[Charts & Rankings] The Official Oricon Thread ~LOVE again~

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by maikaru

To be completely fair, her songs HAVE been playing in Sukiya, a popular Gyudon chain store, and department stores like Celeo and the like. And she does have almost 1,000,000 followers on Twitter. If even only 25% of them are active accounts that follow her, they know what's going on and they have the decision to choose whether to buy or not.

Oricon does NOT count digital sales, and I have found LOVE Again in Book Off already, a second hand store. So the sales figures dont properly represent whats going on, although even if you calculate digital sales the sales would probably be only 80,000 or so by now...

Ayumi needs to be likeable again. She needs to go on variety shows, interact with people, and make people like her personality again. Honestly, thats the only reason why Rola and them are so popular... she needs people to care about HER, so that they will care about the music again too. Thats why people cared in the first place, because she had a cute personality, cute voice, and cute looks, and she had a troubled past with her family, etc.

Make a lot of sense actually!!!

[Pieces_of_SEVEN]

I'll be happy as long as she gets the #1 weekly!

[brener]

from what i can see there might be a chance for ayu to stay on top 5 on the second week =)

[LONJJONG]

Wow ayu is among the new releases!

[Tony G]

#3 only sold 3466 copies, so not much competition from the new releases. Good chance she'll stay top 5.

[brener]

^

im praying for that!! *¬*~

[truehappiness]

I never said "go all out on promo" or anything like that. Just that actually promoting will help outside of her usual three or four magazines. It doesn't really matter if the music is dull or not, but listeners at least need to be aware that new music is coming.

[TeamAyu2004]

FNS 2012 was a disaster?
this is news to me.

I really think ayumi's problem is... who she is.
I was thinking about it today. If she released something like what AKB48 (any sister group) or something that kis-my-ft2 has released that has sold tons, she wouldnt sale the same because who she is.

She could completely reinvent herself and be a completely different artist, but people still wouldnt buy her stuff because it ayumi hamasaki.
which is sad.

[henrique]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

She could completely reinvent herself and be a completely different artist, but people still wouldnt buy her stuff because it ayumi hamasaki.
which is sad.

unfortunately this is so true.

[adantatu2]

It's not only ayu, even the K-POP groups are dropping a lot

[SolarAngel]

I'm really glad this is number 1 but the actual sales figures are pretty low. Even with Party Queen, I never thought I would see the day an Ayu ALBUM sells less than 100k.

I think Ayu is not the type of singer whom people want to see as being relatable or accessible (*ahem AKB48). Her appeal has mostly been having this larger than life, queenly, mysterious aura. But lately her PVs show her romping about with Maro and behaving like a silly light-headed schoolgirl. People don't want to see that from Ayu. Her entire creative and marketing team should get the sack IMO.

[SolarAngel]

^It's so hard to reply your post in the office with Ayu's butt exploding on my screen.. What I'm trying to say is I don't see the queen anymore. I see someone who's cute, rather immature, that's about it. It's a pity that the general impression she's giving the Japanese public now is something of a delinquent lovelorn teen. What's keeping me supporting her is the regularity and quality of her music. At least that's been consistent all along.

[Max_ZZZ]

Originally Posted by SolarAngel

^It's so hard to reply your post in the office with Ayu's butt exploding on my screen.. What I'm trying to say is I don't see the queen anymore. I see someone who's cute, rather immature, that's about it. It's a pity that the general impression she's giving the Japanese public now is something of a delinquent lovelorn teen. What's keeping me supporting her is the regularity and quality of her music. At least that's been consistent all along.

i sort of agree. shes aware of what shes done and she knows people compare her to madonna and whatnot. being a cute girl all lovey dovey doesnt really live up to her name. and i cant believe she could watch song 4 u and not think hrmm nothing really happens LOL
if shes really ok with all these lackluster releases then i guess whatever floats her boat but i think shes done stuff before which was phenomenal and that means she has the potential to do it again. to be honest i thought brillante was amazing. but after that the closest thing was return road. but in terms of a FULL cohesive piece of music and art i havent seen one since guilty for me. and for the japanese pubic prob n even earlier release. but i still think shell have her comeback sooner or later! if namie can she can

[Kirshwasser]

Originally Posted by Max_ZZZ

i sort of agree. shes aware of what shes done and she knows people compare her to madonna and whatnot. being a cute girl all lovey dovey doesnt really live up to her name. and i cant believe she could watch song 4 u and not think hrmm nothing really happens LOL
if shes really ok with all these lackluster releases then i guess whatever floats her boat but i think shes done stuff before which was phenomenal and that means she has the potential to do it again. to be honest i thought brillante was amazing. but after that the closest thing was return road. but in terms of a FULL cohesive piece of music and art i havent seen one since guilty for me. and for the japanese pubic prob n even earlier release. but i still think shell have her comeback sooner or later! if namie can she can

i agree.. i miss a pv like you were...that's what i called creativity..

