But that had 3 versions and better covers. Glitter/Fated was released over 2 years ago now. Hardly any artists these days are able to duplicate their sales from then, let alone Ayu.

As for that Koda pic - it actually looks pretty natural to me overall.

Would it really be the photographers fault for the photoshopping? (Sorry if that is a stupid question, but I always assumed the photo editors would do all that)

:yes you can see that in the MW and GREEN/Days covers. they're like paintings.. but beautiful

photoshopped or not ayu has a super hot body. i can't say that for some people.

^that second one would actually be cool. I wonder what she would look like with say, green eyes.

@amanda: I don't know...sometimes I think it's more Avex and their art department doing all the overzealous photoshopping.

I'm not really sure how the system works.

@Sunshine: thanks :) I was trying to remember when glitter came out...I actually...hmm...I don't want to be like disappointed in the sales...okay...like this other artist's sales are so down...and it's like...so low to me, I can't imagine Ayu's single not selling over 100k in the first week.

Because even the artists who sell higher than Ayu are not selling what they sold two years ago. The only exception that I can think of is Arashi.

whats up with those covers? official yet??

I'm still hoping for new ones xD

Anyways, update on the Japanese opinions. I've read one extremely positive blog comment, but this person really goes so over the top crazy that its hard to tell if they are being serious. :) 2ch comments are generally negative. I've also seen a lot of comments in the middle - generally the consensus though is that they don't like them. Most common opinion seems to be that they look too American style. Some people are saying that if they buy it, they are replacing the cover with Fairyland. :) I can't check mixi since I don't have an account there.
Why? I just explained why its in there. Because if artists who sell higher than her can't sell what they sold 2 yrs ago, then it is unreasonable to expect Ayu to.

hmm replacing the cover with fairyland...

well I would...how exactly is it american style...just like...the hair? and attire?

interesting.

On page 12 I give my best explanation for why the cover looks like it does from a photographers point of view.. ^ ^;;

maybe the american part about it is that her chest looks way too big, LOL.

(back to watching gokusen :innocent)

but seriously, i love this thread, lol. i'm just playing so don't take me so seriously :P

2ch opinions are generally bad because most of the people there seem to be trolls, haha. Or they're fans of other artists who want to badmouth Ayu as much as possible -sigh-..

Is it just me or is this thread moving EXTREMELY fast? Haha.

I feel as though the covers are very in the middle for me as an Ayu fan. I don't HATE them, but I don't love them. They're just there, like how STEP you's cover was just there, along with Rule/Sparkle's.. haha.

Thanks Quebec. :)

Ah, this reminds me of when the (miss)understood covers came out... lmao that was a funny week.

^ Still though, it is by far the largest forum in Japan and one of the largest in the world. Its not always completely useless. Regular Japanese browse it all the time, not just lifeless hikkikomori. :) Its basically like any other internet forum - you'll get regular people along with the trolls.