Quote:
Originally Posted by Chibi-Chan
I'm working at a summer school at my university right now and teaching German to Japanese students. Since it is always an easy topic to talk about in a language one just started learning, I talked to them about what kind of music/artists they like. In return they asked me whom I like. Also a Japanese friend came to visit me just today and stays at my place. Everyone seemed to have heared about this book and the first thing my friend asked me was like "is Ayu ok?". And she only was that nice in formulating the question that way because she knows how much I like Ayu. What she actually wanted to ask and did so later was more like "has Ayu gone totally nuts now?". The reaction from the students was kinda the same and it was obvious that they tried to be nice. What they said about her regarding the book in Japanese because they assumed I wouldn't understand was pretty clear.
My opinion on the whole "Max dating 17 year old Ayu" aside, selling her private gossip from 20 years ago was the worst idea she ever came up with. It's one thing if gossip like this is out there and something she can't control. But selling it on purpose? This really is a poor move only absolutely irrelevant people would normally do. If she wanted to prove the public right and to see her as irrelevant and as some has been and desperately attention seeking, she succeded.
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I don't think people outside of Japan get that the dynamics of image are very different within Japan. Like, sure,
we want Ayu to keep doing her thing, but unfortunately, that "thing" has literally chipped away at her legacy. Comments and questions about Ayu's sanity started years ago, but now it seems like they're more common within Japan than more positive comments and questions.
It's just so weird to see someone like Ayu flub this image thing so hard. I mean, she's only human, but it's just awkward to live in a time where so many people think she's a scandal magnet. And it's been building for the better part of 10 years now. And she doesn't seem to give a damn about that shift in attitude toward her legacy. She still does things that, regardless of gender, many people find inappropriate or bad rep.
I love Ayu for what she's given us, but I do wish her heart was still in this. All that talent has no message anymore. It's like she doesn't have anything to say or experiences to share with others. And what's worse is that
now, more than at any time in her career, the whole world desperately needs messages of sadness, loneliness, isolation, and hope, inner strength, and integrity.
But nope. Ayu is now banging her backup dancer two marriages later, extending a tour she launched off a mini-album, hasn't put out anything solid for music in over three years, has basically dropped out of performing at huge events for all of Japanese pop music, and spends more effort posting fashion pics on Instagram than on original tour concepts or even non-music activities like Utada did during her hiatus.
Some days, I just wish climate change would hurry up.
Edit: I just want to emphasize my disappointment by pointing out I recently watched Yumi Matsutoya's Uchuu Toshokan Tour and was so moved by the whole set and Yumi's energy on stage. And she's been in the industry since the 70s. Her heyday was the mid-to-late 80s. But I just love so so much that even if she takes a few years to release new music, she's 60+ years old and that music feels like it has a message. To be 38 albums into your career and still performing like she did on that tour... It's sad that Ayu's effort even half that timeline is so pitifully disregarding. And Ayu is a waaay better singer, writer, and performer than Yumi.