oh my.. I didn't know Ai sang in Chinese before. hahaz. I feel like listening to it although it's not gonna be turn out good.

I think since Pocket happened that x__x
it was a lot of time without new material. But yes, her music is so diferent like the bengining, is more... serious o.o

yeah LOVE LETTER was even more mature & less crazy sounding than her previous albums

maybe people weren't ready for that sudden adjustment of sorts

We need crazy Ai back. CHU-LIP Ai! :( Where is she?! I think her ballads are always solid, but then we need crazy psychotic Ai too with her obnoxious stuff so it contrasts and balances her powerful ballads. Kinda like "I'm a crazy yet emotionally sensitive girl".

^ LOL.

Well yeah her upbeat songs are getting more and more less-childish... I need some of those too to make myself feel better!

^Maybe not childish, but CRAZY. "LOVE LETTER" lacked a CRAZY song. I do know some people see "SHACHIHATA" as such, but I don't. The music is jazz and she's vocalising. There's nothing CRAZY about it, really. To vocalise seems quite common in jazz.

Yup, Shachihata was like refined craziness. I need like EXPLODING craziness like HAPPY DAYS! :) That was what defined her character and her style as an artiste! Even if she decides to do fast mature pop songs, well, I'll support her too! Anything but ballads again.

My favorite crazy Ai song is CHU-LIP. :) At least I think it's crazy.

^ same here! but i also love ramen seppun cooking, lol. :P

:laugh I want her to do another food related song if possible

as long as it's crazy and upbeat, it's all good :cool

^ agreed :) Lol! I really just want an upbeat single! lol! I hope we get a preview of the new single sooon! I hate waiting for ai music lol XD!

You know what I find amazing, how the ramen song isn't electronic-pop for the background music lol XD I dunno why but everytime I hear it I think its electronic pop but its more pianoy lol! well I guess there some sound effects lol but still. Amazed. I dunno why Lol I wouldn't mind another ramen song :)

Love Letter
 

I actually think Love Letter is my favourite Otsuka Ai's album!
It's kinda sad that the sales were so bad.

Rocket Sneakers, One Time, Ai, Kurage are really exceptional songs.
Also has Pocket, Bye Bye and Kimi Fetchi =)

I'm actually happy she gave up singing all those crazy songs! LOL

Looking forward to her next few albums.

Top 50 Albums Of '09 :

13 *,179,174 ***,529 LOVE LETTER / 大塚 愛 08/12/17

great that it has began selling once more , it didn't do so last week

i'm all for her never doing the crazy songs again lol, probably why i love LOVE LETTER so much

Can someone please explain SHORT FILM ～金魚花火 ～ to me XD I watched the whole thing, and was confused all the way through.

its nice to know someone else loves LOVE LETTER too :) ~! lol I personally love her crazy songs more but I think Love letter was a great album too! Definitely underrated

^ I Didn't get her short film either :S lol! Something about a lost love?

I thought it was about some guy who picked up a hobo (Ai :3) and took her into his home to shoot fireworks and he was imaging the whole thing

SMILY is my fave crazy Ai song.

the PV's classic :roflmao

Well, as far as I get the SHORT FILM ai and that guy must have been former classmates or something and she has a crush on him. He's waiting to pick up his girlfriend, but she can't come. When he wants to leave the station he notices ai and takes her with him to light the firework together.

^ Then why does Ai all of a sudden disappear when she tries to kiss him??

^Maybe because of the lyrics? Some of the lyrics are shown during the SHORT FILM. They probably refer to what is shown?

The lyrics tell that the goldfish swimming in her heart only lives for one summer. Or something like that. ^^; Maybe she vanished because her wish came true. She knew it was one-sided love anyway.
I don't really have an idea, though. ^^; Perhaps I should watch it again and see if I'll understand more. Translated interviews or articles would be helpful.

Which DVD is this SHORT FILM ～金魚花火 ～ from?

I don't think I've seen it before. *unsure*.

I'm gonna go watch SF ~Kingyou Hanabi~ now.

oh.. the short film is such a sad one. Ever since I watched it I feel so sad whenever I listened to the song.

Anw I rmb seeing some pple wrote that probably Ai is a ghost or something, that she doesn't exist in the end cos the guy didn't see her. er.. I dunno if this makes sense. but we can be sure that her love for the guy is one-sided ya. aww....

a new otsuka single ? - http://listentheworld.wordpress.com/...th-single-tba/

it's still a rumour at this point in time

omg how i wish :weep i hope for a summer single.

wow.. tats interesting! 09/09/09. hahaz.. that magical number.

