he really reminded me of the way Egyptian people dressed up as... and since that was the theme of the video... with a weird gym number, I think he fits rather well in to it.

^ hmm probably something is not right, the hairstyle maybe.
he should put the egyptian head accesory (hat?) too to more like an egyptian man haha~

Yeah... his hair throws me off too, but it's just a stylized style of the past Egyptian culture...
I like the PV more and more... but that gym scene gets me every time.. lol.
And the style of the music for some reason reminds me of enigma.. Love it! :)

No offense, but is all the PV done by leslie kee?? Then I think he shld stick with doing her photoshoots, that's all... Only Why.. feat juno was alright..

Brilliant is like -_-... Yes, it might be artistic, and art usually has no logical explaination for it.. bringing his photoshoting skills into a PV, is not so a good idea...

the PVs look way better in the commercial. XD

cuz it's hD... haha, why... and Another song looks good....

I felt like the editing for all of the videos was very poor. Especially for Why...

About ANother song PV, I really think there is a slight mismatch between the song and the PV. The song has a bit of the 'cutesy' feel with those strings and piano while the PV spells out 'Cool'. Whenever I listened to this song, I always picture ayu x Naoya and the dancers wearing ultra colourful hip hop outfits dancing with a nice outdoor backdrop.

oh and btw, did anyone catch a glimpse of a blue thingy with wheels (looks like a car or smth like that) while watching progress PV (3:40). It appeared and vanishes within a split second. Sorry for being so random XD but that caught my attention LOL.

http://i53.tinypic.com/153boe8.jpg

yeah :yes

I think it would have been better if they didn't edit all of the PVs in like a marathon one to two day session, lol.

I recall that just a few weeks ago, they were all in the studio editing every PV at the same time~

Progress PV had me very very disappointed..

Gosh...maybe Ayu DOES do everything at the last second :/

I am SO impressed with all the FIVE PVS! I just watched them all in a row and I loved every single one. 'BRILLIANTE' is such a powerful song and PV, I haven't felt so much emotion from a song and PV in a long time. It's not just artsy, there's a lot of symbolic meaning in there.
I loved beloved...I was so surprised to see her and the kids put their hands up in the air and then 'Under the same Sky' was written in the sky, that was awesome that she put a fan project into her work, and I really feel the lyrics have something to do with that and other things.

I liked how the progress PV flowed with the feeling of the song, and Ayu at the end with her signature look with the cowboy hat that she used to do!

'Why...Feat. JUNO' was another favorite PV of mine! Very arty and meaningful at the same time, I loved her butterfly dress and was blown away when the butterflies formed on the tree at the end to form Ayu's face!
'Another song' was quite a simple song but went with the song and still kept me watching the whole way through, although it is my least favorite of the 5, I still like it. :)

Overall, I'm really impressed with FIVE. I love all the songs, the lyrics, and the PVs. You can see from each of them that Ayu has put a lot of emotion into it (like she always used to with her arty PVs earlier in her discog) and hard-work. I'll definitely be buying this album! 5/5 :D

starting to lose all hope with ayu ....

Same here it is so intense, it made me cry, I'm gonna try to write my interpretation of it tonight. It's an Ayu song and PV that I give a 5/5 or 10/10, nearly perfect. What's amazing about it is that it has an intensity that anyone can understand and a clear message in the PV about what she is singing about (generally) you don't even have to understand Japanese to know that it is a song about giving up and dying, I think many people who aren't Japanese music fans or Ayu fans can even appreciate it.

I totally respect your opinion, that is just shocking to hear though. I am sorry you feel that way, I hope she will release something to redeem that love for you. I am having the complete opposite feelings as you, I think she is growing stronger as an artist. Again, totally respect your opinion though. I do agree, she took a lot of strange risks with this album, try to respect it, you don't have to like it, but respect that she tried.

PV rank:

1. Why...
2. beloved
3. progress
4. BRILLIANTE
5. ANother song

I felt like "Why..." is reminiscent of the quality and creativity in the period between Memorial address and (miss)understood.

"beloved" surprised me. I expected a generic PV set on the beach (like Namie's Get Myself Back), but the second half of it is very heartwarming.

"progress" - interesting concept. I'm not necessarily bothered that ayu didn't have a lot of screen time, but the PV overall just didn't seem to go with the music that well. Could be an editing thing.

"BRILLIANTE" - feels contrived, despite the sexy shirtless European men. Every time I listen to this song I think of the drag queen. There's something about him that irks me.

"ANother song" - so generic. I thought ayu was going to dance for one second and then I got let down the next.

I didn't think of it that way. It's a neat interpretation to go by, but the allusions are very vague to me personally.

They are rather vague, but it makes sense. It would've been even more interesting if the people that were stopped at during the PV were in outfits that Ayu has previously work, or similar ones.

I loved the BRILLANTE Pv most of all, I get the Egyptian thing and really I am getting a very Cleopatra and Antony vibe. Where she kills herself at the end, despite having so many who love her/worship her?

