the world just before I discovered Ayu later that day; of course, it would never be the same. :D

As I was tidying my room and playing the Chrono Cross soundtrack, at some point I found myself too far from the CD player to skip the vocal track as it came up, and I thus found myself listening to it properly for the first time by accident. I was awestruck. How the hell had I skipped this track for so long? It was beautiful! I must've listened to it a whole bunch of times that day and started craving more. Unfamiliar with other music like it and not knowing how to find more of it, I started looking for what I assumed might be it: J-pop. After all, it was pleasant Japanese vocal music. J-pop seemed a fair bet.

I remember it being just before dinner time (around 5 in the afternoon, we eat fairly early dinner in The Netherlands), my parents cooking in the kitchen, me at the family computer in the middle of the living room, firing up KaZaA - then the P2P-program of choice, after Napster and Audiogalaxy had gone down and just before I discovered DC++ - and typing in J-pop to see what I could find. A host of files popped up and I downloaded a bunch at random, picking two per artist that I could discern. I distinctly remember a few things: that I definitely downloaded tracks of Hikki, Ayu and BoA; that the first J-pop song I then listened to was a Hikki song (but I don't remember which, just that I didn't care for it); and that I then put on SEASONS and was instantly, utterly and completely sold for life.

I proceeded to delete all the other (non-Ayu) tracks, and downloaded as many other Ayu songs as I could then find to add to those two I had downloaded initially (in addition to SEASONS, I had also downloaded AUDIENCE). I spent the rest of my evening, after dinner, listening to those tracks on end and browsing the web to find more information about this wonderful Ayumi Hamasaki. I had never had an artist crush before (naturally, since most of my listening before that consisted of hairy punk and metal dudes), but Ayu floored me instantly and entirely. At the end of the night, I had read up on Ayu's history, amassed a wealth of awesome pics (I loved the Uraayu ones most of all) and burnt a selection of tracks to a CDr that I kept next to my bed that night as I fell asleep.




How about everyone else?

ayu was a hidden jem for me. I first listened to j-pop in 2008. I was in an emotional crisis and watched some "nonsense videos" that were just stupid snippets from shows and were overlayed with J-Pop music. I downloaded 4 of them, Utada Hikarus >>wait and see<<, Ayaka Hiraharas >>voyagers<<, Aoyama Thelmas >>soba ni iru ne<< and Ayus >>heaven<<.
I liked the songs but had no idea who these artists were.

Some day, I googled "Japans best artist" and, of course, Ayu was in it. so I looked into my mp3 player and saw that I have been listening to some song of hers. I listened to quite an amount of songs and fell in love to end roll, blue bird or mirrocle world.
Her next level album was about to be released and it was my first release. NEXT LEVEL (the song) helped me through a lot of personal crisis. Since then, I have never let go from her. Her opening performance during the cdl 09-10 with I am is still legendary for me.
I enyoed her road to 50th single, her mini albums and full length albums. Sixxxxx had a huge impact on me, 3 song winter single and a one as well. I shared so much with ayu.

My Ayu story also starts with KaZaA!

Years ago I was a member of a Gameboy Advance forum (lol) and made a lot of friends there, including a girl who went by the username kenage at the time. She lived in California and was very into Japanese music, games, etc. As we were talking one day she suggested I download the video for Ayu's Kanariya from KaZaA, saying that it was her new single. This was early ~2001 so it was actually not new anymore, and Duty was still relatively new at that point. I also downloaded Hikki's Can You Keep a Secret? video at the same time.

I had been into anime and her a lot of music from shows, but not real J-Pop at that point. I remember I went back and forth between Ayu and Hikki for a while in the early days, but Ayu soon won out. I was so enamored with the Kanariya video, and I downloaded everything I could find of hers, bought a few things from eBay, etc. And I've never looked back.

I've always enjoyed animes and games' japanese openings and endings (Pokémon, DragonBall GT...), but two specific songs caught my attention at that time and both were related to the same franchise: Yae's Kazenon for FF Crystal Chronicles (GameCube), and Kumi's real emotion for FFX2. I used to watch those teasers in heavy rotation just for the music but I never took time to explore more of Yae and Kumi's discography...

