New single「Summer Again」(1.7.22)

[hidekirby]

I really like the song!
I may be part of a minority but I would have been so fed up by a classical and safe ayu summer song. To be honest I've never really enjoyed her summer hits post fairyland as they sounded to me like pale imitations (to some exceptions). So even if Summer Again is not reinventing much in itself (music-wise) it is a great addition to her discography and something I would never expect after all those years.
The arrangements are quite good and fresh and I'm not surprised tasuku is behind those! Love the 80-90's vintage beat and the african / middle eastern type of sound throughout the song. They make those parts cleverly contrasting with the choruses which are more classic, so the whole song still has her mark all over it. It's definitely an ayu song.
To sum up, Summer Again is a really strong follow-up to Nonfiction! She really surprised me once again.

As regards the PV, I expected something like that.
Like a lot of opportunities to do many interesting things kind of wasted. Could have been cool like many said to have more of that dark haired ayu, more scenes in the caves (I've been dreaming about them since we got the first dark haired ayu candid shoot), more scenes in the water, within the greenery, some fire on the beach during night scenes, even some kind of cult and ritual etc etc... But well I expected it to be that simple, so eventually I'm pretty ok with the PV.
Yet, I'm less ok with her acting and lip-synching. They are once more really distracting to me. It was so good before... Why...
As regards editing I have to say it's quite a mess. She looks SO GOOD on all the off screen and candid shoots and then we have that blurry, featureless version of ayu. They really don't do her beauty justice. And like on Nonfiction PV, I noticed they sometimes scaled the picture vertically so that (I don't see any other reasons) she appears thinner, like they're trying to pay tribute to Anastacia's I'm Outta Love PV. I absolutely hate that. It makes her face look really off and her body quite strange on some parts when she has her arms gesturing around her (basically she looks elongated with tiny arms).
Oh, and I'm SO GLAD there are no drone shadows to be found unlike in the teaser haha! At least I may put that good point on the late extra editing!

Can't wait for the album !!!!!

edit : anyone noticed ayu and her magical blurry armpits (at 1:19 for example and on)? ... SWEET BABY JESUS, WHY ANYONE WOULD DO THAT??? ToT

[minkAYuko]

Originally Posted by hidekirby

I really like the song!
I may be part of a minority but I would have been so fed up by a classical and safe ayu summer song. To be honest I've never really enjoyed her summer hits post fairyland as they sounded to me like pale imitations (to some exceptions). So even if Summer Again is not reinventing much in itself (music-wise) it is a great addition to her discography and something I would never expect after all those years.
The arrangements are quite good and fresh and I'm not surprised tasuku is behind those! Love the 80-90's vintage beat and the african / middle eastern type of sound throughout the song. They make those parts cleverly contrasting with the choruses which are more classic, so the whole song still has her mark all over it. It's definitely an ayu song.
To sum up, Summer Again is a really strong follow-up to Nonfiction! She really surprised me once again.

As regards the PV, I expected something like that.
Like a lot of opportunities to do many interesting things kind of wasted. Could have been cool like many said to have more of that dark haired ayu, more scenes in the caves (I've been dreaming about them since we got the first dark haired ayu candid shoot), more scenes in the water, within the greenery, some fire on the beach during night scenes, even some kind of cult and ritual etc etc... But well I expected it to be that simple, so eventually I'm pretty ok with the PV.
Yet, I'm less ok with her acting and lip-synching. They are once more really distracting to me. It was so good before... Why...
As regards editing I have to say it's quite a mess. She looks SO GOOD on all the off screen and candid shoots and then we have that blurry, featureless version of ayu. They really don't do her beauty justice. And like on Nonfiction PV, I noticed they sometimes scaled the picture vertically so that (I don't see any other reasons) she appears thinner, like they're trying to pay tribute to Anastacia's I'm Outta Love PV. I absolutely hate that. It makes her face look really off and her body quite strange on some parts when she has her arms gesturing around her (basically she looks elongated with tiny arms).
Oh, and I'm SO GLAD there are no drone shadows to be found unlike in the teaser haha! At least I may put that good point on the late extra editing!

Can't wait for the album !!!!!

edit : anyone noticed ayu and her magical blurry armpits (at 1:19 for example and on)? ... SWEET BABY JESUS, WHY ANYONE WOULD DO THAT??? ToT

they wanted to hide ayu's back?, was it too sexual? haha or maybe a little back roll? (alyssa edwards: BACK ROLLS? O_O) xD. The fact that that it's supposed to be 1080p and still looks 240p doesn't help. The dancers armpits are blurred too.

