I didn't enjoy the song or PV as much as I wanted to, but I'M SO PROUD she produced it!
She has grown so much as an artist and I think that's really remarkable. :luv2

The video is superb and it's not only gorgeous visually but also has room for interpretation, I love it!

There's too much pink �� but it's clearly a change from previous PVs and a nice one!
Love the black outfit scenes!

I'd pretty much convinced myself the PV was just going to be in the pink room so this was actually a really good surprise. This really feels like a return to form with strong visuals, room for interpretation and the distinct hand movements really work (can see it working on TikTok with people dancing along).

I'd love if Ayu got a bit more into the dancing but overall very excited about where Ayu is going at the moment :)

PV reminds me of "Mint" by Namie Amuro when she walks with her dancers !
Love the "black" Ayu, she's so beautiful with dark hairs !
Other than that, PV is nice but nothing spectacular !

For the song, I love it so much ! Refreshing and modern for Ayu ! Think I'm gonna listen to for a while !

I’m surprised iTune didn’t label this song as Explicit content 😆

[P/S: Celine Dion’s Perfect Goodbye label as Explicit content because of the lyric “This shit is perfect…”]

The video is alright. Btw, the room was already in one of the snippets, so they really did not reveal anything new, they just added people to it.
I'm not sure it's as high of a concept as everyone is trying to make it, it probably has some symbolism as her mvs usually do, tbh i wasn't paying that much attention or trying to read into it, cuz again i don't think there's a lot.
It's a nicelly filmed piece like most of her recent stuff. I'm not really seeing that big of a difference.

I have finished watching the MV, you can call me old fashion but I’m not comfortable with the pistol-like hand gestures. 😔

I generally hate that too, but I think the intent here is with the pistol formation it indicates “I’m dying inside” and with the flick of the wrist it transforms into more of a flashy, Instagram-esque pose (I.e., something entirely different). So the idea behind such poses and gestures mirror the lyrical content and overall concept for the song.

I thought I heard this! I love it!

I really enjoyed the PV personally :D

Ahh, this make sense, thank you for the explanation 🌹

Great video but I wish that more things were going on besides walking and sitting.

Same. You can see this PV is definitely for her 24th Anniversary. She brought lots of elements from her old PVs (Song 4 u, WARNING, MOON, Sexy Little Things, Shake It) into this PV.

I don't like the song, it does sound like Lady Dynamite
I just can't stand her voice in it, its irritating. There were a lot of songs they give her good tones to sing, and this is not one of them.

here when you do this kind of gesture, usually with one finger, it means you call someone crazy

I liked the music video. It is full of little details and symbolism that make it interesting. The song is superb and it is definitely amongst the strongest of her latest releases. It has something new and intriguing but also reminds me of some of her earlier releases, like some of the NEXT LEVEL era songs as someone here already pointed out. In my opinion, the song is also a very strong choice to promote the future album. Yeah, I'm very hyped right now and cannot wait for the new album. Also, I'm so proud of Ayu for producing the whole thing! :)

Omg I would have died happily if the rabbits exploded in black ink
all over her and the dancers in pink! Black Hair ayu vs Pink ayu 1:0…

Nonfiction has been added to 3 official Spotify playlists:

New Music Friday Japan https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37...1DXc57cuGAMEkA

Women's voice
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37...1DWTD6tHjIApT3

Dance Pop: Japan

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37...1DXahYFr91pFvG

And Apple's New in JPOP
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/...7e53477015dfed

great song and PV. I'm excited for the album

Song wise, not too crazy about it but I don’t hate it. Will listen to it. Last chorus wasn’t as climatic as I expected haha.

PV wise, I like it. It did remind me of the PVs from RnRC. Overall I am happy with this song and PV. I love the lyrics.

I'm missing a bridge in this song, it's kind of the same all the time, the PV could also use some twist or more close ups (I feel like they used some worse camera lens for it) with more depth maybe. I'm missing those interruption scenes she tends to have that blend together, eg in Moments or Inspire, this one is kinda "clean cut" between black and white (or rather pink and black).

