[FIVE] PV's thoughts!

[dayumi]

progress: I really like the idea. Love the stop motion mix video thing here. It's quite unique and rare for her to do it. I also love the raw feeling of the video. Great one! I like that she features different kinds of people, but I actually keep waiting for her to appear. Still good though. (8.5/10)

Why...: I love it! I always love dark PVs like this. Love the contrast between dark and colorful. I really think she could do more with the "Alice in Wonderland" concept though, but I still think it's great. Loving the setting and outfits, especially the girl in the box, that's really cool. My favorite part is gotta be the three, very beautiful. (9/10)

ANother song: My least favorite PV of the bunch. Nothing interesting about it and very bland and boring IMO. A very predictable PV for this kind of song. She looks gorgeous, no doubt about that. I really like the silhouette with lighting thingy part (if you know what I mean). Overall, this PV is plain boring. (5/10)

beloved: Love this PV a lot! It's simple yet amazing. Love the message this PV is telling us. I agree with what fanayutic said about how this PV is showing us that Japan is still standing strong. I really like it. Love the backdrop so much, it's very cute and simple and colorful. I really love this pv, loving its simplicity. (10/10)

BRILLIANTE: Amazing! like I said earlier, I always love dark and strange PVs like this. I think this PV is absolutely beautiful, the song is very beautiful. Love her look and outfit so much in this one, also her movement. Very beautiful. Everything in this PV is working perfectly except the guy/drag who sits next to her. That's the only bad thing about this PV, but I can still tolerate though. Overall, this PV is amazing IMO. Everything is great, Ayu, the setting, the cinematography, the guys, except the guy/drag who sits next to her. The gym scene is my favorite! (9.5/10)

[miki_beland]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

Did anybody notice in the PV beloved she did the "Hand Thing"
(The hand in the sky video that AHS sent out) thought that was pretty cool.

Over all i liked all the PV's. Some were done and over with but over all they were good. I loved the effects in all of them. And I love how in beloved the color slowly comes into the video... amazing.

5/5 < rating

AHS...?

I don't want to sound rude, but AHS did not give much importance to that. If it reached Ayu it was generally thanks to the facebook page^^

[TeamAyu2004]

^ I remember people talking about it on here... I forgot where it came from though.. it was facebook...

EDIT:
I thought people on here said that it was played at some of her concerts... I could not be remembering it right though...

[miki_beland]

Well, Aura had the idea of making some kind of project with fan's hands, and we decided to make a video. I did the video myself and sended it to Ayu, and yes, they included it on the tour. I was at Yoyogi concerts last month and the video is shown before encore and the audience got really moved by it. Of course the thread of the project in AHS started to grow up when we already gave the present to Ayu =(

[TeamAyu2004]

thats too bad! I thought it was a wonderful idea and it just struck me while watching the video that might be were she got the idea! So I wanted to give props!

(I know she does this with her pictures, but never did it in any other format till now!)

[miki_beland]

Well in fact, it SURELY is influenced by the video aura and me made, Leslie himself told me at Yoyogi.

[ownsarai]

^That is so awesome!
I love how much Ayu's fans inspire her, as she inspires us. I wish I could have been able to be part of that project.

[emi♡]

I only really watched BRILLANTE cause it's the only song I found worth it...

and...yeah, sorry. I don't really like the PV.

It's so ridiculous, over the top, and out of place. It's like, all dark and mystical, and then we're in a very real locker room, I guess, and Ayu is just flailing there for like 2 whole minutes. And then they're walking with everyone...to...NOWHERE apparently...

Her overacting is really annoying too. Completely contrasts her simple drama in the song. I agree with giving her the Razzie. Almost ruined the thing for me.


After that though, I think it gets better. Her crying is still too much...but meh. I think I could have watched 6 whole minutes of them just trying to get to her and kill her on her throne, than go through...whatever she went through before that, because none of it was meaningful enough to me.


Sorry...I can deal with over the top stuff, and I can deal with the premise, it's fine...but... idk...some things just kinda make it...meh.

