Choose Me is a typical idol sound aka Seiko ha legacy. Sakura no Shiori is what typical idol sound would be if Akina had been more popular and Onyanko hadn't had impact.

sakura no shiori is beautiful, very different from anything i'd expect AKB48 (or any other popular idol group for that matter) to sing. it's even better if you listen to it with your eyes closed.

The way the whole Pink Champagne demolishes everything that E-Girlies have released in the past two years.

So I haven't been paying attention to the charts aside from Namie, Ayu, and AKB48 releases in a couple years, mostly because _genic was disappointing for me so I didn't really care how it competed with other releases.

But an impending Utada album for the first time in 8 years begs the question: what's the current commercial hierarchy, particularly for solo artists and solo women? And where will she land? Will she retain her top dog status even after six years of radio silence with a few top five hit digital singles, or will she fail to stand up to one or more of the other girls? I don't even know who's really at the top right now for solo women, though I'd go out on a limb and say it's still Namie, or that Kana might be making a strong challenge for that spot right now.

Kana's new album is doing surpisingly well to the point that it might outsell her previous one which is rare nowadays. Namie and Kana are indeed the biggest album sellers but Platinum (250k copies sold) seems to be the limit for them. It goes without saying that Utada will be able match them. Not in the first week, perhaps, but longevity is guaranteed for her.

But ever since her hiatus the j-pop community has been asking the following question: "Will Utada's comeback be enough of an event to make female soloists a thing again?". Solo women with the exception of Namie and Kana have been on decline for years. Kana's album is the only female solo album to have crossed 100k this year. Such giants as Shiina Ringo and Mika Nakashima who used to move 1m copies back in the day are lucky to sell 100k overall and it was 2 / 3 years ago. Everyone knows the situation with Ayumi and Kumi.

So to answer your question, I believe Utada will compete with Kana and Namie just fine and perhaps even outdo them given the comeback hype (not by a huge margin though). And what is more important in her case is the industry's reaction, and the public's too. Will she be the third exception or someone who can convince the people that solo female artists are still needed? Time will tell.mp3

See, I could buy anything from 200k to 750k as an individual prediction for her final sales - and I think that if the music is right and the market is in the right place, she'll probably snatch a good 550k if we're lucky, fingers crossed for that. But what I don't think is that she's going to have much of an impact on the market's current disposition toward solo females, even if she has some stellar Best Fiction style comeback and sells 800k (more than AKB48) or something. I think that solo women as a demographic are just in a downturn right now in J-Pop, and they'll come back, but I don't know that I think any one or two or three artists could change that. I only know sales of like four (Kuu, Ayu, Kana, Namie) right now, but the latter two definitely seem to be huge outliers in that they can get to platinum.

An argument could be made that Utada will have a stronger than expected, maybe triple platinum comeback - an argument could also be made that, given Single Collection Vol. 2's modest sales and her really long break, she could underwhelm and sell a bit below Kana/Namie. But I don't think she's enough to help inspire a turnaround for women yet, sadly.

As much as I would love for Ayu to sell over 40k again.

500k would be my optimistic prediction in case the comeback hype really worked. I don't see her underperforming (as I said, her first week sales will be no Distance and weak but in the end she'll sell decently). I don't consider SCII as a valid arguement which haters like to bring up because in all honesty it was a different case altogether. I think it was untimely. Or the GP isn't here for her best albums while preferring original material. I don't know but now we have the comeback hype, two Platinum singles with the huge exposure (especially the morning dorama one) so all of it could work in her favor.

I unfortunately don't see her helping the case either but I still have hope. The weeks preceding and following the release are going to be quite eventful in that aspect.

I was gonna say that as a huge fan I would really, really love if she miraculously went 3x platinum, but I just looked and saw that no solo female has done that since Best Fiction, or Heart Station by studio albums. Kana's to LOVE is closest at 728k.

Let me light my candles and start praying, the girl doesn't have the biggest hit in Japanese digital history to ride on this time but I need 550k+.

Don't forget Ayumi's A COMPLETE which sold 850.000 copies. It's funny how the Holy Trinity are the last ones with big selling albums

Oop, I did forget that. Three queens.

Now where's Universe and y'alls idol rate ballots

ICONIQ has announced her comeback, she goes under her birth name Ayumi Itou now.

i need to familiarize myself with the songs so it's going to take me a while to get through everything. but don't worry, you'll have my ballot by the 26th.

i finished organizing everything yesterday (i felt like my head was going to explode) and i'm listening to nogizaka46 right now

Single or album, though?

Acting as for now.

That's........unfortunate.

Pink Champagne the song is good. Don't really feel the other sings though.

~Thoughts on some new releases~

E-Girls: Pink Champagne is probably one of their best a-sides yet. Cowgirl Rhapsody is also a really solid b-side and Bad Girls is good but falls flat compared to the other two. Overall better than Summer Ride though.

Kalafina: Eh, I don't really feel Blaze. I feel like it's trying to build up to some type of climax but never gets there. On the hand, 夏の朝 I really like! I like the medieval/renaissance feel the song has.

Tomohisa Sako: Ngl, I only downloaded this because I thought the cover was cute. Lucikily the a-side, いつか君はそいつと別れるに決まってる is a really cute, laidback & sweet acoustic guitar driven number! 人生迷路 is also a really sweet number, a bit more up tempo compared to the a-side but it's still nice. いつか君はそいつと別れるに決まってる is a bit of an underwhelming ballad though.