I like the the fact she's doing something but I'm not into it enough to rewatch it more than I already did (3x so far).

Hope her new studio album this autumn is the same vibes from the last 2 release we're getting like 23rd monster and nonfiction <3 this is giving me NEXT LEVEL/Guilty/Party Queen vibes which is one of the best albums since My Story

I just watched/listened for the first time. I FREAKING LOVE IT!!!!!! If this is a sign of the directions she’s taking I’m all in for it. The song is good for me, it’s catching and simple, positive but with the Ayu’s depth. The PV just a bunch of beauty shots, nothing more, but hey it’s different from what we’re used to and it’s cool visually. To be honest, this is not the style of music I enjoy, I’m more fond of the rockish Ayu, but I like it.

Anyone else gets Helter skelter vibes from the hotel scenes?

I really really wanted live arrangement for Nonfiction. I guess the addition of real drums and heavy guitar (miss you, Yo-chan!) would do wonders to this song.

Nonfiction isn't my cup of tea. I appreciate that it is somewhat different for Ayu, however. I enjoyed some of the PV's aesthetics, but narrative wise...I kept waiting for something to happen, especially in the lounge setting, but nothing really did? It's cool that Ayu produced everything tho.

Not bad!

although I'm hoping for another scene with an all-black room. from all pink to all black.

I love the MV! But it seems like she didn’t do a good job lip-syncing (same for DaD and 23m) and that bothers me.

And, can we expect the next mv that she will not feature her dancers?

wow finally she released something really interesting!

it reminded me of Sparkle so much, visually and musically too! it doesn't feel like Sparkle and Nonfiction have 13 years distance between them.

I hope she'll release a new summer single too. I feel like the queen's back!

Absolutely. This MV needed something messy to happen!

I love the song. The PV I get the hint it was more of a collaboration with Balmain or at least Balmain inspired. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the outfits are already on their web shop.

**UPDATE** Yup. It’s basically one big commercial for the designer brand.

I'm far from being a fan of electro dance but I have the song on repeat since it's been released! :tired
It is SO catchy! I admit it's a quite "classic" piece but it works and it's not like she has many tracks like this.
I also like the theme of the song. It's refreshing!

The PV is nice! I didn't expect much from the teasers (even if I could because, honestly, they looked damn fantastic) so I'm not disappointed.
Yes they could have used the hotel room set more efficiently but oh well... we should know better. This part was meh but I don't mind. Besides that both sets were extremely well done!
The pink part is beautiful. Loved the choreo especially when the screen is mirrored and everyone is interacting. The CG elements were nice additions too.
It's night and day with 23rd Monster which looked so dated on every aspects.
Also always loved the Cinemascope like ratios, and it fits this production so well.

I'm very glad she produced it all by herself. We definitely felt months ago that she was still completely lost career-wise during the video interview with Max. Yet she's back on track on every aspects with this release (well if I forget the terrible cover...).

Good job! I pray this is going to last.

I'm unimpressed personally, I feel like this is a lost track from 2007/2008? I just feel like this sound doesn't work in 2022 and Ayu should really try evolving her sound or at least step out of her comfort zone to production styles in 2022. Maybe some folk, rnb, electronic dance pop?

This just sounds like her techno pop which worked in 07/08, but just doesn't hit the mark in 2022, kinda bummed because I keep waiting for Ayu to release something that makes sense in 2022 and not what worked in 2007/2008.

I still have to watch the video and I can say that I do appreciate that her vocals are still incredibly strong :)

It could be my bias considering I like 07/08 and like when Ayu releases something that’s on the mark for HER.

But, I wouldn’t say it’s totally the same. Yes it is familiar but, as she often does, changes it up just enough. It’s nuanced. At 2:35, she does have that dubstep wobble in there that makes it sound dated, but the break that comes after has more of a hardstyle vibe to it. And hardstyle is I think one of the more trendy spaces in electronic music right now. Not for the mainstream but within the culture of edm I think it is (and generally I hate hardstyle as I prefer hardcore and since hardstyle started to get trendy my favorite hardcore artists shifted their style).

