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I think she plays it safe too much and when she doesn't she goes all experimental in a musical area Japanese people either don't like, or just don't like her to go to for whatever reason. I feel she doesn't release as many songs that "wow" people on first listen (I've noticed more and more of her songs are growers than they used to be). I don't know if she just doesn't take as much time to go through different demos or she really likes bland sounding ballads because she releases way more than she used to (she releases some amazing ballads too, don't get me wrong). I think the "plastic/over photoshopped" image bothers people more now that she's older. I also just think a lot of ex-fans expected her to have this amazing discography where they will love every song on an album, that all of her ballads would be "M" quality or just life changing, and when they weren't they got frustrated and started to dislike her. People set their expectations of her high when she was releasing a lot of amazing music. She's human though, not some machine that can constantly keep creating mind blowing things 24/7, especially if she has other problems in her life going on clouding her mind, or is just surrounded by a group of people that don't know what would be best for her as an artist.
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