Yeah, I'm suprised with everyone saying how strong it's selling. :shrug It's an improvement over Startin and B&D for sure, but it was still just last year she was selling around 100,000 more and this single was well promoted too.

wow i think it's a pretty big drop

thanks for the info! :)

Usually the second to third week drop should be around 33%, ie this week it should sell about 32,000. So 20,000 is shockingly low (she should have been 5th but is now 12th...)

Her sales are becoming front-loaded (relatively high first-week sales followed by sharp falls), something that usually only happens to pop idol acts like boy bands and Hello! Project members. So past first-week sales stats may not be such a good comparison anymore...she needs a much bigger first-week to make up for the subsequent large falls.

ack, this isn't looking good for the 268k projection! :(

that's good :yes

updated 1st post with new info: (m)u weekly sales and BLUE BIRD yearly ranking position (so far)

The sales aren't as good as last year but at least they seem to have stopped falling. 300k would be nice but right now 250k is a good accomplishment for Ayu, IMO.

The sales of (miss)understood keep on impressing me. I wonder if it'll have time to drop out of the charts before the next single release, the sales of the album will probably make a small jump at that point aswell.

Oh, back to 800 territory for (m)u.. Well, 880 000 is possible, but I doubt it reaches 900 000... Sad. :(

Closest 3 albums behind (m)u:
Kobukuro's NAMELESS WORLD - ~836k (averages about 2000/week)
Otsuka Ai's LOVE COOK - ~808k (went back up to 1000/week)
Utada Hikaru's ULTRA BLUE - ~780k (sold ~42k last week)

I think ULTRA BLUE is gonna beat (m)u. Wow, Otsuka Ai is selling very very well.

Utada has her tour backing her up, plus Is This Love is still heating up digital release charts.

I'm sure it will.

Is Kobukuro a band or a solo artist?

They're a duo (so band). Genre is something like Mr. Children I think.

^Ah, thanks for supporting my lazyness :D. I didn't listen to Mr. Children but I think I know what kind of music they make, hehe.

I'm disappointed Startin' didn't make it back into the top 200.

I don't even know what music Mr.Children makes. I only know he looks pretty ancient from his music videos.. o__o Is he really that old?

Mr. Children is a band... And they've been around for 12 years or something so yeah.

EDIT: if anyone is interested here:
Kobukuro's Sakura PV (their single from Nov '05): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpN2S...ukuro%20Sakura
Mr. Children's Sign PV (single from 2 years ago): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlc52...hildren%20Sign

Both of these songs are ballad-y; but I guess it gives you a general idea of what type of music they do.

So the old man does not exist in reality? o__o Wow, kinda like Gorillaz.

Come to think of it, Kobukuro is more acoustic and Mr. Children is more rock...

C'mon Ayu !!! :) U know u can do it !!!

I just think it is funny how much people have lowered their standards of what constitutes good sales in a such a short amount of time. :)