Idk I think this track miles fresher than the stuff she put on Colours. This is what Colours should have been, or if she were to release Colours now.

Since Ayu said many times in interview that she does not listen to current music and doesn't not care about music trends, I doubt this will happen. She does what she wants when she wants. I think we must accept that she isnèt trying to be the 'it' thing anymore.

The song doesn't sound too dated to me. If she were singing in Korean, it would pretty much fit on any K-pop playlist with catchy dance songs released from the past few years.
But even if it was extremely dated, doesn't matter to me. It does what a upbeat dance song should do - stick in your head and make you want to move :)
The lyrics and message of the song are a nice bonus.

I think it sounds dated but I don't mind it.

When did anyone act or do things like we expect from them? There’s many artists out there that do exactly what you want to hear. I don’t really see why she has to hit any contemporary marks. You’re gonna be waiting forever xD

I think she’s now at her absolute worst when it comes to the way she sings, but have decided to accept that and enjoy the amazing songs.

I told my sister the same (she’s fans of Ayu too) about the lip-sync failed, kind of bother me as well. 😑

It's not lost on me that Nonfiction shares chords with poker face. It's pretty interesting to listen to them back-to-back. I'm also getting Womanizer vibes from the opening notes of Nonfiction. Glad she's writing thought-stirring lyrics again, considering this is on the heels of Dreamed a Dream and 23rd Monster. I'd be down for another NEXT LEVEL-style album, considering her sound hasn't really evolved since 2010, but hope the jacket artwork is reminiscent of the Nonfiction PV rather than the single artwork.

#1 with 2,596 digitally

I LOVE the dance break. While the song yes does sound like it came from an album 10 years ago, I think its just great to hear her again.

and the PV wasnt all that cheap looking. The dark scene and imagery were neat touches!

It's not her best song indeed and I probably won't add it to my playlist, but I'm just glad she made an effort to release new content instead of just relying on her classics, so yes I'm fine with this single and I'm here to support this queen as long as she keeps singing.

Ahhh finally, strong lyrics and awesome PV! Music is so-so but I'll take this over what she's released lately!

That's 320 more downloads than 23rd Monster, which sold 2,276.

You know, I was hoping that for her 25 anniversary, she could bring back/recreate some of her iconic covers for her 25th anniversary album (if there is) or a music video featuring her iconic covers or old music video scenes

Nonfiction streams 2nd day on Spotify: 20,422K

To make a little comparison, One Night Carnival was released 23 days ago and currently has 20,334K

I personnally enjoyed the One Nite Carnival cover better but I wish the best for this new single. Also, I think numbers are important in a sense we need a minimum to justify her label to keep her career alive, but her targeted audience is so limited to her existing fanbase, so we cannot expect miracles.

The music video has 257k views at the moment! Apparently it's trending on YouTube Japan in the music section – I think I saw screenshot of the video being at #18.

Her classics are enough to maintain her in the charts (just look at how A BEST and A COMPLETE keep charting pretty high every year) and selling annual concerts and tours.If we get kinda harsh, technically she hasn't got any major hit in over a decade and her last #1 album was Love Again, anyone's career would been kinda dead already but Ayu's safe bc she's still that powerful lol between 2017 and 2021 she didn't had new material or hits but remained the best touring solo artist each year iirc so even if her new releases "flop" is not like her career will die, it's sad for us as fans and for as an artist of course tho

This new song is really good, especially the chorus. It's totally the kind of song I like. The melody is really nice and I'm glad that ayu works with new composers. The song could have been released in the years 2009/2010 but it's still good. The bridge is so great too. So except this terrible cover I'm happy.

