Ayu possibly leaving Twitter? (her Twitter is now a staff account)

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by Uemarasan

I mean, for Pete's sake, she's a pop singer, not Malala Yousafzai. She shouldn't be the authority on or representative of morality or maturity or good behavior for anyone.

Pretty much this. Why on earth is Ayu not allowed to make mistakes, be in a bad mood from time to time, get angry, or be horny? Especially Ayu, whose whole "thing" has always been that she's a human being just like us. For heaven's sake, why can't people just let her be human x_X

Originally Posted by melissalove

Ayu should stop once and for all sharing her private life. I mean namie and kuu don't get into messes like these.

To the best of my knowledge Ayu's never had a scandal bad enough that all promotions for her current album were pulled... THAT honor can only really go to Koda Kumi for her "rotten amniotic fluid" comment (which is just plain funny in retrospect).

Namie doesn't really talk enough for anything she says to cause a scandal, this is true, but her image is a very cool, distant one to begin with. It's not really part of her "brand" to talk all that much anyway, so there haven't been opportunities for her to create such panic with some offhand or vague comment. However, she had to deal with almost retiring after the really violent murder of her mother.

Honestly I'm just thankful all of Ayu's "scandals" have either been overblown humanness, misunderstood gossip, or outright fabrications. When you think about it, Ayu's career has actually been SO relatively uneventful that people need to either make things up or point at totally common behavior as though it's the end of the freaking world because this time it's something Ayu did.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

Pretty much this. Why on earth is Ayu not allowed to make mistakes, be in a bad mood from time to time, get angry, or be horny? Especially Ayu, whose whole "thing" has always been that she's a human being just like us. For heaven's sake, why can't people just let her be human x_X

No one said she can't make mistakes. But it just ain't cool to act like an attention seeking teenager, write plain stupid things on twitter like "I hate you..." with a pic of yourself so that your whole fandome is like "what's wrong Ayu are you ok?", then say NOTHING AT ALL and post a few days later a pic with you and your husband with a text that says "Goodbye my love" so that everyone out there is still alarmed what in the world happened to you and is asking if your relationship is over.
Then you're not just pissed about messages that are mean, no you're pissed about your whole fandom. You're pissed about all the people who like you so much that they care to follow you on twitter and write you messages if everythin's ok. Your fandome just thinks you may get a divorce because of the immature stuff you posted and wants to know wat's going on. But instead of appreciating that there are actually people out there who care about what you write and take it seriously, you blame them for it and call them out in public. Honestly, that's very low.

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by Chibi-Chan

No one said she can't make mistakes.

Maybe they're not saying that outright, but comments online by people who say things like "I used to like her, but look at what she's become!" are basically saying that they hold that opinion. She hasn't "become" anything. She's just made mistakes in her personal life.

Originally Posted by Chibi-Chan

But it just ain't cool to act like an attention seeking teenager, write plain stupid things on twitter like "I hate you..." with a pic of yourself so that your whole fandome is like "what's wrong Ayu are you ok?", then say NOTHING AT ALL

I'm not gonna lie and say she doesn't sometimes vaguebook (or vague tweet) like an attention seeking teenager. To be fair, when she's in the USA, she's in LA. Having once lived there for five years myself & given that I still have many social ties to the area, I can say with some accuracy that that's... kind of the dominant culture there. Vague, attention-seeking comments are just kind of the norm among people in LA, especially those in any sort of entertainment business. Granted, Japanese people and most other fans globally aren't used to that kind of thing, but still... can you honestly expect Ayu's tweets to be THAT different from those of any other famous person (all, by definition, attention seekers)? ESPECIALLY since she's the type to be vague in her lyrics. I'd like to remind everyone here that we still have no true confirmation about who songs like "Memorial address" are about. We ONLY have conjecture, NOTHING from her mouth. Why is that okay and a vague tweet not okay? She tweets random musings, same as many writers & poets & musicians & even YouTubers do. Why can't we just enjoy tweets like "i hate you..." and discuss whether she means a former friend, herself, the haters as a general concept, etc? It's easier to assume, and by doing that, you put words into her mouth and you DO affect her relationships with other people around her. Can you imagine Ayu's husband coming across a bunch of rumors about divorce? They haven't been together long enough for him to be able to laugh it off easily, she probably has to reassure him that these comments aren't based in reality EVERY TIME THEY HAPPEN. That shouldn't be her responsibility, and if everyone was respectful of her privacy - leaving her alone to share what she wants to share and being satisfied with that - it wouldn't be.

