ayumi hamasaki - A SUMMER BEST (CD+DVD)

I'm back y'all!! After a one month hiatus because I was too busy preparing for university and living life as a student once again~ Definitely feels great to be back at school again instead of being chained down to the army. Freedom once more~!!

I apologize for not being able to blog as frequently nowadays because I just don't have enough time to! The assignments have been piling up since Week 1 and I'm still struggling to keep my head out of the water.

But~!! I shall blog today because I've finally gotten my hands on ayumi hamasaki's latest's summer compilation album - A SUMMER BEST!

Let's go~

Even though this cover may not be her greatest but it's definitely better than the disastrous "Party Queen". At least there's a clear concept other than madness portrayed here.

What puzzles me is why a compilation album? In the past, she would release summer singles and I dare say that summer songs are definitely one of the major sellers in the industry (well, at least for me. :P) but why an album? Furthermore, it's not like there are many new songs packaged with this album - only 2 in fact - "Happening Here" and "You & Me".

Well, that's not to say that the other songs like the classic "BLUE BIRD", "independent", "fairyland", etc aren't good but come on now. ayumi hamasaki fans like myself would already have these songs in their arsenal of ayu goodness so why give us the same thing and make us pay a premium for it all over again? A little unfair, no?

But since it's ayumi hamasaki, I will buy it! But no thanks to avex for their cruel marketing strategies of using her name and brand to make innocent people like me buy things I already have...

Don't get me started on getting digital copies - I prefer the good ol' physical CDs so I can take photos of them!

Anyway, that's a long rant but the above photo is her CD+DVD cover. Looks gorgeous in my opinion but I prefer the CD-only photo. Go Google it! :D

As usual, I got the Hong Kong press of the album simply because I want the DVD to work with my DVD players and Mac. Here's the sticker on the shrink wrap and it describes this compilation album, like what are the new songs, what videos will be featured, etc. Nothing really special.

Unfortunately, the first press of the Hong Kong album doesn't come with the code that can be used online like the Japan press one. No clue what the code does but oh well...

I bought my album from HMV this time round instead of YesAsia because I was too lazy to wait for it to ship and besides, I don't have anything else to buy from the online retailer to qualify myself for the free shipping. Heads up though - if you're planning on getting this album from CD-Rama, it will cost you almost $5 more. Get it from HMV instead - cheaper!!

Anyway, here's the exhaustive track list for this compilation album. Well, for a summer album, it does pack a lot of ballads in DISC A. Yes, I wonder what inspired them to name their discs "DISC N" and "DISC A". Any ideas anyone? Leave your answers in the comment box please! I want to know~

This CD+DVD version obviously comes with a DVD but instead of the promotional videos, this DVD is packed with her live performances from a-nation and some of her other tours. If you're a hardcore ayu fan, you would probably have most of the video clips anyway but some of the clips are exclusive to this album (for instance, "blossom" performed at a-nation '10) only so it might be a good idea to get this to complete your discography.

Some of the tracks are featured as their original promotional videos as well, which I think a little redundant since the release of her "A CLIP BOX 1998 - 2011" which should already include most of the music videos. On the other hand, this is also the only album where you can get the video for her latest song "You & Me".

Like "Party Queen", A SUMMER BEST unfortunately only managed to chart on #2 on the Oricon chart. Sigh... Looks like the Empress of J-Pop is really slipping a little with Namie Amuro and Koda Kumi really fighting for her spot. Here's the album art without the sticker at the front. It's pretty decent but there's so much more that they could have done to make this album so much more appealing.

The insides of the jewel case consists of the lyric insert and the three discs. The discs are simple but I think they are actually quite nice compared to the leopard prints. I'm starting to get sick of leopard prints seriously. The composition of the photo on the lyric booklet is also more appealing than the cover - kinda hints that the content is more important than the cover.

The first page of the lyric insert. Don't you find her gorgeous?! The lyric booklet is filled with a reasonable amount of stunning photos but the creative concepts are more or less the same. Lack of budget because this is a compilation? I'm not very sure.

