Return Road PV thoughts

[panda♥]

O_O wow. i am speechless.

so boring and don't like the PV

[CHE.R.RY]

Originally Posted by Kana×Shin

so boring and don't like the PV

I agree ugh...other than HBYA, I don't like the PVs for this album so far .

[ayu99persen]

A very sad ending...
it is so meaningfull. a lil bit weird. but i like the weirdness of ayu.

it is so mannie, the tank,the dress,the photos... the song is really really for mannie

[truehappiness]

Someone brought up a parallel to the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant disaster which I can kind of see in the PV. Wonder if anyone else caught it.

[JinHamasaki]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Someone brought up a parallel to the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant disaster which I can kind of see in the PV. Wonder if anyone else caught it.

Caught it right away.

My short thoughts:
The tank Ayu returns in is coming back to Japan (or decided to stay put) after the whole earthquake/tsunami disaster. Is she wearing black to mourn for the loss of her country? I can't 100% place my finger on it.

The situation in the nuclear power plant worsens. She decides she cannot leave Japan, and her heart is with the workers stuck there. A group of unknown volunteers (The Fukushima 50) assemble to continue to try to save the plant and Japan. Ayu was very impressed by the bravery they presented. She must have expected Mannie to come and support her through this difficult time. She goes through the unknown volunteers, hoping that one of them is Mannie and came to comfort her, but he cannot be found. She loses the picture, and loses her hope in him.

The person picking up the picture is MOST likely Mannie. However, we don't know if he was in that crew walking back to plant, or if he was just an outsider standing and observing. So it is kind of a double meaning. Maybe Mannie really didn't comfort Ayu and just stood and watched from afar. Or maybe this was Ayu's way of saying "You weren't there physically, but you were behind me 100%".

It's really left up for interpretation...

[~kashifaita~]

Originally Posted by JinHamasaki

Caught it right away.

My short thoughts:
The tank Ayu returns in is coming back to Japan (or decided to stay put) after the whole earthquake/tsunami disaster. Is she wearing black to mourn for the loss of her country? I can't 100% place my finger on it.

The situation in the nuclear power plant worsens. She decides she cannot leave Japan, and her heart is with the workers stuck there. A group of unknown volunteers (The Fukushima 50) assemble to continue to try to save the plant and Japan. Ayu was very impressed by the bravery they presented. She must have expected Mannie to come and support her through this difficult time. She goes through the unknown volunteers, hoping that one of them is Mannie and came to comfort her, but he cannot be found. She loses the picture, and loses her hope in him.

The person picking up the picture is MOST likely Mannie. However, we don't know if he was in that crew walking back to plant, or if he was just an outsider standing and observing. So it is kind of a double meaning. Maybe Mannie really didn't comfort Ayu and just stood and watched from afar. Or maybe this was Ayu's way of saying "You weren't there physically, but you were behind me 100%".

It's really left up for interpretation...

Wow o_o. I really like that interpretation of yours. With this, I kinda find it easier to understand the ending and why she was looking through all those factory workers. Good job !

I wish the PV could've been a little more intricate (in terms of plot I guess). It certainly was disappointing...

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by JinHamasaki

Caught it right away.

My short thoughts:
The tank Ayu returns in is coming back to Japan (or decided to stay put) after the whole earthquake/tsunami disaster. Is she wearing black to mourn for the loss of her country? I can't 100% place my finger on it...

I knew the beginning was about the fukuyama power plant. I got confused the other way around tho. I felt like ayu was going into the building to destroy something, because before they went into the building, the building was fine. Once they plugged the guitar and drums etc., the machine started breaking down.

I think the mv really talked about her life last year, like she wanna moved to the US with Mannie, but after the earthquake she stayed in Japan. In the end they divorced. I dun follow her twitter but you guys said that she had tweeted the mv was not about her divorce. This is the most confusing part...:p

[BlackSilence]

my first thought.... Fukushima...... it's kinda like she's looking for someone, maybe it's about family friends and so on....the context is so obvious!

OMG that photo... there's definitelly some link to the Love song videos, and the dress is definitellt OF TH SAME cut....

[Aderianu]

Originally Posted by bluegie

Once they plugged the guitar and drums etc., the machine started breaking down.

maybe it's Power of Music?

btw, she has long hair in the beginning of PV and short in the end.
and she cut her hair after disaster

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by bluegie

I knew the beginning was about the fukuyama power plant. I got confused the other way around tho. I felt like ayu was going into the building to destroy something, because before they went into the building, the building was fine. Once they plugged the guitar and drums etc., the machine started breaking down.

