Sakura Storm

*immense shading alert!* Recently, there were news about the bitch army, AKB48, surpassing Ayumi Hamasaki's total sales, gaining the top spot as the best-selling female artist in the history of Japan. Firstly, it is definitely not history . Secondly, it is definitely not artist . I know Oricon only counts physical CD sales (national) to determine general sales, and they don't give crap whether they are solo or a group, but let me tell you why this is wrong on so many levels. I mean, I do support the whole CDs-only thing, but idols are not artists, so what the heck are they saying? Ayu did most of the work on her own, as an artist in general. She produced, composed and written her songs. She create concerts in her own way. That's an artist. What did AKB do? Yeah, you could argue they "worked hard". But, bitch, everybody works hard. It's just whether your efforts had any meaning. And Ayu, she is definitely a legend in her own right. She totally deserve he...

April 8. The day an irreplaceable star was born. Eighteen years ago, a 19-year-old Japanese girl wondered around the city of Tokyo, Japan, looking for a place of her own, a place where she belongs. ayumi hamasaki may not have been with me for that long, but for these 6 years that I've been a fan, she has let me see many things, and led me into other interests. She has been a legend. She is still a legend. And she may not be the hit right now, but deep down in my heart, she will always have a rightful place. ayu was the one who led me into J-pop, who led me into the fun world of Japanese entertainment. And even though the industry may not be what it seems, it has brought me much joy and tears throughout these years. And ayu was also the reason I came across Arashi and became their fan. Everything began with ayumi hamasaki, so I will never forget the memories that I had with her, the experiences that she led me through, and the hard times she helped me through. Happy 18th...

Do you remember the time when ayu was still fake crying and always hanging onto SHU-YA's sleeve? Do you remember the time when all SHU-YA, ZIN, Subaru and Maro was still prominent? And that KO and 2-YAN weren't important? Do you remember the time when Yo-chan still has his long hair? Do you remember the time when it was just Peco and Princess as the back vocalists? Do you remember the time when ayu still cared ? When her lyrics still meant something? When her music videos were still worth the time to watch?? Well, all of that changed. Peco left. Princess's importance got stamped on by Timmy. Yo-chan cut his hair and stopped speaking. Maro got fired and ended up eating grass and being a porn star. ZIN and Subaru got pushed to the back. KO and 2-YAN became more important (in ayu's eyes), and SHU-YA left. Now, SHU-YA did come back to ayu's arms around a year later. But he got rid of his infamous half-blond, half-black hair, and turned it all int...

This is random but, in the recent news about Ikuta Toma dating that very short-haired policewoman from Ouroboros , Seino Nana, and the news about Horikita Maki getting married, it sort of makes me think... I'm happy for them. You know? And I'm not like other fans where they overreact and feel disappointed. I have always wanted my idols to be happy . Have their own lives, and not for the sake of keeping the idoling fantasy. Because I always felt like true idoling should remain realistic . And not messed up fan mind thinking their idols are always theirs. Because we all know our idols are very, very far away from our grasps. And the only thing we can give them is support, by supporting the choices they make. And even though Arashi has always been more like friends and brothers to me , and that I see them as forever singles , I, too want them to be happy and have real people by their sides for the rest of their lives. People who truely know them, and who truely loves them. An...

Title:「sixxxxxx」 Artist: 浜崎あゆみ Release date: 2015.08.05 Because the woman likes her face+hand covers for her mini albums. Four months after her last floppy album A ONE , ayumi hamasaki farts out yet another mini album that's, from ayu's usual nonsense, probably a continuation to her 2011 mini album FIVE , called sixxxxxx . I have to make sure I type 6 x's each time I type the title. I don't know what ayu's trying to play here, but it's annoying. It may have some sort of meaning, but it sucks. So bad. So it's totally pointless. But whatever, no matter what she calls her shit these days, it really doesn't make any difference. But I have to say, the album's content, that is, the songs, are so great that I'm actually impressed. She sound so great here. So good to the point I thought she recorded these before her vocals collapsed. Which was, like, before 2011. Lol. But, they were not, so does this mean it's a sign that the old ayu is back...

