Daaamn didnt know Harry Potter 8 was out yall in here writing essays lmao

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Love reading opinions like this tho tbh.

HAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHAHAA GOSH I'M DYING

My favorite song from Finally is Finally, and again: I'm hoping so much for a Finally x Never End version/medley as the last song of the tour T.T

I would squeal seeing her all around if I was in Fukuoka!

It's not that we don't respect or want to hear his opinion, it's just that to us it doesn't seem logical. I think Namie has been completely misinterpreted here. Yes she has thought about retiring at different points through out her career/life, but Katsuyuki012 is making it sound like all Namie has cared about for the last 20 years is when she can finally quit her career that she never cared much about in the first place. That all this time Namie has just been faking it and her big dream was to finally get out of the music business because she never really cared in the first place. This literally is not true. Part of what he is saying is factually wrong. The rest is opinion and that part is totally fine. No one needs to like Namie or listen to her music or support her in anyway. But the notion that she has no passion for her music career because all she cared about was when she can quit just isn't true. That's not what the interview says and it just isn't what happened.
Namie has had rough patches in her career and it was those times when she thought, maybe I can't do this, maybe this is my time to bow out, my era is over. That is perfectly normal for someone with a popular music career to think about. She got married and divorced and had kids and had family murdered, the media turned on her, her sales were quickly declining, she lost popularity and lost direction in her career. All this while Namie was a teenager and very young adult. If I was her I would consider quitting as well. She is only human. But I think most importantly, Namie did NOT quit. She easily could have but she never gave up her passion. She persevered through the hardships and it paid off big back in 2007/2008. I think she was greatly inspired by her warm reception back then. It rekindled that drive to be the best Jpop performer she could be all over again.
As for the tv appearances, as it has been mentioned, Namie is very much a Japanese woman. She does not feel comfortable making social public appearances. She is reserved and shy. So instead of forcing herself to do something she didn't believe in she made the decision to stop. She wasn't interested in being a celebrity. She wanted to be an ambitious Jpop entertainer. Not an idol. It actually makes Namie more authentic. She wanted to stop doing publicity because her heart wasn't in it. She wanted to focus on making music and putting on a show for the fans.
She wants to retire now because that chapter of her life is over. She accomplished her dream and now she is ready to start a new chapter in her life. Dreams and goals can change in life and that is only natural. Doesn't mean you never cared in the first place. Namie dedicated 25 years of her life to her music career. That is more than half of her life!:dead2
I think Namie has earned her respect as a Jpop legend. Boycotting her music because her philosophy towards her career and goals doesn't match up with yours just seems immature. And it's pointless now because her career is over so it won't really matter.:no
I also don't see what the issue is with discussing this topic. Everyone has been generally respectful. I can say that I want to hear everyone's opinion no matter what. I still appreciate Katsuyuki012 sharing his thoughts with us.:)
It's interesting to discuss Jpop no? It's not like this thread had a great conversation going previously and Namie isn't very active right now so why can't we discuss Namie's career?:shrug

Well, to the boy thing: my opinion stands what I think about being referred to like that so I don't feel the need to go into further discussion about it.

Expressing their negative opinion isn't bashing, I didn't use insulting language towards her or anybody either.

The TV I already said, it was the reason I don't understand 'not having something interesting to say'. If she doesn't want to go then fine, just that reason made no sense to me.

About retirment I don't need to say more though.

You don't know if I like that? You don't. I do like anyone being honest. Yes, it gave ME new insights but still I appreciate her honesty in this interview. One could say you all don't like me being straightforward about my opinion either. But that's not what I want to assume.

Anyway, as you said, let's get back on track. I am glad I could express my opinion etc.. but obviously this thread shouldn't constantly be about my negative opinion about her.
So, there you go, for me there is no need to expand this talk since it won't really get much better or change anything. May everybody have a good day/evening

Edit: just now saw your post EndOfTheWorld lol, don't think I will add something about this Namie topic since it would be kind of hypocritic given the fact what I wrote above but I do appreciate your post and I do agree on the part that yes, at the end she didn't quit all the time when she could have (now she obv will but you know what I mean).

