[Raiu-Ayu]

Namie had a popularity drip around 2000-2004. She started to gain new fans around 2005/6 and PLAY (being her first no.1 album in 7 years) pretty much put her back in the spotlight. She completely changed her image and her sound from her original stuff and I think thats what has caught people's attention again. I recently read something I agree with about ayu: her audience has grown up but ayu hasn't. She still writes like its 2001/2 but her fans have moved on and gotten bored. Kumi is something similar, the erotic-cool image that propelled her is tired and dated now. I love ayu and Ku but unless they relaunch with matured images and sounds they'll never achieve what Namie has again.