Yes you are very correct. I am basing my statement on the target audience I know, AHS and the smaller Japanese fanbase I personally know here in Japan. :yes

That being said, I still hold on to my point of view. I still believe there's so many marketing blunders in this release.

Well, it's been a thing for Ayu's marketing team to kind of not do that great of a job for a while now. This release is at least gorgeous looking but I think promotion and marketing has been sort of wonky for years maybe since after FIVE?

There's a lot of unique things they've been trying out though with each release since then which is... interesting, I guess? But nothing has stuck so they always try some other method(s) for the next release. TROUBLE has had the strangest of all these with the streaming sites + social media + live DVD forced in the album + Tower Records blitz among other things.

I think putting We are the QUEENS and WORDS on this release as main tracks is probably the most significant mistake of this release (as opposed to the promotion and marketing). If there were 5-7 brand new tracks present, I would care a lot less about the semantics (album, rather than mini-album). Both previously released tracks should have been included as bonuses, or should be differentiated from their original releases in some way (album versions, for example).

Oh that's an interesting interpretation.


Regarding how we already got a new thread so fast (it didn’t happen since years) and how many old members appeared suddenly to share their views, I doubt the marketing is wholly bad. One of the purpose of marketing is that people talk about the product. Even bad comments are better than none comments and indifference. That’s why most of the brands are using the bad buzz in the past years. And their sales didn’t tumble because of that bad image because people talked about them and there are always people who don’t care of that image.
What's odd and sad in this world is people talk mainly about the negative things and not about the positive things. It's like an outlet in their life. For instance, in reading comments on newspapers, I noticed that the most commented articles are always the ones people can complain and articles that present something good and positive don't have a lot or none comments. So maybe using this behavior is the best way to promote something nowadays? It’s sad but we live in a mad world.

Regardless of the methods they used, people come out of lurking usually to post about a new release no matter what. Often I find people still come to AHS but don't post unless something is happening like an album or something aka right now.

Most japanese fans I’m friendly with are annoyed that it’s being promoted as an album, because universally, an album has a lot of tracks.

So when it was first announced, everyone was excited, finally getting an album after 2 years, and then the album ended up being 5 tracks, and then it ended up including 2 songs already released.


There are going to be fans everywhere that’ll continue to defend this release, and that’s fine.

But announcing this as an album essentially set it up as a failure. It’s not an album. It’s a mini album or EP.

If this is an album, why isn’t FIVE? Why isn’t Love and again?

Albums and mini albums are separate entities in her discography based on how they’re labeled. This will forever be treated as an album.



It’s the way that it was announced that caused the issues. She’s been promoting a new album in her social media for awhile now, so most people were expecting an album. A true album. Like what most artists all around the world mean when they say they’re releasing an album.

You bring up good points.

I also understand your frustration with people always concentrating on the bad, but the way I see it is that maybe those people are those who constantly seek out ways to make improvements. I think having a thirst for making things better can manifest and present itself through things such as complaints, and then said person's attitude is misinterpreted as "negative." In actuality, they are just married to the idea of a positive that does not even exist yet.

lol!

I'm hoping for a remastered version of WatQ, I love that song but when I listen it with earphones is... urgh.

Maybe she can keep going on with a streak of bad buzz and then BAM, suddenly things become right one day and everyone will be OMG IS THAT FOR REAL? LOL...yea

And as Yoake pointed out, bad buzz. But I wonder if its intentional lol..
imagine releasing a brand new album with nothing anyone previously knows vs an album with these two tracks release long ago. People are BOUND to talk about it. And it's never Ayu's pattern to not release B-sides/random tracks in albums. I mean she even took Movin' on without you to release it in her own LOL

