Ayu and PVs

[Raleigh]

Does Ayumi release quality videos? Definitely yes... she always has. I can't even think of a video which wasn't visually stunning. She probably has one of the best teams available for Japan and is lucky to have a decent budget for most of her videos unlike other artists nowadays.

I don't think overall she ever does a video which is completely bad.. the problem seems to be more of a (1) creative matter and (2) the fact that she has released a lot of epic videos in the past which makes it hard for the new videos to live up to them:

1. Most of her videos have a lot of random imagery which doesn't seem to make sense or a storyline which leads to nowhere. And the most frustrating factor is that usually these videos have a big budget! It's a shame because several videos could easily be simply amazing with a dose of creativity (Mirrorcle World comes to mind) I think these two factors are what disappoint fans a lot. Personally I'd rather see something simplistic like "Endless Sorrow" but with a beautiful storyline and a theme.

2. However as I said.. it is hard sometimes for an artist to live up to their own past masterpieces and bring new ideas to the table. Ayu had a lot of visually stunning videos which left you thinking and uncovering every single scene like alterna or ourselves. I have noticed that she has tried to reinvent that factor in some videos like Return Road and Song 4 U but they seem to fall in the trap that they can't seem to go anywhere or feel recycled.


Having said all that I still feel we're spoiled with great quality videos.. I just wish that they put on effort on storylines or creating an actual theme rather than having random imagery thrown in. I think she's really falling short by not developing a fully fledged theme for a mini-album or single when releasing a video and making the whole package of her releases less memorable. Any artist with a good budget can make a visually beautiful videos but few actually do release a truly memorable one.