Ooookay, obviously I'm late here (whoa 11 pages already) so my thoughts/opinions may have been repeated several times already, but...
Totally surprised that the marriage lasted only a year. I was thinking at least 2. But I also had a strong feeling it would end in divorce eventually. Like others have said, she only knew Mannie for a few months, and then all of a sudden rushes into marriage? Especially to someone who lived thousands of miles away? (Will get to this in a bit) I strongly feel that she was maybe feeling pressured to get married because of her age (32). I think the Sweet Season PV reflects that... I also remember her saying in twitter or something that she puts her work first, then family, and that Mannie understood this. I'm sorry, but I've just seen way too much in my life the negative effects of not putting family first
I totally understand her reasons for living her life like this, but it really made me doubt that marriage could survive with these circumstances. Also, the distance factor was a huuuuuge issue. Again, long-distance relationships are so difficult to manage. Especially if you live an ocean apart! And it always seemed as though Ayu/Mannie were busy, when would they have time to see each other? I'll probably get crap for this, but I don't believe Ayu when she said that the earthquake in Japan changed her mind about moving to the US. I feel that she's always loved living in Japan and gets very homesick when she's away, and really didn't have any solid plans for moving. I wonder if she was infatuated with Mannie and the feelings eventually faded and reality struck hard when asking the question "how will this marriage seriously/logistically work out?" I'm glad that she didn't have a kid with Mannie. I can't imagine being the child of divorced parents who live in two different countries thousands of miles apart... how awful that would be
It's hard enough knowing families with kids that have to fly from halfway across the country to see a parent.
Well, I'm really sad to hear the news, to say the least. I really like Mannie and was really rooting for the both of them. But, of course, really worried about how it would all work out, and it turns out it didn't. Sigh.