I've been looking through the thread at the covers and I'm just not into them at all.

Outfit: 8/10 | Pose: 2/10 | Background: 3/10 | Text: 2/10 | Composition: 1/10

I like the outfit but the pose is just ugh for me. She’s just standing there doing nothing. I didn’t really dig the CD covers of Rule/Sparkle but the poses were dynamic. Here she’s sort of like in mid-pose. Where is the image to attract my eyes? She looks like she’s waiting on instruction, not posing for a photoshoot!

I’m also not a fan of the bronzed-up barbie doll look. Give her a tan, fair enough. She can’t go to the beach and look pasty, but they way overdid it with the shopping of her abs and the light on her body.

It just looks so blah, and the composition is, yet again, bizarre at best. Why did she even fly to Bali to shoot on what looks like a fake background anyway? I say that I was hoping for something like UNITE! or INSPIRE’s cover where she looked natural.

The text is also hard to read. Why put white writing against a light background? And while the font looks ok, it’s just not ‘enough’ for a cover. Maybe if Ayu had the title photoshop-tattooed across her arms or something it would look better, but from here I just can’t see it.

I guess I can say that I was expecting a bigger bang for the buck here. Ayu looks gorgeous, she’s always pretty on her covers, but Shi-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has proven again that he's completely unable to compile photographs! Ayu just looks like some kind of brown blob on an overly-highlighted generic beach scene which is supposed to be Bali!

On the upside, her hair pretty. It’s like the NL style but the “beach version” of it xD And the CD+DVD picture is marginally better!

those covers... look terrible. my eyes are bleeding :(

Anyone know where/when this pic is from? Dayum I miss Ryoji :(

I was watching and the credits right before Ayu's credit pops up says "misono".. it was the 2nd episode.

True, it seems that you are always on AHS.

well it is the summer.

And congratulations guys...our forum has finally annoyed people so much that they've stopped coming :laugh

Oh wait...that's been happening for years.

Nevermind~

Anyway, what part does misono have? is she gonna act now? hahaha

So why aren't they posting the covers on her site yet?

^Maybe they are waiting until first press info is decided. Usually first press info is released the same times the covers are released on the site.


:innocent .....Or maybe they are changing the covers. :innocent :D

That's why I'm here more often now~
Isn't everyone just happy? ( :dead2 )

Me too lol

I don't mind.

@Evolution: oh I see. Then it's still a bit early.

^Yeah it should be soon though I'm not "feeling" any first presses. its definitely not gonna be an alternate version. So I'm guessing picture label? Slipcase?

it would be a dream come true if the covers were improved @_@

^It would be a miracle.

I'll disappear for a few weeks other than some postings (thread updates?) in the foocher, yo. It just seems like I'm always here because I actually am. I have AHS in the brain.

Yeah, MU is probably the only other time that you might say is comparable to this one. Though still I don't remember it being quite as universally negative. At least 1 of the 2 covers wasn't bad - it was more because of the grainy quality of the photos that most people complained I think.

I may hate the covers for this single - I think for sure they are her worst. But I DO like Sunrise the song (I might be in the minority though) and I hope Sunset is really good. Great PVs would be nice too, but its been a few years now since I think she's had really great PVs (Days has been the only one thats come close to me), so I don't have a lot of hope in that category.

Wait... the song we hear is Sunrise or Sunset?? I thought it was Sunrise... :shakehead... Confusing..

Anywayz, I can safely say that (m)u didn't generate as much hate as compared to rite now for sure. Most people do hate the monkey smile (which I dun think it's that bad), and some were kinda disappointed that the covers were taken during B&D pv shots. Overall the comments were not that negative. At least we can say the love-hate ratio is about 50:50.

Sunshine made a typo, haha.

Safely say? Are you sure? Then again, people weren't as scarily rabid as they are now, haha. Trust me, it was bad. I remember the promo photo came out on the Onimusha site and people were like "Is that the cover? PLEASE DON'T BE THE COVER." and.. it was the cover.

So yeah.

It was probably even worse than now because that was an ALBUM, and I remember some kind of similar outrage at the really bad booklet as well, haha. (m)u was amazing and.. RUINED BY THE BOOKLET/COVER. Or something.

Also: I feel as though people remember the past and are like "Nah, things were okay back then.." but... yeah.. NOT REALLY. However, I will agree that since 2006 [Secret was the last really good cover imo.] her covers have SUCKED compared to her older stuff.

^ Well, I can at least say that to the best of my memory I don't remember any backlash as strong as this. I think I actually liked the MU covers (Well, at least the non monkey smile one^_^).

