[Koda Kumi] The 195th Thread - ANⱭDNA

[melissalove]

Best TV performance of hers in sometime. that was really good, just beautiful.

[maze]

I'm in love with this performance and the song itself. Just beautiful

[abestfah]

Just finished watching AND tour, it is one of my favorite by her immediately. The production is small but her voice and energy are everything here. I like Who, All right and Party, especially Party is like crazy ballroom. Besides, when there are not many effects or equipments, I can be focused on her. Love it!!!

P.s. Love Neonlight shirt.

[Corvina]

So, I was finally able to lay my hands on the rare live edition of the Dreaming Now! single.
I remember back in the day there were some people, who wanted the special bonus track. I've ripped it.

LALALALALA(Live at Summer Trip Live 2013)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/wngt4b...13%29.mp3/file

All 4 editions:


Inside the live version:


Also got the rare staff replica shirt for Let's Party Vol.2!
It was only available for purchase for a limited time back then.
I just love all of the goods from her FC lives.

Spoiler:

I also have the denim jacket from last years W FACE Tour in S and M size now. S size is so much better fitting for me,though still a bit too loose on the arms.
So if everyone wants the denim jacket in blue in size M, just let me know.
I've worn it just once last year for the live and I'd give it away for a reduced price (up for negotiation).

[thinkingoutloud89]

^I'm actually interested in the denim jacket lol

[koumori]

Originally Posted by Corvina

I also have the denim jacket from last years W FACE Tour in S and M size now. S size is so much better fitting for me,though still a bit too loose on the arms.
So if everyone wants the denim jacket in blue in size M, just let me know.
I've worn it just once last year for the live and I'd give it away for a reduced price (up for negotiation).

I'd also be interested, if it doesn't work out

[thinkingoutloud89]

Originally Posted by Koumori

I'd also be interested, if it doesn't work out

i'll take it. Corvinas inbox is now full tho lol

[Corvina]

Today the radio show "Satoshi Takebe's Session" with Kuu aired.
Here are some pics from the recording day:





It's also past midnight in Japan already, so...
Happy Kumi no Hi everyone!
(Kumi day, 93の日).
A lot of fans are already sharing thoughts and memories about her on social media. For the international fans LiDaYu's new site WKKW is doing something for it as well, if you wanna check out.
I expect Kuu and her team to drop the DNA tour goods throughout the day for purchase from Friday onwards and to post about Kumi day!

Originally Posted by Koumori

I'd also be interested, if it doesn't work out

Yeah, sorry, Koumori, he was faster.^^

[ALfromHELLSING]

I received my copies of DNA 4 days ago and I'm in love with the album. DNA>>>>>AND. I really enjoyed AND but DNA is just f***ing amazing. I played it over 30 times in 4 days and I still can't get enough.

I'm glad that she used 6 different songs to promote the album and that Media Fair performance was flawless.

Originally Posted by Corvina

Ok, so here are the essentials of what she's talking about in the FC interview
I rather don't translate word-by-word, at least not in English as it's not my native language, so that's why I'm usually just summarizing.

Spoiler:

DNA is overall described as an power album, consisting of Kuu's core sound, staying independently from those ever-changing times (meaning trends, I guess).
She says the album even consists to 200% of the person she currently is.
She tried to focus on the music and its details and declined most of other activities not being connected to music for it.
She acknowledges, that AND included songs, that are probably difficult for fans, who like J-Pop, but she wanted those to go to the concerts, cause that might have changed their perception of them. DNA now has more of her "core" sounds, which consists of different genres, Western and others.
When the interviewer says, that it's easy to listen to, she's happy about that, cause she recorded in between AND Tour dates and even though she knew already how to put the album together in general from the demo stage, the image changed when she was done recording and she knew how to put the setlist for the tour together at the same time. It was quite hard.
She's producing lives for more than 10 years now and in the last 8 years she also produced her music for performing live. She imagines stuff like choreos and costumes and so on while doing so, but as she also knows from her tour questionnaires that "catchy" songs like the ones from the "old" Kuu and easy-to-sing-songs (at karaoke) are popular with her fans as well, she also included songs from her husband and the writer of "you" (people, who already did popular songs among her fanbase).
So in that sense AND is for her fans and DNA more catchy and for everybody.

HUSH
Contains the lyric part "つま先から頭まで遊び、仕事、、get burned", meaning it's bad if you do something halfheartedly. Kuu personally thinks, that life should be fun nevertheless and if she's missing that e.g. in work, she's going to get burned out.
She usually doesn't put single songs as the album openers, but she felt it would be fitting here. She didn't put HUSH on AND, cause she thinks due to its tension it doesn't fit live house venues and is more fitting for a hall tour. And it has a catchy hook.

