Well, when I was reading this thread though, I realized that since late 2012 I've lost more and more interest in J-Pop as a whole. Only artists that I actually REALLY care about are Kuu and Namie. Others just makes me go meh. And sometimes even these two makes me feel very uninterested too, which is a pretty unexpected because they're my all time favorite J-Pop artists.
I have started to take more and more interest in K-Pop since 2010 because I love the music style so much.
One thing that made my fandom decline as well is that she isn't that active anymore. I understand that, but it still sucks because I'm one of those people who still remembers Ayu as someone who released singles often, doing TV performances and all that stuff. It just feels weird (yes, even after 4 years) that it doesn't happen so often anymore. She also tends to recycle stuff in her concerts way too much for my liking. I love it when artists bring new to the performances instead of using old stuff over and over. I love her older concerts because I feel they were all so different compared to each other.
Don't get me wrong, I still respect Ayu as an artist and especially as a lyricist. i think her songs are beautifully written lyrically even of the music itself may be dull (sometimes her lyrics has made me love musically shitty song in my opinion). I still prefer her older songs more though, because as a whole I find more relatable songs from her older releases. I also like her voice these days though I still think her best vocals were in 2002 (RAINBOW era). But I know she willl never get back there so it's OK.
