![LOVE [99] COOK](/img/aprilis/love_cook-love_cook.jpg)
Screencap of Ai-chin from the concert.
Exactly one year ago, Ai Otsuka’s second national tour LOVE[99]COOK began in Fukuoka on April 1st 2006. After a month, the tour came to an end on May 9th 2006 in Ai’s hometown Osaka. Although this tour only had 11 tour dates (3 less than her debut tour, JAM PUNCH), the concert halls are a lot bigger. And in a sense, this is like an “upgrade” from the previous tour. A DVD from the May 9 concert filmed at Osakajo Hall was released on July 26, 2007. Not only did the DVD debut at the #1 spot on Oricon, it was also the 12th best selling DVD of 2006. The oversea version DVD and VCD were released on August 16, 2007.
At first glance, the tour title ‘LOVE[99]COOK Tour 2006 ~Mascara Mainichi Tsukete Masukara~’ might seem very weird, but there’s actually a special meaning behind it and it can be broken down to 3 parts. The first and most obvious part is LOVE COOK, which is the name of Ai’s third album. In Japanese the word ‘Ai’ means love, which is why all of Ai’s album thus far has the word ‘love’. On an episode of Music Fighter, Ai explained that the word ‘cook’ represents her birthday, which is September 9th. In Japanese this is pronounced as Kukku (クック) and if you say this fast enough, it sounds like ‘cook’. The second part of the title is [99], which also represents Ai’s birthday. Celsius translated Ai’s July 18, 2006 dairy entry from her official site, which explained the meaning behind the phrase ‘Mascara Mainichi Tsukete Masukara’ which roughly translated to ‘I wear mascara everyday’. In that dairy entry, Ai wrote:
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CHU-LIP promotional photo
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Artist: Ai Otsuka
Product Code: AVCD-31177/8
Release Date: 2007.02.21
First Press: Sticker
Debut Ranking: #2
Label: avex trax
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Ai Otsuka, affectionately nicknamed as Ai-chin by her fans is quite well known for her unique, bizarre and hyper releases. It has almost become a tradition for Ai-chin to release an upbeat single in the beginning of the year, which is highly anticipated by her fans. After four months of musical inactivity, Ai Otsuka discarded her “girl next door” image and returned with her new creation, “CHU-LIP”.
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An early photoshoot of Ai Otsuka during her debut era.
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Artist: Ai Otsuka
Product Code: AVCD-30525/8
Release date: 2003.09.10
Debut Ranking: #24
First Press: Picturebook
Label: avex trax
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Ai Otsuka had always been into the music since childhood. She started playing the piano when she was merely four years old. At the age of fifteen she began composing music and lyrics with the help of her piano teacher. By the time she was seventeen Ai-chin had already composed and written the lyrics for the songs “Always Together” and “Momo no Hanabira”, which were dedicated to a friend of hers. Too shy to perform by herself, Otsuka enlisted the help of several other friends and sang it as a chorus.
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A promotional image which was linked with Yumekui.
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Artist: Ai Otsuka
Product Code: AVCD-31021
Release date: 2006.08.02
Debut Ranking: #4
First Press: Special Packaging
Label: avex trax
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After four months of inactivity, Ai Otsuka returned to the music scene by releasing her twelfth single. Her highly anticipated single, “Yumekui” was announced to be released on the second of August, close to the release of “Tokyo Friends The Movie” in theatres. This single was specifically made by Ai-chin to fit the theme of “Tokyo Friends” and consequently it is no surprise that both songs within this single were featured within the series and the movie.
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Tokyo Friends was released on June 8, 2005. Unlike many other Dorama, it was never aired on TV. Instead it was released as DVD; 3 DVDs to be exact. Volume one and two contained the first 4 episodes while volume three contained the last episode. Each episode is approximately 70 minutes long. A Tokyo Friends Premium Box was also released, which includes all 5 episodes, a bonus DVD and 12 postcards. Although this is a very typical Tokyo-story and was never aired on TV, it was quite successful, most probably because it was Otsuka Ai’s debut as an actress.
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