about hitomi's rumoured retirement...
 

i just read the day before yesterday about the whole BEST OF box things...and stuff about a rumoured retirement....please tell me its not true! IS there any confirmation? I dunno what i'd do without my nasally hitomi! im really worrying now, and i have no way to check the official sites and stuff...is there any news on this?

just in case, im buying the Best of box soon....

everyone is just saying she's retiring because she's releasing the complete singles box and also the fact that she hasn't released any music for practically a year. Whether (sp?) or not she's retiring is still completely up in the air.

Everything is merely assumptions. Nothing to worry about (yet :P)

I mean Seiko released a gigantic box with all of her albums and she just recently released a new album and a new Christmas single is coming up. Anything's possible.

yea, i honestly hope she's gonna release a single in '08. i'd LOVE that. i'd be so sad if the whole BEST BOX thing actually meant she's retiring.

i miss her, i want her to release new song...but who knows? hope this rumour is just a rumour not becoming a fact

i remember hitomi saying she wanted to retire when she was like 30 it hink

Didn't she say she wants to keep doing music until Madonna retires?

That's exactly what I was going to say. I read that as well, and I think the statement was confirmed as well. So that would certainly be weird if she were retiring, which I highly doubt she is. Madonna is going to continue until she dies I'm sure (I'll give that another century with the spunk that woman has) so it will be a long while from now.

Aww, I hope hitomi doesn't retire. But I mean she does have kids so maybe she wants to be able to spend more time with them? I dunno, I just hope she doesn't retire cuz I love her music.

i remember reading somewhere...it was something like "but the odds are against her. There's not a good chance that she will continue that much longer because most Japanese idols don't continue past 30"

whether she's retiring or not, im still buying the box...theres so many PVs ive never seen, and so many songs ive never got to hear...i would really love to get a new single from her soon. that would instantly make 2008 a perfect year....if my school burned down, hitomi kept singing, and reach my weight loss goal, then it would really be a perfect year

Well everything SCREAMS like she's probably retiring, UNFORTUNATELY:

-Ridiculous low sales
-Huge length gaps between releases
-she has already released a BEST album fairly recently and a B side compilation: SELF PORTRAIT and TIARTROP FLES, so this completwe best box is totally random at this time if it isn't just to finish her careeer once and for all, like what happened to DAI.
-Avex often finishes their artists careers with these random best releases: Nana katase, H/\L, Do As Infinity, day after tomorrow, the list goes on....

There's no confirmation. Everything is up in the air right now. The box set itself makes it suspicious that hitomi is retiring. Although, there's other female artists out there much older than hitomi who are still up and making decent sales. I wouldn't jump to conclusions just because she hasn't released in a while and her sales are low. I have Faith that hitomi will return in 2008! :D

im with yu there, mininamie....she wouldnt retire in such a subtle way...i mean, she was the Ayu before Ayu...and shes one of the best singers in Jpop now...she would go out in a bang, with a huge tour, a gigantic box set *even bigger than this one*, and it would be all over the news.

*cries* I don't want hitomi's retire! I love her so much! She's really unique artist...
But I want this single box!

So what would justify a BEST of BOX when she has only released two albums after her last BEST album? :shrug I mean, TRAVELER has like only one song that could be considered BEST and LOVE CONCENT has a few more songs, but heck....

while I think her retirement maybe likely, I feel that if it happens it will be solely her own decision and not something she's forced to do because of the state of her career.

because career-wise she's still doing ok, her sales are certainly lower than they used to be but 50k isn't a complete flop for an album by an artist who isn't super famous. and she still tours (she had a tour for LOVE CONCENT too) and has plenty of work in commercial endorsing & she starred in a main role in a movie that got an international release (Akumu Tantei).

best of album+dvd collection have been the most succesful releases in few years ("BEST ~first things~" by Kuu , "A BEST II" by Ayu), so a hitomi BEST cd+dvd might be a decent seller too?

Well but there's a huge difference! Really, koda kumi Best first things and ayu's A BEST II had a reason to exist. Koda had no Best album yet, and it was a long time since ayu had released her first best album, plus ayu had released several albums after her first best. I can't really picture how this release will be really much different from SELF PORTRAIT at all....

Oh well, I sure hope it won't be the end of her music career...but hmmm....:rolleyes

I do hope they'll finally include kimi no tonari and flow in their studio recorded versions and that WISH will finally be added to this compilation.

If she really is going to retire it'll be really sad cause hitomi is stil soo hot and her music is not that crappy at all.

As I said before, a retirement makes sense. Her wave of popularity has long gone and since then she has a family too. Maybe avex also wants to move on and work on newer artists... hitomi's not exactly young and her popularity is bound to fade rather than revive. Sure her sales aren't that bad but they aren't great either.

Also I wonder if avex would continue risking the "best" technique unless they were trying to get a final chance to milk an artist. Obviously people are growing sick of compilations and they have moved on after the best overkill. This probably points towards a retirement or maybe she wants to move to acting.

tracklist @ neowing
there's also a cool little compilation of all of her PV's streaming there

the [CD + PV DVD + Concert DVD] format just really reminded me of A BEST II & BEST ~ff~ / ~ss~. there are probably more people in japan who'd be interested in this hitomi best collection rather than a new album by her.
I think hitomi is still the 6th best selling artist ever on avex (1st Ayu , and I think 2-5 are ELT , Namie, BoA and Koda Kumi) so there's potential in her fanbase.

I still harbor a lot of hope for her not retiring lol

this has nothing to do with the topic but i wonder why her albums dont really sell anymore. i mean there good songs, the pv are ok and she still looks young so like whats the problem

i dunno, really. maybe because other artists are more popular now, and people may have forgotten about hitomi when it comes to her music? i'm sure they'd know of her when it comes to fashion stuff, since she was a model.

There's many factors that caused hitomi's sales to decrease. First, her age plays a role. A while back female singers after 25 were considered old and retired to get married and had families. Hitomi has passed her prime career wise and there's no chance of her regaining more popularity. Another thing is that she was never the "it" girl. hitomi has always had on and off sales. She got fair promotion but much of her career was built on "image" rather than her talents, so her songs and PVs doesn't play a major part in her sales. I think hitomi does sell decently for someone whose been around since 1994.

The Box Set is something Avex wanted to sell for some quick cash IMO

I agree with what most people stated as reasons why she could retiring. However, i'm not familiar with how the Japanese music industry really works. Over the years i've become very Avex-centered, even if she wanted to keep making music down the line what type of music would it be? I have this image in my head that in Japan, if you're a female singer over 30 chances are you're going to be doing something more along the lines of enka or something with a more mature fan-base. But, then again, i'm very un-informed in this subject.

there are plenty of female singers who do pop/rock/RnB/electronic/whatever types of music and who are well into their 30s & still are active in the j-pop scene: Bonnie Pink , Chara , Nanase Aikawa , Keiko Yamada of Globe , Double, LISA and etc..

I refuse to believe that she'll retire! :(

Besides, she has her own label. She can release her stuff when she feels like to.

I think it's frustrating being left in the dark. The weird thing is that avex didn't announce a retirement yet. Usually people are more willing to shell out money if they know this will be the last release ever. I don't know.. I forgot how they announced DAI's disbanding.

On the other hand usually best compilations leave out a few recent singles and this best didn't. Also best compilations usually include some new material, like a new song or a clip and this one doesn't seem to carry anything new.. yet. It's like she doesn't feel like releasing any more new material.

Maybe this is just another beginning of a hiatus. She might wish to leave her options open or something.