Forward to september 2004: I was assigned a project in high school (for english class, which is my 3rd language) to present a music style and an artist from the world, so I rushed to japanese music (obviously, duh!), typed Jpop in Wikipedia (there wasn't Youtube yet at that moment), and chose Ayu because of her impressive achievements. I remember CAROLS was about to be released, the official website was playing a snippet from the MV and I think it was just love at first sight. The scene on the merry-go-round alone was enough to convince me to stan that woman, CAROLS is still to this day my top1 ballad... xD Then came MY STORY and I remember all the excitement when she was dropping walking proud and Humming 7/4... Ayu's still my #1 artist since 18 years, no one could ever come near that spot, that alone is an achievement...

I've posted "my" story years ago but happy to repeat it here.

I've always been interested in streaming video, long before streaming services were a thing. I was always on the lookout for random sites streaming (typically) news, as I always thought it was interesting to hear about world events being told from completely different perspectives. And hearing about things that - here in Canada - local news outlets wouldn't bother reporting at all.

So one day I found some random site - I couldn't remember the name even if I tried, it's long been shut down...it had dozens of pages each with dozens of links for videos originating from all over the world and covering things like news, sports, TV series, movies...quite the treasure trove, although it was a rather nasty site that didn't shy away from showing endless popups. One link caught my attention - it had a title that read something like "watch live Japanese superstars". My immediate thought was, that could be interesting - I have no idea who the equivalent to a household name like Madonna might be in Japan, and was curious to find out whether I might have heard of any of these "superstars". So I started watching - and going back to it day after day. It didn't take long for me to realize that (a) obviously none of it was live (b) it was all music videos, not concerts as I thought the title might have been inferring and (c) after I started paying attention, I realized the named artist was always the same - although she looked quite different in every video, so had I just casually glanced at the videos rather than looking for the name, it would've taken a long time for me to realize this was all the same person - someone by the name of "Ayumi Hamasaki". Never heard of her.

Once I saw the name, I started googling...found her discography...downloaded a lot of MP3s...and was so impressed that over time, not only had I purchased *all* of her full-length albums, but also all EPs and some remix albums...then moved onto *all* of her yearly concert tours and live countdowns. So that little bit of streaming resulted in me buying essentially her entire catalog.

Awesome! Just curious where you are from? The fact that you would just happen to come across something with Jpop in it was, at least back when I got into Ayu, entirely unthinkable, but of course that may depend on where you're based.

Haha, awesome! I'm sure all the piracy back then we had to do just to discover our favourite artists ultimately paid back aplenty - I also bought quite a few Ayu things back then, with what little budget my student self had.

Super cool! What is your second language? (I assume French is your first.) What a time to get into Ayu, huh? I can so much remember the excitement when new things would drop and then rushing to Yesasia to order them, haha. Great times. And yes, 19 years down the line for me, if I was asked who my favourite artist is I would definitely still say Ayu!

Haha, such an awesome story too!

Again, all those little tasters - KaZaA, streaming - must have lined Avex' pockets quite a bit! :roflmao

[QUOTE=sxesven;3351741]Awesome! Just curious where you are from? The fact that you would just happen to come across something with Jpop in it was, at least back when I got into Ayu, entirely unthinkable, but of course that may depend on where you're based.

I'm from Germany. In Germany, a lot of people and kids were watching (and probably are still) animes. The kids program was full of animes. from 12AM to 6PM. I totally think that a lot of people came across jpop without knowing. :-)

Nice! We definitely had Japanese animated shows here, but true anime was rarer until Dragonball Z got very popular when I was around 16. Even then, it does not seem to have spurred much interest back then (especially not in Jpop), though I see a lot of my students now that are into anime or Kpop (usually these are not the same kids though, haha).

I became an Ayu fan in 2004 after listening to Hikki, BoA & Kuu, Ayu seemed like the next logical step. Got to admit I was a bit wary after reading about her vocals but thought I should give her a go. I was in a bit of a ballad mood after enjoying BoA's Winding Road and fell in love with the A Ballads cover. after looking up her albums for reviews on YesAsia.