Originally Posted by Chibi-Chan

and post a few days later a pic with you and your husband with a text that says "Goodbye my love" so that everyone out there is still alarmed what in the world happened to you and is asking if your relationship is over.

1) It's a picture of her hugging her husband and smiling. Because I know whenever I break up with someone, I tweet a photo of us clearly happy and in love. That's a very effective way of conveying that message.
2) The photo was tweeted at the the beginning of the only long break from the TA tour that she had scheduled. Four-day breaks between dates weren't long enough for her to see her husband, this one was. Makes sense for her husband to decide "You take breaks from your tours to come see me... I feel so neglected by this! Let's get divorced."
3) She said #goodbyemylove #hellomylove. She ended the tweet with #hellomylove. Goodbye to one love, hello to another. But that #hellomylove doesn't fit people's narrative of "ayu's love life is tumultuous and dramatic!" so they just ignore it I guess.

How did people see that tweet as meaning ANYTHING except "Goodbye to one love, my fans on my TA tour, but hello to my other love, my husband"? Honest to god it's like NO ONE used their brain or looked at context at all. They saw the ONE detail they wanted to see and it confirmed the ONE story they wanted it to tell. That's THEIR fault, NOT Ayu's, and I will NEVER fault her for that tweet. Not in a million years. I'll admit other times she messed up - marrying Mannie after only knowing him for 3 months was very very much a mistake, and I'm not gonna excuse stuff like that. That was a major life decision that she was very reckless with. But a tweet like the above? Nope, that's fine. She's totally allowed to do those imho.

Originally Posted by Chibi-Chan

Then you're not just pissed about messages that are mean, no you're pissed about your whole fandom. You're pissed about all the people who like you so much that they care to follow you on twitter and write you messages if everythin's ok. Your fandome just thinks you may get a divorce because of the immature stuff you posted and wants to know wat's going on. But instead of appreciating that there are actually people out there who care about what you write and take it seriously, you blame them for it and call them out in public. Honestly, that's very low.

To be fair we have no idea the extent of the criticism Ayu receives, nor how her mind perceives it. If you're a sensitive person, it's hard not to dwell on the criticism. It's no wonder Ayu loves performing so much because it's a whole huge room full of people who are cheering for you. There's not any criticism to magnify. But on something like twitter, if you see something negative in a sea of happy comments, the negative one just seems to stand out, like a big blinking red light in the middle of a pretty blue sky. And if she sees a ton of big blinking red lights day in & day out - don't forget, there's a whole bunch of negativity out there written in a language most of us don't speak fluently, and we have no idea how bad it might be - it may really get to her.

And if it does, then leaving twitter is the right thing for her. I don't know if it was something she decided to do on her own or if her staff insisted on it... but if the latter is the case, it's because someone behind the scenes was worried about the effect it was having on her to see it.

Then there's the fact that... Okay. When you're totally 100% okay, but someone asks you if you're okay, what's your reaction to that? Be honest.

For nearly EVERYONE I know, myself included, the HONEST answer to that question would NOT be a positive one. My sister has resting bitch face in a major way, so when she's happy but she's very focused on something and looks angry, it's really REALLY annoying for her when people ask if she's okay. When I'm fine but someone in my circle of friends says I seem sad, but really I'm just quiet, I get upset because it seems like they don't really know me at all. I know others who feel similarly... One surefire way to get someone angry is to tell a them to calm down or ask what their problem is when there's no problem.

Asking someone if they're okay can often seem patronizing, or as though it's out of pity rather than genuine concern.

And then there's the general attitude towards Ayu's love life in the years since 2007. Look at the way people have talked about Ayu's relationships since Tomoya Nagase... With Nagase the rumors were all pregnancy, marriage, moving in together, etc. But with everyone since then it's been divorce, emotional abuse, criticism, etc. And this was even before Ayu & Manny got divorced, too. It's almost like the tabloids and her fans alike went from wanting her to be happy to wanting her to be unhappy overnight.