And yeah, I accidently switched the titles. :)

Well, I think it's stronger now because the fans here are a little more opinionated [a little bit more annoying about it kind of].. haha. You know? The fans that were around at that time at the beginning of '06 are probably not really around now, haha.

^Yeah, I pretty much agree with you on that point.

The ViVi scans are out, and it looks like along with the covers, Kazuyoshi also shot the ViVi issue AND shot a possible new calendar [there are a bunch of random photoshoots documented in the ViVi.. unless they're for Sweet/SCawaii]~

It really sucks about these covers since the Deji Deji shoot was absolutely amazing. They should have went for a similiar style. It's just kind of a let down compared to what it could be.

She just looks lost and stoned in the first cover. Guess Ayu was smoking a little too much in Bali. Lol. :tipsy

That reminds me, maybe it was taken when Ayu was like: "Huh? Are we taking the photo yet? HAHAHA THAT'D BE SUCH A FUNNY COVER"..

And.. yeah.. that's what we got..

where truehappiness where are the scans *looking for them*

They are in the "Celebrity News" section for whatever reason.

And by the way I read the scan a little bit and saw this:
"Hitotsu no melody, futatsu no arrange.."

So.. there is one general melody for both songs meaning that Hana Nishimura is the composer for both songs and there are two different arrangers working on it?! [CMJK / HAL!?!?]

o duh thanx truehappiness. i prefer the vivi photos for the single T-T nething besides the actual pics. i dont like her hair color(ash blonde) it doesnt blend in with her skin tone. ima get a copy this when it comes out this week. if ne one wants a copy, ill gladly get u one. *lives close to mitsuwa market* thats y ^^
i dont like the vivi cover itself but i think these shouldve been the cover....

I love the covers!!! yay!!!

finally something fresh, young and summerish. Approving

Oh dear lord :thud


Anyway, now the covers have actually grown on me by a little bit. Can't help that the sea still looks like a blue blanket ROFL

That should be interesting. Hopefully there are two sets of lyrics as well. :P Surely there would be though. Same melody~

Okay, so I take back the photoshopping her boobs thing...because damn...they're huge.

Maybe like, she lost weight everywhere else, except there.


and woah wth? HAL is doing SUNSET? :laugh

Only thing is, is usually thats the first place you lose weight. Anytime I lose weight its like "Huh, where'd my boobs go?" lol

I know! That's why it's so amazing lol She shouldn't have any at all :laugh

Maybe she's just extremely lucky? lol

*nervous laughter*

or special diet?

She's flat chested in the rule sparkle covers (there's no problem with that itself) but yeah there's no way she magically grew boobs between now and then because if anything she's skinnier than when those were shot. Photoshop or a really really advanced push up brÀ

Breast implants!!!!!!!!!

whats Ayumi's surgeon's number? hook me up!!!

Damn, surgeons in Japan are awesome.

Why can't the american ones make them look real like that?!

she's wearing push up bra..or push up bikini? wahahahaha...
but i think she naturally has big boobs~

^Well see I usually think that she doesn't have big boobs, they just look big specifically on her, because she's small and proportionate.

her boobs were big before rule/sparkle covers so yea she must have awesome push up padded bras...mika john probably helped...XD

i dont hate the covers theyre quite pretty and sexy. at least its wayyyy better than her m(u) covers!

You don't have to get breast implants that make you a DD... you can range from A - Z. :P

Yet a few of us still survive (and oh well we did have quarrel just a day or two ago, but oh well let's put that aside :P).

I dun really think people (including myself) brought down the covers as bad as this time. Back then probly we were not satisfied with the lack of new idea. Now her covers are as not originated as compared to the (m)u era, with the addition of over photoshopped. Of course the who-should-not-be-named is part of the reason to bring down ayu's reputation. Sigh... she used to produce best cd covers before Ma era, and some decent ones during MY STORY --> Secret eras..

CD+DVD ver. cover is way better than both Sunrise / Sunset ～LOVE is ALL～ covers IMO.:innocent

the covers on the official website yet?

^Nope, it's still "Now Printing" on the official site.

so HAL is doing Sunset????...so we can expect a momentum? lol

thanks!! I hope they change them (yeah... I'm still hoping)



I saw this really beautiful pictures of ayu in Vivi Deji Deji and I think that the covers for the new single should've been similar to this (wearing the same, same place, etc):



:yes:yes:yes:yes:yes

Thanks! my download just complete, and i went to fastforward to that part. i wonder when will she be appearing?

my thoughts EXACTLY! when i saw the scans at ayuchina, and looking at the same pic that you were refering, i was hoping those would be the cover instead...
now if there's nicer pictures IN the booklet, i'm so going to see if i can fold it out and 'change' the cover.