As soon as I heard the opening of Rainbow I was in even if this was the only song I liked on the album. I love the CD booklet and design too - so elegant! And I've been a fan ever since.

Also I love how your origin story ties into Chrono Cross - I am currently playing it for the first time!

My origin was really simple. I was a kid, 10-12 probably, staying up too late to watch Inu-Yasha (my favorite anime at the time) on Adult Swim. I heard "Dearest" for the first time and thought it was really pretty. I think, at first, I was more into the Do As Infinity stuff (so Fukai Mori and Shinjitsu no Uta), but I did some early internet research on who these songs and performers were. I remember finding a website solely dedicated to Rumiko Takahashi and all her works (InuYasha included).There was a whole section dedicated to the singers / bands that provided songs for the series. I found out Ayu's name and found more songs from there. I remember very distinctly going on Windows Media Player (y'all, this was the early 2000's, okay?) and looking her up and finding "M" and "evolution". I loved "evolution" right away, but was absolutely gobsmacked at "M". I literally thought it was the most beautiful song I had ever heard. I've kinda been obsessed with Ayu ever since lol

I can imagine, the RAINBOW artwork is my favourite to this day. I also remember being amazed at the song itself (and the bit of confusion over how RAINBOW, the song, was NOT on RAINBOW, the album, haha).

Oh, wow, I hope you're enjoying it! It's probably still my favourite game of all time. Everything about is just massively amazing. The first time I played it I was 15 and I played it with a friend, it was so much fun. I've played it a bunch of times since and I also really enjoyed watching a great Let's Play of it (by lucahjin).

I'm curious, how did you encounter Hikki, BoA and Kuu? While I had a vague notion of the existence of J-pop I knew nothing about it (let alone any artists) and my infatuation was just the lucky result of downloading randomly some stuff in KaZaA. I didn't even know where to look though!

Super cool. So young too! Thinking back to these times on the internet is so nostalgic, haha. Uncovering something like Ayu was like finding a rare gem, you made your way through this web of obscure fanpages and websites to arrive at - well, who knew? (Ayu for all of us, fortunately :bgiggle)

I discovered ayu when she released YOU and then I didn't follow her up until she released LOVEppears. At the time, the almost naked album cover / single cover were really big deal.

And then I met a group of ayu fans in Hong Kong on a MSN newsgroup (For those who doesn't know what it is: You need to use Outlook to connect it, and tt stopped at 2002)
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-a...group-support/

However, the group members had lots of drama when ayu visited Hong Kong for the first time. One or two guys took all the group members budget / prints to support ayu and organize to show ayu only for them (these two guys). These two guys threw member's gift for ayu and did not give them to ayu when they met ayu. Many group members were pissed and tried to approach ayu to complain.

Around the same time, I joined this site, and we had the joke about EGG in I am... era. We got the rumor about the 4th album called NATURAL with a song called EGG.

Good times :laugh

https://svenkay.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/egg.png

Damn, you were an early adopter! Crazy. Do you remember how you came across YOU or was it just around? (You're from HK I guess?)

I was like 5 or 6 years old, around 2000, my brother was already in high school and into anime/japanese music so I got interested as well at that age, we were a lot into L'arc en Ciel at the time (well, still we are lol) and one day he got a VHS from a friend with some L'arc MVs and some others jrock/jpop random ones. YOU and Trust MVs (not sure about Trust, memory is foggy tbh but I remember clearly YOU and another Ayu MV) were in that VHS and it was instant love, some years later when Internet become more accessible where I lived it was a matter of time I remembered that "cute japanese singer" from the VHS and started looking for her until I found her and never stopped loving her since then :)

Ha, awesome, and so young!

Also, damn, L'arc en Ciel, I've not heard that name in a long time, going to check out some of their stuff again! :3

sort of, been away the jail city many years.
tbh, I discovered YOU at Yahoo.co.jp auction when I tried to find sailor moon, saint seiya merch... LMAO

What got me attention at the time was the small size CD.. I was like "wow Japan always has something different... well weird.. how to play this CD?"

I first discovered Ayu in 2012 (either May or June).

I was listening to Ivi Adamou’s “Sose Me” on YouTube and scrolling the comments, and I saw a comment saying “Ayumi Hamasaki’s version is better, it’s called Tell Me Why”, so I looked up the song and found it on YouTube with a lyrics version and I was completely obsessed.