Dangerous
She wanted to update live songs like POP DIVA and UNIVERSE, cause time has passed since they were released, so she composed Dangerous with her husband. She says she feels like she rather rearranged what her husband presented her with that than producing herself from scratch, but things like the melody are done by her. In detail she says she took the song from her husband and said to him "I want that part to change", went to the studio, erased parts and composed new melodies being in front of the microphone and kept those her husband agreed to.

WATCH OUT ~DNA~
WATCH OUT was originally for another artist, but Kuu wanted it for herself .
The world now is overflowing with information and she's wondering how you go through the world distinguishing between the good and bad things (for yourself) without being mislead.
She wrote the song in the perspective of a strong woman, who's finding her "own groove" to pull through.
The interviewer then asks about what she personally thinks about all the social media and the current society of excessive information.
Kuu anwers she's not looking at social media (except her own), but it's alright if people who want to do. With her own accounts like on Insta and LINE she says it's always a borderline situation, but she tries to show the real person she is.

ScREaM
The interviewer says he feels like ScREaM is also a song for social media and Kuu agrees (in the sense of bullies and slanders). There's the expression of "high risk - high return" , cause there's always the possibility of a negative response, but it's better to pull through with it and not to dodge away, to understand it as a chance. (in general the song is about - the Japanese - society and fighting against obstacles in it every day)

CHANCES ALL
There's always a song on every album with a strong message Kuu wants her fans to receive. This time it's CHANCES ALL.
It bascially sumps up her own feelings from the songs before - that everybody should have the same chances in life and take their chances, face their obstacles like women, who are constantly judged by appearance, sometimes even just because they are women, just like Kuu is for example as a 派手なアーティスト, a "flashy" artist.
She wants to encourage here and give love and understanding.

会えなくなるくらいなら
A ballad about the tricky feeling of an unrequited love.
Here she's considering she's in her 7th year of marriage, asking herself if she should sing about love (sexual love). She says she noticed she still is very much in love with her husband, but she can remember how it was before, how she fell in love with him, so she decided to do it.

HAIRCUT
It was the first song done and the producer, who did the Dance In The Rain PV - YKBX - already imagined the PV for the song at the time she recorded it. She says cause the song has a western influence, it was easier to convey the metaphor of separation to her fans with her actually cutting her hair with scissors. The interviewer mentions that for him HAIRCUT also is like the rebound of the heart-broken individual from 会えなくなるくらいなら and Kuu is answering laughing, that it also has the meaning of restart, so you can see it like that. She says she likes the tension of rising again after dropping down in the flow of the album.

Guess Who Is Back
It's a new sound for Kuu and she says she always liked artists like Limp Bizkit, Evanescence and Pink and for this song she tried to do a similar sound like Evanescence as Black Clover asked for a rock song. While being aware of the dance (sound) within her, this is a song with a "high tone" she never did in the past and she wants it to be a call-and-response song with her fans.

HOT HOT
It was a popular song from the start and represents her core pretty well. The recording went smoothly. The interviewer says he find it to be the most fitting to the sexy and amusing Kuu and Kuu answers her fans were saying the same and she was surprised by that strong reaction.

心からi love u
This was the most popular song at the pre-release viewing and Kuu says that's probably because this is the typical grand Kuu ballad, but it does sound fresh within the album.
She has many songs with English titles, so she mixed it here to make it stand out.

Work That
The cute song of the album. It was competing with WHO and HUSH to be the 61st single, but as it has a summer feeling and the relase date wasn't in summer, she pushed it back to DNA.
It's a song about men, who act all good on the outside with strangers, but exactly the other way round in private.

Pin Drop
A song about the silence, where you can even hear a pin falling down. It's a live performance song, where she wants to break that pin drop (silence), finally entertaining everyone. She intially wanted to open the album with this song, but she wanted to end the album with a song, that when repeating the album would give a feeling of starting again.
Another meaning is that of "destination" - getting back to the place(s), where "the pin drop was done", breaking that silence.


It's an album full of different songs and songs to be enjoyed live.
And album to mark her ground in the changing times.

Enjoy, I hope I've got everything covered.

Thanks for the translation, Corvina.

[Corvina]

Kuu's post about Kumi no Hi today.

Spoiler:

She thanks everybody, cause she just was able to become Koda Kumi because of all of us being there.