Omg if it's true I seriously hope it won't end up like K,N where the limited edition goes out of print not long after it got listed on Cdjapan ._.

Oh A new single from Ai <333 : ) ~! I hope its good lol ~! I like the sound of the limited edition. <33

September is way to early IMO to be releasing info.....then again Nami Tamaki's "Brightdown" was known in March and didn't come out til August.....hmmmm

it's just a rumour at this point in time & besides Sept's so far away

but you never know ;)

We'll wait to a confirmation!
However, I really hope she'll release a summer single like peach!

OMG FINALY SOME NEWS!! even though its just a rumour :P

i hope its true, and if it is i want something CRAZEEEYYYY

from JPM

I hope the new single shows a turnaround from the...
Less than fabulous sales her singles have been showing.

yeah that has been happening since Pocket which's very unfortunate

she sure does love that LOVE LETTER symbol

Yeah, given the amount of time between now and the suspected release date, there's hope for better sales.

I love the DVD cover <3

Top 50 Albums Of '09 :

14 *,179,670 ***,496 LOVE LETTER / 大塚 愛 08/12/17

has it been 4 months since LOVE LETTER was released ? :O

^ yayyy she's going to hit 180k : ) ~! Thank goodness XD lmao

When will we get to hear previews of her new single lol! I'm going to buy it either way anyways XP ~! lol I wanna hear a preview :P ~! I just cant stand the waiting lol ~! I keep thinknig this single will be super hyper upbeat lol! I don't know why >< ~! Hopefully it'll be released soon if nto leaked XD

The cover for the dvd looks pretty!

I think the new goal for LL should be 180k. 200k seems a bit much.

:yes

initally I thought LOVE LETTER can hit 200K but now I doubt so :(

The dvd cover is awesome! :love

Btw livedoor is reliable, no? I want ai to release a summer single too! Fun crazy songS and im not greedy, just one beautiful ballad will do =p

not sure leh Joel because it's still a long way to go before Sept comes

for now I just take this info with a pinch of salt

^ livedoor isn't reiable as in when they write down a release and date, that it's final.

That is a really awesome cover!!! :love The tracklist...I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm glad that she included CHU-LIP, but almost the entire tracklist is from LOVE LETTER (which makes sense since it IS the LOVE LETTER live tour :tipsy); and I'm not hugely into all of those songs. :/ I wonder how the sales will do.

Is the first track (live-love) from something or is it just specifically for this tour? I've been so out of the Ai loop I don't know anymore. XD

^ yup it was pocket's b-side, it';s entirely engrish!! but its soooooo cute :luv2 strange to open the concert with that song though =/

Am I the only one who really enjoyed LOVE LETTER? I love Rocket Sneaker / Kurage, Nagareboshi / Ningyou / 360° / Shachihata. Everything else I haven't given a full listen yet sadly xD But I still like her ballads and up-beat stuff on the album

LOVE LETTER has grown on me, so now i really love listening to the album. :yes

kurage, nagareboshi and 360° are soooo great :luv2
but I still haven't bought the album... I'm quite poor and slow :innocent

I like LOVE LETTER. I do see where it's weak points are though.

I like it overall, but there are a few songs on there that I just don't listen to. I only listen to: Rocket Sneaker (sometimes), kurage nagareboshi, 360, shachahada, the one with the start in it XD, and bye bye. That's literally about it. :/

I had a lot of hatred towards LOVE LETTER especially during the time a month before the album leaked out from its originally release date

I'm fine with it now , just that I will not consider it as my fave album of hers , that has to go to LOVE COOK

WoW Ai is so underrated on the album : ( ~! Ai is definitely my favourite song on the album XD ~! I just put it on in a loop alone LOL. I like the album but there are a few tracks that don't really stand out. It was still good tho : ) ~!

When is her next single coming out again?

I love Ai too! I find peace and serenity whenever i listen to the song and i love it when the mood slowly picks up until the last chorus! <3

Frankly I didn't like Ai initally , I found it boring for my liking

I was OK with it after I saw the PV for Ai

Oh my I'm so bad the only Ai song I listened in the past 3 months was Daisukidayo.

i Love ai otsuka voice when she singin LOVER SOULS from covering judy n Marry~~♥♥
she so talented!

