"Feel the love" short ver. PV

[Coelacanth]

Originally Posted by orbitalaspect

I think the actress feeling comfortable to parody her weight and stuff is great, but I think the video just buys into Japanese stereotypes that Americans are fat slobs.

We are though... Are you an obesity denialist? Do you need statistics for the amount of overweight people in this country and the projections by 2050? It's not pretty.

Originally Posted by marty

Didn't the girl had a photo of this guy she was looking adoringly?

Yes, lol. It was the muscle man. The balloon guy likely had no significance in the video.

[truehappiness]

It's amazing what some of you people come up with to make this video match your perception of Ayu as someone who can do no wrong.

I don't think it's that necessarily, but with Ayu, I don't think there's any reason to assume that she's going with the 'wrong' message. When has Ayu ever promoted such things in her career? She has always been about "you are beautiful the way you are..." and such. I mean we could go ahead and ask people like James or Ayu what the 'message' is since they know the storyline from the script, but I am going to guess even that won't be enough for anyone who feels that this PV is pushing some kind of horrible message.

When it comes to Ayu, when has the simplest explanation ever been the correct one?

[jbrat2219]

You know some of you who are trying to defend woman in the video because of her weight are truly doing her a disservice.

Yes, some of it was a little offensive (the chicken wing for example) and the ending is questionable. But throughout the entire PV she was funny (entertaining at least), charismatic and clearly confident. After a while I didn't even notice her weight. And I think that was the point of the video. At the end of it all, whether ayu was suppose to be her inner beauty or not, it was a fun, lighthearted video. It's not that serious.

And by the way, there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself by working out. That's nothing to be ashamed of. As far as health is concerned, being overweight is not a good thing. It's not fat-shaming if the character in the video wanted to lose weight. And it wasn't the only thing she did to improve herself, she also went to the beauty shop and bought a new dress. Are we suppose to feel she was shamed because of that as well?

I'm not saying the video was perfectly executed, there were a lot of things that could have been done better. But some of you are being dramatic as usual over a silly music video.

[AyumiAi]

I was super afraid to watch this cuz it looked cheap just from the thumbnail, but tbh even tho it was ayu looking glitz and dramatic and epic, i really enjoyed it! It was really funny and ayu looked amazing in the short parts she was in ^^ It was a nice berath of fresh air

[truehappiness]

I'm glad this PV turned out the way it did.

If it were a generic glitter pt.7 / random Lady DynamiteNaNaNa club crawl, I don't think anyone would be remotely as interested. I know people say they would have preferred it, but come on. I don't think ANYONE wanted that kind of thing.

[SheFliesHigher]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I don't think it's that necessarily, but with Ayu, I don't think there's any reason to assume that she's going with the 'wrong' message. When has Ayu ever promoted such things in her career?

I don't think she's actively trying to promote a negative message; I just think she (and / or the people she worked with on this video) half-baked some ideas and executed them without any grace or nuance. They think they're being funny without realizing greater implications.

[emi♡]

Originally Posted by SheFliesHigher

You must be exhausted after all those mental gymnastics you just did to try and scrape a positive message out of this video.

omg lol

Originally Posted by ayu-michan

Either way, I enjoyed watching it. I don't think of it as offensive at all, even though I knew for sure fans would flip the fuck out by seeing the stereotypical fat American girl.

buuuttt that's not even the offensive part lol

And you know, the video is fine overall, about you know, working out and wanting to be what you think is your best. Like I said, it was just done in bad taste, or perhaps, just to cater to that market.


The other thing is. You know I said this earlier, but it's interesting to me, how seriously or not seriously, people take the little things in our cultures and languages that marginalize people.

Like I said, what if I was going around saying "omg this music video is so retarded". Using "retarded" as a synonym for "stupid".

Now some people take that sort of thing very seriously, and other people don't.


In any case, I was happy with what someone just posted at another forum:

Noticing these kinds of things doesn't make you overly sensitive it just makes you more aware.

[Coelacanth]

Feel the love
You and me
Night 'n' day

Feel the love, feel the love, we can dance all night
Feel the love, feel the love, we can dance all night

I'll smile widely when I get around
The next corner – that's what I decided
There are also times when my heart aches
And I feel like I'm about to break

But why would it be wrong to try and follow my racing heartbeat
And to consider the present the most important?

Feel the love, feel the love, we can dance all night
Feel the love, feel the love, we can dance all night

You and me, you and me, we can feel the love tonight
You and me, you and me, we can feel the love tonight

I often hear
"I won't tell you 'I told you so'
But isn't it time you learned your lesson?"
Even so, in reality, what is true love?