I think what got people irked up was that Katsuyuki012 came into Namie's thread and wrote a long post to explain his various reasons on why he lost his respect towards Namie after he watched the subbed interviews she did

Over the years since I started listening to Japanese music , I stopped supporting some artistes along the way but I don't suddenly go to their threads on here and start bashing in on they're currently doing , that's a very pointless thing to do and it's 1 way of getting into online spats easily

Likewise I don't agree with 100% of what Katsuyuki012 wrote and subsequently wrote in response to other users' remarks . Am I offended by what he wrote ? Yes and no but I wouldn't go and say that my opinion is better than him cos everything is so subjective

Also Namie ain't the only artiste to stop appearing if not never perform on TV shows . MISIA is 1 that I immediately think of

Some are more invested in Namie than others . For me , I only care about her music while I don't bother so much about her personal life . Someone pointed out that she has been in the business for so long since she was a teenager so she got to see certain things that us 'normal folks' ain't able to

Perhaps Namie's Japanese fans don't take into her emphasising so much on bowing out of the limelight unlike us especially what she has gone though over the years in her personal life

End of the day I'm sure most of us agree that Namie has accomplished over the last 25 years is remarkable . Not every artiste is lucky to last so long in the business

On a side note , does anyone wants Jolin Tsai & Namie's I'm Not Yours performance from Jolin's Play World Tour ?

It's okay! I've pretty much said just about everything I can say.:laugh
I personally enjoy these topics so it's good that you sparked a conversation of substance.:thumbsup

Another namie ayu comparison piece, here we go. You can’t attack namie just because she’s not Like ayu. What ever happened to individuality, people please. So she wanted to retire early, can you blame her after everything that happened, shot gun wedding, divorce, losing her mother and popularity. So what, if she wanted to end her career with a bang, who doesn’t. She’s not a talker, we all know that tv shows just want the “kawaii” personality. Maybe, she’s tired of acting that way, since you know she’s not 15 anymore. I see nothing wrong with making music fans enjoy. Why is that a bad thing?? Express your opinion, good for you. But don’t try to minimize her accomplishments just because she’s a “product” like everybody else.

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Can I say how amazing Do Me More is to this day? It just came on via shuffle, and the intro alone makes me scream. And then that rap bridge. What kind of perfection of a song. I hope it makes an appearance during the tour.

^love do me more, could be a bit shorter though

^ I agree! It could be a whole minute shorter tbh.

Speaking of Do Me More, I was listening to BEST FICTION the other day and didn’t realize Wishing On The Same Star was a different mix than the one on Ballada (the version I listen to the most). The one on BF is a little longer by like 15 seconds and features some ad-libbing from Namie. Seems like she has a lot of different mixes of her songs for her compilation albums.

^four songs on Ballada are new Ballada-mixes. I called them either (new mix) or (new mix 2014) if they already had the new mix tag on Love Enhanced. These songs are I WILL, NEVER END, Wishing on the same Star and Dreaming i was dreaming.

Some of the arrangements are vastly different from their single or original versions. Most of the Finally mixes I like (especially Dr.) although there was one I really didn't like - WHAT A FEELING. It just felt underwhelming. Otherwise though, I generally liked the practice of mixing up the versions.

DO ME MORE is GOLD!

I love the Majestic feeling everytime the song starts.

Do Me More is the SHIT... sexy girl also ownsssssss

MUSIC STATION on Fri aired a Top 5 favourite Japanese artistes poll that foreigners like (surprisingly #1 on the list was Rock band RADWIMPS)

Namie was mentioned in the sub Favourite charismatic female solo singer category

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The foreigner that MS interviewed sang a bit of Hero and she said she likes the song cos when she listens to it , her heart is felt with happiness

Even though shes retiring, I think theres a good chance she will still perform Hero at the Olympics.

Guys, can you help me with something? Do they sell the goods on the date and venue of the concert? There is this cute 500 yen Keychain I want and the white t-shirt, but even the XL is small for my size (and I'm thin/average, but I'm 1,92m tall - do the math to inches cause I don't know Haueha), so I was hoping to take a look myself before choosing to buy a 40 dollars shirt.... Haha

Me bugging everyone on every artist's thread about live tickets. Bear with me, I have so many favs and want to go to all of theri concerts but suck at organising. I don't see on namie's official site any indication as to how apply for the tokyo dates of her show. The application round has already ended, or it hasn't started yet?

Yes they will

Odd that they haven't announce the timing of what time the concert goods will be sold & the tour will begin next week o_O

Also I think sample T-shirts will be displayed at the rack so I think you can take and try it on ? I don't know if that applies for Namie's though

The ticket balloting for Namie's last tour has already closed , be it if you're in her fanclub and/or if you ballot via the ticket application codes that're included in Finally