[TeamAyu] Ayu is getting divorced

[ayu_ready?]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Honestly I felt that mentioning the earthquake was in bad taste as well. Partly because that just doesn't make sense. Before the earthquake even happened, she had the Hotel Love Songs tour scheduled, so earthquake or not, she was already planning to be in Japan at that time. I would like her statement a lot more if she had just simply admitted that she made a mistake and that she rushed into marriage too quickly. There really is no good excuse to not see your husband for a year when you have the means and ability to do so.

I also am not dismissing the possibility that this could have been a PR stunt. I would hate to think that though and I remember giving her the benefit of the doubt at the time. I actually thought her marrying a foreigner was a good move because most Japanese men probably wouldn't be able to handle her. But now in retrospect the way the events played out and now her imo, flimsy reasoning in her statement and the fact that the marriage was not even registered in her home country seem to push even more in that direction.

this

Originally Posted by Mai82Go

I feel similar to George and SunshineSlayer. If the marriage was for real, they should have tried harder to make it work. Now it seems like they married for reasons that I'm not even sure of....and why mention the earthquake at all? These days I kind of miss the times when we knew almost nothing of Ayus private affairs. Back then you only knew she had a boyfriend and that's it. Or between 2007 and 2010 - no news of Ayu in a relationship. I really love Ayu - her posts at TA, her lyrics and often her tweets make me think she is an emotionally very intelligent strong woman. But this whole marriage/divorce thing makes me doubt it and I hate that. I just hope it'll blow over soon and then it will be forgotten.

I think it's party unfair to tell what 2 people who have broken up 'should have done', but I honeslty never thought of it like a real love/marriage.

[Earth_maiden]

Whatever Ayu's reasons, I just want her to be happy. And not harassed by psychotic obsessive fans. That's all.

[freedreamer]

Originally Posted by MissElin_

^Yes! I agree.

Ayu have never showed any tendencies to follow Avex promotion program. We have oh so many examples of that. If find it weird that ppl actually thinks that maybe she did this whole marriage thing as a PR trick when she only 6 months later refuced to follow Avex' lead on a-nation'11.

Silly. Lol. If she would do the marriage just because Avex wanted to I'm quite sure she would have done a-nation just the way Avex wanted to as well.

I feel quite sure that Ayu is being honest with us. Naturally, as Love Shine said earlier, there is some sugarcoating on her explanaiton but she have every right to since it is her private life. I do believe her when she say that the earthquake changed things and thoughts. I do also think that there is something more into it but, there's is no need for Ayu to explain for us their feelings into detail.

Ayu have always been quite closed with her private life. She's more open now than ever. But Ayu have always been honest. So so so honest. To herself and us. That's really admirable. There is so few ppl that sacrifices so much of themselves (image, fans etc) just to stay true. If Ayu haven't been honest, hell she would have made that apology after the whole CDL01-02 drama just to save her skin. But no. She didn't because she was tru to herself. She's always showed that type of character and I'm quite sure that you guys have thought so about her before too. Why change now? Did you let media brainwash you and change your minds towards her?

I think she did a good job protecting Mannie from all this too. I'm pretty sure that was the thing she wanted to most out of all this. As she have done and also said by herself before, she's more than willing to sacrify herself if she can protect others.

agreed.

I believe i've been an Ayu fan long enough to understand what kind of a person she is. and even if i Dont, I believe I understand what kind of an IMAGE she wants to portray to her fans. More of a Public self that is shown. the outward image she has. and my belief and faith in her is that she is not one that is so easily swayed by Avex. It's been proven time n time again..Ayu is someone with her own thinking and mindset. She's strong.

Yes she may have rushed into marriage. maybe it did take her some time to realize this as well. Sometimes we just dive into what we like. And the time when she realized was when she really couldnt leave and she probably felt like she couldnt commit. She probably wanted to break not only for herself but Mannie as well from the way.

at least this is what i feel from ayu.

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

I don't think Ayu is petty enough to use a disaster which killed and displaced Japanese citizens as a scapegoat, instead of just admitting something like "I made a mistake" (had that been the reason).

