thank you!

so cool that it was she herself who wanted to do this!

Most of what she talked about was her decision to go topless. I was kind of hoping for more of a purpose... :/

Thank you! I always look forward to reading your translations :D

I think it was just her trying something different. From the reading, if the translation's correct and all (no offense to the translator, you just never really know for sure), she seemed to be interested in metaphorically expressing her purity and humanity for the world to see. "What I wish to portray is not what I've always portrayed, but something simpler. Something more 'human'." (maybe not a direct quote, but very similar). Well, you can't get much more bare-boned and stripped of complexities than taking off your clothes and showing off your body you've worked hard at crafting with workouts all this time. Nudity gives a feelings of pureness, simplicity, and calmness...at least, it should. It can also show vulnerability. Ayu really put herself out there with this shoot...although she's done somewhat risky things before, for 11 years there have been VERY few, and they were never as risky as this...LOVEppears album cover and the lingerie ads would be like teasers to this, I'd think.

Anyway, I do get what you're saying though. Again, if the translation is 100% correct, in English some of it in the beginning does seem somewhat odd...I mean, if this weren't Ayu, but, say, some random American female celebrity..would we be as acceptive as we are here with Ayu? The beginning kind of feels like Ayu is just walking down the street, enjoying the breeze, gets the usual photoshoot offer from a magazine, with clothes and all, and suddenly decides, "I think I'll go do this shoot wearing nothing but a pair of jeans! Topless FTW!". It just feels like there is no build-up...too abrupt to feel like the thought occurred to her naturally with this English. I wish I could comprehend written Japanese to see if that's really how it's written...if so, I have to agree with you, it is a little disappointing in that regard.

But STILL, god this shoot is incredible. She pulled off sexy, elegant and classy so well in this. I really hope she does more risky stuff like this in the future someday.

finally misachan!! thank you so much!

As always, thank you so much misa chan ! <3

Thanks Misa!!

Thanks! It was very interesting :)

THANK YOU!

Thanks a lot for this ! going to read it now !^^!

oh wow, thank you so much! it was interesting :)

thanks misa chan!!

Thanks again Misa for the Scanlation.

"I myself was fine with them being around me, but everyone kept going hide behind the partition curtain".

Woo~ she's fine with that XDD

she mean that her staff tried not to look at her when she's topless?? ayu's too cute...

I wont do that when it comes to Ayu XDD

HAHA. I think her MALE staff tried to respect her by doing that. although i think they wish to look at her definitely. (whenever she puts her hand down) HAHA

Thankyou for sharing, Misa! This article doesn't really tell us much about anything really (lol) and just wants to tell us about how Ayu wanted to do the shoot. Still, it's pretty interesting that the idea was hers and hers alone, especially at the age of 31, where it is probably less well received than if she was, say, in her early 20s.

Maybe this is the dawn of a new Ayu, one that is going back to her more natural roots. Maybe her future shoots will be more reminiscent of her early shoots or something.... I get the feeling she is at a real change point creatively, considering her naked shoot was such a random idea even to her....lol

thanks so much misa-chan!!!

THANKS! I've been wanting to read this since the shoot was revealed. Interesting to know she popped out crossroad so quickly (we know it was done in July). Her turnaround is insane!