^you know, i still didnt listen to that song *slaps self*

and i love Ai too!! its my favorite album-track together wth 360, Kimi Fetch and Shachihata :luv2 OH and also DO Positive!! i love it when she says OKEEEEE XDD

360 PV so great! its artistic~

^omg yes!! that pv was awesome :luv2 the horsehead was kinda disturbing though :P

were the LOVE LETTER tour goods already posted? if not you can find them here
http://shop.mu-mo.net/st/event/0902ai/index.html
I WANT THAT NECKLACE!!! its so cute!!!

and the posters:
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6...0252t01400.jpg

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/6...0252t02400.jpg

i love the first one :luv2 she looks so pretty

^She looks cute. ^^

I liked "LOVE LETTER" since I heard it. Didn't it leak like 1 month before the actual release? There were all those negative opinions on here, which made me kinda anxious. But I wanted to wait until I get my copy and got pleasantly surprised. Though it lacks the variety of her previous albums, it's a solid work.

omg those posters are so cute!

i love "Ai" too :love

@ the posters - oh man her hair

*points to KAT-TUN's Kame downfall period , hairwise* :lmfao

ANYWAY I must say that the 360 degree PV's artistic

weird but artistic

Aww, such cute posters!

just one thing...

i don'r like her hairstyle now~ >_<

me too it makes her looked older than usual -_-'''

nice pic^^

pretty something that I saw Bye Bye twice on TV earlier on back to back MTV channel wise O_O

I think her new hairstyle's cute. :)

wow, I haven't listened to ai for quite some time...
her goods are pretty good though, especially the posters - I love the renai shashin-ish concept~

I'm disappointed at her using Andy Warhol's lips :/ can't she think sth more original? and she's definately not the rolling stones :/ :/

the iso on JPS is fake or tour was out in tv?

otsuka's new LOVE LETTER Tour 2009 DVD will be getting a Taiwan press release next Fri - http://www.avex.com.tw/4th/artist/ar...d=2#AVJDV56139

Okay,this is a kinda not related to what's been posted here lately,but I'm having really trouble with something that I have posted at channel-ai but no one has answered yet.

Yesterday I've received 3 Ai singles that I bought from ebay and everything seems to be fine with them but I noticed something.

On all 3 CDs (SMILY/Biidama,Amaenbo,Daisuki da yo.) there are writings in kanji & katakana and I could read only the katakana ones that say "promotion" and got a bit worried after I saw that in channel-ai gallery there are no such writings on those CDs...so I was wondering what do they mean? What are my copies of these singles in fact? I took a pic of them (click to enlarge them).

Look at that orange/black text,they all have it. Is this normal and what does it mean?

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles036.jpg

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles025.jpg

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles020.jpg

So are these singles some kind of promo or original singles?

^They are indeed promo CDs. 見本 (mihon) means "sample".

Well....then that's bad thing,right :(

Thanks for info.

^ Could be. The difference is promos don't contain booklet pics and if you care, they don't count towards Oricon. They're what radios play when a new single/album is released.

Well they all contain all of the booklet pictures.I checked it out already so I don't get it.
They look exactly and contain everything that the original single have...

wow...is that different from regular single?


i think it's rare item since it not sold in music store in Japan...

Does it mean if they're Promo CDs, the sound quality isn't that good?

The quality is really great I can say.And the singles look as the original ones (I checked on channel-ai for scans).I can upload more pics of the singles later...

EDIT:

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles015.jpg
(Ignore Ayu's GUILTY,lol)

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles019.jpg

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles022.jpg

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles028.jpg

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles031.jpg

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles035.jpg

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...singles039.jpg

@ Chiharo - it depends on how you look at it

it could be a good thing as promo CDs are quite rarely found to be sold online . I don't know in the case of being bad though

but for me I look at it as a good thing as it's not often everyday you can find a promo CD being sold online

whatever works your way

Lucky you Chiharo. I have a promo version of H&MC's Goover and it doesn't contain any booklet pics. :grumpy

Those Promo CD's look so cool, Chiharo. :cool

Ah,well I guess I was kind of just lucky and if I want to buy regular singles I can get them anywhere,lol. (even though I want regular ones,but it's fine xD)

So thank you for all answers and encouragements about the promos that should be original sinlges :)

you're really lucky , I don't even have a promo single/album on hand , let alone for otsuka's case T_T

Awww Ai looks adorable in that poster! I don't get the tour t-shirts though. The Rolling Stones?!?!?! We need a new Ai thread soon!