It doesn't say when Ayu planned to move to America. Perhaps it was going to be right after the tour. Perhaps she was furnishing a house while preparing for the tour prior to the earthquake. We obviously already know about her relationship with the real estate agents.

When a disaster strikes a person's home country, running away from it is often more difficult than staying there. Even I as a foreigner was torn between leaving Japan and going back to America, imagine how it must have felt as a native Japanese.

Just because she has the means to constantly travel back and fourth doesn't mean she planned on doing that. Going back and fourth between countries for your job is one thing, but not for a marriage.

If Ayu was the one who stated that she was going to move, than it was her responsibility to follow through with that. This isn't between states or prefectures, but countries, with completely different cultures and languages. Ayu speaks English, Mannie doesn't speak Japanese. It's a completely different situation for Mannie to move to Japan.

I'm sure they were trying hard to stay together, and she even said that she had to face the reality.

But to say that a disaster can't affect how she felt about leaving Japan is silly, of course it can.

[Midori-chan]

Originally Posted by MissElin_

^Yes! I agree.

Ayu have never showed any tendencies to follow Avex promotion program. We have oh so many examples of that. If find it weird that ppl actually thinks that maybe she did this whole marriage thing as a PR trick when she only 6 months later refuced to follow Avex' lead on a-nation'11.

Silly. Lol. If she would do the marriage just because Avex wanted to I'm quite sure she would have done a-nation just the way Avex wanted to as well.

I feel quite sure that Ayu is being honest with us. Naturally, as Love Shine said earlier, there is some sugarcoating on her explanaiton but she have every right to since it is her private life. I do believe her when she say that the earthquake changed things and thoughts. I do also think that there is something more into it but, there's is no need for Ayu to explain for us their feelings into detail.

Ayu have always been quite closed with her private life. She's more open now than ever. But Ayu have always been honest. So so so honest. To herself and us. That's really admirable. There is so few ppl that sacrifices so much of themselves (image, fans etc) just to stay true. If Ayu haven't been honest, hell she would have made that apology after the whole CDL01-02 drama just to save her skin. But no. She didn't because she was tru to herself. She's always showed that type of character and I'm quite sure that you guys have thought so about her before too. Why change now? Did you let media brainwash you and change your minds towards her?

I think she did a good job protecting Mannie from all this too. I'm pretty sure that was the thing she wanted to most out of all this. As she have done and also said by herself before, she's more than willing to sacrify herself if she can protect others.

+1000

[Mai82Go]

Originally Posted by ayu_ready?

I think it's party unfair to tell what 2 people who have broken up 'should have done', but I honeslty never thought of it like a real love/marriage.

Unfair? Mmh, that was just my opinion. I judge by my standards. They are different from others, that's for sure. For me marriage is special. Meant to last forever. If it doesn't - well, that happens. I just would have never thought it would happen to Ayu. She is not like any other "celebrity" to me. I realize that I might have looked at her similar to someone at an early stage of being in love, idealizing her as a version of a woman I myself would like to be. But Ayu is only human, not that version of her I have in my mind - and I'm reminded of that through this whole stunt.

[maikaru]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Honestly I felt that mentioning the earthquake was in bad taste as well. Partly because that just doesn't make sense. Before the earthquake even happened, she had the Hotel Love Songs tour scheduled, so earthquake or not, she was already planning to be in Japan at that time. I would like her statement a lot more if she had just simply admitted that she made a mistake and that she rushed into marriage too quickly. There really is no good excuse to not see your husband for a year when you have the means and ability to do so.

I also am not dismissing the possibility that this could have been a PR stunt. I would hate to think that though and I remember giving her the benefit of the doubt at the time. I actually thought her marrying a foreigner was a good move because most Japanese men probably wouldn't be able to handle her. But now in retrospect the way the events played out and now her imo, flimsy reasoning in her statement and the fact that the marriage was not even registered in her home country seem to push even more in that direction.

We have already been shown that Ayu doesn't care about PR. If she did, She would be on music programs way more, and her public image would be kept up for everyone to see and hear. There is NOTHING which she gained from marrying Manny. At the time of her marriage, it didn't help her album sales or anything else, and at the time of her divorce, it won't help her upcoming sales either.