Anyway, in terms of the musical quality of this album, I would say that it's good even without listening to it because I know the songs already. DISC N features all the uplifting summer songs like "glitter", "Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~", etc. Whatever summer song you can think of will be featured here! Think of it as a playlist in a CD if you want.

DISC A features the moodier songs and it makes me wonder why they are even in a summer compilation in the first place. Perhaps summer also has it's darker sides? The song selection on DISC A is slightly weirder. I can understand why "HANABI" and "HANABI ~episode II~" made it to the list but songs like "monochrome" and "ANother song feat. URATA NAOYA"? These don't make sense considering that the singles that they were released on weren't exactly "summer" to begin with...

Maybe they are trying to recreate a "BLACK" vs "WHITE" again? Not sure...

Another stunning photo of ayumi hamasaki! Like I've said, no matter what happens, I will continue to support her because her past body of work has proven that she is capable of quality. Perhaps all she needs now is a break to rejuvenate her creative juices to create better works than before...


Well, that's all I have to say for her latest summer compilation. It's definitely not her best but it does feature some of her tried and tested songs to support this album. Plus, her new song "You & Me" is surprisingly quite good and catchy. In fact, I think this song alone, as well as the DVD of course, is good enough to justify my money spent on this album.

Overall, I'm not entirely excited about this album but neither am I too disappointed. I like it but don't necessarily love it.

Shall end here and get back to life as a student. I still have a whole list of assignments to do... Sigh~

Read more...

ayupan AR - How to Play?

Hello hello! Well as you all might have already known (or not), I've finally gotten a smartphone! Yes! That means I'll be on Instagram, Whatsapp, whatever-other-random-nonsense that normal people should have but I don't because I used to use a phone that was simply restricted to making calls and sending text messages~

Well, I've download a lot of apps on my Samsung Galaxy Note and I must say that using a smartphone is so much more exciting as using a dumb phone. I know I've been living in a cave for over 2 years but I'm catching up quickly. One of the first few apps I've downloaded is this...

O my god this screen grab is huge but yes, being an ayumi hamasaki fan boy, I downloaded her application from the Google Play store (previously known as the Android Marketplace) called ayupan AR, where AR means augmented reality.

It's basically a game application where you need pieces from her latest studio album "Party Queen" to play. I've been searching around the internet on how to play this game but apparently, no one actually wrote about it in English so I hope this entry will shed some light to those who wants to enjoy this game but yet cannot really understand Japanese.

Note - my Japanese is not that good but good enough to understand the core mechanics of the game so I sincerely hope that this entry would help.

This application is available on the Google Play store, which you can conveniently access from your Android phones. It's free so no worries! If you want the URL to this page, click here.


UPDATE: For some reason, this app does not work on Android 4 - Ice Cream Sandwich. (Unfortunately for me, I've updated mine and the app refuses to work but at least I've managed to enjoy it for a day... :( )

For y'all iPhone users running the iOS, no worries too! ayumi hamasaki is also using the iPhone so this app is also on the iTunes store. Just search "ayupan AR" and you will be able to find it.


Like I've previously mentioned, this game may be free but it does require some additional items in order for you to fully enjoy the application. Heck - without these items, there's no point downloading this app. Remember my unboxing/review of her latest album "Party Queen" and we found this weird looking envelope thing inside as well as the obi promoting this application? Well, the mystery is unveiled here!!

These two items are the essential play pieces of the entire application. The application requires you to use your camera (sorry iPod users) to scan these ayu logos in order to project a 3D model of ayupan inside your phone screen and without these logos, there's no point downloading the application.

To get these items, simply purchase her latest album "Party Queen" and you will get to enjoy the application! Or actually, you can just download the application and scan the logo off your computer screen using the images provided above. It works the same - tested it out while typing this paragraph but do support her album!