Admittedly, she probably reads too much into people asking if she's okay as a result of that shift. But can THIS fandom really criticize Ayu for reading too much into things? Especially when these comments are attacks on her personally - Ayu tweeting about her life or her relationships is not an attack on us. Ayu stopping tweeting is NOT an attack on us, either, it's a defensive maneuver. A turtle isn't attacking when it hides in its shell. If a turtle hides, it would serve us all best to wonder if maybe we poked it with a stick one too many times.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

I'm not gonna lie and say she doesn't sometimes vaguebook (or vague tweet) like an attention seeking teenager. To be fair, when she's in the USA, she's in LA. Having once lived there for five years myself & given that I still have many social ties to the area, I can say with some accuracy that that's... kind of the dominant culture there. Vague, attention-seeking comments are just kind of the norm among people in LA, especially those in any sort of entertainment business. Granted, Japanese people and most other fans globally aren't used to that kind of thing, but still... can you honestly expect Ayu's tweets to be THAT different from those of any other famous person (all, by definition, attention seekers)? ESPECIALLY since she's the type to be vague in her lyrics. I'd like to remind everyone here that we still have no true confirmation about who songs like "Memorial address" are about. We ONLY have conjecture, NOTHING from her mouth. Why is that okay and a vague tweet not okay? She tweets random musings, same as many writers & poets & musicians & even YouTubers do. Why can't we just enjoy tweets like "i hate you..." and discuss whether she means a former friend, herself, the haters as a general concept, etc? It's easier to assume, and by doing that, you put words into her mouth and you DO affect her relationships with other people around her. Can you imagine Ayu's husband coming across a bunch of rumors about divorce? They haven't been together long enough for him to be able to laugh it off easily, she probably has to reassure him that these comments aren't based in reality EVERY TIME THEY HAPPEN. That shouldn't be her responsibility, and if everyone was respectful of her privacy - leaving her alone to share what she wants to share and being satisfied with that - it wouldn't be.

There is a difference between lyrics and a twitter comment. Lyrics are just lyrics and we can't even be sure that all of them are about her personal experiences. Discussing lyrics as some kind of artistry and discussing a personal tweet are two different things. And I don't really know why I try to explain that. Because I get the feeling you just want to defend her because you want to defend her.
Ayu is a japanese woman, even if her attention seeking posts are LA inspired I believe she knows her own culture good enough to know japanese people won't see it that way.
And personally I don't see how I should interpret anything poetic into a tweet like "I hate you..".
And I don't remember any other artist I follow being such an attention seeking teen like Ayu is nowadays. I'm just sick of it and can't stand it anymore.
If you want to defend her immature behaviour just for the sake of defending her, you can do that. I'm actually glad that there are still people who do that. I honestly try since all the drama stuff started in 2012 to do the same. I even send her a lot of supportive and encouraging tweets in the past. But I'm at a point where I just can't stand her persona in social media anymore. She decided to make a lot of attention seeking posts a lot of times before. Everytime it creates drama over drama. If it would have happened once or twice, well everyone makes mistakes. But she makes the same stupid mistake again and again and in the end always pitying herself.
She is not anyones best friend out there when it comes to her fans. She can't expect the public to read all those posts and to know exactly what's going on. If course people speculate about it. A lot if them do that because they actually care about her.

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

1) It's a picture of her hugging her husband and smiling. Because I know whenever I break up with someone, I tweet a photo of us clearly happy and in love. That's a very effective way of conveying that message.
2) The photo was tweeted at the the beginning of the only long break from the TA tour that she had scheduled. Four-day breaks between dates weren't long enough for her to see her husband, this one was. Makes sense for her husband to decide "You take breaks from your tours to come see me... I feel so neglected by this! Let's get divorced."
3) She said #goodbyemylove #hellomylove. She ended the tweet with #hellomylove. Goodbye to one love, hello to another. But that #hellomylove doesn't fit people's narrative of "ayu's love life is tumultuous and dramatic!" so they just ignore it I guess.