I was just about to start high school at the time, so I decided to take Japanese as a subject for my exams and then went on to study Japanese in college and am currently living in Tokyo! My entire life pivoted from reading that YouTube comment. If the person who wrote that on Ivi Adamou’s MV is on this forum, I owe them so much for how my life has turned out.

I discovered Ayu in early 2005, I was 19 (now 36 !) I had a blog about manga and Japan and in my research of japanese music (I already listened to music from animes) I discovered "evolution". I thought it was weird at the first time ! I really fell for Ayu with Step You which was just released ! I started listening to all her discography, I searched for information...

And finally, one year later, I opened my first website about her (Ayu Paradise). I always think it is my love for Ayu who helped me to become who I am and do what I love the most in life and in my job.

Such cool stories again!

Damn, Irish_Ayu_Fan, that's insane! To think that it was just that single comment, hah, incredible. I wonder if you'll ever find out who it was, they might have roamed these forums at some point!

CeReSu, super cool, so much respect for all the people who ran these amazing websites back in the 00s - they were incredible resources for everyone, I'm sure. I certainly relied on them heavily! (Divine Ayu was my most frequented!)

I discovered Ayu in 2018. After researching her discography in Wikipedia, I started to have interest on her music. To know her music in a more abridged and summarized way, I searched on YouTube for her CMs. This is the first video I've watched from her. It helped me analyze how her music keeps growing on and on starting from her debut to the present time.

https://youtu.be/P636jZXFCnY

After watching the CM collection video, I listen to her music bit by bit. I started at her debut album A Song for XX, which up until now, it's still my favorite album overall. Then, I searched Ayu's appearance in variety shows. And one of them is Ayuready. I saw how she's very energetic, polite, and bubbly towards her guest in her show. My favorite episode was with Every Little Thing. And as of now, she's still my most favorite J-pop singer aside from other artists like Utada Hikaru, Namie Amuro, Seiko Matsuda, Akina Nakamori, Mr.Children, Glay, L'Arc~en~ciel, and Every Little Thing.

I wonder anyone discovered ayu when they saw EGG....

I have been questioning myself that for two decades.

I got into Hikki via Kingdom Hearts (cliched I know! Esp as I don't have a lot of time for the franchise these days) and got their Deep River and Colours CDs for Xmas 2003 through Amazon. I had previously discovered CD Japan after looking for somewhere to buy the Silent Hill 3 soundtrack so knew somewhere I could buy JPop from. Around the time I got into Hikki, FFX2 was coming out so I decided to buy the albums of the artists who did both the English and Japanese version which got me into Kuu (and Sweetbox). I remember at the time I was putting in my first few JPop orders CDJapan were advertising Feel My Mind so I was intrigued by what Kumi's music was like.

After that I was looking up information on Hikki online and came across the Hikaru-Online forums and from there found threads on BoA, Namie and Ayu.

I used to love browsing through fansites, looking at the affiliates for websites of other singers I liked. There was a lot of great avatars and wallpapers on these sites too. I used to spend ages reading the lyric translations on Divine Ayu.

They were various events for me
1) Watch InuYasha on TV -> Get into BoA -> Who are the other song singers?
2) Ayumi Hamasaki and Aikawa Nanase were very popular on forums and KaZaA -> Downloaded RAINBOW album, I loved it
4) Downloaded whole discography, I was stressed out by the numbers of songs and CDs -> Delete all her discography, I also deleted BoA's discography I thought she was too cheesy at that time
3) Saw Boys & Girls PV on TV -> starting again to gain interest on her
4) Bought Memorial address from Amazon because the cover was cute -> It turned out Memorial address was an amazing album!

oh my gawdddddddd :roflmao

Mine started end of 2005, I was 14 and quite into mangas and one of my friends at school had downloaded some J-pop songs online (eMule, thank you!) and made us listen to them as they were 'funny' - the first Ayu song I ever heard was 'WE WISH', then 'evolution'.. and that was it.
I noted the name down and went on eMule that same evening to find more songs to add to my mp3. I remember downloading evolution, About You, My Name's Women, Ourselves and SEASONS.
The rest is history, downloaded more and more, burnt CDs with pretty homemade covers - lol, annoyed all my family with Ayu and playing her songs in the living room, started buying albums ((miss)understood was my first) and DVDs to watch her perform live (I lost count of how many times I've watched the Arena Tour 2006), find fan website to gather all the info and photos I could (Ayu Paradise, AyuAngel, I'm looking at you :luv2)... Never looked back.
I went to a Kuu / BoA / Yuna Ito phase, but Ayu is the only one that stuck all those years... 17 years and counting!