I think the mv really talked about her life last year, like she wanna moved to the US with Mannie, but after the earthquake she stayed in Japan. In the end they divorced. I dun follow her twitter but you guys said that she had tweeted the mv was not about her divorce. This is the most confusing part...:p

Actually, it was this:

Some keywords from S Cawaii:

-The title "Party Queen" gives Ayu a sad feeling. (I believe Ayu has said in the past she is not a party person...?)
-There are zero happy love songs.
-call was originally the first song, she switched it. (Doesn't say why)
-Eyes, Smoke, Magic and the last LOVE were composed by Timmy, they are musical-esque.
-Return Road and Virgin Road have no relation, even though many people have asked her.
-Shake It♥ is "gay" sounding (?). The "girls" in the lyrics is in reference to gay men, and how they refer to themselves in that way.*
-Tell me why uses the very masculine form of "I", "ore", which the first time she has done so in her lyrics.

*She used the word オカマ/okama when referencing Shake It♥, if that helps anyone. In Japan, many feminine gay men use "atashi" when referring to themselves, which is the feminine way of saying "I" in Japanese.
**She also mentioned the song which she wrote in the airplane going to London, but...I don't remember which haha. I think it was reminds me, but I can't verify that until proper scans come out.

that was based on this aswer:

By the way, there seems to be many people who see the "road" in 「Return Road」 to be the same as the one in 「Virgin Road」, and draw a connection to your marriage and divorce. We as outsiders probably would not understand everything that has happened, and it is impossible to use our common opinion to explain an extraordinary life like ayu's.
"I've never wished for others to understand me. I aim to get through to others, to make them believe in me, but everyone is free to feel whatever they want from my songs."

as far as I remember she never twitted the songs arent related, did she?

[pimenta]

I don't think the dress and the picture are supposed to be a connection with Virgin Road and Love song pvs, I think they're just symbols related to her marriage. When she met her husband for the Virgin Road pv she wore this white wedding dress, and now the same dress is black to represent the divorce.

Originally Posted by JinHamasaki

My short thoughts:
The tank Ayu returns in is coming back to Japan (or decided to stay put) after the whole earthquake/tsunami disaster. Is she wearing black to mourn for the loss of her country? I can't 100% place my finger on it.

The situation in the nuclear power plant worsens. She decides she cannot leave Japan, and her heart is with the workers stuck there. A group of unknown volunteers (The Fukushima 50) assemble to continue to try to save the plant and Japan. Ayu was very impressed by the bravery they presented. She must have expected Mannie to come and support her through this difficult time. She goes through the unknown volunteers, hoping that one of them is Mannie and came to comfort her, but he cannot be found. She loses the picture, and loses her hope in him.

The person picking up the picture is MOST likely Mannie. However, we don't know if he was in that crew walking back to plant, or if he was just an outsider standing and observing. So it is kind of a double meaning. Maybe Mannie really didn't comfort Ayu and just stood and watched from afar. Or maybe this was Ayu's way of saying "You weren't there physically, but you were behind me 100%".

It's really left up for interpretation...

Originally Posted by ayu_ready?

as for interpretation, I see to it that Ayu was left alone during the nuclear disaster and stayed there for the people (the scene in the field or inside the building with the band) for whom she sang so that she could distact them from the problem (mini-explosions inside the building when she came in & started singing). When she stood there in the field with her CG image on the building in the background and people in the masks around felt like her concert performances, people in masks (Japan inhabitants suffering from the disaster) were her audience. but then people had to go (had to cope with the disaster and kinda go & fix it) like they leave after every concert and she was left alone. and then she was searching for that familiar face being alone. but she couldn't find 'him'. because he rejected her/escaped from her (the end scene of picking up the photo).

These are great interpretations! I totally agree with them.

[Mari-chan]

Originally Posted by JinHamasaki

Caught it right away.

My short thoughts:
The tank Ayu returns in is coming back to Japan (or decided to stay put) after the whole earthquake/tsunami disaster. Is she wearing black to mourn for the loss of her country? I can't 100% place my finger on it.

The situation in the nuclear power plant worsens. She decides she cannot leave Japan, and her heart is with the workers stuck there. A group of unknown volunteers (The Fukushima 50) assemble to continue to try to save the plant and Japan. Ayu was very impressed by the bravery they presented. She must have expected Mannie to come and support her through this difficult time. She goes through the unknown volunteers, hoping that one of them is Mannie and came to comfort her, but he cannot be found. She loses the picture, and loses her hope in him.