The second part is more interesting.
She recommends to have second floor seats for the upcoming DNA Tour, cause she thinks the people sitting far away are going to be lucky.
I'm intrigued what she is planningf

[kaled kalil]

I hope the DNA Tour has a stage like Bon Voyage/Dejavu Tour, with stairs and all, since this is going to be more of a regular hall tour.

OMG she's singing Guess Who Is Back with her son on her IG Stories. haha So sweet.

Second week sales: #38 - 1,505 - Total: 17,319. (http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5867952053?pn=4)

[Chibi-Chan]

I would like to go and see her in Tokyo, but I just can't afford to spend that much money right now =(

[Gustavopc]

that insta stories with her son was sooooo cute I love how Kuu is spontaneous hahahah

[wednesday]

Originally Posted by Gustavopc

that insta stories with her son was sooooo cute I love how Kuu is spontaneous hahahah

Just the cutest

[Corvina]

Waiting for the tour goods!

They did announce the venue campaings for entering or renewing the FC membership.
And also that there are going to be 4 lucky girls or boys invited to the stage for a song - only from her FCs this time, two from playroom and two from Koda Gumi at every date.
For a part of the venues there's an online application form and the chosen fans know beforehand via mail, for the other part of the venues you can get a can badge randomly out of 5 designs at the FC booth and 4 will have a winning ticket inside.

Here are the venues for the drawing at the venue:
9月14日（金）福岡：福岡サンパレス
9月15日（土）福岡：福岡サンパレス
9月22日（土）北海道：わくわくホリデーホール（札幌市民ホール）
9月23日（祝・日）北海道：わくわくホリデーホール（札幌市民ホール)
9月29日（土）京都：ロームシアター京都 メインホール
9月30日（日）京都：ロームシアター京都 メインホール
10月6日（土）東京：東京国際フォーラム・ホールA
10月7日（日）東京：東京国際フォーラム・ホールA
10月18日（木）大阪：大阪・オリックス劇場
10月19日（金）大阪：大阪・オリックス劇場
11月3日（祝・土）大阪：大阪・オリックス劇場
11月4日（日）大阪：大阪・オリックス劇場
11月13日（火）神奈川：神奈川県民ホール
12月4日（火）埼玉：大宮ソニックシティ
12月8日（土）兵庫：神戸国際会館 こくさいホール
12月9日（日）兵庫：神戸国際会館 こくさいホール
12月23日（祝・日）愛知：名古屋国際会議場センチュリーホール
12月24日（祝・月）愛知：名古屋国際会議場センチュリーホール

[ALfromHELLSING]

Originally Posted by kaled kalil

Second week sales: #38 - 1,505 - Total: 17,319. (http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5867952053?pn=4)

1505 must be including the missing sales from a few stores from the first week.
AND sold better but charted lower. DNA sold less but charted higher. I didn't expect Black Clover tie-in to help, the anime fans must have just bought Guess Who Is Back online w/o buying the album. Meanwhile that late ALL RIGHT tie-in really helped boosting AND sales.

And yea, that Guess Who Is Back feat. her son version was the cutest thing ever.

[Corvina]

Originally Posted by ALfromHELLSING

1505 must be including the missing sales from a few stores from the first week.
AND sold better but charted lower. DNA sold less but charted higher. I didn't expect Black Clover tie-in to help, the anime fans must have just bought Guess Who Is Back online w/o buying the album. Meanwhile that late ALL RIGHT tie-in really helped boosting AND sales.

AND sold worse in its second week, only 1200 copies.
It got a boost in its forth week and sold 1400 copies, but that was because of the 2nd batch of FC versions being shipped out by mu-mo, not because of the tie-in.

[lovethatkuu&ayu]

Sorry if this was already posted.

Avex Taiwan will be releasing the CD+DVD version of DNA next week. Interesting, since they only released the CD only version of AND.

[KarenPang]

Originally Posted by lovethatkuu&ayu

Sorry if this was already posted.

Avex Taiwan will be releasing the CD+DVD version of DNA next week. Interesting, since they only released the CD only version of AND.

https://www.facebook.com/avextw/phot...970710/?type=3
https://www.ccr.com.tw/goods/365292

Not only that , avex Taiwan is giving away the same postcard that CDJapan gives too

It's odd that Rhythm Zone didn't gave avex Taiwan the license to make the CD + DVD of AND , I mean it's not as though the DVD footages are X rated or something o_O

[lovethatkuu&ayu]

Avex Taiwan seems to be having some issues with the main label in Japan. I've noticed a few major players (Sandaime J Soul Brothers and TVXQ for example) only releasing CD only versions in Taiwan within the past year.