Same

I thought the EXACT same thing, I recommended this song to a very semi-Ayu fan friend of mine cuz she loves Engima, I was like "you'll love this Ayu song, it's like Enigma"

When I watched brilliante, I thought the message kind of was that she was sacrificed for her people. She gave up her life for her people? Which is why in the close up screens she is crying and shaking her head because she wants to live (Or she wants to give up, like you said). And at the end when she tries to get away but they push her back on the throne again, and then she dies. OR like you said it could be that she cannot take it anymore and sacrifices herself to escape. I think that there's a lot of personal meaning for ayu there, that may even relate to her fans. It is very intense. <3

progress: i only appreciated A LOT MORE after watching the making-of. I need someone to tell me what Masashi Muto said about the concept for this. I totally love the stop-motion thing. It made it much more meaningful to watch. Ayu looks kinda weird at the end though HAHAH! 8/10

ANother song: it's a typical R&B song MV. I like the profile and aerial shots though. Hoped for more choreo by Ayu :X but she looked so good 6/10

Why...: the CG is really quite...weird. But I love the art direction for this MV a lot. The butterflies and sorta Alice-in-Wonderland-esque scenes. 7/10

beloved: I cant explain how much i LOVE this MV. Leslie being a photographer really has some AMAZING footage of Ayu here. His framing is good and concept is great! LOVE the end so much. My eyes warmed up towards the end :) great job. Simple but I totally felt it. 10/10

BRILLANTE: it's quite cool. though..it also felt quite random. but i think i got the idea of it :) the end totally freaked me out. i'll give it a 7/10.

Watching via YT

progress = Very simplistic. As usual, she looks georgeous. I loved the high speed shots. Nice video.

ANother song = Nice camerawork! The set was nice, and she looked so....unlike she has before. URATA still looks like Mr. GoatFace to me, and he looked so like he was trying to be American. The choreography was sloppy too.

Why... = I ♥ BUTTERFLIES! The CGI was great, and her dress was...wow. Unlike his brother and Mr. GoatFace, JUNO isn't butt ugly, and I like the Alice In Wonderland concept.

beloved = Now, for the record, I think black & white shots are totally rawsome. Her hair is amazing, and the beach looks lovely. She looks brilliant, and it was a beautiful MV =)

BRILLIANTE - One word: RAWSOME. She looks beautiful with that Cleopatra-esque makeup, and she must have felt like a child in a perverted candystore with all those dudes :D. SO HOT OMG I CAN'T EVEN UNF. She must be traumatised by something. And...is that a dude? I thought it was a woman. \epicfail/

have to agree with the majority of people
progress: such an epic song and with such an epic tie in i was expecting something more mythical or epic but i mean its a cute video...
ANother Song: Um i can see what Ayu is trying to do, maybe become a little bit more mainstream (hopefully it gains her some fans :S) but not my cup of tea lvoed her hair style and she looked great so that was the plus
Why...: It felt badly directed and something missing but overall not bad
beloved: really cute but really simply a la curtain call
Brillante: all i have to say is brilliant.

I found this set of PVs to be some of the most dissapointing she's ever made.

progress - I do like the stop-motion filming, but beyond that it just seems very pointless and a waste of a PV. Don't really understand the ending with the "dolled up" Ayu.. I feel like it's supposed to remind us of her early days?

ANother Song - I liked the bit of choreography they threw in near the end, but other than that, this PV is both boring and pointless.

Why... - Reminds me of alterna, great colour contrasts. But don't really understand what's going on.. it feels like she's trying to escape her dream and she finally does at the end by being bigger than all the others?

beloved - boring, didn't get any "warm" feeling from it at all but I did like the 'under the same sky' ending. Suffers from bad editing and the song just not being that good doesn't help it either.

BRILLANTE - the song and PV of this album. Fantastic twist ending, Ayu does these the best. Although I feel the whole video could have been executed a little better, the middle section gets weak.

Did anyone notice something weird about the two mannequins in Why... PV?

I was wondering if the editing went wrong or whether it was done on purpose.. an optical illusion or whatsoever LOL

(From 2:52 onwards) Ayu started to run towards the smaller 'frame'. Notice that the mannequins are right over at the corner of the set.

But (from 3:07 onwards), the mannequins appear right in front of the set when the giant chased after ayu! *Shocked*

i think BRILLANTE is the only gem and instantanius classic on this collection
progress is quite a good work too, different, original and simple...but no so brilliant

another song for me is one of the worst videos i've ever seen, i just can stand to watch the full pv, and urata is one of the Less-Charismatic artist in the japanese music for me. i had to skip it...NEXT ...on why the effects looks very cheap
the performed of the actress is terrible, the camera angles are very amateurish, direction = FAIL

in beloved i don't think the different sequences fits really well, the beach, the rocks, slow motion ayu modeling, kids statics looking into the camera = a tasteless Salad, bad editing, bad visual concept, the only interesting thing is the ending

on FIVE...for me BRILLANTE is the only hight quality movie