Honestly, you don't really know what you're talking about. When the Earthquake happened, I really wanted to go home. I thought that I don't wanna be in Canada any longer, and wanna go back and do everything I can to help my country, and wanted to stay in Japan forever. But with my studies, I couldn't do that, and I felt powerless. She had Love songs tour scheduled, but she probably would have lived in America after that. If she was planning to go to America and become American citizen, there's no reason for her to register in the family registry, because once she becomes American citizen she no longer has rights to the family registry - she is not Japanese.

Recently, all you've done is criticize her, SunshineSlayer. I'm not even sure why you still waste your time with her because obviously you just wanna find many things to nitpick and to doubt her on.

I honestly wasn't expecting this at all o__o
You never know what really goes on behind closed doors, I just wish them both the best.

[YUKARI]

^^ do you think Japanese shared her feelings about "I don't want to be separated with Japan"? is it appreciated? sorry for bother, I'm just a little curious about it ~.~

[panda♥]

I agree with alot of points being made on both sides in this thread. I don't think Ayu would follow Avex's idea of a PR stunt marriage/divorce to increase sales. It's not like Ayu at all and we, as her loyal and loving fans, should know that and trust that. I do think that there may be another underlying reason for their divorce other than the distance, but that's up to Ayu to disclose publicly. We have no right to know that kind of personal information about her life. Their entire marriage was kept private other than a few occasional tweets to eachother, so I don't think the divorce will be different. The thing is, we really don't know anything about their marriage or what went on from January of last year until now.

I agree with tokyoxjapanxfan on the point that it might've been easier for Ayu to move to America vs Mannie moving to Japan simply because of the language and cultural barriers, and that's something they must've agreed on together. Plus, we probably don't know what she felt like after the Tohoku disaster happened. I only remember her saying that she wasn't going to run away from her country in that time of need. She's a very selfless person and has exhibited that so many times in the past, this only further proves it. Even as a gaijin (who has an incredible love for Japan), I wanted to go to Japan and help in any way that I could. If I felt that strongly, I can't imagine what a native felt like.

[happiholic★]

Wow, are we gonna need another thread just for the discussion of her divorce?

Also, I don't think the marriage was a PR stunt, otherwise using the earthquake as her reason for divorce is just... low. And Ayu isn't like that. Fans know that and that's why we love her.

[OyTony]

Originally Posted by MissElin_

^Yes! I agree.

Ayu have never showed any tendencies to follow Avex promotion program. We have oh so many examples of that. If find it weird that ppl actually thinks that maybe she did this whole marriage thing as a PR trick when she only 6 months later refuced to follow Avex' lead on a-nation'11.

Silly. Lol. If she would do the marriage just because Avex wanted to I'm quite sure she would have done a-nation just the way Avex wanted to as well.

I feel quite sure that Ayu is being honest with us. Naturally, as Love Shine said earlier, there is some sugarcoating on her explanaiton but she have every right to since it is her private life. I do believe her when she say that the earthquake changed things and thoughts. I do also think that there is something more into it but, there's is no need for Ayu to explain for us their feelings into detail.

Ayu have always been quite closed with her private life. She's more open now than ever. But Ayu have always been honest. So so so honest. To herself and us. That's really admirable. There is so few ppl that sacrifices so much of themselves (image, fans etc) just to stay true. If Ayu haven't been honest, hell she would have made that apology after the whole CDL01-02 drama just to save her skin. But no. She didn't because she was tru to herself. She's always showed that type of character and I'm quite sure that you guys have thought so about her before too. Why change now? Did you let media brainwash you and change your minds towards her?

I think she did a good job protecting Mannie from all this too. I'm pretty sure that was the thing she wanted to most out of all this. As she have done and also said by herself before, she's more than willing to sacrify herself if she can protect others.

I agree so much. =)

Originally Posted by Love Shine

Wow, are we gonna need another thread just for the discussion of her divorce?

I will make another one if this one gets full.

[haikudasai]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

I don't think Ayu is petty enough to use a disaster which killed and displaced Japanese citizens as a scapegoat, instead of just admitting something like "I made a mistake" (had that been the reason).

... Except that's exactly what she said ...