The person picking up the picture is MOST likely Mannie. However, we don't know if he was in that crew walking back to plant, or if he was just an outsider standing and observing. So it is kind of a double meaning. Maybe Mannie really didn't comfort Ayu and just stood and watched from afar. Or maybe this was Ayu's way of saying "You weren't there physically, but you were behind me 100%".

It's really left up for interpretation...

Thanks for your opinion. I watched the video and was thinking "What does it means?" Sure... it should has to do with Fukushima... and Mannie.
Now.. I see it like Jin Hamasaki. But.. I still don't understand the musicans in the video.
But.. I really like watching it. And Ayu looks so greate with the long hair!

[MissElin_]

I think alot of it have to do with media also since she have wrote out in her lyrics (I don't know HOW many times but) something like "only the two of us will really know what happend" and "people will talk and think whatever about us". So these guys with covered mouths (media and people affected by the media don't speak for themselves but only says what other rumors say) in the electric part of the factory is the media.

When Ayu sings this powerful song in the factory the "power of music" makes the "media" crash down in their rooms. Like with this song she made them shut up cuz this is really just a matter that only Ayu and Mannie will understand.

Also the wedding dress is identical with the Virgin Road one but black so there's a definite connection there.

In the end Ayu runs around and seems to either drop the photo (it's on her chest near her heart) or it flies onto her but she don't notice it in the beginning while she runs amongs the line of marching men. She searches but can't find Mannie, cries. But Mannie finds the picture and pics it up. It's like how she lost her love for Mannie while searching for him (very typical for distance relationships).

I do also think that the tank symbolises Ayu and her choise to stay in Japan.

[panda♥]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Someone brought up a parallel to the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant disaster which I can kind of see in the PV. Wonder if anyone else caught it.

i was interpreting the PV in my head this morning and kept thinking "some kind of nuclear warfare or something", but now it makes sense, lol.
aren't those nuclear reactors shown at the beginning of the PV??

By the way, there seems to be many people who see the "road" in 「Return Road」 to be the same as the one in 「Virgin Road」, and draw a connection to your marriage and divorce. We as outsiders probably would not understand everything that has happened, and it is impossible to use our common opinion to explain an extraordinary life like ayu's.
"I've never wished for others to understand me. I aim to get through to others, to make them believe in me, but everyone is free to feel whatever they want from my songs."

to me, that doesn't really mean RR and VR aren't connected, i think she's leaving it up to us to decide.
Ayu has always been really vague like that.

[emi♡]

I don't like it.

But not really for anything that's wrong with it. I don't think that it wasnt made well, or shot well, or anything like that.

I think she was really pretty in it. I was also telling brit brit on twitter, that I really appreciate all her feelings and stuff, and I know that this PV has a lot going on with both her life, and obviously things that are happening in it and around her.

But, idk, I'm just tired of her doing this for these songs. And actually, I did not like the pairing together. I liked the song earlier by itself, and I like the PV without the song.

Together, they're just too much for me. Too much over-contrived everything. And you know, that's okay. It conveys her feelings well enough and it's successful.

It's just not for me anymore.

[tasking]

Originally Posted by emi♡

But, idk, I'm just tired of her doing this for these songs. And actually, I did not like the pairing together. I liked the song earlier by itself, and I like the PV without the song.

Yeah, this is the third "no singing/no listening to music" type of PV she's done I think.

I admit the ending shocked me though. Was it shot before or after the divorce? Because Ayu said in her message that she realized things weren't working when everybody started wishing her happy anniversary. So if it was shot before... we know her explanation was ******** lol

[relmy]

Originally Posted by emi♡

Together, they're just too much for me. Too much over-contrived everything. And you know, that's okay. It conveys her feelings well enough and it's successful.

It's just not for me anymore.

^ this.

The PV resembled a low budget episode of Dr Who. I like Dr Who's campy sci-fi fun, but it's not really what I expect to see in a music video that's trying to be the serious business.

[SURREAL__RAINBOW]

It looks awkward. I don't like it that much but it isn't bad, I think I can get used to it

[ohsixthirty]

there are a few things that bother me about the PV. i felt like the workers looked awkward in their marching and also that there wasn't enough Ayu time on screen. it needed more Ayu and a little more plot I think.

that being said, i still liked it a lot and i think there's a lot going on here. i was shocked at the ending honestly....so incredibly sad.