I totally agree with you on that, I hate what she did with Timmy and now she is doing the same with Hikaru... Although, Kylie did a good job with men in a diaper in the ''All the lovers'' Videoclip. I think Ayu lacks subtility and relies on stereotypes and not the good ones.

It’s nothing compared to “one last kiss” but ayu is always going to be the best selling solo singer in Japan (overall). Forever. There’s no way anyone (solo) can beat her record.

I don't think it's "Ayu's bad PR" with all the normal life things that she included into her work. It's a society issue. It's about the way the media portrayed the things she experienced that most people experience. Japan is a place of suppressed feelings and lack of personal emotional freedom, where being a human is unthinkable for a normal person let alone a celebrity and unless you're a saint, you're screwed. I just think it's BS. Artists always mix their lives into their work, and there's really nothing wrong about it, it's the mentality of the society those artists live in that is an issue...Sometimes I think they all are just jealous of her having the guts to not give a fluff about societal "rules" and express herself in a way she wants to especially when it comes to work and personal life getting intertwined , cuz they can't do that. If more celebs did that and it became a regular thing, none would bat an eye ...

^^I mean, you're right but I also think we should stop comparing these releases, Ayu's cover it's kind of like an extra for A BALLADS 2, something fans have been asking since the first A BALLADS, tbh it doesn't feel like it's even targetered to "general public" since it mostly was promoted among her fan base, while Hikki's One Last Kiss comes with all the CRAZY world-wide hype thanks to Evangelion

She's doing amazing. Dreamed a Dream video has only 730k views after 6 months and it's not like avex is promoting the song or whatever.

I always find it funny how people want Ayu's work to feel personal and for her to not put personal stuff in that at the same time. And how easily people forget she is pretty much milking her own story since her first single.

Yep, that's what I always noticed too

A report talking about avex building selling said that the "creative minds" left avex in the past one by one. That may explain people's noting bad PR.

I don't think that's very fair and I don't think she's ever equated homosexuality in that way.

The homosexual elements in her music videos have surely had a leather-based theme but if you spend any amount of time on Japanese gay twitter you'll see that constantly.

Outside of the typical club-type videos I think the homosexuality promotion has been pretty understated. It wasn't too much in GREEN and it wasn't too much in Haru yo, Koi.

I think that like Madonna, she knows what gay males of her era like and is happy to give them what they want.

2021: Reflecting on Ayu's career
 

Ayumi's popularity has dropped because her songs aren't so good anymore and her voice is bad(for very well known reasons). She hasn’t had a single hit in the past 10 years. People don't like her doing plastic surgery, gaining weight and also some decisions from private life.

I'm way happier with her portraying femme gays the way she does, than portraying straight looking guys as a couple. But I'm not surprised by all the "you can be gay as long as you aren't flamboyant and act "like a man" being thrown in here.

I think the major reason that the general public don't like her anymore is because of her voice. People on this site including me are obsessed with her, and are therefore more forgiving of her vocal issues. But for an ordinary person, her vocal after 2012 is far from enjoyable, and is even less so after 2015.

She and her fans may argue that she sounds bad because she loves singing too much, because she dedicates her all to the stage. But at the same time, the general public will doubt: if you really love singing, why would you allow yourself to sound like that? If you love stage performance, why do you keep recycling old props? This gap of understanding between both sides keeps widening, and both sides refuse to understand the other.

Speaking of genuineness, I do believe the emotional genuineness of her songs, but her words do not always coincide with her deeds. For example, in Mad World, she criticizes how people destroy the environment. But at the same time, she flaunts her extravagant lifestyle which can hardly be deemed environmental friendly. This kind of ambivalence, together with the ambivalence about her love for her career, can be really confusing to the general public who eventually lose faith in her sincerity. Her sincerity, however, is what made her stand out in the first place.

I think I agree with you.

Everyone is different and behaves differently, but I don’t like it when gay men trash those they deem to be too camp or flamboyant. Especially since these are the ones who put their necks out to further the cause by forcing people to pay attention rather than quietly living life.

This is why I think personalities like Ayu are drawn. But it’s all a moot point I guess because I don’t know if anyone in Japan has criticised her for showing support for the gay community (I won’t say LGBT because she hasn’t really).

Her decline from popularity was well underway before she started letting her thoughts on it be known which is a shame. I feel like the way her career is now has given her freedom to do what she wants to do. Maybe she feels less pressure?

I don't think it's fair to say she mis-represents the gay community. The first point -and probably most important for me- is the one that was just made above: not every gay is flamboyant or covered in leather harnesses but not accepting that side of the community is a form of homophobia for me.

But also, she has ACTUALLY done so much for the community I can't believe people are stuck with Lady Dynamite and WARNING.

Wasn't hbya the first on-screen gay kiss in a Japanese MV ever? She gave a free concert during Tokyo Pride. She voiced her support on social media. She hired an openly trans dancer back in her troupe. The only think the lady hasn't done is date a girl at this point!

