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What do you think will be remembered most about Ai in years to come?
| LOVE-chan |
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20%
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| Her music |
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80%
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| Something else |
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0%
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Total Votes : 10 |
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| pon pon |
 Posted: Aug 07, 2011 10:21 pm |
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クムリウタ
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 985
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Ai's now iconic LOVE-chan character has appeared on all sorts of official merchandise, from beach towels, food, perfume, along with the more usual keychain/cellphone accessories and fluffy toys, as well as publications such as diaries and calendars.
most of us will also have seen examples of the LOVE-chan character used in "unofficial" (counterfeit) merchandise as well. in fact, it appears that LOVE-chan is one of the more popular rabbit characters that people copy. if you search with "LOVE RABBIT" on ebay you will see lots of examples. you can always tell an attempted copy when they put the word LOVE in the left ear. some are reasonable copies and some are hopeless. when they vary the design too much from the original it always looks worse, imo.
it makes me wonder, what Ai will be best remembered for in years to come. Her music or her creation of the LOVE-chan rabbit? It would be a bit sad if it was only LOVE-chan. i always imagined her art and in particular LOVE-chan were only whimsical sidelines for Ai and that music was her main interest and passion.
tastes in popular music can be fickle at best and i notice that so far there have been hardly any covers of her songs, although being in Japanese would certainly limit that.
history will eventually be the judge.
EDIT: added a poll |
Last edited by pon pon on Aug 13, 2011 10:44 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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| chokokokoa |
| Posted: Aug 08, 2011 2:04 pm |
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恋愛写真
Joined: 11 Jun 2009
Posts: 1480
Location: Indoneshia
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If LOVE-chan will be remembered for years to come, but ironically, I think people would not know that this LOVE rabbit character is the copyright (the creation) of Aichin. 
They would just think that this character is just an ordinary rabbit character... 
Stupid people...   |
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| mangomalte |
| Posted: Aug 08, 2011 4:25 pm |
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クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Posts: 3582
Location: Sweden
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lol, i wouldn't call people stupid because they don't know that....
but yeah, i've been thinking about the same thing myself. when i was in china they're were all over the place (well, maybe not, but i saw them at quite a few occasions), and i can't imagine she's very mainstream there or has ever been. |
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| LoveSkywalker |
| Posted: Aug 11, 2011 12:27 pm |
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金魚花火
Joined: 20 Oct 2009
Posts: 160
Location: Poland
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This is a very interesting topic indeed.
It's true that various products featuring LOVE-chan are omnipresent, especially on things imported from China (keychains, pens, pencils, earrings etc.). Last year I found quite decent LOVE-chan keychains in a store near my home (about which I wrote in my blog - there are also photos of my discovery). Of course I was delighted when I saw them, but, as one of you already mentioned, surely nobody except of me knew what this character was.
I wouldn't treat LOVE as Ai's legacy, because only her fans (or those who have seen her somewhere) associate the rabbit with the singer. For others it's just a cute Chinese bunny (yeah, Chinese...). LOVE-chan could be perceived as Ai's "legacy" if it was her trademark - for example whenever you see this you think: "Ah! The Rolling Stones!". In Ai and LOVE's case, the association basically doesn't exist (not applicable to fans).
Yeah, it's a shame that having contributed greatly to the gadget fashion, Ai stays almost completely unknown as the author of the character AND she doesn't make profit out of it (this is also important). Do the companies pay her for the right to use her design on their products? I don't think so. At least not all of them. In the worldwide range, it's a lot of money. |
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| skeedatl |
| Posted: Aug 11, 2011 2:05 pm |
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クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 4199
Location: Huntington Beach
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I don't know. I agree with others that most people don't associate LOVE with Ai-chin. It may be an enduring business success but won't be associated with Ai-chin. I would think that having a song in the top 200 of Oricon for 2 YEARS would be more of an enduring legacy.
Things would change if she were personally promoting some of these products rather than leaving them as a completely separate 'spin-off'.
It does make me wonder though, how much does Ai-chin make from licensing this trademark or if she sold it outright to AVEX. That the most traditional LOVE logo is copyright AMG / LOVE makes me wonder if she didn't sell the rights to AVEX Music Group (AMG) or something.
Then I wonder more...is LOVE the only "artist" featured on the Locomusic label of AVEX? If you put in locomusic.jp directly into the browser, it forwards to /love/index for LOVE-chan. If so does Ai-Chin and AMG share ownership of locomusic? Otherwise why separate LOVE-chan from a regular AVEX sub-label of which there are so many? |
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| chokokokoa |
| Posted: Aug 11, 2011 2:52 pm |
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恋愛写真
Joined: 11 Jun 2009
Posts: 1480
Location: Indoneshia
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LoveSkywalker wrote: LOVE-chan could be perceived as Ai's "legacy" if it was her trademark - for example whenever you see this you think: "Ah! The Rolling Stones!".
I think for all of the fans and anyone knows Ai-chin, this is her trademark. 
skeedatl wrote: is LOVE the only "artist" featured on the Locomusic label of AVEX? If you put in locomusic.jp directly into the browser, it forwards to /love/index for LOVE-chan.
Yes, it is. 
skeedatl wrote: If so does Ai-Chin and AMG share ownership of locomusic? Otherwise why separate LOVE-chan from a regular AVEX sub-label of which there are so many?