Anyway, the purpose of this entry is to guide users who cannot read or understand Japanese on how to go about enjoying this app. The following screen grabs are taken from my Galaxy Note but all copyrighted materials belong to their rightful owners. I'm using these screen grabs to illustrate the methods of using this adorable application.

Here's the main menu that you'll see once you get pass the loading screen (first image on this entry). The interface is relatively simple. You have two buttons on the screen - the hearts. The one on the right reads "Jacket AR" while the one on the left reads "Stage AR". I shall go into them in a little while. The bottom of the screen shows ayu's tweets. There's also a reload button for you to refresh her tweets if you so feel like stalking her.

Let's start with the "Jacket AR". Upon launching the "Jacket AR" from the main menu, you will be brought to this scanning thingie where you see the "A" logo in the middle, asking you to "Rock on the target". Well, I wonder if it's an intended pun or the developers misspelled "lock" as "rock". Considering that this is from a pop star, I guess the pun is acceptable, yes?

So, the instructions at the bottom of the screen basically requires you to align the "A" logo with the logo found on the back of the obi of "Party Queen". This is something like using those QR scanners (those squarish barcodes) and it's really easy to use. Align it and...

...out pops ayupan sporting the POWER of MUSIC T-shirt! When I first tried it, I went like "Oh my God!!" I was totally amazed because this is the first time I'm playing with an augmented reality game/application/whatever-you-call-it. This isn't a totally new technology considering that Nintendo's 3DS already has this feature but using just a smart phone to get this is really cool, no?

Honestly, I wouldn't call this a game because other than viewing the 3D model of ayupan, there's nothing else you can do. Well, you can bring her around the place and make her take photos of different things (maybe I shall try that later) but I believe that's all you can do. The application doesn't include a "Take a Photo" function so what I did was to capture screen grabs instead so I guess that's the only fun part about the Jacket AR.

Oh yes. You can move the obi around and ayupan will move along with it. Also, you can shift your camera around to get different views of ayupan. Even though the scanner is sensitive, if you tilt your camera or the obi too much, ayupan disappears. If that happens, simply realign and you'll be able to see her again.

So what if you picked the "Stage AR"? Here's the interface that you'll see if you do so. In Stage AR, you pick a style (スタイルを選んでね) and you get to watch little ayupan perform! However, not all the styles are made available for you in the beginning so you have to play a mini-game to unlock them.

Each of the different style sees ayupan in a different costume from her previous tours. My favorite has to be the ayupan wearing this big, black gothic dress she wore for the opening of her Rock 'n' Roll Circus tour so for the purpose of teaching you how to unlock your favorite ayupan, I shall unlock this one.

On each style, there are 2 buttons. The one on the left says "Stage AR" and will only be touchable when you've unlocked that particular style. The one on the right says "Game" and yes, it means you have to play a game in order to unlock the ayupan of your choice.

Here's the interface you'll see when you touch on the "Game" button by your selected style. The important elements of this interface are the three different bars - the two bars on the top and the bar on the bottom.

The blue bar is your stamina (スタミナ). For every game that you play, you will use up 20 stamina and that basically means you can only play the game 5 times before you run out. The pink bar below the stamina bar is power (パワー) and honestly, I have no idea what it does. Do leave a comment below to educate me and the readers, yes?

UPDATE: After playing the game a few times, I realized what the Power bar is for. The more Power you have, the more EXP you gain (see below paragraph on the Level Bar). Therefore, you want to keep your Power bar as full as possible by playing the roulette game (see below).

The bar on the bottom (seen in this scree grab, the 97/100 bar) is the level (レベル) of the ayupan that you've picked to play. Think of it as an EXP bar - each time you play, you gain experience points that fills up this bar. The more you play, the more you gain. Once you hit 100, you unlock the style!

This game is really simple. It's so simple you don't really have to do much. Just tap the button on the bottom of the screen. In case you want to know, it says "Training" (トレーニングする). Basically, I guess the narrative of this game is about ayupan training to become a better popstar or something like that.