The red, blue, and gold of her oufit, also remind me of Wonder Woman...which I guess might be intentional, especially with all the gym guys around, but to me, it takes away from the drama because it makes her look out of place. But I guess that's only because I feel like the gym guys are out of place.

So whatever. The song is great, but I think it was BARELY enough to hold this PV together. There weren't enough ideas as far as the direction. I mean, you can make a good PV out of a good song and have nothing happening, and have it still be entertaining...

but, it's just not happening here for me. Best part was when she was dead...and in a 6 minute PV...damn...

[hidekirby]

progress : LOVE it!! So unexpected! It really adds something to the song (which I don't really "like"). I could do without ayu at the end (0_0")
beloved : So awkward. Don't see the point of those scenes in the studio. It's like the song, boring. She looks bad in that white dress, and that haircut is terrible. The children really seem to enjoy the PV too (...). The final scene is a failure.
ANother song : It perfectly fits the song too : it's boring and embarassing. It's becoming nice at the very end with the choreography, yet it's too late.
Why... : It lacks something, cohesion maybe. I have the felling they didn't know where they were going. It's odd, not in a good way. It had potential.
BRILLANTE: WTF is this!? Seriously, I was laughing at the end of the PV. Too bad, ayu's hot as hell and her acting is pretty good. Tim is bothering me, doing this bad playback (while there is clearly several layer of voices) in that awkward outfit... His acting is pretty annoying and he always distracted me. And the end... haha!

Overall the PVs had potential but end up being weird. I like the originality of progress and some things in BRILLANTE. I want to forget the rest...

[SPEAKERnight.]

These are the most creative PVs of hers in a good while. I love the surrealism of Why.. and the guerrilla-like feel of progress; no one would have expected a video like that from Ayu. My favorite would have to be either Why, progress, or BRILLIANTE..Oh BRILLIANTE...how you amaze me so with the Middle Eastern theme. I love these a lot.

[Yumsushi]

Well, I will give her credit for not putting Mannie in all of the videos, lol. I know she tried to make them interesting and different, but I still found ANother song and Brillante (interesting song) were laughable, progress boring, Why...didn't make any sense, beloved (pleasant song) was also boring but atleast she looked good in that black dress.

Now that everything is out, I can finally conclude that I have no interest in buying this release, unless it magically grows on me. Alot of people are raining praises but honestly, none of these songs or Pvs are memorable in any way to me. And please stop saying Brillante is Middle Eastern when it's more like a confused Thai Cleopatra that owns a boxing ring.

[jbrat2219]

^ This releases is a major grower. I think if people give it more of a chance they might end up pleasantly surprised? I sure was.

[*hearT_Place*]

Brilliante This is one of Ayu's most poignant and chilling videos ever. I would say that certain scenes of this video may be possible trigger-warnings to rape survivors. My analysis is long, so I'm putting it in spoiler tags.

Spoiler:

The first time I watched this video, I really didn't like it. It seemed to use a lot of tropes that I don't like: Lots of men who exist just to do Ayu's bidding and, especially, Ayu deifying herself. Plus, I found the scene where she is being pulled off of the chair really scary. The atmosphere of the song didn't seem to fit with the music video *at all*, and I kind of wondered where her head had been at when she made the video.

HOWEVER, then I watched it a second time, and have a completely different view of it. It seems to me to be a portrayal of how women are viewed by patriarchal cultures, and how damaging that portrayal is to women (and men). In patriarchal cultures, women seem to be separated into two groups: virgins or *****s, "good" women or "bad" women. When "good" women do something that isn't the epitome of femininity, they are punished severely, and men see women in general as dolls or flowers they can do anything with. The "good" women are whom I primarily see this video as being about.