How did people see that tweet as meaning ANYTHING except "Goodbye to one love, my fans on my TA tour, but hello to my other love, my husband"? Honest to god it's like NO ONE used their brain or looked at context at all. They saw the ONE detail they wanted to see and it confirmed the ONE story they wanted it to tell. That's THEIR fault, NOT Ayu's, and I will NEVER fault her for that tweet. Not in a million years. I'll admit other times she messed up - marrying Mannie after only knowing him for 3 months was very very much a mistake, and I'm not gonna excuse stuff like that. That was a major life decision that she was very reckless with. But a tweet like the above? Nope, that's fine. She's totally allowed to do those imho.

People got it wrong because it's not the first time she would have done something like that. It also could have meant she and her husband seperated, she is sad about it because she was happy with him but because of whatever reason they just can't be a couple. But to add a positive note to it, she also wrote #hellomylove to tell people that she's sure she will find a new love one day and never gives up. And the "I hate you..." tweet with a pic of herself also perfectly fits. Because a few days later she could have blamed herself to messed it up again.
Totally something that sounds like her to be honest.
So it IS her fault when she's writing something like this that people get it wrong.

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

To be fair we have no idea the extent of the criticism Ayu receives, nor how her mind perceives it. If you're a sensitive person, it's hard not to dwell on the criticism. It's no wonder Ayu loves performing so much because it's a whole huge room full of people who are cheering for you. There's not any criticism to magnify. But on something like twitter, if you see something negative in a sea of happy comments, the negative one just seems to stand out, like a big blinking red light in the middle of a pretty blue sky. And if she sees a ton of big blinking red lights day in & day out - don't forget, there's a whole bunch of negativity out there written in a language most of us don't speak fluently, and we have no idea how bad it might be - it may really get to her.

And if it does, then leaving twitter is the right thing for her. I don't know if it was something she decided to do on her own or if her staff insisted on it... but if the latter is the case, it's because someone behind the scenes was worried about the effect it was having on her to see it.

Then there's the fact that... Okay. When you're totally 100% okay, but someone asks you if you're okay, what's your reaction to that? Be honest.

For nearly EVERYONE I know, myself included, the HONEST answer to that question would NOT be a positive one. My sister has resting bitch face in a major way, so when she's happy but she's very focused on something and looks angry, it's really REALLY annoying for her when people ask if she's okay. When I'm fine but someone in my circle of friends says I seem sad, but really I'm just quiet, I get upset because it seems like they don't really know me at all. I know others who feel similarly... One surefire way to get someone angry is to tell a them to calm down or ask what their problem is when there's no problem.

Asking someone if they're okay can often seem patronizing, or as though it's out of pity rather than genuine concern.

And then there's the general attitude towards Ayu's love life in the years since 2007. Look at the way people have talked about Ayu's relationships since Tomoya Nagase... With Nagase the rumors were all pregnancy, marriage, moving in together, etc. But with everyone since then it's been divorce, emotional abuse, criticism, etc. And this was even before Ayu & Manny got divorced, too. It's almost like the tabloids and her fans alike went from wanting her to be happy to wanting her to be unhappy overnight.

Admittedly, she probably reads too much into people asking if she's okay as a result of that shift. But can THIS fandom really criticize Ayu for reading too much into things? Especially when these comments are attacks on her personally - Ayu tweeting about her life or her relationships is not an attack on us. Ayu stopping tweeting is NOT an attack on us, either, it's a defensive maneuver. A turtle isn't attacking when it hides in its shell. If a turtle hides, it would serve us all best to wonder if maybe we poked it with a stick one too many times.

I don't get that argument. Because people are not asking out of nowhere if she's ok. She just posted a comment with a pic of her that seems to say she hates herself. And I'm being honest: no I won't be mad. If I look sad but I'm not and someone asks me about it I would he happy they care. And in case I would write something like "I hate you..." that is directed at myself at twitter or facebook and people would ask what's wrong because they don't want me to hate myself, that would be totally fine with me.
And to be honest again: if a friend of mine would post something like that, I would be VERY worried and alarmed that something is VERY wrong.
There are two reasons for me why Ayu could have written that. First she's just attention seeking and wants to pity herself again. Or she really has a problem and needs help. But because I don't want to analyze her private life that much without actually knowing her in person, I go with option one. And in the end I'm her fan and not her therapist.
Being artistic and poetic in lyics is totally fine and that's what I always loved her for.
Because when reading her lyrics I'm "interacting" with the artist and not the person who wrote the lyrics. But on twitter Ayu isn't the artist, she is just being herself. And there are some things you should have learned to keep private when you're an adult.