Tapping the "Training" button brings you to this screen. To continue playing, hit the button on the bottom which translates to "Jogging" (ジョギングする). There's nothing much to the game other than tapping the buttons. One thing to note is that by hitting this action button, your stamina will decrease but that also means you gain experience points.

As far as I'm concerned, I believe that it's not possible to unlock an ayupan immediately in your first play through because when your stamina is used up, you see this screen...

Ayupan goes for a break and asks you to come back in the stipulated time. There's no strategy to this game so you have to be patient in order to unlock all the ayupans. For now, there are only 5 so it shouldn't be too difficult to unlock.

Sometimes, when you're playing the game, you will stumble across this screen - the Timing Roulette. This is where there's actually some form of challenge to the game. Basically, you have to wait till the heart (covered by bunny ayupan in the above screen grab) to enter the "Good" region before tapping on the "A" logo to stop it. You will gain something from it but I'm not sure what. :S Leave a comment if you do know! But as all games go, you will definitely be rewarded for good performance so be sure to get the heart in the good region!

UPDATE: By landing on the Good region, you're awarded with 20% of Power. Having more Power means you gain EXP much faster, making your quest to unlocking your favorite ayupan shorter. :)

Once you've cleared the rather uninteresting game (all ayupans feature that same running game) and finally unlocked your ayupan, on the Pick a Style page, hit the "Stage AR" (ステージAR) button to enter the Stage AR scanner. Instead of using the obi, this time, use the envelope thing included in your copy of "Party Queen" and watch the magic happen...

The ayupan you've picked shows up and this time, you get a whole stage as well! So the envelope thingie is actually a stage for our ayupans! How cool is that? Anyway, when the ayupan appears, it starts to sing and the tracks featured are from "Party Queen" so yes, even though she's in this costume, she didn't perform "Microphone". Each ayupan sings a different snippet of songs from the album so be sure to unlock them all!

Well actually, it's not exactly the ayupan singing if you were expecting a cutie voice - snippets of the original songs are played while the animated ayupan moves on stage. Really amazing nevertheless. Like in "Jacket AR" mode, you can shift your camera around to get different views of the ayupan so be sure to look closely at how good they are~

I hope this entry helped you enjoy the "ayupan AR" app for your iPhone or Android. If you do know any of the questions that I've posted in this entry (like what the Power bar does and what the roulette is for), please leave a comment and share with us, yes? Otherwise, I hope that this helped those who do not read or understand Japanese well to get through the game without feeling lost.

Also, be sure to check out my unbox/review of her latest album "Party Queen", yes? :D

Read more...

ayumi hamasaki ~POWER of MUSIC~ 2011 A LIMITED EDITION

"Welcome to the POWER of MUSIC!!"

That was how Queen of J-Pop opened her 2011 tour in Japan titled "POWER of MUSIC". Originally, the concert was supposed to be named "HOTEL Love songs" but because of the Japan earthquakes and nuclear disasters, she thought that the concept was not appropriate and therefore, being the influential and responsible artist that she is, she scraped the extravagant concept and settled for probably her simplest tour ever.

There were minimal costume changes and even if there were, the costumes were simple and straightforward. The entire concert features a round stage in the middle of the arena with a massive band and orchestra supporting ayu's vocals. On top of that, the dancers were kept simple as well - they did not have costume changes throughout the entire concert.

Her concept of simplicity was so that she can capitalize on music and her singing to touch the hearts of the Japanese who were still mourning for the loss of the thousands of people which were prematurely snatched off the planet due to the unfortunate disasters. She wants to sing to make everyone happy and stronger and I really commend her on her efforts because despite having the simplest concert I've ever seen, she delivered really well.

Let's look at the packaging now, yes?

Unlike her previous arena tours or major tours which normally comes in a plastic slipcase with two DVD casings, she released her 2011 concert DVD in a single plastic case, continuing with the simplistic concept of the entire concert. Honestly, there's nothing special about the entire packaging because it's just a simple case but nevertheless, the pictures are still awesome.

