Kalen Anzai cast as Ayu in the drama adaptation of "M 愛すべき人がいて"

[Diego-kun]

The drama was being quite accurate regarding key dates in Ayu's career (singles and albums releases, interviews, etc.) but they just had to screw it up in ep. 6 saying she won the Japan Record Award in 1999. It's true that Boys & Girls was nominated, but she didn't manage to win until 2001!

[attractive nausea]

^ Yep, she was even dressed with the Japan Record Award 2001 outfit lol

Also, I think that Ayu and Max broke up in late 1999 but this is not the case during this episode.

[visionfactory]

I'm impressed they placed a home identical to Ayu's real home at that time.

[ExodusUK]

Her acting her improved, even so when you consider it must have been a big challenge for Kalen to act out success and having hit after hit.

I did laugh when Mari said "I plan to go abroad to study dance" which has to be the biggest Jpop cliche on Wikipedia articles of disbanded/inactive idols from around that time.

[Andrenekoi]

I did like her screen presence overall. The acting is limited and she struggles on some scenes, but it's not the worst. Hwr stage presence is BAD.

[ExodusUK]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

I did like her screen presence overall. The acting is limited and she struggles on some scenes, but it's not the worst. Hwr stage presence is BAD.

The boys & girls performance is BAD. She just stands there stuck to the ground. No wonder Avex doesn't allow her to do live performances

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

The boys & girls performance is BAD. She just stands there stuck to the ground. No wonder Avex doesn't allow her to do live performances

Maybe they kept saying she was a hologram as a way of putting something more suited for a performance in her place. :B

[LONJJONG]

Isn't it odd how AXELS' and Ayu's 2nd single were released together but both placed #20 on Oricon Chart?

[jiarongisme]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

The boys & girls performance is BAD. She just stands there stuck to the ground. No wonder Avex doesn't allow her to do live performances

Mte. She looked so dead on stage, it's unbelievable lmao.

Reika's scene in Masa's home with the drums was honestly the best of the whole series for me. HILARIOUS. I really can't wait for the spin off - such a stupid funny character.

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Years ago, I was told by someone who works at a Japanese fashion brand (he was high up in the company) that Ayu was very much bullied by Yuki from TRF and hitomi. If what he said was true, I wonder if they used Axel’s to display this? To my knowledge, there was no girl group at the time that could’ve really been able to do that. I know the story doesn’t fit this, as TRF and Hitomi were already a success, but the bullying could be inspired by this?

Assuming what the person I met told me was true, of course. They probably couldn’t show the actions of real artists. He also said Ayu was using a ghost-writer for her lyrics, though, so I suppose it’s best to take it with a grain of salt. Lol.

[Chris85]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

He also said Ayu was using a ghost-writer for her lyrics, though, so I suppose it’s best to take it with a grain of salt. Lol.

It's not the first time I hear such rumours. I wouldn't rule that out completely.

[truehappiness]

Wasn't MAX pretty huge at the time of Ayu's debut? Not to say that they did it or anything, but they come to mind as a popular avex girl group and "Axel's" could come from MAX -> LAX -> AXL and somewhat fits their weird renamed OTF/Over The Fact/ELT/Every Little Thing, usg/TRF scheme. Especially the TRF one since it just uses the letters after "TRF" to make "USG". The other group I saw as a guess was SPEED but they don't really fit the name as well as MAX.

I am sure Ayu was bullied by TV execs and stuff but some of those other artists? She seemed on good terms with Yuki whenever they did have to interact but with regard to hitomi, the 'rumor' maybe came from when hitomi herself actually did comment a bit about Ayu on a talk show and it seems they were not close at all or the relationship was very distant/delicate?