You're right, she looks great here.
I'd appreciate it if they (or Ayu herself) would have chosen this ouftit for the cover.
But to be honest they would have over photoshop her no matter which photo.
And the background...? I don't know if it were different.

Yes! Those should be the cover for this single:P

Although, many ppl hate the cover, I find it ok for me.
Just hope the real cover will be better. So everyone will be happy. ^^

Still talking about covers? :thud

I wanna hear Sunset. :(

Just checking in... no bigger covers yet?

lol @ the covers. :D it looks cheap

I'd say its photoshop. It's real easy to do. I remember one picture from her GUILTY booklet where she looked like a Booberella, but then the Rule / Sparkle covers came. So it's gotta be a a simple addition of shadows in photoshop. Its simple to do.

Her boobs are a combo of photoshop and push-up bra... I think.

Anyway, the Vivi scans have better looking Ayu than the covers... which is quite saddening...

And H/\L as arranger of Sunset huh. Hmm... his ballads arrangement are (to say a few) Days, momentum... okay that's all I remember lol.

covers look weird. too much boobs @_@'

I just want the covers on the official site already.

i hope there will be some cute version of cover in the "cover inside pics"
for example, the inside photos of startin/born to be was 100000000000% better than the cover ^^

I can only pray... I really hope that would be better shots in the booklet, otherwise I would use one of the new Vivi shots as the single cover.

P.S: Is that a plastic film/wrap texture you have on your deliciously hot Megan Fox sig? :luv2

so Sunset is by HAL? i really want the music in it to be simple, since Sunrise's music is all over the place (i still love it) but i want something a bit more simpler in contrast

^ Hahaha, yeah H/\L has some layers in his arrangements... but I think he's good at arranging ballads. This single's songs appear to be really promising!

I'd love to get more of a classic ballad sort of feel! Like Dearest or Endless sorrow, though I know we probably won't get that. They did say it had a Days-feel to it, right?

I'm thinking by having a 'Days-feel' it would mean Sunset has that bittersweet tone/melody... which I really love!

Guys, HAL hasn't been confirmed yet! Its just very, very likely it his HAL. And yes hes my favorite arranger/composer. :D

I'm lovin the covers

I too, love the covers.
I'd want something like HANABI ~episode III~ for Sunset though

But in the Vivi off shots it is clear she is just wearing a bikini top and they still look pretty big I think.(and these are candid, unphotoshopped shots) I also remember dance rehearsal photos where she is just wearing a black tank top and well, same thing.

I noticed her chest size looking bigger from the Rule PV onward. As for the Rule/Sparkle covers, maybe they were shot before the PV? Also, the material she is wearing has to be taken into account - latex will flatten anyone out big time.

IF she got implants, they are at least damn good ones.

I forsee someone making a year by year pictorial comparison of Ayu's boobs, ala what someone did for Maki Goto a while back. :)

Well... I think Ayu's boobs are just enhanced by Wacoal. Peach Mama John is her "mummy" right? And she sort of owns Wacoal too, so I wouldn't be surprised if she gave Ayu some bras to put on. ;)

I can't really think of any other bittersweet songs by Ayu, only Days comes to mind. That's one of your favorites songs, right waterballoon?

But, as I just said, that looks like a regular thin bikini top - not a bra.(in the vivi thread) But oh well, like I said, at least they don't look bad. And I'm not even sure she did it either - I just know that her boobs for sure stood out to me this year. :)

Well, yeah it is my favorite song! XD

Other bittersweet songs that come to my mind are: MY ALL, Who..., Dearest (I really feel so) and theme of a-nation '03 lol..

Does Days reflect on past experiences for you? And, yeah Dearest is rather bittersweet...

NOOOOOOO T___T (aw, sorry waterballon)
I want a new kind of ballad lol

I only speculated at HAL. They don't mention any arrangers in the article, but it's either CMJK again, HAL, or tasuku doing Sunset. I'm probably placing my bets on HAL since there's a ~Days~ feeling to it according to 2ch.

Can someone please fill me in as to what 2ch is? And why we all aren't over there listening to Sunset as well?

I don't know if its officially called a 'forum', but its a Japanese website where everyone posts anonymously, and its full of otaku and NEETs.

It's kind of like a forum, but it's more like a message board that has anonymous posting, haha.

Links are not shared there usually, and people generally hear things by being TeamAyu members or getting the chaku uta or seeing it on the news.

The former is probably how a lot of people heard it and could say it sounded kinda like Days, but.. yeah.. dunno.

wow! since I was here last night we only moved one page, yey.

About the boobs, I say, "tape."

About sunset, oh...I thought it was for real or something. Oh well...I don't think I'd mind any of them...although CMJK is kinda...it would be nice for someone else.

