Ayu: Anything Goes - the XXX (30th edition)!

[Bigtop]

Umm...yeah. The 30th edition. Or the dreaded 'XXX' edition of this thread. To ring in the new year.

(And it took us over 14 months - from late September 2020 (!) - from the beginning of the previous thread just to get here.)

Happy new year (2022) everybody!

[Cahz-]

Happy new year!!

I wish Ayu and her blood/staff family, and everyone on this forum, my best wishes.

Let's hope this is the year the album drought comes to an end

[maxikot]

Happy New Year! Tons of health and luck to all of you. Let's make it a good one! I'm sure ayu will surprise us somehow

[Sky High]

Happy New Year everybody best wishes to you all . I wish this year bring us new album or at least mini album from Ayu, but i doubt it. Well, we could hope for the best.

[jean-baptiste]

Took a quick look at ayu's wiki and saw A BALLADS 2 was released in April 2021. Why does it feel like so much longer ago? Is it just me?

[mi|kshake]

The announcement of A Ballads 2 was so exciting last year! And I really enjoyed the tracklist and Haru Yo Koi reveal on Youtube! Looking forward to seeing what she has in store for us this year!

[Sky High]

Max was at Ayu's concert.

[YUKARI]

Max is so active on YouTube now. He said LOVE ~Destiny~ (he calls it simply as LOVE) was his favorite song and it made him cry, especially the piano version made by Tsuji. I've never heard it before!

but it's really beautiful. I never liked this song that much but it seems to be getting better slowly year by year.

[M.A.X.]

Originally Posted by YUKARI

Max is so active on YouTube now. He said LOVE ~Destiny~ (he calls it simply as LOVE) was his favorite song and it made him cry, especially the piano version made by Tsuji. I've never heard it before!

but it's really beautiful. I never liked this song that much but it seems to be getting better slowly year by year.

I always loved this song and the acoustic version is gorgeous too.

[natalaxie]

I'm not sure whether Matsuura is trying to regain some of his honour after 'Aisubeki hito ga ite' or whether he is just trying to capitalise on it... In the weird interview/chat thing he did with Ayu after 17Live final, he responded to the Q of what was his favourite song by saying he couldn't really pick one, but then in a 'candid' video in the car later he said it was 'LOVE' and then released a clip of him watching her sing it at the CDL - it feels like someone told him to pretend to pick something that sounded like she wrote the lyrics about him, to attract some attention with controversy... maybe I'm too cynical?

[Andrenekoi]

^Love ~Destiny~ e a pretty popular ballad from her early years, though... Hirai Ken even covered it for his Ken Bar series. It's also her first song to reach #1 in Oricon, so I wouldn't be surprised if it do hold a special place on his heart as her producer and lover at the time.

[YUKARI]

I kinda enjoy watching Max Matsuura on YouTube. I think I've never heard him talking before. I even think about starting a thread here with the translation of his comments on various things connected to him and ayu and their collaboration and jpop in general. hmmm

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

I enjoy him too!

I like that he’s been relatively frank and straight forward and doesn’t really sugar coat things lol. Like how most young people now, upon seeing Ayu on tv, would ask who the obasan is without realizing how big she was in her prime.

It’s a very real and honest comment.

It’s completely opposite of Ayu’s stance for the past several years, which is to avoid the question altogether lol

[YUKARI]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

I like that he’s been relatively frank and straight forward and doesn’t really sugar coat things lol. Like how most young people now, upon seeing Ayu on tv, would ask who the obasan is without realizing how big she was in her prime.

It’s a very real and honest comment.

haha yeah! this one here



I tried to translate this part at the beginning of the video (it was more difficult than I expected as none of JA&EN language is native to me )

Max: "Hamasaki Ayumi in her heyday? Well, her heyday was amazing. I guess you guys don't know about it well. I think, looking at current ayu, young people nowadays may mistakenly think something like "Oh, isn't she some kind of enka singer obasan? Or was it Koda though, must be one of them". Well, her prime... I think young people now can't imagine, how incredible the situation was those times. Like when ayu started to attach a furry tail as an accessory, all gyaru girls in Shibuya started doing the same. That's how huge her impact was. She was tremendous."

I personally love this part about enka obasan I wonder how ayu reacts to such words though.

[Aderianu]

Originally Posted by YUKARI

I personally love this part about enka obasan I wonder how ayu reacts to such words though.

Thanks for translation!
I think ayu understand her current position better than anyone else.

[Ashen Twilight]

Looks like Ayu is going to cover One Night Carnival by Kishidan, along with a lot of other folks covering the same song. I really enjoyed when she performed it with them during Hotel Love Songs.

https://www.kishidan.com/sp/news/#news96772

This has been bugging me lately. I have been listening to Secret (the album) a lot since it is that time of year, and I am trying to decide what the original 7 tracks were given the number of previously released songs. Thoughts?

[!Lawi!]

I always assumed the ones that ended up having a clip?

Startin, Born to Be, Blue Bird and Beautiful Fighters for sure, and then I would have said 1LOVE, JEWEL and Secret.

[CeReSu]

Until that day was also an interlude but Ayu loved it so much, she transformed it in a song ! When I had my website on Ayu (Ayu Paradise) I translated an interview about Secret transforming into a full album. I'll check if I have the file somewhere

[Aderianu]

I'm so glad Until that day became an actual song, it's one of my favorite and I still use it as ringtone

[summerain]

I'm really shocked with this fanmade remaster



Normally, these HD / 4K remasters based on a TV recorder / VHS are usually very good, but they need to filter the images so much that people's skins looks like plastic. In this case, it looks VERY natural and sharp. I'm amazed.

Really hope someday Avex () will do something like that with her previous concerts