[C+R+E+AYUMI]

I'm so freaking surprised she got #1 for one whole week

[Cahz-]

7th Day
Position: #4

[brener]

Originally Posted by Cahz-

7th Day
Position: #4

thats great, i'm hopping for something around 15k this week (=

[maikaru]

They need to make a documentary and show it on a popular variety program.

People need to see into the life of Ayumi Hamasaki, and they need to see that she isn't just some cute, immature person. She is on top of all of her stuff, she does the tour planning herself, she completely controls her empire - and no one knows this anymore. She needs to come out, and say this is Ayumi Hamasaki. No more lies, or hidden lives... she needs to lay it out on the line.

Every one makes gossip about her. But she NEVER responds to this gossip, unless it's potentially career shattering. She needs to open up about her life, if she wants to get those sales again.

If she doesn't, then she doesn't have to. No one really knows her anymore, she isn't on any program, she doesn't post any video blogs, and the little interaction she does on Twitter now isn't even worth mentioning. She's walled herself into a Fortress, like in the lyrics of Wake me up. Everyone thinks they can get in, but nobody actually gets in. I think even she herself knows the sand castles she built aren't holding.

She needs to change her PR strategy if she wants to continue her career. LOVE again sales are just plain attrocious. For someone who is called Japan's Top Female Star, it's a shame she's selling almost the same amount of albums as a Korean boy group that just came to Japan following the Hallyu Wave. =/

Complete change of PR strategy is called for.

[Yoshiaki]

Originally Posted by maikaru

They need to make a documentary and show it on a popular variety program.

People need to see into the life of Ayumi Hamasaki, and they need to see that she isn't just some cute, immature person. She is on top of all of her stuff, she does the tour planning herself, she completely controls her empire - and no one knows this anymore. She needs to come out, and say this is Ayumi Hamasaki. No more lies, or hidden lives... she needs to lay it out on the line.

Every one makes gossip about her. But she NEVER responds to this gossip, unless it's potentially career shattering. She needs to open up about her life, if she wants to get those sales again.

If she doesn't, then she doesn't have to. No one really knows her anymore, she isn't on any program, she doesn't post any video blogs, and the little interaction she does on Twitter now isn't even worth mentioning. She's walled herself into a Fortress, like in the lyrics of Wake me up. Everyone thinks they can get in, but nobody actually gets in. I think even she herself knows the sand castles she built aren't holding.

She needs to change her PR strategy if she wants to continue her career. LOVE again sales are just plain attrocious. For someone who is called Japan's Top Female Star, it's a shame she's selling almost the same amount of albums as a Korean boy group that just came to Japan following the Hallyu Wave. =/

Complete change of PR strategy is called for.

I do find it kinda weird that so far she did not attend any TV shows and sing some of her songs in the latest album... She's like doing the minimal promotion of her album... Maybe because this whole 5 releases are mainly for fans, and she don't wanna it to be too commercial..?

But anyway.... I am attracted to ayumi in the first place is because of her attitude... That she don't really care about anything, and got this kind of "princess" feel... (A bit arrogant, but not really the right word... she just got an attitude). And then i realized that was the point she was being treated as a product in Avex.

Afterwards, she's trying to be herself... instead of a product... But ironically, i sometimes do like her treat herself as a "product" (no offense)... Not so sure why the reasons, but maybe when she is a product, her lyrics came out deeper, and seems to be continuously fighting and finding the path out...

[mizuki-7]

Originally Posted by maikaru

They need to make a documentary and show it on a popular variety program.

People need to see into the life of Ayumi Hamasaki, and they need to see that she isn't just some cute, immature person. She is on top of all of her stuff, she does the tour planning herself, she completely controls her empire - and no one knows this anymore. She needs to come out, and say this is Ayumi Hamasaki. No more lies, or hidden lives... she needs to lay it out on the line.

Every one makes gossip about her. But she NEVER responds to this gossip, unless it's potentially career shattering. She needs to open up about her life, if she wants to get those sales again.

If she doesn't, then she doesn't have to. No one really knows her anymore, she isn't on any program, she doesn't post any video blogs, and the little interaction she does on Twitter now isn't even worth mentioning. She's walled herself into a Fortress, like in the lyrics of Wake me up. Everyone thinks they can get in, but nobody actually gets in. I think even she herself knows the sand castles she built aren't holding.

She needs to change her PR strategy if she wants to continue her career. LOVE again sales are just plain attrocious. For someone who is called Japan's Top Female Star, it's a shame she's selling almost the same amount of albums as a Korean boy group that just came to Japan following the Hallyu Wave. =/

Complete change of PR strategy is called for.

I completely agree =)

edit:

bh I feel like she is a bit afraid to go to tv nowadays. I watched a video of recent LIVE show and I really felt that she's just forgotten what it is to be a normal person with normal salary who can't afford a 15,000 pound jacuzzi.

I don't think she acts like a DIVA ! I seen FNS and when she finished her performance during MC we can see her seating at the table and she looks very not at her place like she was uncomfortable to be there ! I felt like she didn't appreciate to be there with all other singers around her ! IMO she don't likes that at all because you all know how she is bashed after by people and of course she knows it ! Her staff reads what's people think of her !