[hidekirby]

Originally Posted by minkAYuko

they wanted to hide ayu's back?, was it too sexual? haha or maybe a little back roll? (alyssa edwards: BACK ROLLS? O_O) xD. The fact that that it's supposed to be 1080p and still looks 240p doesn't help. The dancers armpits are blurred too.

Yeah I really don't understand the point of this. But it's pretty obvious they poorly tracked them as its blurring the surroundings too... Whoever did the edit must be replaced asap, or somebody really has to convince ayu she's ageing gracefully and looks waaaay younger and way beautiful and natural without all those cheap edits. It's really so sad. Or I just hope it was a one shot decision (for whatever reason) as Nonfiction PV didn't suffer that much from all of this.

Another funny thing I noticed, her arms and back are greener than her head in some shots (I was even wondering if there was any greyish paint covering her body for artistic reasons or else). Like they poorly applied a selective color filter on her face to make it more orange but forgot the body. Please no more last minute edits...

[BlackSilence]

Originally Posted by hidekirby

Yeah I really don't understand the point of this. But it's pretty obvious they poorly tracked them as its blurring the surroundings too... Whoever did the edit must be replaced asap, or somebody really has to convince ayu she's ageing gracefully and looks waaaay younger and way beautiful and natural without all those cheap edits. It's really so sad. Or I just hope it was a one shot decision (for whatever reason) as Nonfiction PV didn't suffer that much from all of this.

Another funny thing I noticed, her arms and back are greener than her head in some shots (I was even wondering if there was any greyish paint covering her body for artistic reasons or else). Like they poorly applied a selective color filter on her face to make it more orange but forgot the body. Please no more last minute edits...

OMG, that was a weird one. Why did they do that. There's no way she could even have any skin rolls in that pose, she's a slim woman. TBH though, i wouldn't be surprised if they have a smoothing filter on, cuz her skin in MVs always looks like in her instagram photos, even on close ups.

Um and yeah i think they have some colorgrading filters on there

[kotora]

Originally Posted by hidekirby

I really like the song!
I may be part of a minority but I would have been so fed up by a classical and safe ayu summer song. To be honest I've never really enjoyed her summer hits post fairyland as they sounded to me like pale imitations (to some exceptions). So even if Summer Again is not reinventing much in itself (music-wise) it is a great addition to her discography and something I would never expect after all those years.
The arrangements are quite good and fresh and I'm not surprised tasuku is behind those! Love the 80-90's vintage beat and the african / middle eastern type of sound throughout the song. They make those parts cleverly contrasting with the choruses which are more classic, so the whole song still has her mark all over it. It's definitely an ayu song.
To sum up, Summer Again is a really strong follow-up to Nonfiction! She really surprised me once again.

As regards the PV, I expected something like that.
Like a lot of opportunities to do many interesting things kind of wasted. Could have been cool like many said to have more of that dark haired ayu, more scenes in the caves (I've been dreaming about them since we got the first dark haired ayu candid shoot), more scenes in the water, within the greenery, some fire on the beach during night scenes, even some kind of cult and ritual etc etc... But well I expected it to be that simple, so eventually I'm pretty ok with the PV.
Yet, I'm less ok with her acting and lip-synching. They are once more really distracting to me. It was so good before... Why...
As regards editing I have to say it's quite a mess. She looks SO GOOD on all the off screen and candid shoots and then we have that blurry, featureless version of ayu. They really don't do her beauty justice. And like on Nonfiction PV, I noticed they sometimes scaled the picture vertically so that (I don't see any other reasons) she appears thinner, like they're trying to pay tribute to Anastacia's I'm Outta Love PV. I absolutely hate that. It makes her face look really off and her body quite strange on some parts when she has her arms gesturing around her (basically she looks elongated with tiny arms).
Oh, and I'm SO GLAD there are no drone shadows to be found unlike in the teaser haha! At least I may put that good point on the late extra editing!

Can't wait for the album !!!!!

edit : anyone noticed ayu and her magical blurry armpits (at 1:19 for example and on)? ... SWEET BABY JESUS, WHY ANYONE WOULD DO THAT??? ToT

I am sorry I miss her summer songs like UNITE!, independent, HANABI

[M.A.X.]

Originally Posted by kotora

I am sorry I miss her summer songs like UNITE!, independent, HANABI

I think most of people miss this time (I miss it too...) but it was 20 years ago and this time is over. There is no chance to listen this kind of song now in Ayu's discography.