these interpretations are interesting!
I especially like the ideas about the butterfly woman in Ladies Night

as for military ayu in Ladies Night -- perhaps it suggests the idea of control/domination, lack of individuality (the faceless soldiers), an internal battle perhaps? I'm just suggesting random ideas here ;)

One thing i've learnt from all my English classes in high school -- no image/idea is randomly used -- everything has meaning

Woww thanks for the interpretations of ladies night and walking proud^^

Awesome thread, it's a bit old but I find it nice it was brought up again so that I didn't miss out :). Gotta bookmark this one to read later.

THE TRILOGY

(PV 03 "vogue"),
(PV 06 "Far away")
(PV 09 "SEASONS")
How the content of the PVs is related to the songs? It seems vogue, Far away and SEASONS altogether talk about the time passing by, the memories we gather, how we finally start to bringing them back at one or more levels of our lives, how we see the influence of past on the presence -- so that's like whole PV trilogy. Far away especially holds lines talking about influence ("It's new, it's like me, it's like you. I am reborn..."), about the most important values ("happiness: it's something intangible that slips through the cracks of your fingers") and how we look for them and how some of us have a very hard time finding them ("You said "I'm leaving to find myself," and left.)
Both Far away and SEASONS hold a message of hope in bright, settled tomorrow that we carry: "Surely somewhere out there the skies we are looking at flow together, and are connected," "Today was fun, and tomorrow will surely be fun as well". This however, seems to lack in the PVs as well as in lyrics of vogue.
SEASONS also tells how we finally start waking up from the innocence of childhood and first time ever approach confusion of adult life ("Throughout the endless days I felt as if something was missing."); in the PV it's shown by the kids' behaviour, first they're all happy and then they become aware. In face of confusion and trouble, we try to cope and solve ("I blamed it on these unnatural times,") but some things are beyond our strenght ("and just gave up.")
All three songs tell us how our life is finite for one human and how it runs in a cycle for the whole humanity. First children are born and shine with laughter, then they grow up and discover the reality, partly through others' memories, then they cry after the memories and finally the become the memories to cry after -- and it's all shown in the three PVs.

I'm sorry about bumping this, but I thought this thread is a really good reference thread. For me, it brought new light to "Ladies Night", "walking proud", and "The Trilogy" that I've never observed before.

My head kinda hurts too. So much information, and to imagine these as PVs. I wonder why a lot of American artists can't do this kind of stuff...

I'm kinda losing hope with this...I mean JEWEL, to me, had pretty much no storyline whatsoever. I thought it was just a way for ayu to show off all the pretty things she can afford:P I mean recently, and with these interpretations, ladie night has become my fav ayu pv, but it doesn't have particularly meaningful lyrics. Jewel is a wonderful love song, but without much of a meaningful pv...I want more interpretations of pvs we don't knwo about yet! There must be some wise someone somewhere just itching to tell us stuff!

I've said this before at another forum, and not sure if I've said it here, but every PV needs to have a storyline...The Directors have to know what they're going to be doing... they can't just start shooting the PV without a storyboard of somesort, so I think they pretty much all have a storyline, and some have more meaningful ones than others.

Actually, I don't really think that's the case. Not every PV needs to have a storyline. Just look at numerous PVs out there! They're either pure eye candy or sex appeal. Again, for the Jpop scene, I guess people demand higher quality for PVs!

I think the meaning is JEWEL (not sure if anyone has mentioned)

Life is precious and fragile. We should treasure what we have. somewhat along there.

Masa has some good input on some of ayumi's pvs.

wow...this is really a great thread...always thought that Ladies Night and walking proud pvs make no sense until i read the interpretations...lol...actually i have a question regarding the trilogy which bothers me for quite some time...in the pvs, u can see that the children and ayu are kind of slanted relative to the ground when they were running, standing or walking around....so is there any significance or am i overly sensitive? lol

i knew somewhere there was a thread solely based on interpreting her abstract PVs. much thanks for bumping this old thread. ill have fun reading some of the interpretations, some seem quite long hehe

I nominate this thread for being stickied, as it has a lot of valuable information that is useful to all members. :D

AMazing thread! And amazing explanations! Thanks a lot!
Can someone try to make an interpretation of these PV's please:
> talkin' to myself
> Hanabi ~episode II~

As for HANABI ~episode II~, I don't think there's much to explain.

