Why Kouki Tange was her best director
 

So while Ayu has many great music videos, for some reason the two directed by Kouki Tange always stood out to me as far and away her best, I just couldn't quite put my finger on why (Ourselves and Alterna).

It finally dawned on me when I watched this analysis of director David Fincher's music videos and what made them great. He directed Madonna, Paula Abdul and many others.

https://youtu.be/esIFZnJqYow

It's for these reasons that I think Kouki Tange was her best; he had the same style in many respects as Fincher. All of the cuts have meaning and actually go to the beat of the music. Something that you think would be kind of video directing 101, but so many people don't do it. There's lots of her videos where no cuts happen where it seems like there should be obvious ones, and then cuts that don't really go with the music.

I think Takahide Ishii or Musashi Muto were probably her overall second best directors; they get pretty close to this style, but don't nail it as much as Tange does.

One of the worst for this was probably Shimomura? But he also had terrible shot framing too, so he had all kinds of issues going on.

Anyway, just found it fun that I was finally able to put my finger on it. And it's really unfortunate that she only did two videos with him.

I always loved Kouki’s two videos too!

It’s a shame that she doesn’t experiment anymore.

Although tbh, Wataru Takeishi’s work generally never disappointed me. (I believe he did Sunrise/Sunset tho? But that was a specific type of video so I’ll let it go... lol)

Wataru Takeishi is a bit hit and miss for me. He has some great ones, but then there are also ones (mostly her earlier ones) where there are beats or crescendos in the music where nothing is done visually to go along with it so it ends up falling a bit flat.

i had to look up which pvs he made for ayu; his videos definitely make me appreciate the songs more!! i don't think i would have listened to these two songs as much without his visuals/storytelling <3

Ourselves and alterna have always been my favorite PVs! I've never paid attention to who directs what so never knew they were directed by the same person.

Agree, it's too bad he didn't direct anything else. I feel like he could have improved on the flower PV (which wasn't bad, I just think it could have been stronger like we could have seen her trash the place)

Good job Kouki Tange for creeping me out :D

I mean, those 2 PVs are among the best!

As a fan of David Fincher (The Social Network, Gone Girl, Fight Club) I never knew he has directed some music videos. I might hear about that before but his style is actually implemented into the MVs as well.

Thanks for the informative video and I do agree if alterna and ourselves are one of her best PVs. The way it's edited matching the melody of the song is just clever.

I think other than Takahide Ishii and Masashi Muto, you forgot Wataru Takeishi. I like his style as well in some of her PVs, plus her old PVs are mostly directed by him. Masashi Muto in the recent years are quite... meh.

wow really?! only two? Those videos are really STATEMENT pieces and its unfortunate the collab was only as such

Interesting point. I made my graduate thesis about how directors implement their style on their works making it like a “trademark”. If I knew it I would have used those videos as an example lol I used Fincher’s.

I wonder when we’ll see a new PV from ayu...

Didn't he also direct "Because of You"? That PV is a masterclass on editing, just like Ourselves and Alterna.