Patriarchal cultures put "good" women, women who are the epitome of their notions of femininity, on a sort of a pedestal. They lift them up as fragile flowers or porcelain dolls, praising their beauty like they're a group of demi-goddesses. This view of femininity has a very, very dark side to it, and I'll talk about two reasons why here. One, flowers and porcelain dolls are good for nothing other than looking beautiful; without beauty, these things are worthless. Or, let's say the flower has medicinal properties; to exploit those properties, one must crush the flower, destroying its beauty. So, in these cultures, women can either be independent and contribute to society in a fulfilling way (the "bad" woman), or beautiful and vapid (the "good" woman), not both (in the 1800s, when a woman was sick, doctors prescribed the rest cure, which meant that their husbands shut them in a room, forced them to be fully dependent on others, and forbade them from any sort of intellectual stimulation. Intelligence was not natural in a woman).
Two, in these cultures, consent is nonexistent. Men believe that they can do anything they want to with, and to, women, no matter the woman's feelings or thoughts on the situation. In fact, her thoughts don't matter at all. Any pain or fear or anguish she's feeling doesn't matter at all. She's just a beautiful doll meant to give pleasure to men.

In these cultures, the female form is used as a symbol time and time again. Look at ancient Greece. That society was incredibly misogynistic (Zeus forced Hera to marry him, and Pandora, the first woman, was made as a punishment. Agamemnon, one of the great heroes of the Illiad, forced his wife to marry him after killing her father and first husband, and then sacrificed his daughter so he could sail to Troy.), and yet the Greek pantheon includes Athena, the goddess of war, and Artemis, the virgin goddess of the moon and of the hunt. But these two goddesses were merely symbols; they were never connected with real women, and it is the same in every patriarchal culture. Women are never viewed as having thoughts or experiences worth caring about, and the punishment for a woman overstepping her bounds is severe.

That's what I believe this video is about. The men are prime specimens of masculinity; they all look like they were sculpted by Michelangelo. Their lives are lives of grittiness and sweat, fighting and feats of strength, as they continue to fight and train and prepare for the next battle. They are living their lives, and living them well.

Ayu is there with them, leading them at one point. However, Ayu is different. The first time you see her with the men, her mouth is covered. She is there to see and be seen, but has no voice. She has to wait until one of the men takes off her face-covering and gives her a voice. Other than that, the men only stare at her; they don't interact with her. She does a few little dances that are delicate (a "typical" feminine trait), and mainly show off her beauty.

Speaking of beauty, Ayu is impeccably, immaculately beautiful here. However, nothing she is wearing has any practical value in the environment she is in. The clothes look like they are difficult to move in, and that hairband would just get in the way). Plus, she is in heels. You can't fight in heels (check out this article on the symbolism of high heels. I think it fits very well with the PV http://loosegarments.com/2011/04/21/...-helplessness/). The gold part of her bodice looks sort of like a champion belt, but that's all it is, an imitation. As she is, she can never reach the level these fighters have reached; to do so, she would have to break boundaries they would try to stop her from breaking. She is nothing more than a flower, a doll, a statue, "leading" them but not respected or truly valued by them as a complete human being, as an equal.

The next scenes, when Ayu is on the throne, show both the lie and the truth of the way patriarchal cultures put women on pedestals. In the sunset, she is glorious in her beauty, and the men stand around her, valiant protectors. However, night falls, and the truth comes out (kind of like how, in horror, all of the monsters come out after dark). She is a thing to them, and when they want something from her, they take it.

This next part is really chilling (possible trigger-warning for sexual assault survivors): Ayu doesn't get back onto her throne on her own; the men drag her down, and then the scene changes to Ayu and Timmy, and then, when it changes back, the men are pushing Ayu back to the top. Then she dies. I think the implication is all to clear.

I think the scenes of Timmy and Ayu are her psychological state as she lives the life of a woman on a pedestal, and I think Timmy's primary purpose is to egg her on, to tell her that she shouldn't change her circumstances, despite how much those circumstances are destroying her. During the sunset throne scenes, he is worshiping her, encouraging her in her life as a flower and, at the end, he seems really surprised at what happened, like he had no idea what the natural consequences of that sort of culture were. He never looks horrified at what she is going through (until the end), as if he sees her role as necessary, and that she just needs to get out her emotions and then do what she's supposed to. I'm not 100% sure on this, because I don't know what he is chanting to her, but this is my take on it so far.

progress I had heard reports that this was the content of the video, which lessened my disappointment...a little. Still, this was not a well-done video. It didn't fit the song at all; in fact, for such an epic song, it was quite the let-down.

beloved Very sweet. I was surprised at how much I liked this video, but I did. As for the ending...was that some sort of homage to the thing Ayu fans did a while ago, where they took pictures of their hand and said something like "under the same sky"? Cause if it was, that's freaking awesome.