If you don't see it that way, you don't see it that way. It's nice to see that there are people who still defend her and her behaviour in every way.
I can't do that anymore even though I tried. But for me she crossed the line a lot of times now so that I'm simply annoyed by her social media persona and that never happened with any other artist I like before. I makes me sad to be honest.

[jbrat2219]

Gosh, I go for a while and come back to this mess...

I'm sad she felt she had to discontinue her twitter activity but I respect her right to do so. I won't speculate on why she did it because there is no way to know for sure unless she comes out and says it. I just wish she could have given some warning before deleting them all. I would have saved all the tweets she sent me!!!

[xLuna&1LOVE]

Is it really mean to say that I think some of the recent episodes of South Park kinda nailed this issue? I believe it is pretty relevant to Ayu.




It is not a stupid decision to disconnect from the fans, if it only leads up to pointless annoying fights, but come on. Honestly, all of this is so over-exaggerated and Ayu herself is definitely not a victim. If she wants to live up the WARNING lyrics, well then good for her, but the 'good noght' tweet after all the drama she has started was very off putting. I really do not appreciate this kind of attitude, and I definitely do not think it was funny.
Again, I do understand she is completely fed up with false accusations, wrong speculations or just nasty comments, but I do not understand why she made this so big. Leaving twitter because of these things is a wise decision.

[SummonerXI]

Some of the comments on here are kind of unsettling. Everyone has the right to feel 100% safe in their social media space, and are allowed to voluntarily leave for whatever reason they choose. While I'm saddened that Ayu has chose this, I don't think she's immature for doing so. If social media is causing her any unneeded stress or anxiety, absolutely she needs to leave it. And if deleting all of her tweets is what will make her feel better, then she should do that. Her tweets aren't anything valuable or meaningful. It's not like she's throwing 12th century biblical texts into a flame. We need to stop acting like that and respect her decisions to remove her presence from social media.

[Chibi-Chan]

^then you got the criticism wrong. No one criticized her for leaving. That's the only mature decision she made in all of this. Her comments were criticized as immature.

[Delirium-Zer0]

I don't think ANYONE on this forum would agree that I ever defend Ayu for the sake of defending her. I criticize things she says and does all the time. But I defend behavior that I don't find unreasonable, and I criticize behavior I do find unreasonable. Regardless of whose behavior it is.

If you and I don't agree about what's reasonable and what's unreasonable, then we're just gonna have to agree to disagree. No big.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

I don't think ANYONE on this forum would agree that I ever defend Ayu for the sake of defending her. I criticize things she says and does all the time. But I defend behavior that I don't find unreasonable, and I criticize behavior I do find unreasonable. Regardless of whose behavior it is.

If you and I don't agree about what's reasonable and what's unreasonable, then we're just gonna have to agree to disagree. No big.

Well you're right that you normally don't do that. I didn't meant to say that that's what you normally do. For me it just looks like this in this specific case. I was criticizing her for being unprofessional and immature regarding her job and how she's interacting with the public as if she's talking to her best friends. I guess you're defending her from a perspective a friend of hers would do.
If someone talks about a popstar in a way I would talk about a friend I always get the feeling the person just wants to defend the popstar no matter what. I apologize that I got your intention wrong since I guess that's not what you meant to do.

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by Chibi-Chan

I was criticizing her for being unprofessional and immature regarding her job and how she's interacting with the public as if she's talking to her best friends. I guess you're defending her from a perspective a friend of hers would do.
If someone talks about a popstar in a way I would talk about a friend I always get the feeling the person just wants to defend the popstar no matter what.

Yeah, I totally understand that.

I'm defending Ayu not in the context of "ayu is a pop star, and SHE TOTALLY GETS ME OMG!" which is indeed EXACTLY what gets people talking about pop stars in a "friendly" context. Because most pop stars are deliberately distant, cool, perfect, etc. They're far more rehearsed than Ayu has always been. They're a different KIND of pop star.

I'd feel very weird being forgiving of vague tweets if they came from someone like Namie, for instance.