I wonder why some people here seem to know what her Japanese fanbase thinks and are like "yeah but it's not aimed at international fans", even though they say about themselves that their Japanese is very limited, somehow know exactly what everyone in Japan likes.
I sure only have access to a limited group of her fanbase, and can't speak about her fanbase in general, but the handfull of Japanese people I know, who are fans or like her, actually don't like this whole thing. One friend messaged me in excitement over the album announcement just to be really disappointed, when I told her that it's just a mini. She won't buy it btw, since she fears it will be the LOVE again disaster all over again.
Speaking of LOVE again, some of them even thought, until I told them recently, LOVE and again where singles, since they only buy full albums by her and thought from the content that those must be singles. I mean, that's the state some of her fans are in. They like to go to her tours, but don't really care to pay attention what she's releasing anyway, so that buy looking at a tracklist they assumed it must be a single and decided not to buy it. Even though the same people still like to keep up with other older artists. They like Ayu and also her new music, it's not as if those people would only care about her old stuff. But the excitement for a release for them is pretty much gone, so that they mostly just rent her newer albums, rip them and that's it.
This marketing strategy, that is just a cheap rip off of how K-Pop artists are promoted, might work aimed at and not bother a younger audience. My guess is, that since Ayu's fans aren't that young and used to a "normal" release schedule with "normal" releases, they also aren't really liking that release. At least that's the impression I got while talking to people I know, if this is true for the majority of her fanbase, I of course can't say.

Good points. I would think that since her fanbase is older now, with fully developed brains, many fans are able to see a "trap" or "trick" like this and refuse to be roped into it or taken advantage of. When I was younger I could never had imagined the day when I would give up buying her albums. I thought to myself I will always buy the one "gold" version of the album. But one day it's like I woke up and just saw it for what it really was, a bunch of shit added into the mix that I didn't need or even want. I think as you become an adult you begin to look at things in a more practical light as a way of decluttering your life. At least that's what I realized about myself.

Lol Fustration is a too strong word to describe how I feel :laugh. It's just the outcome of a sociological analysis based on what I read through Internet and social media and what I hear when I’m walking in town and keep my ears open ;)
Yes there are some persons who bring solution in their comments. Unfortunately, I saw more venom than real and constructive solutions at least on social media. As this is a different topic I won't carry on here to avoid to be out of topic.

As you get older you also learn to appreciate the value of your hard-earned money and the time you took to earn it. The only way that I am buying this is for these to be a 2 x 5 DIFFERENT track releases. The odds of that are slim. If it doesn't turn into LOVE again I might buy it next year when I go see her.

æternal is just an old spelling of "eternal", so I think it fits a midtempo song. If that yukumi song is about reassuring people who support her, then she could be saying that the bond with her fans is eternal. And I don't think this title really fits a women empowerment theme.

The way I am (if that's the title) reminds me of things like WARNING, so it's more fitting for something feminist: I won't bend to the expectations of the society and I'll do whatever I want, I'll stay the way I am. Although W could be the feminist song too, if it stands for women

^ Someone mentioned the possibility of that track being æternum or something, which could make sense given that the letter m is merely an upside down W.

So the vinyl pouch and card are only for those who order both versions or for anyone from TA/mumo? Not sure what "2 form simultaneous purchase set" is...? It's the first time I'm in TA and I'd actually like to order the CD+DVD ver B but I'm wondering if I can get the bonus items or no.

æternum is not possible, and now that I look closer I think it is æternæ or æternæl because the letter after n looks not like a normal a but the æ sign.

@Sofia
simultaneous means at the same time, so yes the pouch/postcard you only get if you buy the Double package for 20k

Yes, exactly. As a teen I could have never imagined not to buy an Ayu release, but now I honestly don't want to spend my hard-earned money on something like this. I mean, I would have to work 20 hours to afford those box sets and this would mean no money for food nor rent earned. Realistically speaking, I would have to work a whole month and would not be able to buy anything else or go out with friends to buy that.
I think a lot of her fans nowadays feel like that, too. My one friend would have loved to buy a full album, like Ayu promised it to her fans via social media since quite some time now. But since Ayu fooled us with LOVE and again already, she definitely won't buy it and just rent it later to rip it.

Me as well! Being in Japan I thought it would have been great to buy Ayu's new album the week before I close off my year in Japan, and I have not purchased an ayu album since R'n'R Circus! However I will not be buying this.

^before I went to Japan, I said to my friend how excited I will be to go into the store and finally buy an album directly and not via the internet. But I also think I will pass on this one.