Here's the close up of the summary stuck to the shrink wrap of the Hong Kong press of this DVD concert. It roughly translates to what I've previous mentioned regarding the unfortunate disaster in Japan. Furthermore, it also mentions that this particular show was filmed at Saitama Super Arena and 25,000 made it for this limited edition of the concert, which basically included new songs into the original track list performed elsewhere in Japan. Songs from her mini-album, "FIVE" was also performed at this limited edition of the concert.

The DVD casing minus the shrink wrap. This is also probably the first time ayu has a stand where she puts her lyrics on so she could refer to it when necessary but honestly, I have not seen her refer to anything on that stand throughout the entire concert though. Maybe it simply serves as a prop.

Also, another difference between this particular concert and her previous arena tours is that this time round, no making of footages were included inside this box. They basically compacted the whole concert into a single DVD and the second DVD is for some of the other songs performed at other locations. Slightly disappointed that they did away with the making of but again, it could be because the process was painful due to the disaster and therefore, they omitted that.

What I really love about the back of the packaging is the design drawn by ayu herself. This design was featured in the merchandizes that went on sale during the tour and it reminds the Japanese to continue having hope. She's not the only artist who did designs like this. Lady Gaga released arm bands to encourage the Japanese as well. These genuine gestures are really touching, no?

When you open the box, you see the lyric and photo insert on the left and the DVDs on the right. Nothing extremely special about these other than the fact that they used back the "HOTEL Love songs" A logo for this concert and they used it again for the COUNTDOWN LIVE 2011-2012 and for this year's 2012 tour - probably the most used tour logo ever. On top of that, the lyric booklet is also smaller than usual.

The cover of the lyric booklet in it's full glory. Normally, the lyric booklet would be as long as the DVD casing itself in terms of its length but this time round, I don't know why they opted for this smaller design. Saving paper or something?

Size does not define what goes inside the booklet, yes? Because in this tiny booklet, we still get to feast our eyes on tons of gorgeous images plus the lyrics of the songs performed in the concert. Here's the first page with the track list.

This is also the first concert where ayu experimented with different arrangement of the same songs. For instance, the famous interlude "Catcher In The Light" was done in the orchestra styled featured in her "My Story Classical" remix album, along with sone other selected songs like "walking proud". Furthermore, other songs like "Born to be..." and "Mirrorcle World" were done in a different but unique and fresh arrangements as well. Really interesting~

Every single song from her mini album "FIVE" were performed in this concert and what I liked was that ayu managed to invite Naota Urata and JUNO to perform the songs that they were featured in along with her, unlike how Namie Amuro sang by herself during her LIVE STYLE 2011, which I think is a little sad. That brings more fans and more surprises to the stage, yes?

I think we've seen her in this pink look a million times but it never gets old. She performed the medley of vogue~Far away~SEASONS in a different arrangement in this look and invited her fans to sing along in SEASONS and gosh did the fans sing! They didn't sing just a single line, they sang an entire verse! Really touching.

To end the concert with a message, she performed "A Song is born", originally written for the tragic 9/11 incident to remind us of how the planet is born and how important peace and love is. If I were her, I would choose this song to perform too. Well, technically this isn't the last song but it does lead to a perfect closing nevertheless.


Even though the packaging this time round is really simple and the entire concept of the concert was not like her usual over-the-top style, I still enjoyed the concert. In fact, this is one of those DVDs that you can pop in and do something else because all you need to do is to listen with your ears and feel it with your heart.

We all see that Japan is recovering strongly and steadily and I hope that they will continue to do so. Japan is definitely blessed to have so many people who cares for them and would go all out to continue bringing hope to it's nation.

