TA Blog 「Happy New Year☆」(2.1.22)

[LONJJONG]

No way she's going to retire before going on her supposed "Asia" Tour
but her using the word "first and last" big news makes everyone anxious...

[voguehoney]

Originally Posted by LONJJONG

No way she's going to retire before going on her supposed "Asia" Tour
but her using the word "first and last" big news makes everyone anxious...

Yes

Because Namie Amuro announced retire before a few day，she use two word "the first and the last". "good bye" in her goods with 25th anniversary live

[thinkingoutloud89]

Originally Posted by voguehoney

Yes

Because Namie Amuro announced retire before a few day，she use two word "the first and the last". "good bye" in her goods with 25th anniversary live

Namie was different tho, you should stop comparing. She wanted to retire for her 20th Anni already kept going for another 5 years to have that live. Also, all signs pointers towards it.
Also she always said she wants to stop someday.

[Deep snow]

I woke up to her Instagram post and panicked a bit with that "first and last big announcement" thing

retirement doesn't seem like something she would do, but people change so she may feel differently now. I'm gonna hold out hope that this announcement is something positive.

[truehappiness]

Namie did seem like she wanted to stop at some point while Ayu was like "If without the stage, I'd die" and such... but still, it's odd.

[freedreamer]

ayu's a mum of two now
i can understand if she needs to stop
3 months to the news is really tough ><

[Aga-chan]

I hope it's not retirement. I actually think it's awful to post a somewhat cryptic message like that and let people wait for 3 months to see what it is. At least say it now. Like many, I haven't seen her live yet either.

It would be really weird to retire after 23rd Monster is basically an affirmation that there's no other life for her. Even (NOT) Remember you seems to be kind of an affirmation of that. But she's also not a native English speaker, so it could sound more dire than it is? But the post about making up her mind seems also kind of scary, though it could be related to (NOT) Remember you?

She always seemed to have the attitude that she'll sing as long as people would listen. Or at least as long as she wants, I guess. Nowadays she doesn't even have the crazy schedule she used to anymore, so even if recording the latest album was taxing, she can release the next one anytime, even in 10 years. Might her hearing be so bad, she can't tour anymore? I wouldn't mind if she'd become a recording artist, who releases an album every few years.

[hidekirby]

I really think we are all over-thinking it? I personally don't read any retirement related thing in this message. Well I don't read Japanese so that must be it haha.

Yes her insta post was kinda cryptic... And I also feared she would stop. But we all know that she likes writing this way and dramatising things a lil bit.

I don't know, putting and end to her career right know just seems really off to me.
Unless there was a decisive element that affected her personal life very recently (health issues?), I feel this comeback hyped her to do more than less.

[Aderianu]

Maybe ayu wants to say that this album will be the last music she created and after that she will concentrate only on lives.

I hate the fact that we need to wait 3 months until we finally find out what is going on. That is not the exciting waiting. Maybe ayu was overdramatic with her post and will make it more clear after the flood of "are you going to retire?" messages at TA.

[Katsuyuki012]

Originally Posted by Aderianu

Maybe ayu wants to say that this album will be the last music she created and after that she will concentrate only on lives.

I hate the fact that we need to wait 3 months until we finally find out what is going on. That is not the exciting waiting. Maybe ayu was overdramatic with her post and will make it more clear after the flood of "are you going to retire?" messages at TA.

That's kind of what I was hoping for, as well, but I'm quite certain Ayu knows what she's doing here..

[Deep snow]

Originally Posted by Aderianu

I hate the fact that we need to wait 3 months until we finally find out what is going on. That is not the exciting waiting. Maybe ayu was overdramatic with her post and will make it more clear after the flood of "are you going to retire?" messages at TA.

this could be one way to find out. I'm guessing if she does mean to retire, then the flood of messages and questions won't make her break her silence. But if she doesn't, she will clarify (or at least say something like "I'm not retiring!") to allay our fears.

[Aderianu]

Oh, also "my first and last big news will also be announced on that day" may means that first and last big news at this year. Maybe it will be another try to make Asia Tour.

[brener]

Originally Posted by Aderianu

Oh, also "my first and last big news will also be announced on that day" may means that first and last big news at this year. Maybe it will be another try to make Asia Tour.

I'm thinking like that too

[kotora]

The album Remember you probably implies that "Remember ayu".

[_dandy_]

It's been years between Made in Japan and Remember You; for an artist who previously/consistently produced a full album yearly, it would be really anticlimactic to have waited for this long to have this album released, only to announce soon thereafter she's retiring.

[Aga-chan]

This whole issue has me thinking and analysing now. Until the trouble she had making the album, she seemed so excited to make music. We might eventually look back and think there were lots of signs, but so far I don't see many or any even, other than her recent messages. Of course we can't know what's going on inside her, but from the outside it seems like it went from "business like usual" to "oh no, retirement". You'd think a decision like that would have a proper build-up. She wrote she "made her mind", omitting the "up", so I hope something just got lost in translation.

On one hand the whole thing doesn't make sense, on another other interpretations might seem farfetched. A dancer I think wrote about the last live of the Asia Tour, then Ayu corrected that amids concern. Why do that, then announce retirement mere months later? Could she announce that she'll retire on her 30th anniversary? But there'd be a lot of other big news until then.
Could she perhaps mean marriage? It wouldn't be the first time, but it'd be the first time while having an extended family.
Does having children actually made her able to leave Matsuura behind for good, so she's going to leave avex?
It wasn't that long ago that she did voice training and said she wanted to make a new Hamasaki Ayumi. Is she going to reinvent Hamasaki Ayumi again? No elaborate concerts anymore?
But how does any of that qualify as "last big news"?

[TriStar]

Originally Posted by _dandy_

It's been years between Made in Japan and Remember You; for an artist who previously/consistently produced a full album yearly, it would be really anticlimactic to have waited for this long to have this album released, only to announce soon thereafter she's retiring.

Maybe she needed to produce one more album because of her contract. A lot of Western artists also have contracts that contain a certain number of albums that need to be released.

[kotora]

Tbh, why everything here thinks she is going to retire?

The big news from Ayumi Hamasaki can mean "I am leaving AVEX and starting my own management."

[Aderianu]

Originally Posted by kotora

Tbh, why everything here thinks she is going to retire?

The big news from Ayumi Hamasaki can mean "I am leaving AVEX and starting my own management."

Because it's not only "big news" it's "last big news". And if I personally hate talks about how ayu will finish her career, that was the first thing I was thinking about reading it

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

I always figured Ayu was more western minded in regards to her career. Retiring, especially as a woman, is very Japanese. Sure it happens in the West too, but generally speaking, people don’t “officially” retire that often. They just work on multiple projects and release things here and there. But disappearing like Namie or Momoe or Nishino Kana, that doesn’t really seem like the Ayu I’ve watched all these years.

Things can surely change, but at this point I’m still being optimistic.