^ You mean like she permanently has them taped together these days? :) Can I buy that tape too? haha

Taped together? I dunno if that's what it looks like, but then again I am a male with no boobs, so.. yeah.. haha.

The worst that it's looked like was in AT07's opening when she suffocated her poor Ayus.

Since no one else wants to read the ViVi interview [haha, you can try if you want, I'll put it in the end of this post], apparently Sunrise written in the "you" sort of perspective or something, and Sunset is the "me/watashi" perspective of a "teenage female" with warm thoughts [boka boka?].. though I wonder if they both have something to do with Dandy Daddy? or not because she did write Sunrise for it.. I think it says something like "one melody, two sets of lyrics, two arrangements.." hm. It goes on to say something about her asking if it was okay to make Sunrise [which was first] into a ballad.. and if that was okay [kore.. ballad.. iijyanai ka? or something].. hm. SOMEONE ELSE READ, haha.

What? Her boobs are taped together? What does that mean?

i used some grunge'y texture i have in my photoshop folder *hihi*
but its a offtop, end of topic xP xD

??????? what is everyone talking about. It just looks like a pushup bra built into the bikini. You can tell because the bottom "wire" is pretty predominant. It's something more common in Asia, I would say the manufacturers in the US don't usually have that (according to some female friends...)

Anyway, the covers are OK. I wish the background was more natural "Bali". I think the outfit is cool, her body is SMOKIN', but it doesn't seem as cohesive as say, "CAROLS" "INSPIRE", "H", where the background, outfit, facial expression allllllllllll tie up together. If these are the real cover, it shows the sum of all parts is greater than the whole picture.

Nonetheless, these are tiny and we need HQ pics to really determine. But I think this cover would actually look stunning over Shibuya 109 and billboards.

I'm gonna bet that the promo photos and all photos for this that aren't the covers are going to be fabulously amazing, ughhh.

^ Push up bras work because of padding that is inside, not because of the wire. To me, that really looks like a completely normal bikini top. :shrug btw, I'm in America and nearly every bra I've ever had has a wire in it - its not specifically an asian thing. :)

After i looking at the covers many times, i don't think that this is bad... Well, i think that i don't need to cancel my order @cdjapan xD

Sunshine, I think it's because we [as me] do not shop for bras/bikini tops, so we have no idea about these things unless we crossdress or work in a lingerie shop, hahahahaha.

lol well I am only going by what my friends say. Ive never had to wear a bra before....I think. (lol)

Well something HAS to be going on, I don't think its implants because in other pictures she looks pretty flat still, like last month's ViVi with her at the pool.

@truehappiness lol. Yeah, thats exactly what I was thinking. :) haha, such a weird thing to discuss in detail anyways.

I think if Sunset were for Daddy Dandy?, we would have known about it. It would probably be an insert song if it were part of the dorama.

lol I love how we're now talking about Ayu's boobs... I, personally, think they've always been a bit bigger than some other Japanese stars. Let's view a few photos, shall we? ;)
http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/liv...EASONS0901.jpg http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/liv...EASONS0913.jpg
http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/vid....Dearest48.jpg
http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/vid....Real_Me58.jpg
http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/vid...airyland18.jpg
http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/vid...LUE_BIRD27.jpg
http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/liv..._Girls4306.jpg
http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/liv....GREEN0111.jpg
http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/liv...o_late0612.jpg

Of course, AT07 squished boobs pic:
http://www.eneabba.net/ayu/video/liv...lution3010.jpg

Well, the lyrics seem to deal with Dandy Daddy? in Sunrise, and perhaps they loosely sort of talk about things from the girl's point of view in the show and how she doesn't get freedom from her dad to love..

THE BOOBS!!!

^ The only thing is, I would pretty much only trust candid shots because its pretty obvious in a lot of those shots that she is wearing some heavy duty padding imo and then in a few of those pics, I wouldn't even say her chest is that big.(at least not like its been looking this year) Fairyland in particular I remember thinking her chest looked very normal and even on the small side in that PV.

ayu really has some great boobs, however she got them i don't really care. they look awesome
/boob love

Nice translation of the article by tenshi no hane@AHS:

You're right; like you said, Sunset was written based on Daddy Dandy?, but I doubt it'll be used in the dorama. It'll just happen to be based on it as well.

^
^wow I love how she explains all the concept of the single and also of her new style/tour this year... now I think I understand more the lyrics of rollin'...

So it's like... after doing Sunrise... she decided tot turn it into a ballad... so it's based in the same melody, diffrent lyrics and different arrangement (I think it doesn't mean is a different person who makes it, but it can be of course...)

thanks for tranlsation!

I still don't like the covers. Ayu looks super ultra weird on em....