ANother song I...actually liked this song. I wasn't expecting to, but I did. The piano throughout the song was nice. The video, on the other hand, was boring. Given how I feel about Ayu's dancers being pushed in our faces from 2006 on, I can't believe I would ever complain about them being too much in the background, but that day has come. I think they should have been in the forefront a *little* more, just to add something else of interest to the video. I can't believe those words just came out of my mouth I *may* have seen a glimpse of Shu-ya's face once (to think, I'd wish for more Shu-ya )

Why...I liked it. Not her best, but very pretty and everything was interesting to look at.


These videos weren't her best, not even close, except for BRILLIANTE, which was, well, brilliant. I had been excited about 5 PVs, but now I wonder if it would be better to have 2 really good ones instead of 4/5 mediocre ones. Ah well. I can't wait to see how these are imagined live.

[Yumsushi]

I want it to grow on me. I love the covers and the booklet, but unfortunately that isn't enough for me to spend my hard earned money on it, even OS version. Maybe one day...

[jbrat2219]

^ I definitely understand where you're coming from. The covers, the magazine scans... Seriously the best in years. Judging a book by it's cover this album would come off as a masterpiece, but sadly for many Ayu fans it isn't even tolerable. My advice, play the songs as background music while you're preoccupied. I really started liking ANother song in particular after it came on while I was studying. Same thing happened with beloved, very soothing to listen to while reading. The songs themselves may not stand out and make you go WOW, but as background music for certain activities, they're good enough to make you want to listen to them again.

[love in music]

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

^ This releases is a major grower. I think if people give it more of a chance they might end up pleasantly surprised? I sure was.

I agree. On first listen I had complained beloved & ANother song were really crappy and was actually getting ready to call this one of her worst releases.. but giving them a few more spins made them grow on me a lot, and funny thing is now I actually love them. Sometimes you just need a few plays. But if after that you still dislike them then yeah, obvs not for you.

[emi♡]

I think the good thing about the songs is that they are easy to listen to songs.

Sometimes, you know, I don't want some crazy dramatic Free & Easy type song...sometimes I just want a song that's pleasant to kick back and listen to while I'm doing stuff.

And I think a lot of these are definitely those kind. Honestly, I don't like the songs, so, I won't be listening to them...but I don't think that it's crazy if people do.

That being said, as much as I can appreciate the songs, when I compare them to everything else she's done, JUST for the sake of comparing, cause, I really don't care all that much, it's still one of her worst releases imo, if not her worst...

but I don't really see, necessarily why that has to be, such a bad thing. I mean, Ayu's got one damn FINE discography lol

And I mean, most of the things done here, are really just for the sake of doing them, they don't really have to have all kinds of meaning...so I hope people don't get, so, hurt, or offended, or discouraged by polls or if a lot of people hate on the album or the songs.

We all have different reasons for liking and listening to music.

edit: maybe this post should go in another thread...lol oh well!

[jbrat2219]

^ I think the biggest difference about fan reactions this time (at least for me personally) is that it is understandable why people would think this is her worst release, I can see why they think the songs suck whereas with previous releases, I honestly could not. And I think it's because we're all not stupid enough to believe 3/5 songs are up to Ayu's usual caliber but those of us who like them just accept them for what they are.

[emi♡]

^that's true.

I also think it's easier for people to understand why others don't like a song.....when they don't like it either

I think this, honestly, even when like B&D came out, I don't think the negative reactions were this bad at all. And well, I think it's understandable, cause it's such a different style, of course her normal fans aren't going to like it AS much.

If she started doing like, hardcore death screamo metal... I bet we'd have a ton of understanding too lol

But you know, Ayu's always been diverse, and she's always introducing us to new stuff, and we need people like that!

...I wonder if jbrat will start listening to R&B now lol

[jbrat2219]

Only if Beyonce counts lol.