The lyrics pretty much tell the story of the PV:
She's wandering around on a beach or w/e and "traces the footprints" of her past in this fashion or something like that. [Ahaha, this interpretation is gonna be so bad. D;]

She's alone, and she says that she "understands that there is no answer, no matter who she asks." And when she sings about the disperal of the feeling like a firework, the fireworks appear. :/

could someone do MOMENT?

I think Ayu would be very happy to see this thread. :)

Haha, I can't do Moments or whatever (too hard for me), but I can do CAROLS and ANGEL'S SONG... Haha.

Okay, for CAROLS...

At the first part, Ayu walks very calmly towards the center of the stage... facing an auditorium that has nobody... it's an irony compared to her concerts and all, when it's full-house and all that. She's trying to tell us that, despite all the joy that she gets from performing live, there are still times when she would be pleased to sing just for herself, or even for one person (the 'You' in CAROLS, perhaps?)...

The merry-go-round thing (forgot what it's called!) represents life... going round and round in circles. For some people who broke up with their lovers... after tribes and tribulations, they end going back to that same person again... it's what Ayu feels when she's writing CAROLS. And to add on more detail, she's alone when she's in the merry-go-round... signifying that all along, no matter how much she loves that person... he doesn't love her back as much as she would want him to... thus resulting in her feeling lonely... and maybe even feeling that things aren't the same as they used to... don't we feel like that too?

And the cut scene where she was in the swing, I think it's to symbolize the passing of time... the cycle of life. And it's in black and white, which once again means something less lively... it fits the overall morose mood of CAROLS.

~It's really bad... but oh well, I'm trying to defend the CAROLS PV!~

For ANGEL'S SONG:
The PV starts with Ayu leaving the bank, being happy. I will reinstate this idea later on.

2 hours ago, Ayu enters the bank, being herself, just wanting to withdraw $$$. There, you can see people in the bank, just doing their own things. Then robbers enter right? Now, imagine that the bank is Life, and the people in it are just people. The robbers are like negative emotions, coming in to disrupt life. Ayu then transforms into a werewolf (there must be a symbolism for this one but argh... and the time that she transformed too.), at 2pm I think. Now that is obviously not the time that where people become werewolves. Is she trying to show that she's not the conventional werewolf?

But people don't understand. They are feared by negative emotions (robbers) but they are scared of Ayu too. Everyone wants someone to protect them... someone they can look up to. Ayu is trying to tell us that she is someone like that, an inspiration for us! But maybe not in a way that warrants satisfaction from everybody, which was why she chose to be a werewolf.

So anyway, Ayu battles the robbers, like how her songs explain certain emotions in our hearts... and chase the negative emotions away. Notice the old woman, sleeping away? That is to show that there are people who aren't bothered by what Ayu's doing, prolly cos they don't know her at all. Winning the robbers, Ayu becomes herself again. It's like, she's willing to be a werewolf for us when we are down, but when we are happy, Ayu will be herself to share our joy. But people are still scared, scared that she'll do harm to them too... in particular the bank counter. In a way, the counter could be like the media industry/Avex, being afraid of Ayu cos they know that she is very important. But Ayu doesn't want them to think of her as such, that's she's smiling and all. She wants everyone to treat her as Ayu. Hoping to get the message, she leaves the bank, still smiling. This is to show that she has hope for us. Also, a bank could symbolize the deposit and withdrawal of Personal Bank Accounts.

Yeah, that's my take on the PVs of CAROLS and ANGEL'S SONG. Lame and lame is all people say about them, but hey, they do have their own nuances too.

Or like "what?? I didn't mean that (;;x__x)" :P Kidding. Awesome thread, I don't usually think the meanings of PVs too deeply so these interpretations give really some new shine to Ayu's PVs. :)

wahhh it made me so happy to see this thread come back up!! thanks for saying its a good idea, and OMG if my thread got stickied, that would be crazycool!! haha. (And omg truehappiness said it...0_0)


As for the moments pv interpretation, i think what confused me most was that scene where she's like...covered in something that resembles chocolate and feathers.
but it could also look like tar? so i think you know when sea birds cant fly and die horribly because theres oil spills in the sea...well it made me think of that. she feels like a flying bird (an analogy she uses alot) who can't fly anymore because somethings holding her back.
And as for the other scenes...well personally i think the walking along with the oil lamp and the other scene with the short hair and UBER-CUTE nails are just there for her to look pretty.
As for that bit with the children...she seems to use them ALOT in pvs, especially in MY STORY era don't you think? so i think when she uses those cute kids its to represent innocence, and usually its how they're innocent and she looks at them enviously or feels that they're the sense of happiness and innocence in a complicated and sad world...


phew.