I think when it comes to a “full release” it’s not that she can’t, it’s more a reflection of the times. Artists don’t make money on album releases anymore with the introduction of digital ways to buy the songs. All that money spent and invested doesn’t come back any more. The dedicated fans really only buy the physical stuff now. The real money and show of her popularity is her tours. That’s where they make the moneys now :P and if they can keep doing them, then that’s a sign that people like what she is doing :) but for us western fans, means less �� but really the digital market has ruined the old way things could of been done. If anything now Ayumi is in her own class of legendary now :) like Madonna and Cher and that. She does what she does and nothing can stop her :P

I like the song and I love the lyrics! :)
What I dont need is this first 20 seconds of the song. I dont need that kind of beginning, just start with the song :P

The video is also really cool! Ayu looks stunning :luv2 I personally like seeing her dancers in her videos and I also really like the choreography for the song! Only thing I dont like about the video is this walking scene

It was #1 in Oricon digital singles songs on its release date :luv2

It's definitely catchy, I find myself humming it. And it turns out her live voice was pretty close to the recording, which unfortunately means I don't really like it lol. But nice lyrics as always, and the music video is pretty good. Definitely feels like a step up overall, more coherent and less random than the previous singles imo.

I do find the English part a bit weird sounding: "You say no, what you don't believe". Does she means "You say no to what you don't believe"..?

#10 on its second day. For comparison, 23rd Monster was out of the top 20 on its second day and Dreamed a Dream was at #13.

Don't know if it's too strange for native English speakers, but for me it made sense as two sentences, like she's saying "You say 'no!', 'no!'" to someone, then asking the same person, "what you don't believe?".

Spotify streams 3rd day: 31.365K

tbh at this point i’m waiting for her to pull a hikki and release her entire catalog on vinyl, so i can freak out and cry at my bank account :)

That would be a dream come true BUT for our wallets safety I'd like them to be released in series, because if they release all of her albums at once there's no way I could get them all lmao

I thought it was supposed to be “what don’t you believe” and the other part should be “what do I believe”

cmonnnn smash hit

I have to look at the lyrics and try to find where she sings "You are full of shit."
The English part is hard to understand without reading the lyrics.

^It's right before the second chorus starts, just like the part where she sings "are you kidding me" before the first chorus.

@Zeke She sings "You say 「No!」「No!」 what you don't believe" and "I say 「Yes!」「Yes!」 what I do believe" and there's also a somewhat muffled "what you do believe" after the bridge ends.

Would make more sense, but no, the official lyrics were posted under Nonfiction's Youtube video:

avex is on life support it seems��

I really love Nonfiction, I'd put it on repeat. I also like the MV, because she looks so pretty in both her looks.
The only thing I am not keen of, is that dramatic intro. Though it "works", a.k.a. less bothers me, in the mv, I wish the song could've skipped that part.

The song is at #18 on its third day! I'd have to check again but I think DaD left the top 20 on its third day.

EDIT: The PV was also trending at #15 in YouTube Japan's music section today! :) The views are currently at 390K!

Ah yes same here!!!!

What was the ranking for 23rd monster?

Is there anyone that actually brings in major money to the label these days? I honestly don't have a clue what's on there anymore.

I finally rewatched the MV again. It's fine, it had some cool things in it, and it made me think of Sexy Little Things. It has a very similar vibe.


BTW i've also found the english parts strange. She's not awful in english, but it almost feels like she's going backwards with it the more time passes. I suppose Timmy had a lot to do with it, but she really wasn't THAT bad herself.

23rd Monster only spent one day in the daily top 20, which was its debut at #2.

I understand what the official lyrics are but I think what she was trying to say in terms of grammar was what I posted. I can see how it might be confusing to a Japanese native to separate “don't” and “do” from the verb. It’s kind of a curveball in the English language, the proper construction of a sentence like this.

I'm so in love with this song. I keep listening at it. Love the rythm, the electro, Ayu's voice, the (too) short bridge. Last time I was so hyped with a song was Lelio and before that, Sparkle.

Love it.

I love it too, more than Lelio and Sparkle which I also loved. For me, this is easily one of my favorite tracks of hers ever.

It's on constant repeat here, too!

I guess without Timmy proofreading English parts this is all we can get now.

