[Sim']

I've always enjoyed animes and games' japanese openings and endings (Pokémon, DragonBall GT...), but two specific songs caught my attention at that time and both were related to the same franchise: Yae's Kazenon for FF Crystal Chronicles (GameCube), and Kumi's real emotion for FFX2. I used to watch those teasers in heavy rotation just for the music but I never took time to explore more of Yae and Kumi's discography...

Forward to september 2004: I was assigned a project in high school (for english class, which is my 3rd language) to present a music style and an artist from the world, so I rushed to japanese music (obviously, duh!), typed Jpop in Wikipedia (there wasn't Youtube yet at that moment), and chose Ayu because of her impressive achievements. I remember CAROLS was about to be released, the official website was playing a snippet from the MV and I think it was just love at first sight. The scene on the merry-go-round alone was enough to convince me to stan that woman, CAROLS is still to this day my top1 ballad... xD Then came MY STORY and I remember all the excitement when she was dropping walking proud and Humming 7/4... Ayu's still my #1 artist since 18 years, no one could ever come near that spot, that alone is an achievement...