I only feel the need to defend Ayu here because "unprofessional," talking to her fans as if they were her friends, was always kinda... part of her image. She's VERY inconsistent about this, but her image has always been "she's just like if one of us normal girls was able to wear designer clothes & travel the world." Since the beginning her lyrics have always been "my real feelings" (at a time when that was NOT common in J-Pop, although now it's not so unusual). Girls copying her fashion & buying every makeup product she promoted wasn't an accident, and it wasn't just "I wanna be like my idol," it was just "I CAN be like her." Ayu has always come across more like the class president who didn't really want the job but everyone insisted that she take it, rather than seeming like a distant, perfect, mythical goddess.

Granted, fans who don't see her that way - and given her relatively distant image since.... I dunno, around the "MY STORY" era or so, there are PLENTY of them - are going to probably be much harsher on her when she's unprofessional, which I completely understand.

But for me personally, if I was only interested in seeing her professionalism, I'd only watch her concerts and videos and I'd only read magazine interviews that have been edited and polished. To me twitter is where you see celebrities at their least professional. For some, it's a place where you see these celebrities embarrass themselves with vague tweets made in the heat of a moment without much thought. For others, it's a place where you see celebrities humanized by those tweets. And that humanization makes me feel better. To me it's both endearing to see Ayu so humanly flawed, and encouraging to see that yes, indeed, everyone makes mistakes.

[Delicious n Bold]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

To me twitter is where you see celebrities at their least professional. For some, it's a place where you see these celebrities embarrass themselves with vague tweets made in the heat of a moment without much thought. For others, it's a place where you see celebrities humanized by those tweets. And that humanization makes me feel better. To me it's both endearing to see Ayu so humanly flawed, and encouraging to see that yes, indeed, everyone makes mistakes.

Off topic but this is why Cher's Twitter is probably one of the better celebrity twitters ever.

Could you imagine if ayu tweeted like cher and just spoke freely?
"What did you do on Kumi's birthday?"
"I got a colonic."

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by Delicious n Bold

Off topic but this is why Cher's Twitter is probably one of the better celebrity twitters ever.

Could you imagine if ayu tweeted like cher and just spoke freely?
"What did you do on Kumi's birthday?"
"I got a colonic."

LOL! Somehow I missed this post (stupid end-of-page posts flying under my radar again) and I had to quote it & laugh.

I think that most people, for the sake of their own sanity, have to get to a point in their lives where they get very playfully nihilistic about how people see them. "None of this crap really matters anyway, and I'm too exhausted to care. So let's play around!" I really do hope Ayu gets to that point someday... She can be very playful and clever at times, it'd be nice to see that come out fully.

Originally Posted by Surreal17

@Delirium ZerO, you should become a psychologist, I really like your annalysis. Especially since you're an old ayu fan and you have a wider perspective over the whole sight.

I could NEVER be a psychologist, I get too easily upset by other people's problems! XD I'd have a major emotional crisis every day. I do like studying psychology though, and I do use what I learn in my job. I LOVE picking apart art though, I like trying to figure out an artist's mental state from a painting or a piece of music or a script or a poem. It's like a really complex puzzle that I can spend years working on, and I'll probably never solve it, but I like exploring the possibilities. It helps me understand people I know more, too.

[rikku1994]

Originally Posted by Delicious n Bold

Off topic but this is why Cher's Twitter is probably one of the better celebrity twitters ever.

Could you imagine if ayu tweeted like cher and just spoke freely?
"What did you do on Kumi's birthday?"
"I got a colonic."

GOD I WOULD LOVE IT IF AYU STARTS TWEETING LIKE CHER.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

Yeah, I totally understand that.

I'm defending Ayu not in the context of "ayu is a pop star, and SHE TOTALLY GETS ME OMG!" which is indeed EXACTLY what gets people talking about pop stars in a "friendly" context. Because most pop stars are deliberately distant, cool, perfect, etc. They're far more rehearsed than Ayu has always been. They're a different KIND of pop star.

I'd feel very weird being forgiving of vague tweets if they came from someone like Namie, for instance.

I only feel the need to defend Ayu here because "unprofessional," talking to her fans as if they were her friends, was always kinda... part of her image. She's VERY inconsistent about this, but her image has always been "she's just like if one of us normal girls was able to wear designer clothes & travel the world." Since the beginning her lyrics have always been "my real feelings" (at a time when that was NOT common in J-Pop, although now it's not so unusual). Girls copying her fashion & buying every makeup product she promoted wasn't an accident, and it wasn't just "I wanna be like my idol," it was just "I CAN be like her." Ayu has always come across more like the class president who didn't really want the job but everyone insisted that she take it, rather than seeming like a distant, perfect, mythical goddess.