Stay strong Japan!! :)

Read more...

ayumi hamasaki - Party Queen (CD+2DVD)

"I am the Party Queen~ I am the Party Queen~"

The Queen of J-Pop strikes back with her 13th studio album on March 21, 2012 - Party Queen!! Like all her previous albums (except her really classic ones before "My Story"), her albums came in different versions. This time round, there are 5 different versions to her latest studio album! That's a lot of variations for the same thing, yes?

This time round though, I did not get the limited edition version of the album because it's seriously way too expensive. Here's how the limited edition version looks like...

ayumi hamasaki - Party Queen (Special Limited Box Set)
Source: http://avexnet.or.jp/ayu/jp/discography/index.html

Well, other than the fact that the box set costs almost S$400 (I can buy my Nintendo 3DS and several games with that kind of money!), I think that the box looks pretty funny. First of all, it features the much overused leopard prints which is conveniently recycled from the concepts of Duty and GUILTY. 

Secondly, the premium items that came with this box set are just coasters and glasses. Why would I need those? The glasses are not exactly pretty as well. Therefore, I feel that it's not justified to get the limited box set because the premiums do not really attract me. The only plus I can see is that they bundled the album with the 2 concert DVDs (which I shall go into later on) for your convenience but they are DVD Region 2 - another reason why I didn't pick the Special Limited Box Set.

You must be wondering why I'm suddenly so critical even on my favorite artiste of all times' packaging, yes? Well, it really hurts me but I have to be honest - Party Queen is by far ayu's worst looking album. No kidding. Here's the version that I've bought (the Hong Kong press one)...

Here's the first press version of the CD+2DVD version of the album. Basically, it consists of the album along with its PV DVD in the same box as well as her "ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2011-2012 A ~HOTEL Love songs~" DVD concert - all packed in this transparent plastic case. I wouldn't even call it a box because the material's so flimsy and really unattractive.

This album, probably because of its bad covers and packaging, saw itself on #2 on the Oricon chart, ayu's second album to get this rather miserable charting for her standards. And guess which was the previous album that landed on that spot? GUILTY. Why? Probably because of leopard prints...

I think a lot of people shop for music with their eyes, just like how they say "We eat with our eyes" when it comes to presentation of dishes. If the cover is unattractive, then people wouldn't want to buy it, yes? Well, at least that's for me but considering that I'm such a die hard ayu fan, I would still buy it even if her cover is just blank white. Sigh~ Avex, please sack the person who designed this cover or came up with this creative. If it's ayu, tell her to continue singing and leave the designing to someone else...

This is how it looks like from the side. The COUNTDOWN LIVE DVD box is placed right behind the album so it creates this box set with 2 different covers. I think the COUNTDOWN LIVE DVD's cover is actually quite good but unfortunately, it was blocked. I shall go into that later on...

In terms of music, I would say that Party Queen is actually not that horrendous. In fact, there are songs that I pretty much enjoy on this album after listening to it before even taking photos of it. Some of the tracks that got my attention the first time I listened to them. Note that other than "how beautiful you are", none of the tracks were previously released as a single, making this probably her first album not to feature any physical singles at all.

1. Party Queen
   Whacky lyrics, loads of energy, fun to sing along to
2. NaNaNa
   Even though half the time, you hear this guy singing but when she does sing, it's pretty interesting and catchy - almost like a clubbing song. Again, loads of energy which I simply adore!
3. Shake it
   Sounds a lot like "NaNaNa" and probably why it's placed right behind that track as well. Packed with energy but I don't really get what she is singing. This song made ayu almost sound like she got extremely high on something and lost her mind. Well, perhaps she did lose her mind in this album because it sounded like so...
4. taskebab
   Even though this track is an interlude, I find it really awesome. In fact, I think this is the first "task-" interlude to feature pop-rock elements
5. reminds me
   A rock ballad that simply blew my socks off
6. Return Road
   I think this is the alternate version of "Virgin Road". I love the lyrics and of course, the singing is amazing in this song. Looks like this album actually delivered in terms of music over the unfortunate disaster on the packaging. Oh did I mention that this is a rock song? I love it when ayu does rock.
7. the next LOVE
   Probably the most interesting track on the album. This track is inspired by jazz elements and ayu sang it like a songstress would in the 60s in pubs or bars in Asia. Really love the feel and the different tempos this song offered.
8. how beautiful you are
   What can I say? My favorite track of the entire album. The lyrics are splendid and the singing is fantastic. Furthermore, the PV is one of the best out of the other trashy ones in the album (less Return Road) because it shows the different versions of "Beauty". Simply put, this song is like "Born This Way" in a ballad.