Title:「LOVE」 Artist: 嵐 Release date: 2013.10.23 I've been busy with work and some other crap that keeps happening to me that I nearly forgot about this blog. I haven't posted anything this month so the first idea that comes into my mind is to do an album thoughts post, because you know, I have made a promise. Well, sort of. Anyway, this time is, of course, the album that was released previously before THE DIGITALIAN , Arashi's twelfth album  LOVE , which is of course, an absolute killer album, if you didn't already know.   This album was released after all members were finally into their 30's, and it is the beginning of the show of their maturity. Because I'm saying this now after a year and a half since the release so this probably wouldn't be as effective as if I did this back then, so this time I really couldn't be bothered to go on about my experiences with the album when it was first released. Okay, maybe I will go on a little bit. Since...

Title:「LOVE again」 Artist: 浜崎あゆみ Release date: 2013.02.08 Ha. Hahahahaha. Sorry. Give me a sec. I remember this album. I have so much memories with this one. So this post is going to be so long. I'll try not to go on too much. This album was released as part of ayumi hamasaki's 5-releases-5-months project thing leading up to my 17th birthday her 15th anniversary, and everyone remembered how messed up that went. At first she released two mini albums, that was oh-so-not-coincidentally called LOVE and again . Hahaha. LOL. If you combine these two mini albums, you get... LOVE again . Whoever thought this shit up should have just went home, and never went back to avex. Which is why I won't do reviews on LOVE and again , because they are the same songs as this album, but just has the remixes and instrumentals. But aren't remixes and intrumentals supposed to be on singles?? You can't dump them in an album! You can't release singles as albums! (Oh wait, sh...

Title:「CoLOURS」 Artist: 浜崎あゆみ Release date: 2014.07.02 I wish I don't have the fortune to be bored. But since my life is basically everyone's definition of boring, and I'm actually quite bored myself, I have decided to review all of ayumi hamasaki's studio albums and mini albums, from her most recent ones back to her first ones. I'm not doing her compilation albums because they are basically her already released songs put together again so I can't be bothered. I'm actually quite excited to do that (sad, isn't it?) since with ayu's music, I have listened to every one of her songs over a million times, you name it and I'll know. The reason why ayu will always be more important to me than Arashi is that I have known of ayu longer and I have actually listened to all of her music and watched every one of her concerts and I have used her in some of my school projects before. And I feel like ayu's music is more bearable. With Arashi's musi...

ayumi hamasaki is pretty random these days. She probably doesn't even know what to do with herself anymore. She's so random she don't even know where she's going anymore. Her music is random. Her career is going nowhere. Her personal life is also probably going nowhere. But no matter how random she gets, it cannot get any random than this: When I first read the news on this, I thought it was some kind of joke. I mean, I already said she's random, so no matter what she does these days, it doesn't really surprise me anymore, but this is just... so weird. And then when the fact that this is for real finally hit me, I was just thinking "Wow, bitch must be desperate". This is apparently about the Japan Ministry of Justice forming a group of celebrities who helps the rehabilitation of prisoners (like real prisoners) in correctional facilities by entertaining them and giving them lectures on their life experiences (something like that), and calling ...

Title:「A ONE」 Artist: 浜崎あゆみ Release date: 2015.04.08 Again not exactly a review, just my thoughts and opinions. Is it a coincidence her debut day is also my birthday? God, ayu. To me, April 8 is her debut day. And I always thought that. And then I remember it's also my birthday. Sigh. Anyway, I want to put down my thoughts on her album, A ONE , that just came out. It's not a surprise or I should say, it's even obvious that ayumi hamasaki has been lazy on her albums these days. And this is like, not my opinion, it's a fact. For an artist that has been going for 17 years, I have to give her credit. But for an artist that started out so good to flop like this is like a slap in the face. Not to the fans. But to the artist herself. In the years I've followed both ayu and Arashi, I saw that since ayu began to flop, Arashi began to rise. Like my two fandoms are having some kind of battle or something. But that's just me being weird, cause ayu and Arashi don...