Originally Posted by maikaru

Honestly, you don't really know what you're talking about. When the Earthquake happened, I really wanted to go home. I thought that I don't wanna be in Canada any longer, and wanna go back and do everything I can to help my country, and wanted to stay in Japan forever. But with my studies, I couldn't do that, and I felt powerless. She had Love songs tour scheduled, but she probably would have lived in America after that. If she was planning to go to America and become American citizen, there's no reason for her to register in the family registry, because once she becomes American citizen she no longer has rights to the family registry - she is not Japanese.

Based on everything seen about Japan. Ayumi Hamasaki didn't do much to help because Japan has excellent infrastructure and was back on their feet pretty damn fast (excluding the plant meltdown which her health would not sustain and her intelligence is not high enough to give insight). What was she going to do? Sing a heavy vibrato'd ballad?

Regardless of that, things cooled down and a lot of lives went back to normal. Save for Ayumi who did not maintain her marriage, and apparently Mannie as well. It, to me, is still deplorable to list a tragedy as a big reason why your marriage failed. When she had all the means to see him, and he see her. All she needed to say was, "We just didn't work out."

She rushed into something that a lot of people, albeit inexperienced, have and ultimately failed like a lot of people do.

If marriage is a sacred thing, people are going to criticize someone who treats it with little regard. Not just a pop star, but anyone.

[happiholic★]

Well, I don't think we are going too much more divorce info from Ayu herself because she's going to or is in the Middle East, apparently. We will have to "rely" on the media.

[AyUmIXx]

^
^ at least she helped her fans to be strong again, by singing songs to them. it's the emotional support.

[maikaru]

Originally Posted by haikudasai

... Except that's exactly what she said ...



Based on everything seen about Japan. Ayumi Hamasaki didn't do much to help because Japan has excellent infrastructure and was back on their feet pretty damn fast (excluding the plant meltdown which her health would not sustain and her intelligence is not high enough to give insight). What was she going to do? Sing a heavy vibrato'd ballad?

Regardless of that, things cooled down and a lot of lives went back to normal. Save for Ayumi who did not maintain her marriage, and apparently Mannie as well.

She rushed into something that a lot of people, albeit inexperienced, have and ultimately failed like a lot of people do.

If marriage is a sacred thing, people are going to criticize someone who treats it with little regard. Not just a pop star, but anyone.

Sorry. Maybe you didn't understand the "Power of Music" message then. Normal people can't help "infrastructure" or whatever because we don't have knowledge on how to help it, or improve it. But what we can do is provide comfort to people, and do our own little part. Ayu cannot go to Sendai and help with the reconstruction or hand out supplies or something because honestly it would be more of a burden on the support people than anything, especially since there would be hundreds of reporters there every day following her every move. If she wanted to do a PR stunt, THAT would have been the PR stunt, but her presence would have been detrimental to the recovery process.

Instead, she did what she could. She started charity projects, donated money, and started a tour that brought the power of music to people. You obviously don't understand the power of entertainment to lift people's spirits, but most Japanese people who went to see the Power of Music tour felt an uplifting sense, and they were grateful to Ayu for that. If you'd like, you can go read Mixi entries or tweets about the Power of Music tour.

Why don't you put yourself in her shoes? If you are patriotic to your country and your country just had a natural disaster, could you go to another country and live your life normally without any cares when there's something that you know you can do. You have NO IDEA what Ayu is planning or doing behind the scenes to support Japan, and I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt that she is doing everything she can simply because she is my favourite singer, and I believe that's her personality.

If your husband refuses to come to Japan because he's gonna pursue his career in Hollywood, and you want to stay in Japan and do what you can to help and continue your career in Japan, how is the marriage gonna work? It's not. And it's no one's fault, it's a matter of time and circumstance. There's NO ONE TO BLAME in this situation.

Yeah, the marriage felt rushed, and I didn't like it anyways, but it felt like she truly loved him and there was no power play going on, and I'm not going to criticize her for her reasons. If it was me, and I was telling the truth and everyone told me "Oh, but you're lying. It's like this," I would be SOOO angry and devastated. You don't even know what happened 100%, like me, but why is it automatically acceptable to criticize everything someone says. No, it's not acceptable, because you wouldn't want someone to do that to you. It's not acceptable because everyone deserves the respect to be taken at face value. If you can't do that, then how can you call yourself a fan? You're not, imho.