Well, that kinda sums up the songs that attracted me the first time I listened to the album. That's not to say that the rest aren't as good because you know, ayu songs always grows on you the more you listen to them. These songs make the album worthy of buying even though the cover is just atrocious.

This is what I meant when I said the COUNTDOWN LIVE side of the album is blocked. The Hong Kong first press of this version came with a postcard which they inconveniently stuck over the concert DVD, kinda ruining the saving grace of the album in terms of visuals. But it's a freebie so I will take it!

Here's a close up of the postcard which can almost pass of as a poster. Really? Yellow and pink? I don't think they work together, honestly. And leopard prints? Please spare me!

The other side of the postcard - just a blank. Who would actually send such a limited edition post card out in the mail yes? If I were the postman, I would keep this postcard to myself but again, the postman probably wouldn't fancy the bad color choices and themes on the picture side, yes? Gosh~ I'm in such a bitch fit right now~

The album minus the distracting plastic packaging and all. Actually, without the plastic packaging, the album doesn't look that disastrous (but it still looks kinda...) Here, we have ayu in black lingerie in front of a mirror that's so black you don't even know what's on the other side. The mirror, in my opinion, is quite distracting and unappealing. I mean, there are so many places to take a photo of a cover art but they have to pick a mirror... Well, since we are critiquing the covers, might as well do it for the rest of the versions...

ayumi hamasaki - Party Queen (CD+DVD)
Source: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=AVCD-38512

Here's the CD+DVD version of the album. In simpler English, this version doesn't come with the COUNTDOWN LIVE concert. I don't really like how she is hugging a shoe so close to her face, making her look a little whacky. Furthermore, the composition of this photo kinda failed because of what's behind her. I don't even know what's behind her... A little scary.

ayumi hamasaki - Party Queen (CD-only)
Source: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=AVCD-38513

At least the CD-only version has a more interesting composition. In fact, out of the three, I think this version works the best because even though ayu does look a little crazy here, it's crazy with beauty. I don't see how putting a shoe to your forehead is being creative but at least in this one, it does show her as a Party Queen. The previous two either showed her as a person on the table or a person who loves shoes. Where's the Party Queen?

The track list on the back of the album. Why yellow?! Wouldn't it look better if the text were in white instead? Yellow and pink just doesn't go well together, you know.

Another leopard print disaster in ayu's signature A. The obi is promoting this Android/iOS app where you can download this application called "ayupan AR". I have not downloaded it yet but it's apparently some augmented reality kinda game - whatever that means. It features ayu's mascot, Ayupan, and I think you get to play games with her or something. Has anyone tried this one yet?

UPDATE:  The obi is one of the playing pieces of the "ayupan AR" application. Check out my "ayupan AR - How to Play?" entry to learn more on how you can enjoy the game!

When you open up the case, you see more leopard prints. I swear, the next album that I see with leopard prints, I will shoot it down immediately unless they really manage to execute it properly (just like the old times where her third album "Duty" was done properly). This CD reminds me a lot of GUILTY because GUILTY also made use of leopard prints. No originality there eh, even though the person copied from her own album.

At least the DVD's color scheme looks better.

While unboxing this album, I found this envelope looking thing inside the case. Looks almost like a ayu-mi-x cover already, no? Just took a photo of it because it looks interesting and that it deviated from the whole "I love leopard skin" theme of the album.

