Actually I think that it's the contrary. On 2007-2008 she was like this, shouty and out of tune but since 2009 NEXT LEVEL show she gradually got better with each show that now she got to singing and technical singing stability in both of her voice sound and singing.

Save for TV performances, I don't know why there she doesn't make more effort to sound like in her lives, maybe she barely can't rehearse it and it's hard to monitor her vocals with the music with not many rehearsals before hand or she gets more excited than before and can't control it I don't know but in her shows she still sounds mostly great. INSPIRE in kouhaku was pretty decent. Better than last year's vocal performance. You can see sometimes that she is struggling not to shout and actually sings decently or even great, while not shouting the songs at all (unless if they are her crowd songs and has more original shouty parts or parts she herself decided to shout instead of sing, every time sing sings these lol - Boys & Girls).

It's always going to be this way, unfortunately. You can't please the whole fandom.
Even in her most successful days, I'm sure there were a lot of people complaining she wasn't doing what they would have like her to do. It's just natural.
If she stays true to her signature sound, people that want experimentations are gonna be disappointed.

Her voice really is an issue.
I personally hate some part of Love Song, because of the way she's singing it, and it's such a great track!

I love her voice, it's unique and when you hear it you know in an instant that it's her! However, there are some things I dont enjoy anymore:

1. Poor quality music videos. I usually get inspired with amazing music videos. Forgiveness or M are some of the MVs I ont get tired of watching.

2. I want unique merchandise. An Ayu stuff that is worth the price! Die cut, matte laminated, spot UV, pop up or whatever crazy collateral - I would definitely buy that!

3. Before Lady Gaga, Ayu was the most creative person I've known when I was in high school. But in all fairness, I like the classy Ayu I see today. Lux and simple. ;)

4. I want to follow her in IG. So I hope she updates her account often. Seems like I am spending more time in IG now, heart-ing all other artists but not ayu.

Lately I've been thinking of another reason.
I think it has to do with jpop in general tbh. It feels as if most albums aren't sonically consistent and are just messes. Sometimes I think beyonce was right when she said that people don't make albums anymore and just release quick lil singles. You know, they put one out then burn out then put one out then burn out. The albums seem like afterthoughts. And even if they don't have 'singles' (party queen), they're still a kinda mess. Albums like duty and even sweet 19 blues (the consistent trashy lounge music) are really albums I gravitate to these days in terms of jpop. Also rainbow, ASfXX, and feel. All these albums feel completely (or nearly) consistent. Except for feel, which is just a lyrical mess at times. The opening song does NOT set the mood for the album. First talking about her lover then dumping him then sex then dumping again. A mess. But sonically it's great.
Love again was so incohesive even though I liked it at first. Maybe it's a reason why almost erryone loved love songs because that album is basically quite cohesive. Ayu's last best album? It's such a nice album I think. And the photoshoot! It's the same old same old done quite nicely. Love again was overkill, like 99,999 in FFX overkill.

I only want to speak for myself in this thread and I'd like to say that I've been following Ayu since 2005 (omg it's almost 10 years) and I used to LOVE her to death but my fandom decreased for the following reasons:

- Her vocal quality isn't as good
- Her lyrics aren't as lyrical (but I still applaud her concert entertainment)
- I appreciate that she's trying new things but those new things don't always work for her therefore I don't have the time/effort to appreciate it - perhaps she should stick to her ballads side
- I've lost a lot of interest in JPOP

Also, I'd like to make a comment to those who think it's because she's 35 and she's getting old.. etc - Veterans like Namie Amuro can still make a COMEBACK to me. So it's honestly not about the age.

I still love a fair bit of Ayu's stuff, but I haven't liked her newest things. Her music video's lately have... well been pretty awful in terms of what I like for music videos. :( Her last.. 9 or 10 I think I've positively hated. I haven't really gotten into the songs lately either.

BRILLANTE and Return Road were the most recent PV's that were actually good.

I am hopeful that this next album will actually be good.

The music videos have been lacking a bit but I thought Sweet scar/Song 4 u were some of her better recent ones. The rest have mostly been overseas love stories....