I discovered Ayu when I was 15 back in 2002. Me and my brother were into anime at the time so my only experience of Japanese music was through intros/outros and I had a few on my Winamp playlist. My brother had built his own anime review website so had made a few friends through it and one of them sent him 'Boys & Girls'. I remember him being quite smug, playing it to me and saying it was a "proper" J-pop song and not from an anime. I thought it was OK and added it to my playlist.

Boys & Girls happened to play when I was bored one afternoon so I decided to Google 'Ayumu Hamazaki'. I found a website that listed all of her singles, including their chart placement and how much they had sold. I was really surprised to see how popular she was and decided to do some more research. LOVE ~destiny~ was the first song I downloaded and I loved it. To this day it gives me a really nostalgic feel. The next one was evolution and that was that. I was a fan. (Spent an absolute AGE searching for 'A' and I remember being really annoyed about it before I realised that even though it was a single, it was 4 separate songs and none them were titled 'A' haha). I asked for the RAINBOW album for my birthday in January 2003 and it was my most treasured possession haha.

Funnily enough, my brother never got into J-pop and thought I was weird for liking it so much. However without him I wouldn't have found so many artists who I still love, wouldn't have seen the smattering who have performed in the UK and wouldn't have travelled all the way to Japan 12 years ago to see Ayu in concert. So I owe him a lot for my great experiences :yes

Haha, damn, I love reading all your stories, so awesome! Clearly anime was a gateway for many people, understandably (we barely got any anime here though, so no dice - though I personally also don't really watch anime).

@visionfactory: I can only imagine the stress, hahaha, I've been trying to catch up to what I missed and even though I've now pretty much heard everything I hadn't I am still trying to figure out what my favourites are among the newer material. I've really been enjoying LOVE again for instance (among many other things of course) and every time I play it and hear something great I check what song is playing and am like, ah of course! But then the next time I play it exact same thing happens :bgiggle Also funny because it's basically like every song catches my ear because of its awesomeness :biggle

@Lyssayu: very recognizable in some aspects (like annoying everyone :bgiggle) and I also had a bunch of phases (for a while Hikki displaced Ayu, for instance, I still love Hikki to absolute death btw) but Ayu always comes out on top and is probably my most consistently loved and consistently listened-to singer. Also the one that has managed to evoke the most extreme emotions, from utter elation to whatever is the exact opposite of that :roflmao

@powpowparn: So awesome! I'm so jelly of all these people that have been to one or even a whole bunch of Ayu concerts! I think if c. 2003 you had given me a magic lamp and three wishes it would probably have been see Ayu in real life, see Ayu in real life and see Ayu in real life :roflmao

I think it was about 2002 when I knew Ayu because of a magazine from Spain named Dokan about manga, anime and JPop. In one number, there was an article about Ayu, and it included an CD with some songs, mainly from A BEST, which was my first Ayu album. Since then I'm an Ayu-fan :)

Super cool! Do you still have that CD (or do you remember what was on it)?

Yes I do, I still have that CD. It included A Song for XX, Trust, Depend on you, LOVE ~Destiny~, WHATEVER (I think it was some of the Ferry Corsten remixes) and some more.

Wow, that's awesome. Discogs has another Dokan CD in their database, how amazing that that even existed back then!

If possible could you share some pics?

I have to remember where I have the CD, check if it still works, taking some pictures and uploading them, but I can try, if you're interested :)

That would be awesome :3

Mid December 2000, while using Napster (really showing my age here :laugh). It was half a live recording of Far Away. I had to go to my school Christmas play straight after I listened to it, but it was stuck in my head the entire time and I couldn't really concentrate on anything else - it was like one of those life changing moments/epiphanies you see in films etc... and I knew then and there I was hooked. I'd already been dipping my toe into Jpop for about a year or two before this, but then and there I decided I was all in lol.

