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I remember back in 2002 until 2005, J-pop was like... my life.
Ayumi, no matter how much I love her, has been really mediocre as of lately. I initially liked "NEXT LEVEL" but the album just got boring so fast (except for "Days" I can still listen to it and not get bored!). There's that part of me though that believes she CAN pick herself up again.
I stopped having high hopes for Kumi as soon as "Black Cherry" was released. That album was just a mess with the exception of 2 songs. "Kingdom" was nice but it was no "secret" or "BEST~second session~". When she released "TABOO" I thought there still was hope, but then "TRICK" came out and all hope was lost. Followed by "It's all love!!" and "faraway" - I basically just gave up on her. I still follow her career, but I'm not expecting anything out of her anymore.
As for Ai Otsuka. "LOVE LETTER" wasn't terrible, but it wasn't the Ai Otsuka I fell in love with. "LOVE COOK" was just an amazing album. How she went from that to "LOVE LETTER" I dunno. I hope she can go back and start creating quirky, fun, addictive songs as well as her amazing ballads.
My BoA fandom died when "MADE IN TWENTY" was released but it was slowly coming back with "THE FACE". "Vivid" dropped her back down again but then "eien" was released and that just saved her. Hopefully when she returns to Japan, she'll follow that path.
hitomi, Mika Nakashima, Do As Infinity, Eri Nobuchika, Namie Amuro, ayaka, Shoko Nakagawa (I should thank you asongforXX, since you were always talking about her, I decided to check her out lol) and a few others are the only reason I still follow J-pop.
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