I am actually considering for the first time about whether or not I want to even listen to any of Ayu's music anymore because I just watched the "Feel the love" PV and am extremely hurt at the implication that fat girls don't deserve love (I am overweight myself). But the video on her official YouTube channel says it's the short version (it seems like the full one though, am I wrong?), so I keep thinking that maybe I just missed something... But then I heard that Ayu made a tweet saying she hates fat people (is this true?). I am so shocked and appalled, not to mention heartbroken since I've been a fan for about a decade. :(

Omg, of course not! I don't know who said this to you but I don't remember of hearing something like this. Also, the message of the pv was quite different saying that people should take more care of themselves?...I'm not too fond of the pv but I admit that it's quite funny. I'm sure that ayu wouldn't convey something so ugly in one of her pv. It's just that she didn't made it very clear.

Celebs always make stupid comments. I think Ayu maybe is just more comfortable with what she says, even if tackless. Think of American artists and how much they vent like Gaga though she preaches tolerance of course she can be a hypocrite. I myself I don't 'fat' people, as in I wish everyone to be in good health even though I went through a depressing year and gained 20 then lost it.. It's just, I think Ayu just doesn't care about being perfect anymore like some dull J-pop star as she has been influenced being in the states and just being a typical clean cut j-pop singer.


Though feel the love is crap, I am sure the budget for her videos will come with the rest of her singles ;) her 16th anniversary seems to be big to make up for her lacking 15th so if anything be more excited haha

The comments she made on Twitter are like this (she doesn't really mention fat people unless there was a Japanese tweet about it, but most articles just called her a 'heroine of a Hollywood-comedy-style video'):
The execution was a little iffy, but I think the message was there. You could interpret it any way you want, but the message was definitely positive in the end.

The REAL ending was the guy looking her (overweight girl) with a disgusting expression on his face.
http://i62.tinypic.com/2aiiirp.png
Really inspiring, yeah.

And this:
http://i.imgur.com/fIrulQC.png
was fake xD

He's confused as to where his ideal ayu went. But the point was to not portray such a great image of him. He clearly doesn't deserve the girl. She's just really confident and comfy with herself now no matter what her crush thinks. And no, ayu didn't call anyone fat. If she did, I'm pretty sure she would have lost a lot of her foreign fans immediately.

What true happiness posted is ayu's intentions. It's a response to some tweet some girl wrote to ayu about her being upset by the video.

You can choose to do what you like about your fandom and to believe whatever you want, Mirrorcle. That's what everyone else does anyway.

I remember that one guy who gave up after the 'vulgarity' of Lady Dynamite or something lol people do whatever.

^ The guy was the admin of eneabba.

I'm not so interested because she's too quiet. I want to see her on tv, I want her to release new singles and etc. I liked Feel the love and I hoped to see a new single release in the first half of 2014 :/ but there's nothing so I think it's ok to be interested in other things like AKB and Nogizaka. Since I like them I always have new music to listen, new tv-shows to watch and I feel "up-to-date".

But still I like to listen her old music :) and find something I haven't yet watched on YouTube.

I don't think we need another discussion over this PV as there were pages for you to read on the PV's thread... And they were serious heated and long posts lol. Many people might hate the PV but the message was somewhat clear to me, like it was said at some post above, interpret the PV however you want, but I'm sure that Ayu's message is positive and isnt't anything mean or hurtful, it's mostly because of the poor production. The tweet was definitely fake, I can confirm this because I remember myself stalking her twitter every second I could around the time the PV was out and Ayu never tweeted something like that. Anyway to sum it all up, it's not what you think ^^

^ But what matters is what she felt watching that clip (I myself felt disapointed, tbh), not what ayu (later) wanted us to feel.
And I think it's a valid reason why Mirrorcle maybe felt her fandom/love/whatever decreased.

^ If you're talking about that then yeah I do agree with you.

In the end of the PV the girl turns back into herself and hugs the confused guy. The message most likely was that the girl embodied the confidence of her idol (Ayu IS the girl's idol, she was watching Ayu on TV and she was singing Feel The Love on the scenes she was using headsets) and that confidence made her beautiful, and by feeling confident, not by losing weight, she got the guy.

But people should keep in mind Ayumi is from a different culture than her western fandom and that her aproach to several topics won't be the same a western popstar would have. They don't really have that "you are beautiful no matter what" mindset over there and their narratives have a strong focus on effort and discipline (think Superman x Dragon Ball... Clark was born the most powerful being on earth, while Goku has the potential of being powerful, but he only get there with sacrifice, discipline and tons of training).

Hahaha, omg some people can be so gullible lol :rolleyes

It was simply a very crappy music video that made everyone confused. Obviously, they're are trying give a positive message on that music video but failed to do so... :shakehead