Moved through Napster, to Audio Galaxy, To Kazaa and then DC++ (which was INCREDIBLE back in the day) while trying to amass as much of her music as possible. I remember spending almost 2 to download the Dome Tour dvd rip on dial up internet, and seeing her perform live in that concert blew my tiny 14 year old mind.

I've never looked back ^^


EDIT: Also, the True OG's will always remember EGG lmao

Damn, this is the first I learnt how you discovered Ayu, awesome. The epiphany feeling I think many of us recognize!

Do you know how you had found Jpop initially (before you discovered Ayu)?

Also, Napster, haha! By the time I discovered Ayu it was no longer around (at least not in its original form). I did use it for a long time though (that, then AudioGalaxy, KaZaA, Limewire, DC++... and then blogs with MegaUpload and such, I think).

Yeah it took a lot of times but I really loved these moments and I really loved working on the web, creating content and wallpapers, sharing news... that I decided a few years after the opening of my website to study webdevelopment ! Since 10 years now, I'm a digital webdeveloper ! Always thanked Ayu for that because I wasn't happy in my first job and thanks to her, I do a job that I like every day :)

It was in 2003.

At this time, I was a big fan of Final Fantasy and the X-2 was about to be released.
A fan made two videos about it and the background music moved me. Like never before.

The only hint I had were thin. "M" and "Naturally" which were on the video in a corner.

I did not know at this time that they were both remixes (M above and Beyond and naturally dolly remix).

So i started to download EVERY song called M and naturally on emule/kazaa.
Once I finally found the right ones, I had the proper title and artist.

From these proper foundations, I've started to download the songs of this artist, Ayumi Hamasaki which was unknown to me. Man, the more I was downloading and listening the more I enjoyed her music.

20 years later, I keep listening to her music every single day of my life and had the chance to meet her twice (London and Paris), to see 2 concerts in Yokohama.

I'll never thank enough this guy who made these videos. :)

I actually remember exactly how I found Jpop. I got a bit bored a while back and started writing about my musical history, just to try and put some thoughts/memories into words. This if from that:
OMG rereading that doc (which I wrote about 2 years ago) I actually give a mention to... sxesven for introducing me to Shiina Ringo lmao.

So amazing reading all these stories and how much impact Ayu has had on everyone here... very moving :love

i found out about ayu around Spring of 2021, mainly because of an oomf on twitter who stans her but also from looking up info on the biggest acts in japan. before that i was mainly a lamb and a kpop stan (still am~) and so as u guys know, Mariah is the most successful western act in Japan and also kpop acts usually also debut in Japan, which is why i liked looking for that info. i was mostly unfamiliar with jpop music other than vocaloid songs and a hikaru utada phase i had in 2019 (i got back into them this year with the release of the spectacular album Bad Mode). Naturally, ayu being the icon that she is and having sold as many records as she has, she appeared towards the top of these lists and was usually referenced in regards to Japan’s top popstars of all time. i was pretty impressed with her accolades, so i decided to check out what music she had. i’m not gonna lie i felt a bit overwhelmed when i saw that she had more albums than Mariah (which already has an extensive discography and took me a while to finish it), but i decided to pick something based on some factors:
- how much my mutuals have mentioned it
- which title/artwork intrigued me the most
and that ended up being LOVEppears! at first i didn’t listen to the whole album, and only listened to “appears” since it seemed like the closest thing to the title track (also the single cover looked crazy [not particularly in a good way if i’m being quite honest:dead2] to me so i thought “what could this song possibly sound like?”) and i IMMEDIATELY fell in love. i kept hitting repeat again and again and subsequently i ended up listening to the full album (and absolutely adoring it) which is what ultimately inspired me to start listening to her other albums.

fast forward to now, and ayu is my second most listened to artist of all time on lastfm, and she ended up being my most streamed artist of 2021 with loveppears and appears being the most streamed album and song respectively. it is always so nice to find artists that just click immediately with me, and the fact that she’s able to connect with people like me who don’t know Japanese based on just her sound and passion alone, makes me admire her so much more!!

i know i’m super late to the ayu party and it’s true that one of these days she might want to step away from singing to focus on her personal life, which i wouldn’t blame her especially after so many years! but until that day and even afterwards, i will continue to love and support ayu dearly!! <3

This joke is all I needed to start my day greatful... and to quit lurking around and actually post in your thread. Love watching you making this forum talkactive again! And. I should give you the secret handshake I give you to all the dutchies around here.