Granted, fans who don't see her that way - and given her relatively distant image since.... I dunno, around the "MY STORY" era or so, there are PLENTY of them - are going to probably be much harsher on her when she's unprofessional, which I completely understand.

But for me personally, if I was only interested in seeing her professionalism, I'd only watch her concerts and videos and I'd only read magazine interviews that have been edited and polished. To me twitter is where you see celebrities at their least professional. For some, it's a place where you see these celebrities embarrass themselves with vague tweets made in the heat of a moment without much thought. For others, it's a place where you see celebrities humanized by those tweets. And that humanization makes me feel better. To me it's both endearing to see Ayu so humanly flawed, and encouraging to see that yes, indeed, everyone makes mistakes.

I always saw Ayu the way you discribed her here. I don't like her diva image she got around 2006/2007.
And I also agree about what you said about twitter.
I'm a big Britney fan for example and I so love how she posts all this weird stuff on twitter and facebook. From short videos in which she's imitating a woodpecker to articles she likes you can find everything on her facebook.
But what Ayu does doesn't seem to me like she's sharing random moments of her life. For me it feels as if she is sharing this stuff just because she wants the attention, like an attention seeking teenage girl who's already the queen of her high school but who wants everyone to know how "hard" her life in reality is. For me those tweets have nothing to do with being honest about her feelings, they jut add to her diva image. And I hate that.
It's totally fine to post something like "Had a bad day and somehow can't stand myself today." or something like "My love and I had a great day but due to work we won't be able to see us in a while =(". THAT would be honest. I think it has nothing to do with being honest sharing vague tweets and stuff like "I hate you..." with a pic of yourself. Not even her lyrics have ever been that vague.
If this would have been the first time she would have tweeted something like this I wouldn't care. But she has done this countless times in the past. Sometimes those tweets were followed by nothing, and other times she announced her divorce or breakup a little later. So it's no wonder people are going crazy when she tweets stuff like that.
And in all honesty, being an adult also means to learn how to handle criticism. Always take criticism seriously but never personally. If there is some truth in the criticism - learn from it. If it's just mean stuff who is supposed to hurt you - ignore it. It won't take you anywhere to blame everyone around you for not loving you unconditionally like a child and in addition being passive aggressive. This teenager/child like behaviour is exactly what being a diva is all about.
And her diva style pisses me off and destroys everything I so loved about her when I discovered her in back in 2003. I just can't stand in anymore. Since 2012 I'm hoping it's just a phase but sadly it isn't. And I'm at a point where I'm not able to defend her anymore just because I love her so much. I'm actually beginning to understand why fans are leaving. For me there is no relateable woman anymore out there. There's just a diva who is pissed about people who don't like any single dumb tweet she makes left for me.
That makes me sad, but I can't change how I feel about that.

[Yumsushi]

Originally Posted by Chibi-Chan

I always saw Ayu the way you discribed her here. I don't like her diva image she got around 2006/2007.
And I also agree about what you said about twitter.
I'm a big Britney fan for example and I so love how she posts all this weird stuff on twitter and facebook. From short videos in which she's imitating a woodpecker to articles she likes you can find everything on her facebook.
But what Ayu does doesn't seem to me like she's sharing random moments of her life. For me it feels as if she is sharing this stuff just because she wants the attention, like an attention seeking teenage girl who's already the queen of her high school but who wants everyone to know how "hard" her life in reality is. For me those tweets have nothing to do with being honest about her feelings, they jut add to her diva image. And I hate that.
It's totally fine to post something like "Had a bad day and somehow can't stand myself today." or something like "My love and I had a great day but due to work we won't be able to see us in a while =(". THAT would be honest. I think it has nothing to do with being honest sharing vague tweets and stuff like "I hate you..." with a pic of yourself. Not even her lyrics have ever been that vague.
If this would have been the first time she would have tweeted something like this I wouldn't care. But she has done this countless times in the past. Sometimes those tweets were followed by nothing, and other times she announced her divorce or breakup a little later. So it's no wonder people are going crazy when she tweets stuff like that.
And in all honesty, being an adult also means to learn how to handle criticism. Always take criticism seriously but never personally. If there is some truth in the criticism - learn from it. If it's just mean stuff who is supposed to hurt you - ignore it. It won't take you anywhere to blame everyone around you for not loving you unconditionally like a child and in addition being passive aggressive. This teenager/child like behaviour is exactly what being a diva is all about.
And her diva style pisses me off and destroys everything I so loved about her when I discovered her in back in 2003. I just can't stand in anymore. Since 2012 I'm hoping it's just a phase but sadly it isn't. And I'm at a point where I'm not able to defend her anymore just because I love her so much. I'm actually beginning to understand why fans are leaving. For me there is no relateable woman anymore out there. There's just a diva who is pissed about people who don't like any single dumb tweet she makes left for me.
That makes me sad, but I can't change how I feel about that.