Is there anyone who has never lost his way?
After all, we all have memories; the records of our past

Feel the love, feel the love, we can dance all night
Feel the love, feel the love, we can dance all night

Night 'n' day I'll be searching for my love
Night 'n' day I'll be searching for my love

Feel the love
You and me
Night 'n' day

Feel the love, feel the love, we can dance all night

I get a different feeling when I watch the video with the lyrics in mind. I don't think Ayu necessarily condones what the protagonist is doing (getting in shape solely to meet some douchey guy's expectations). I think she's trying to convey that some people do crazy things in the name of love, and this probably mirrors some of the choices Ayu has made with her past relationships. Imagine how many people have probably told the protagonist, including her own friends, "you don't have a chance with this dude, blah, blah. You're fine the way you are!" and at the end she ends up getting the guy. It's a trite message, but I think it's a little inspiring. Being "fine the way we are" doesn't always get us what we want. We have to stop breeding this mentality of mediocrity and entitlement in Western society, and instead need to find a balance between being a little hard on ourselves and loving things about ourselves that we cannot change.

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

And by the way, there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself by working out. That's nothing to be ashamed of. As far as health is concerned, being overweight is not a good thing. It's not fat-shaming if the character in the video wanted to lose weight. And it wasn't the only thing she did to improve herself, she also went to the beauty shop and bought a new dress. Are we suppose to feel she was shamed because of that as well?

This.

[truehappiness]

I really don't get why people are on such a crusade to find justification in being so offended by this video. It's veering into Tumblr-privilege levels to be honest.

[happiholic★]

^Well, it works both ways. Some people are hell bent on justifying it, too. Both sides are getting intense. But, this is a forum. What other purpose are we here for?

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

I didn't think the girl was laughable. You people are over-analyzing the PV and you are looking way too much into it. It's fine if you're overweight, but people who are as fat as this girl is need to loose weight for their own good. So no matter what you see and how you look at it, being fat isn't healthy and in all honesty it doesn't look pretty either. I doubt many would turn around, I know I prolly wouldn't...it's not something to be proud of, but different people are attracted to different things and shouldn't be judged the same way they aren't judging the people who are fine with being fat.

While I am completely against glorifying obesity in order to put a band-aid over the issue, I still found your post a touch rude. And while you were trying to defend the PV, which is fine, the bulk of your post contradicts the message you were initially trying to defend. You're saying this girl is unhealthily over weight without any evidence. Not everyone can be super skinny. On top of that you are flat out calling her ugly based on her weight, and even say "who would?" like others share your personal views. Like she's so disgusting and undatable simply for not having your ideal body weight. And saying she shouldn't be proud of her body kinda goes against the message I think Ayu was trying to send.

Obesity is a much larger issue than people who have no self control and eat too much, therefore are somehow lesser beings. I don't think that we should be saying, "Oh, honey eat all you want and get fat, being fat is sexy anyway!". No, we should be getting people the help that they need. Find out why they are so dependent on food. In the meantime, they do need to learn to love themselves, for the person that they are and the body that they are in. When they finally decide to lose weight, it should be to live a healthier, longer life. No to gain the attention of the opposite sex.

Maybe you didn't mean it that way, but then I would say the meaning of your post was more poorly presented than the PV.

Originally Posted by kimmeh

^ Very stereotypical :p like how about she dries her sweat with a chicken drumstick? :p

edit: for the people who are yelling at people for taking it too serious, why are you bothered by the discussion? Let people discuss what they want, it's only natural to be curious about this very un-ayu like choices she's made in this pv. I don't think any of us are going around with a gruge for ayu after this vid, people just wanna explain how they interpreted this. It's not Miley Cyrus who you can discuss with all your friends, its ayu, and most of us might not have so many friends who are into her they can discuss this with, so it all ends up here on the forum :p

Basically how I feel about forums. Took the words right out of my head.

[truehappiness]

For a lot of people though, this is the 'end of Ayu' as they know it and her 'worst video ever'. It's just one music video in a sea of many to come.

It's a bit like when Santino Rice said that Alyssa Edwards had the 'worst dress on the five seasons he has been on the show', when there have clearly been worse. There are a handful of PVs that Ayu has that are probably worse than this.

[Yoake]

Originally Posted by Coelacanth

I get a different feeling when I watch the video with the lyrics in mind. I don't think Ayu necessarily condones what the protagonist is doing (getting in shape solely to meet some douchey guy's expectations). I think she's trying to convey that some people do crazy things in the name of love, and this probably mirrors some of the choices Ayu has made with her past relationships. Imagine how many people have probably told the protagonist, including her own friends, "you don't have a chance with this dude, blah, blah. You're fine the way you are!" and at the end she ends up getting the guy. It's a trite message, but I think it's a little inspiring. Being "fine the way we are" doesn't always get us what we want. We have to stop breeding this mentality of mediocrity and entitlement in Western society, and instead need to find a balance between being a little hard on ourselves and loving things about ourselves that we cannot change.

Interesting

[adantatu2]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

At least the video does the song justice (both are dog shit).

