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LOVE again has many great songs and I listen to them separately a lot. But as an album LOVE again is boring as fuck.
Actually I was damn fucking pissed about the whole LOVE/again/LOVE again thing. But now I understand why Ayu released the two as mini-albums and not as singles. For over a decade Ayu had to release #1 single over #1 single. A lot of Japanese artists have to secure their #1 strikes no matter what. Simply because their fans go crazy over it. For a lot of fans those #1 strikes "prove" that their favourite artist/band is special and relevant, even though a #1 strike has most of the time little to do with being special or relevant.
That's why Ayu decided to not release any singles after L. She was most likely tired of proving her fans and the public how "relevant" she is just because by losing her #1 strike people would go nuts over it. I mean, people actually were going crazy just because GUILTY and Party Queen got #2.
So when she released LOVE and again I think avex wasn't ready to let her #1 strike go. I think Ayu wanted the 5 releases project and avex was like "well, but only if those aren't singles but mini-albums - 'cos of that #1 thing you know?".
Ayu started to release singles again the moment it did not matter anymore if the will hit #1 or not.
It wasn't a smart marketing move to release those as mini-albums and avex would have been cleverer by just letting her #1 go already one year before.
But I totally understand why Ayu didn't wanted this whole #1 thing anymore. And I respect and applaud her for releasing music just for the sake of releasing music and not for a #1 in the charts.
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