I don't think Ai-chin and AMG share the ownership. I think Avex owns whole of it. |
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| Aprilis. |
| Posted: Aug 11, 2011 9:53 pm |
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クムリウタ
Joined: 26 Aug 2005
Posts: 941
Location: Japan
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I agree with skeedatl. Right from the start Ai distanced herself from LOVE by promoting it in the background. It was perhaps something she wanted to created, but did not want to over shadow her music career.
It is sad to see LOVE having more success than Ai's music. But the question of, will Ai's music be remember years from now? Yes and no. Yes, because Sakurabon has gone down in history and is very well known. No doubt, this is her signature song cause whenever you mention Ai it's likely people immediately think of this song. Will her other singles and songs be remembered too? To her fans maybe, but to others it'll just be another song that was release who knows when. |
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| pon pon |
| Posted: Aug 12, 2011 2:22 am |
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クムリウタ
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 985
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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i wasnt so much thinking about whether people would know that Ai was the originator of LOVE-chan, or even if people knew her name as the artist who wrote and performed her songs.
i was wondering more about what it is she has done that would survive the longest in the world's collective consciousness. for example, go into the future 50 years and pick a random person. play Sakuranbo to them and show them LOVE-chan. which one is most likely to be familiar? |
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| skeedatl |
| Posted: Aug 12, 2011 10:05 am |
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クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 4199
Location: Huntington Beach
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Sakuranbo is a single "product". LOVE is a product LINE with an endless stream of new products. If Ai-chin continuously produced new music, T.V. acting, CMs, etc. for 50 years, people would know Ai-chin as much or more than 50 years of LOVE products.
The question is if both stopped today, would anyone remember either in 50 years, who knows. I think the music would be longer lasting even if you consider only the hit songs. Today we know the songs of "one hit wonders" 50 years later but don't recognize toys from 50 years ago.
But I would agree with you if the licensing of new LOVE products continues. Then it would be like Hello Kitty, where there are zillions of products. Eventually EVERYONE comes across them enough to recognize them, even decades after the first introduction. If Hello Kitty had ended all licensing and production of products in 1980, would Hello Kitty endure and be so recognizable today?
That said...
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| mangomalte |
| Posted: Aug 13, 2011 2:44 am |
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クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Posts: 3582
Location: Sweden
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chokokokoa wrote: LoveSkywalker wrote: LOVE-chan could be perceived as Ai's "legacy" if it was her trademark - for example whenever you see this you think: "Ah! The Rolling Stones!".
I think for all of the fans and anyone knows Ai-chin, this is her trademark. heh, i was actually expecting the heart on PEACH/HEART and the LE of LOVE PIECE to pop up when i clicked that link.  |
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| skeedatl |
| Posted: Aug 13, 2011 12:23 pm |
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クラゲ, 流れ星
Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 4199
Location: Huntington Beach
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I think the songs will endure. Again, with Sakuranbo, over 2 years on Oricon, I can't think of any songs that have been on longer.
I forgot that I had stumbled across this the other day, Ichikawa Miori of AKB48 covering Sakuranbo in karaoke. Very cute. As I mentioned earlier, we all remember certain songs, years and years after they debuted because they were so popular at the time. I think Sakuranbo will be one of those enduring songs. |
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| pon pon |
| Posted: Aug 13, 2011 10:47 pm |
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クムリウタ
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 985
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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| added a poll to the first post. should have done that in the beginning. |
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| chokokokoa |
| Posted: Aug 14, 2011 5:32 am |
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恋愛写真
Joined: 11 Jun 2009
Posts: 1480
Location: Indoneshia
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Voted.
I voted for "Her music". |
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| LittleBigHeart |
| Posted: Aug 14, 2011 4:44 pm |
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ユメクイ
Joined: 15 Jul 2008
Posts: 1184
Location: France, Lyon
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| i don't care about LOVE-chan, i just wanna Ai-chan to be singer as long as she can ^^ ! |
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| pon pon |
| Posted: Nov 12, 2011 10:26 pm |
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クムリウタ
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 985
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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skeedatl wrote: It does make me wonder though, how much does Ai-chin make from licensing this trademark or if she sold it outright to AVEX. That the most traditional LOVE logo is copyright AMG / LOVE makes me wonder if she didn't sell the rights to AVEX Music Group (AMG) or something.
Then I wonder more...is LOVE the only "artist" featured on the Locomusic label of AVEX? If you put in locomusic.jp directly into the browser, it forwards to /love/index for LOVE-chan. If so does Ai-Chin and AMG share ownership of locomusic? Otherwise why separate LOVE-chan from a regular AVEX sub-label of which there are so many?
reading through this topic again i read "LOVE logo is copyright AMG / LOVE". then it occured to me that Locomusic may be Ai's company. "Loco" standing for Love Company (if you were Ai, what name would you give your company?). the copyright for LOVE products may be shared between Avex and Ai. this is pure speculation on my part but it kinda makes sense. Avex says "create what you like, Avex will market it and we share the profits". so LOVE-chan could be a joint venture, hence the "copyright AMG / LOVE".
i recently bought some LOVE-chan items on ebay. i know they are almost certainly unlicensed and as a rule i avoid collecting merchandise in general, for fear of getting a need to complete my collection. but despite that, i bought this and this, mostly because they were cheap.  with the first one, i am hoping for black because the body is the most authentic. (more details about the second one here). even now i am wondering if it is right or wrong to buy these things.  |
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