If you guys were to read the atrocious engrish on some Kpop songs.. :P

lol can't she call Hikki and ask for a quick proofread

Well, the mispronunciated English is sometimes part of the J-Pop culture. I think it's pretty possible she can deliver some better English while speaking than singing.

I always remember when Timmy sings 'boice' instead of 'voice' during NaNaNa. He's a native English speaker, so it's obvious that sometimes they mispronounced some words for aesthetic reasons (just like Utada, another English native speaker, does)

Hikki would be like: "What is this?"

the song is fire and sounds nothing like what'd have been on NEXT LEVEL (just basing off the baseless comparisons many are making).

the PV is so good too (was fully expecting something more low-effort) but girl needs to get rid of those shake-and-go wigs they look so dry and frayed, especially the blonde ponytail!

"You don't have no choice" born when Timmy was around

The PV has reached 500K views! :heart

I waited to watch it until yesterday (so I could exercise to it) and I love it! It's so energetic, with a bit of that edgier vibe she's so good at. I love how she makes pink fierce, haha!

BTW, someone mentioned all the Balmain--is there a tie-up? That would be fun, actually, Balmain has been doing a lot of interesting crossover art lately, like their anniversary graphic novel. And they dress queens like Beyonce, so Ayu is perfect, too. :love

You'd be surprised but native speakers do speak like that. You can even Google "don't have no choice" to see that it is used in other songs, even Pink used it.

I was curious about it, sometimes it's like a "street" language or a colloquial way of speaking.

Nonfiction placed 12 on Billboard weekly top downloaded songs and also #12 on Oricon weekly digital singles chart with 3,665 downloads/sales :)

^It's her best-charting single on the download chart!
For reference (Oricon):

#12 – Nonfiction
#14 – Ohia no Ki
#22 – Dreamed a Dream
#29 – 23rd Monster

And while her chart numbers aren't too important these days, it is a bit of a shame that this could've been her second top ten single there (the first one would've been Ohia no Ki) if they hadn't released it so late* in the week. Still, it's very nice to see a small upswing! :)

*

This single was promoted only at ayu's instagram

Yea, that's why it's good. It's really just that the songs could do a bit better if they were released earlier (without them doing more), but that's more a case of "would be nice" rather than it actually being of much importance.

Waiting for a summer single to do even better!

And now it's at 560K :heart

Glad to hear the single is becoming very successful (^.^) I wonder what the new album will sound like? The theme behind it? It's always interesting with ayu because just when you think you might have an idea from the singles... The album takes a complete left turn in a very positive creative way.

The single has been well received by international jpopers. The reaction of users on sites like Arama, ATRL and RandomJPop have been more, or less, positive (Except for the owner of RandomJpop, but that was to be expected given his ultra critical point of view towards any new Ayumi release).

I think the main theme of all songs released until now (except Ohia no Ki) is "resistance". Nonfiction is a very critical song about sh!t people read and write online (not only) about her (and how she's asking people to wake up). 23rd Monster is a comment about being an old artist not giving up and Dreamed a Dream is following the same route (she opens the song asking what's the difference between 'old' and 'nostalgic', a question concerning her own status in industry right now).

P.S.: Ohia no Ki should be an excellent finale for the album if that will be the theme, because the way she sings about her son shows her strenght and resilience.

Awww!!! 👏👏👏

if her team didn't post the official lyrics in youtube, i still can't believe she actually sing "Zzz..." "Are you kidding me?" "You're full of shit!" lol

I think the "are you kidding me" line was easy to understand, even in the live version.

Rewatched the PV on my 60 inch OLED and it really wowed me even more then my initial watch. It really does not do the video justice watching on a cell phone!
It rekindled my love for Ayu all over again. She continues to do what she wants to do. Which is particularly refreshing since modern J-pop is pretty much dead. This makes her style of J-pop music all the more relevant. I can tell motherhood has had such a positive effect on her spirit.

What I lament is avex still living in 2009 and posting PVs with not-so-good quality at YouTube hoping to sell them in DVD/Blu-Ray. You can see some macroblocking in many parts of the clip because they didn't upload it in the maximum 1080p quality YouTube supports.