[ImpactBreaker]

Of course ayu is going downhill - it's the snowball effect all the way down. No it's not my opinion, I actually don't really think she's going downhill. It's just that it gets really simple why people think her releases are getting worse and worse. If ayu had never released trauma, vogue or SEASONS but had released all the rest of the songs she released so far and she just decided to release these songs now, a lot of people would rate them plain, mediocre or unoriginal. It's just that each time ayu releases something new, things get at a proportion of a snowball. Some people (not all who have a negative opinion) seem to be living to compare anything new that's released with her previous stuff. Now just think a poor single like BLUE BIRD being compared against all the best songs of A Song For XX, LOVEppears, Duty, I am..., RAINBOW, Memorial adress, MY STORY and (miss)understood? Her next single will be these+BLUE BIRD compared against it and next year when she has already released her album and is going to release a new single, the snowball will grow bigger and people will use that (unfair) fact to judge that ayu's positively declining for sure.
For example, people blame ayu for recycling at this moment, making songs such as BLUE BIRD (comparing it to fairyland + July 1st + w/e...) and yet they say her best album ever is "I am..." which I think is her only album that batantly recycles a song that is already in the album (featuring a song and a recycled version of it: yeah evolution and UNITE!).
It's pretty easy to say that all of her past stuff was beyond excellent, when you actually only have in mind her best hits and mentally erase all the regular/average songs released back then.