Yeah I agree. artists like ayu or hikki are quite rare in Japan industry. Most of them cannot control their own careers. Hikki's management is U3, which is her dad's company. Again, even if an artists' management company is a family business, it doesn't mean one can be as free as hikki. It's lucky for her that her dad is not as restrictive as a normal Japanese manager (probly because they've been living in the US for a while, adopting a more freedom style?).
Ayu was rebellious in the beginning, and it's good that she could fight for her rights since the beginning (even tho she couldn't really break the controlling from avex). I think the point where she could grab her power was the time when she threatened to leave avex when the company wanna kicked max away. Of course she did have some degree of controlling before that event, but I believe when Max overpowered, he gave her tons of controlling power to her own career. I don't think she could foresee that when she stepped up for him during the event tho..
