Ai-chin will be mad if you don't buy this album
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LOVE JAM
Artist: Ai Otsuka
Product Code: AVCD-17538
Release date: 2004.11.17
Debut Ranking: #1
Label: avex trax
First Press: 80 page drawing booklet
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Ai-chin’s 2nd album, “LOVE JAM”, was released on 2004.11.17, that is less than 8 months since the release of her debut album, “LOVE PUNCH“. Despite the short time frame between these two albums, no quality of music was compromised, in fact “LOVE JAM” is arguably a tuned up version of “LOVE PUNCH”, showing improvements in both the arrangement of music and the depth of her ballads.
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![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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A promotional image from 'Like a Love?' photoshoot.
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Artist: Ami Suzuki
Product Code: AVCD-31040/1
Release date: 2006-07-26
Peak Position: #13
First Press: Photo Booklet
Label: avex trax
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Since her return to the J-Pop scene, last year Ami Suzuki has certainly been rather busy. With eight singles and two albums already released, along with a nation-wide tour, it’s clear that Amigo is still intent on being a professional singer and expand her career further. Approximately two months after the release of her seventh single, ‘Alright!’, Ami released a mellow summer ballad speaking about when one falls in love for the first time…
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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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