Actually, I wish my origin story is cool as well, but unfortunately somebody (I used to know) introduced Ayu by blasting Beautiful Fighters in the car. We had drama in high school (I don't wanna get ugly in here, but I will never forgive her for how she handled it) around the time Ayu released Rock 'n' Roll Circus. So we basically had three years enjoying Ayu and this forum together. I am not worried she will be reading this, since she is no fan of Ayu anymore, and if she does... well, hello, hope you are having a good life.

But since we liked different songs of Ayu, I like to tell I heard GAME someday, and was immediately hooked. Which is true. GAME is the song that made me fan. And to this day, I still love to chat about Ayu and blast her music in the car and play "let me guess the song by listening 1 second to the intro, just to show off" with my dates. I know it is not really an amazing skill, but I am actually proud of it, haha.

Just gave you the secret handshake back, hope no one saw :bgiggle

Yay for fellow Dutchies! I know we exist - my first fellow Ayu fan was my friend in secondary school (he was also active here but I can't recall his username, I should look for it). We lost touch over time, I'm not sure if he still listens to Ayu. Then when I started art academy I had a classmate who was also into Jpop, rhat was an awesome surprise. We went after school to scour the Chinese gift shops around town for Asian pop releases. I occasionally found some Jpop, but it was mostly Cpop. I did find an Ayu poster or two though (not official but awesome nonetheless). She was not into Ayu much by the way, she was a.big Ayu fan. We lent each other some CDs, then we both quit school and lost touch (pre-social media and pre-smart phones), through which she ended up with my copy of Kelly Chen's A Movie (I replaced it recently) and I with her copy of Ayu's WHATEVER.

Beyond these two peeps I have not met anyone who knows Ayu in real life, unfortunately!

Haha, your skill is the bomb, totally impressive!

Shame your friendship ended on a bitter note but glad it didn't affect your fandom.

Also, this post reminds me I should start blasting Ayu in the car more. Kind of loving the idea of playing Beautiful Fighters at mad volume while cruising!

@LOONAppears: super awesome that you came to the fandom so recently. I don't think it changes a thing for anyone here, if anything it is just awesome to see the affirmation that Ayu's still got it! (I mean, us old farts don't really count, huh :bgiggle)

@bulmasfan: such a great read! (And thanks for the Ringo credit, haha!)

My Dokan CD still works! :D
It includes the following songs in MP3 format:

A Song for ××
Endless sorrow
LOVE ~Destiny~
M
SEASONS
SURREAL
teddy bear
Trauma
Trust
WHATEVER

For some reason, where it says "teddy bear", it is not ayu's teddy bear. In fact, it happens to be Ghostbusters' theme, and I don't know why...

And also some videos:

AUDIENCE (Live @ Music Station 20-10-2000)
Boys & Girls (MV)
evolution (MV)
Fly high (MV)
NEVER EVER (Live - I don't know the name of the program)

It was my first source for Ayu stuff. Then my best friend was eMule, just like some of you :laugh (I feel old!). Also, some years ago my ex-boyfriend (he's an Ayu-fan as well; in fact he's registered in this forum) helped me getting some songs.

Ah, damn, that is really cool!

I though they were just audio CDs (like how many rock magazines in the late 90s/early 00s came with samplers), but this is more like a data disc? Mega awesome though, especially considering that back then a lot of that stuff was not so easy to find (especially video). Well, and then eMule and such of course :laugh

Yep, it is a data disc, not an audio CD; forgot to tell that :laugh
And there is much more apart from Ayu stuff.
Ah, that time when CDs were up to 650MB and the minimum required for it to work was Windows 95 :)