Lol. XD

I'm glad i don't have high hopes for this PV, is kinda funny, but honestly i will never watch again this video because ayu is just there like 10 seconds on a screen.

[happiholic★]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

For a lot of people though, this is the 'end of Ayu' as they know it and her 'worst video ever'. It's just one music video in a sea of many to come.

It's a bit like when Santino Rice said that Alyssa Edwards had the 'worst dress on the five seasons he has been on the show', when there have clearly been worse. There are a handful of PVs that Ayu has that are probably worse than this.

And there are times when people call something, "THE BEST VIDEO EVER!! NOTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD CAN COMPARE!". It works both ways. Let drama queens, from both sides, be drama queens. If people wanna stop being an Ayu fan over a PV, that's their own stupidity.

Also, Alyssa is the BEST DRAG QUEEN EVER BETTER THAN ALL OTHERS WHO HAVE BEEN AND THOSE WHO WILL COME.

Seriously, though. I love Alyssa. She's my favorite contestant from that show. Backrolls, baby!

[marty]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I'm glad this PV turned out the way it did.

If it were a generic glitter pt.7 / random Lady DynamiteNaNaNa club crawl, I don't think anyone would be remotely as interested. I know people say they would have preferred it, but come on. I don't think ANYONE wanted that kind of thing.

I did, I DIIIIIID!! LOL XD Lady Dynamite was exactly what I had in mind for Feel the love.
Of course, doing new stuff is a good thing, if the thing is done properly (which in this case wasn't for me). She could have worked a club party concept very well in my opinion, but, well, it wasn't her vision this time, lol.

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by happiholic★

And there are times when people call something, "THE BEST VIDEO EVER!! NOTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD CAN COMPARE!". It works both ways. Let drama queens, from both sides, be drama queens. If people wanna stop being an Ayu fan over a PV, that's their own stupidity.

Also, Alyssa is the BEST DRAG QUEEN EVER BETTER THAN ALL OTHERS WHO HAVE BEEN AND THOSE WHO WILL COME.

Seriously, though. I love Alyssa. She's my favorite contestant from that show. Backrolls, baby!

Y'all can't take this... look how fuckin' offended you look! I'M NOT JOKIN', BITCH.

But really, I think it's better to have people saying that this is the 'best video ever' even though it probably isn't (this happens a lot with GaGa fans I think) than people who are always saying this is the end of a career. (I don't think anyone has said this is the best video ever anyway...) Can you imagine that people were saying that Ayu was 'over' during the Memorial address / MY STORY era?

We even got these sorts of comments around the time glitter/fated came out and how that was her 'worst single ever' up until that point. No no no!

I'm looking forward to what else the Merry-go-round PV will bring since it seems like it could balance out the 'fun/crazy' that Feel the love has both musically and visually. Feel the love is like the crazy sister and Merry-go-round is the one that wrangles her in.

(On a related note, this entire thing is reminding me of the "Kristin Cabarararariariri" thing that Manila did that Shangela got utterly offended over because "Manila isn't Chinese/Japanese".)

[ayu-michan]

Originally Posted by Coelacanth

I get a different feeling when I watch the video with the lyrics in mind. I don't think Ayu necessarily condones what the protagonist is doing (getting in shape solely to meet some douchey guy's expectations). I think she's trying to convey that some people do crazy things in the name of love, and this probably mirrors some of the choices Ayu has made with her past relationships. Imagine how many people have probably told the protagonist, including her own friends, "you don't have a chance with this dude, blah, blah. You're fine the way you are!" and at the end she ends up getting the guy. It's a trite message, but I think it's a little inspiring. Being "fine the way we are" doesn't always get us what we want. We have to stop breeding this mentality of mediocrity and entitlement in Western society, and instead need to find a balance between being a little hard on ourselves and loving things about ourselves that we cannot change.

Kind of what I'm thinking too. Reading the lyrics made much more sense.

I think this just really depends on each person's perspective. To me it just always seems like Ayu's message is much more greater than all the bull about being fat or skinny. That's why I don't care much about the PV, her lyrics are the most important, and we should consider the lyrics more to the song.

[jbrat2219]

This isn't like main stream news media where we pretend everything is equal.

Positivity is better than negativity. And even if you don't like something, there's no reason to be so hostile about it.

[truehappiness]

Exactly.

I'm pretty sure "its bullshit" isn't a very good discussion starter. It's about the same as "I hate this and I never want to watch it again. Worst ever.", really.

I could see Ayu-from-a-few-years-ago doing this video, but the furthest back is probably 2005 since she never really got all silly until around then. I mean we got Startin' and Beautiful Fighters in the same year that she decided she wanted to go with a bit of a Western and adult flair to her 'image' compared to what she had done from 1998-2004.

[kotora]

I don't get how a white fat girl becomes ayu (an slim asian girl) within 5 minutes.