So happy she read your question, Kaled!! I also know Jeremy from twitter (the first question she answered was his), it even feels kinda surreal Kumi got to answer actual overseas fans omg!!!
On another hand, however, there's something on this interview that bothered me... When she said she likes rock music but doesn't do it often cause fans have an image of "Koda Kumi" that she has to fulfill, it made me a bit sad tbh. And that explains a lot about what we were talking about the other day, that her similar-sounding songs have somewhat spoiled the experience of her last albums since 2017. Girl, I'd die for a full rock album, from teen-rock like Avril till nu-metal stuff. I know, she does sing rock once in a while, but seems like she's stuck in a box where she can't change the
main image of what Koda Kumi feels like to her. To me she's such a chameleon, I never thought she had a fixed image of her singer persona like that. Maybe that's even why her cover albums stand out in her discography, maybe she feels more comfortable in doing things a bit different, mixing her style and the original singer's. When she sang "I am finally free" and such back in 2015 I thought she was free to sing and do whatever she wants, but it doesn't seem to be the case
I mean, there are good points about this. Having a signature, a faithful group of fans and so on. But I felt like talking about this cause it's somewhat in line with that earlier discussion. I was expecting her to change her style and sound a bit after her 20th, but seems like it won't be the case... Wonder when we can get an album where breaks from this image she thinks that Koda Kumi must
always have :/ I think it's okay to return to it once in a while, like ayu did with A ONE being a back to her roots release, after going for different stuff.
But don't get the wrong idea, I still love her and loved to see her answering those questions hahahaha Please Kuu give us that world tour, I will learn Japanese for you I promise!!