UPDATE: This is not an envelope nor is it some normal sheet of paper. This is actually the stage for the "ayupan AR" application which you can download from the iTunes store or from Google Play (previously known as the Android Marketplace). Check out my "ayupan AR - How to Play?" to find out more!

I was wondering if this envelope is meant for the postcard that came along with the album but the dimensions does not seem correct - the postcard cannot fit. Furthermore, who would send a postcard in an envelope anyway? Inside this envelope looking thing, there are more details on the ayupan AR thingie - all in Chinese. Took lazy to translate it because I can't read Chinese that well anyway.

I think you might be getting sick of this photo because they used it again for the lyric insert. Maybe it's their way of trying to make people like the cover. You know, the more you look at something, the more you will become indifferent about it and you will actually (to the joy of lots), stop complaining. Well, I can't stop, that's for sure so coming to Dream On (pun intended)~ :)

Perhaps avex is on low budget and that's why ayu is not only wearing so little, she is only wearing one look throughout her entire studio album. Heres' the first page of the lyric booklet featuring ayu writing numbers on the mirror. I have no clue what those numbers mean but I don't intend to find out neither. But honestly, this photo is actually quite good, no? I would prefer this as the cover as opposed to the existing ones though...

More photos of ayu that doesn't depict her as some crazy person. These shots "reminds me" (hee hee~) of her "My Story" photo shoot where she just lies down and do nothing but still look totally amazing. I realized that they used a lot of direct flash on her throughout the whole shoot, resulting in those unflattering dark shadows. I wonder why they would want to do that though...

Don't you think this photo is so much better than the cover arts'? And is that a new tattoo above her puwet? Oh well~ Luckily I'm in it for her music, not really for her appearance, even though I must say that she is still very attractive for a 33 year old woman, yes?

And for the second part of the CD+2DVD version of Party Queen - here's the cover for ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2011-2012 A ~HOTEL Love songs~. This photo is so much better than her studio album's no? And that's why I said this would be the saving grace to the album if it wasn't covered up by yet another ayu in lingerie. But again, I think some people wouldn't mind staring at her skin - dirty pervs.

The track list on the DVD case. At least they kept the standard the same for most of her DVD concerts, having her A logo smack in the center and keeping the track list neatly printed on the bottom. This DVD apparently does not include the "making of" of the concert. Poop...

When I opened the case, I was expecting to see a lyric booklet or some form of a booklet inside featuring the costumes she wore for this countdown performance but instead, I saw this miserable card with the track list printed on it. Why would I need that?! I want a photo booklet! I think this album is out to make me angry~

Close up of the track list which I could have simply referred to the back of the DVD casing for. I think Avex is really low on budget this time round with the printing of this album, considering that they cut so many corners just to get substandard things out. But again, Koda Kumi's JAPONESQUE album is kick ass in terms of packaging though so why can't they honor the Queen of J-Pop the same too?

The DVD for the concert. Nothing special but at least the design is clean and sleek and features no prints of animals or whatsoever. 

Well, that's the last photo I have for this album. Sigh~ Has our Party Queen went crazy after partying for too long or did Avex become mean and cut her costs on production? 

Verdict of this album? I think it's definitely worth the money for the Hong Kong press (I paid US$22.99 for this entire box set from YESASIA) but if you're looking at the Japan press, I think it's not so worth it considering that it's essentially the same thing and the quality is not going to differ that much. How different can a plastic case be?

I think the entire album is saved by its content - the concert DVD and the music from the studio album. The packaging definitely did it some harm because of it's confused creative directions and occasionally bad photography and concepts. 

Well, I would say that the music aren't the best in her careers but they are acceptable because they are different (we know this Queen loves to experiment, yes?) and if you love her experimentations, you would - just like I have. Furthermore, there are some classic ayus in this album in the form of "Return Road" and "how beautiful you are" so yes, it's worth it!

I still love you ayu! 

But I would really wish to see something more inspiring 

than leopard prints in your next release! 

No matter what, I will still buy your music! :) 

- your loyal fan~

Read more...