I agree with so much of this Chibi-Chan. My understanding is that Ayu decided to leave twitter after making a cryptic comment and then being unhappy with the response it received. People only replied that way because 1) they were worried or b) Ayu has in the past announced relationship news via social media.
Both a and b were justified. Just like she is a person who apparently did not appreciate the replies, her fans are also people. She cant be angry with them for their response. She should take responsibility for instigating it and therefore I personally commend her decision to have twitter be handled by her staff because obviously its doing her and her brand more harm than good (if that was even possible).

And you're also right about how unrelatable she is nowadays. I feel she is so focused on looking good and beautiful and seems less focused on the emotion unlike before. Sometimes it looks like shes trying so hard to be cool but failing miserably. Where is the Ayu from before who was just naturally cool? I wish she would have more confidence in herself and just be natural. sigh*

[AyUmIXx]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

But for me personally, if I was only interested in seeing her professionalism, I'd only watch her concerts and videos and I'd only read magazine interviews that have been edited and polished. To me twitter is where you see celebrities at their least professional. For some, it's a place where you see these celebrities embarrass themselves with vague tweets made in the heat of a moment without much thought. For others, it's a place where you see celebrities humanized by those tweets. And that humanization makes me feel better. To me it's both endearing to see Ayu so humanly flawed, and encouraging to see that yes, indeed, everyone makes mistakes.

THIS!!

[ayumisrael]

I thought that Hellomylove Goodbyemylove hashtags things were because she doesn't have much time to see her husband.

Like, after some time hello my love after a a day goodbye my love, after some time hello my love again, rather than other lovers and people took it the completely wrong way.

[Uemarasan]

Delirium-Zer0, I'm with you on this.

For all I know, Ayu can be as nasty or psychotic as she wants to be in real life, can post politically incorrect messages on Twitter, can be as offensive as she wants to be, can insult her fans, can eat baby unicorns. I really don't care, so long as she delivers the goods. To me, her only job is to make good music and perform and present said music. Only the creative work matters, not what she does on Twitter. Who cares if she's acting "cool" or "mature"? I pay for her music and to see her perform, not her tweets.

Again, people here take her too seriously. Okay, you look up to her, that's fine, but don't expect her to act like Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Malala Yousafzai the whole time. She's a pop singer, for crying out loud.

Before the age of social media, I wonder how "fans" would react to the real personalities of their "idols". Many of the greatest artists and writers were horrible people. Picasso, for instance. And the immaturity of that man far exceeds anything that any of the posters here can dream of.

[DonkeyKongRemix]

I think quitting Twitter will be better for her image in the long run.

The things she tweeted and said, while maybe being immature, do not offend me. She is entitled to her own words and she is a writer. I am actually mind blown at how offended people are about her "immature" and "childish" tweets. She always seems to me as the type of person who is dying to express her inner thoughts. She's stated that she always wants to be honest about her deep, inner feelings, and she did not hold out on us even on social media.

Would I post stuff like that onto my twitter or other profile? Absolutely not, but there's not an ounce of me that wants to judge her for making the choice to do so. She is a free-thinking individual trapped in a world where people both admire her and judge her non stop. That kind of pressure is ridiculous. I mean, how can we expect one human to always make perfect choices?

Just the level of judgment that goes on around here just makes me sad. But, some just see things in a much different light.