[immel]

There's a whole little story to it, and by what I recon it was all more or less acted to increase the sales of the album.

I can give you a short version, because I don't remember all the details off handedly... there's been more than one thread about this.

The story is quite like this: Basically Ayu thought it was too early for her to release a BEST album, as that often is what an artist does when they retire. It was written in press or shown on news that Ayu did not agree to the release of this album, but avex pushed it ... to enhance the feeling of that Ayu might be leaving the stage, as in retiring with a BEST album, they used a picture of her crying for the cover. If this is true, what is true, what is made up, what is acted, what you yourself decide to think... is up to you, and this isn't the entire story, simply what I remember of it and I might be a bit wrong.

I think it was all more or less a stunt to increase the sales, because Ayu was (obviously) not leaving the stage at all.