I never thought her ties to the gay community was the reason Japan had lost interest in her to be honest, but if it is, good on her!

No one was referring to Lady Dynamite, WARNING or gay men being flamboyant. My initial comment was about how she often (not always) made Timmy look like a freak by making him wearing diapers for example. I don't see how wearing diapers while being half naked has anything to do with being an effeminate gay man. Not to mention that I'm not a fan of in your face masculine men and don't expect anyone to act like heterosexual men (whatever that means anyway).
There were some tabloids as well as trashy news on the internet showing Timmy in some of his more ridiculous outfits (which he himself stated he didn't really like wearing). Therefore, that is what the general public will remember about Ayu "promoting" gay rights, they probably don't even know she had a a show at Tokyo Pride, let alone that anyone watched the PV of WARNING. And I honestly can't blame people for thinking "wtf" when seeing Timmy in diapers. I mean, how you can make a friend wear something like this and some other stuff, who himself stated he didn't like wearing it, and embarrasse him like that, is beyond me. What Ayu did here and what failed hard was trying to get some attention for promoting Timmy as the freaky gay gaijin. You have to keep in mind that Japanese people love to show their "gaijin friends" because it's "cool" and I myself was often paraded around like a circus animal by some people and it often seemed to me Ayu was doing the exact same thing with Timmy. If you ask me, parading your gay friend from London around is the opposit of promoting gay rights.

^Sorry if I gave the impression my post was aimed at your comment in particular, it was more of a general comment based on stuff that have been said in this thread and over the years!

I do agree that the stuff with Timmy has always been a bit off, and I felt that what was a very good concept for Hotel Love songs (the weird stage master / hotel director) should have stayed in this tour.

I suppose I can't talk for the general perception around what she does in Japan as I don't live there, and don't really speak with locals on the daily, but the point I was trying to make was that as a gay person she's done a lot over the years that made me feel good and represented in some way.

Again the main thing that surprises me as to how the LGBTQ discussion started in this thread was that I never really knew that was one of the reasons she wasn't popular. Can't it be argued she started being seen as 'has been' as early as (miss)understood or so? She didn't exactly have any kind of strong references until quite a lot later I think.

My “issue” with Timmy was similar in the sense that it felt like he was being used as a spectacle. We don’t know how much he wanted that, though. I mean he did his own makeup and it’s obviously something he was comfortable with (for at least some time.)

So it wasn’t my issue with him, just how he was used.

It felt... like a parody. I mean, Gomi also became a parody of himself (who is also gay), and Hikaru is now kind of going down that road lol. Still, it’s impossible to say Ayu is forcing any of this. I can’t imagine that if they expressed that they wanted to be used more “normally” that she’d oppose? In the end they’re in the world of entertainment and screen time and getting a name for yourself is surely part of that for some.

Timmy’s just felt closer to home because I’m also a foreigner and I’d hear the things people were saying about him. Kimoi, kimochiwarui, kowai... not very often that they were positive.

But I know that Ayu loves and values the gay community so I don’t really believe anything was ever done maliciously or forcefully.

(None of this is aimed at anyone, just offering my opinion.)

Personally I don’t think her embrace of the lgbtq community hurt her, considering is was done after her popularity had already started to wane. I think it’s just a case of over exposure and changing of trends. No one stays at the top forever.

My biggest annoyance now is just that I feel like for the past 10 years she failed to utilize the immense amount of talent that still exists in the music / entertainment industry. Instead, she just kept using the same team over and over again. (Minus a few instances of course.) For someone as big as Ayu, it just strikes me as odd that she seemingly just... stopped trying to progress.


This all comes from a place of love. I know it might sound too critical, but I don’t take it as seriously as it might sound haha.

^^no problem, thank you for clarifying!

I agree with HLS. It was an amazing tour and I still think Timmy's role fit perfectly there (even though it was clearly an idea taken from Britney's Onyx Hotel Tour, but I don't mind because even though I love Brit's tour, Ayu's was even better). But that persona Timmy put on there should have stayed there.

I think Ayu's overall image and "scandals", including the Timmy stuff, made her not only look like a has been to some of the public, but also as pretty ridiculous. This is a problem, because I think this makes it quite impossible for her to ever be the it thing again, like Namie was able to. It is normal that her popularity wouldn't be what it was in her hey day at some point, but she build an image during the last ten years I would say that makes it emberassing for people to confess that you like her. I usually refrain from telling Japanese people I don't know well that I like her, because they automatically think of you as a trashy person - because this is what they think of Ayu, being trashy. Which is sad, because it's ultinately not true, but it's no wonder given some stuff.

I’m not sure if her overall image was so trashy would she be able to sell tours like she does (or did really, it’s been more than a year already since the real concerts), unless it’s the same people going to every single show lol I don’t have many Japanese friends, but the ones I’ve talked to about my music tastes (on their early 20s) all said the same. “She is the utahime of the Heisei”. They perceive her as old, but that’s it.