I don't understand why though. Nobody looks exactly the same in every single photo they take.

If you think ayu looks weird (mismatched eyes, big lips, whatever), why not just understand that she's human, and not a machine/doll? Or if you think ayu looks too fake (too flawless skin, too big eyes), why not accept that she's naturally beautiful like that?

I don't get why everyone loves to (mis)use the word "photoshop" and expect it to explain away everything they personally dislike about the covers.

I created a monster from older covers I thought had similar features, haha.

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/2921/omit.png

Dear god.

Maybe it's some kind of a "blast from the past" pose or so...

What?

Man, you are a prime example of someone with too much time on his hands. lol!

My point exactly :yes


I'm...oh my.
I need to go lie down.

LOL. . . :laugh . . .thats really gross. it looks like Christina Ricci for a second.

then it just looked disgusting.

this is great work. Picasso

I actually like the font.

I think it's overall an okay cover. I don't find anything particularly omg beautiful about it, but it's not ugly at all. She has worse covers and she has better covers. I really don't expect much from her covers anymore. the only ones I've really liked in the past couple of years were NL and MW.

As for the Miliyah references (yes I still see it :laugh) I don't think it's an insult at all...but then again I'm apparently one of the only people who thinks Miliyah is pretty. It's just mostly her hair an dthe lighting and her facial expression. It still looks like "ayu" though.

I'm so happy you pointed all that out. I'm a photographer and I definitely know what "over photoshopped" looks like and how people can look different in different photos due to lighting, posing, ect.

I only spent like one minute on it. And it shows. -hides-

I guess I made it because I'm a bit curious about how people would react if she did covers like NEVER EVER or Depend on you now. "Why the blank stare? Why is she so dirty?! This sucks!" I wonder if a lot of Ayu fans have just come to hate anything that isn't what they -thought- it would be. "Oh, this isn't good enough for this three-consecutive-singles... no sir!" Then what is? (I have this feeling that if she did something similar to vogue / Far away / SEASONS in this era, she'd get slammed for it. In fact, any cover that wasn't done by Leslie Kee would probably get some really bad criticism for being boring in this day and age, I think.)

beautifull... ayu you still look as young as before!

"why not accept that she's naturally beautiful like that?"

nah, she doesnt look like this. she is prettier in real life than this. she looks like a manequin in 3/4 of magazines shoots and covers shots. the blur - it takes all...

But i accept that fact, she doesnt have any "reli natural" covers since LOVEppears. (oh, there was (miss)understood... but it was ugly.) (i dont include booklets etc) The main fact i dislike it, it's that they try to make her more cute then she ever ever was. She is 30 (above). She could try do something like years before, she looked sexy, indepented (the Lady Dynamite look <3) , w/e. 30 doesn't equals for cute... She wasn't even that cute on cover when she was 20.

many here are constantly acting like all her old covers and magazine shoots were like genius or something. . .when i actually see them (as im definitely not a fan from those eras) i figure if that cover wouldve been released now im sure many wouldve found all the criticism in the world for it. besides that i never found her crooked teeth smiles extremely beautiful or some of her hairstyles in that era pretty at all.

but here we are. i feel like majority of people dont like this cover. oh well~~~

umh... yes... but no... I don't realy like her expresion BUUUUUUT!!! the photography is gorgeous~ :3

i didn't mean that they were genius or sth, it's just that this "cutesy" fact is out of her age area. japanese have their own obsessions about looking more younger then they really are, even they look younger than people from other countries. she still looks young without that curly hair, cutesy face, blured skin. i just... don't know WHY.

Ahh, but what's that saying that goes that no matter how beautifully taken a photo is, it can never equal the real thing? :)

And I have to disagree on the cute thing, though. She doesn't look cute on MOON/blossom. RnRC DVD version, vogue-SEASONS-Far away trilogy, GREEN/Days, now those are cute. And I'm sure ayu is more cute than you give her credit for. She's probably one of the few people ever to prance around on stage in a hot pink maid's outfit at the age of 30/31 and still look decently adorable. :D

This is why I apologized...
Sometimes things just are bad. Doesn't mean we're coming to hate everything, lol. It's honestly just not a good cover.

But she is still a woman. Oh, a gorgeous one. Not a child.


// but this is just my opinion, ye? :) I prefer her more mature, i get tired of cutesy, she is cute with her mobile pics, with her lovely dogs. It's just i would love to see her more woman than a cute japanese girl.

ah well now~ im not specifically referring to you. . .but nevertheless. . .i dont see it necessary for someone too look what is deemed as proper for their age. imo she pulls it off. i dont find the cover cutesy anyhow but pretty and simple.

ayu can pull off cutesy imo. shes lucky.

i really dont think the pictures are making ayu look ugly or really that much less pretty. she doesnt look like that creepy feline chick. so its okay. :)

(id hate to be 30 and told i have to dress super mature all the time)

i don't think that anyone thinks that the covers are ugly :) (decent, average, but not ugly, lols) there are some exceptions like S/S or (m)u covers that are really UGLY, but it's still her - she can't reli look ugly C:

i don't find them cutesy as well. they do make her look younger though, which isn't a bad thing.

Still i think "cutesy" seems to be a big feminine thing in Japan. For one reason or another I also get the impression that being a woman tomboy isn't really looked upon as a positive thing over there. Oh well, the cover's nice, but simple. Not sure what else to say about it.