[haikudasai]

Originally Posted by maikaru

Sorry. Maybe you didn't understand the "Power of Music" message then. Normal people can't help "infrastructure" or whatever because we don't have knowledge on how to help it, or improve it. But what we can do is provide comfort to people, and do our own little part. Ayu cannot go to Sendai and help with the reconstruction or hand out supplies or something because honestly it would be more of a burden on the support people than anything, especially since there would be hundreds of reporters there every day following her every move. If she wanted to do a PR stunt, THAT would have been the PR stunt, but her presence would have been detrimental to the recovery process.

Instead, she did what she could. She started charity projects, donated money, and started a tour that brought the power of music to people. You obviously don't understand the power of entertainment to lift people's spirits, but most Japanese people who went to see the Power of Music tour felt an uplifting sense, and they were grateful to Ayu for that. If you'd like, you can go read Mixi entries or tweets about the Power of Music tour.

Why don't you put yourself in her shoes? If you are patriotic to your country and your country just had a natural disaster, could you go to another country and live your life normally without any cares when there's something that you know you can do. You have NO IDEA what Ayu is planning or doing behind the scenes to support Japan, and I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt that she is doing everything she can simply because she is my favourite singer, and I believe that's her personality.

If your husband refuses to come to Japan because he's gonna pursue his career in Hollywood, and you want to stay in Japan and do what you can to help and continue your career in Japan, how is the marriage gonna work? It's not. And it's no one's fault, it's a matter of time and circumstance. There's NO ONE TO BLAME in this situation.

Yeah, the marriage felt rushed, and I didn't like it anyways, but it felt like she truly loved him and there was no power play going on, and I'm not going to criticize her for her reasons. If it was me, and I was telling the truth and everyone told me "Oh, but you're lying. It's like this," I would be SOOO angry and devastated. You don't even know what happened 100%, like me, but why is it automatically acceptable to criticize everything someone says. No, it's not acceptable, because you wouldn't want someone to do that to you. It's not acceptable because everyone deserves the respect to be taken at face value. If you can't do that, then how can you call yourself a fan? You're not, imho.

First and foremost. To keep to the rules of this forum I will simply say: You have no idea who I am, and what I'm capable of feeling or understanding. Statements like that from users like you come across as completely immature and offensive.

I do not follow an artist blindly. If they do something that warrants it, I will criticize. To me, that is what a real fan would do, rather than blowing smoke up her ass.

If her husband didn't want to go to Japan and she couldn't leave. Its not the earthquake's fault.

The entire reason of my posts have been her official statement citing the earthquake when in reality it was a relationship that didn't work because of two people who weren't right for each other. That's why marriages end.

[AyUmIXx]

^
^ agree with you 10000000000%!

haikudasai, what i read from her TA english version entry, Ayu didn't blame the earthquake that caused her relationship with Mannie not work out, but she blames herself that she couldn't keep her promise that she would stay in US with her husband. She said she left her husband for too long already and that what caused the relationship didn't work out.

[TeamAyu2004]

I think everyone is misunderstanding the whole earthquake thing...

She is not using that as an excused to the reason why her marriage did not work...
She is just giving you one of many reasons...

I completely understand how she feels... She was planning on leaving Japan for who knows how long and then BAM this things happens to the her country, a country that she loves. So she stayed, maybe longer than she intended and things just happened...
People change in a instance... one little thing can change how you feel about someone. and if it just doesn't work it just doesn't work.
Marriage is not sacred, marriage is just marriage.

[Andrenekoi]

I can only imagine the amount of controverse Ayu moving away from Japan after the disaster would have caused... It would really look like she was running away, and pretty much all of her disaster-related actions would feel very hypocrital. Also, living in the USA makes sense to Ayu, as it would give her a lot of freedom she can't have on a good amount of Asia, freedom to live her life as a normal person that she showed to like more than once.

If my homeland suffered as much as Japan did in march, I would do my all to be home and be close to my dear ones.