https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/10910455/

[ExodusUK]

lol this reminds me of this news article that reads more like fanfiction
Despite being constantly viewed as rivals, hitomi shares a close friendship with fellow Avex performer Ayumi Hamasaki, the reigning queen of Japanese pop, which dates back to 2000. The two often get together during breaks in TV performances (like the NHK Red And White Song Festivals), and Hamasaki often goes on joyrides with hitomi through hitomi's native Kanagawa countryside, where Hamasaki often enjoys a certain degree of anonymity, either in a car or on motorbike (hitomi is qualified to drive both, while Hamasaki is not allowed to possess any driving licenses because she suffers from a form of night blindness). Hamasaki attended hitomi's wedding, as well as a family function to celebrate the first month of the birth of hitomi's twin children (a ceremony known as the 'Full Moon Celebration'), and is an unofficial 'godmother' to hitomi's children, Toru and Sumire. hitomi and Hamasaki had attempted in the past to write songs together, but the results were unsatisfactory because the two women have very different musical inclinations and directions. Interestingly, it was hitomi's ideas that led to the popular pre-concert video segments in Hamasaki's 'My Story Concert Tour' in 2005, and Hamasaki has often credited hitomi as 'the director ahead of the director'. Also, both hitomi and Hamasaki are Christians, a religious group that is in the minority in Japan where Shinto and Buddhism are dominant.


hitomi owns an expensive Spanish-made classical guitar, which was a gift from Hamasaki. Hamasaki had, apparently inspired by reading the novel The Master Of Go by Yasunari Kawabata, challenged hitomi to a game of Go, of which she was usually the superior player. If Hamasaki won, hitomi would have to buy her a German-made piano that had caught Hamasaki's fancy; hitomi did not specify Hamasaki's forfeit. hitomi won the game, but bought Hamasaki the piano anyway. Two months later, hitomi and Hamasaki were surfing the Internet when hitomi expressed a fondness for a classical guitar. Hamasaki bought the guitar immediately and gave it to hitomi, who now rarely goes two days without playing at least one full-length piece on it.

Along these lines though..I was thinking, it's weird that there isn't conflict in the drama from other solo females like a Utada or Namie character. I guess the character who is suppose to be TK covers that?

[yabieru]

I looked for it and I found that it could be a group called MISSION. They debuted more or less at the same time than Ayu and only released 4 singles.

https://akitakaoru.com/2020/06/14/m-axels/
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/MISSION_(アイドルグループ)

In the first website they compare the oricon ranking and they pretty match with the dorama so it could be possible. I don't know if they bullied Ayu in real life but they last like a year so... karma is a bitch

[visionfactory]

Originally Posted by yabieru

I looked for it and I found that it could be a group called MISSION. They debuted more or less at the same time than Ayu and only released 4 singles.

https://akitakaoru.com/2020/06/14/m-axels/
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/MISSION_(アイドルグループ)

In the first website they compare the oricon ranking and they pretty match with the dorama so it could be possible. I don't know if they bullied Ayu in real life but they last like a year so... karma is a bitch

They definitely portray AXELS vibe! (More than MAX)

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Omg it has to be them :0
They even have the one with the short hair

It looks super possible! Thanks for finding that!

[Evolution7/4]

Noooo not hitomi. She is my favorite J-Pop artist after Ayu. What did she say about Ayu on a talk show? While we never know what goes on behind closed doors, Yuki seemed to always be ultra supportive of Ayu and her and TRF collaborated alot. But who knows, maybe they decided to be nice after she was successful lol It is interesting to note though that hitomi never did AYUREADY?

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Evolution7/4

Noooo not hitomi. She is my favorite J-Pop artist after Ayu. What did she say about Ayu on a talk show? While we never know what goes on behind closed doors, Yuki seemed to always be ultra supportive of Ayu and her and TRF collaborated alot. But who knows, maybe they decided to be nice after she was successful lol It is interesting to note though that hitomi never did AYUREADY?

Ayu-ready runned from late 2002 to early 2004... Hitomi wasn't much active during this time.^^

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

^ I personally never believed the guy that told me, seeing it in the drama just made me remember it haha.

[ExodusUK]

hitomi discovered and had treatment for ovarian cancer during Ayu ready's run, so she was understandably absent from the scene at that time...