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The story
A thread on 5ch’s Hello! Project board titled “Back then, I honestly liked Ami Suzuki more than Ayumi Hamasaki, Hikaru Utada, or Morning Musume” drew responses from the generation who lived through the idol-wars era around 1998. Opinions on her singing were split — “she was cute, but her singing was bad” versus “she got better once she grew up” — and posters also recalled the CD sales of the time and the era’s mood, summed up as “produced by Tetsuya Komuro = the real deal, produced by Tsunku = a novelty act.” Rather than a simple popularity contest, the interesting part this time was how differently people explained WHY they liked her.
What people said
Even though she wasn't a great singer, the ballad still felt really nice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD0LnHhNLg8&list=RDyD0LnHhNLg8&start_radio=1
She was cute, but yeah, her singing was pretty rough
Singing aside
But she's actually gotten good since growing up, check this out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70cRtKok_oE&list=RD70cRtKok_oE&start_radio=1
In the end, Ayumi Hamasaki was the one who won that round
But I thought Utada was the real deal, though I figured she wouldn't keep selling forever
And I figured Hamasaki would be the one loved across all ages and genders
In the middle of all that, I was rooting for Morning Musume
Ami Suzuki felt more like an 'idol'
Amuro-chan (Namie Amuro) drifted toward artist territory too
Utada was an artist from day one
It lost to Ayumi Hamasaki and Mai Kuraki, but I think it still hit No. 3 on the Oricon chart
Same here. Can't remember the timeline exactly, but her and Yuka Saegusa in dB were my picks
But Ami Suzuki's 'SA' moving 1 million in its first week shocked me even more
Setting Hamasaki and Utada aside
there really was that whole 'Komuro-produced = the real deal, Tsunku-produced = a novelty act' vibe back then, huh
I was in middle school back then, and the comparison people actually made was between Hamasaki and Amigo
I was Team Hamasaki myself
1. INFINITY 18
2. Love the Island
3. Alone in My Room
4. BE TOGETHER
5. Don't Need to Say Goodbye
6. All Night Long
7. White Key
8. Noting Without You
9. HAPPY NEW MILLENNIUM
I know 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7
but #5 is basically her masterpiece — no argument there, you already know it
her debut was almost the exact same time as Morning Musume's, huh
I don't really have much of an impression of it
My image of her is more like 'All Nairon, All Nairon' (a mishearing of 'All Night Long') and 'White Key'
I wasn't interested in either back then and only listened to bands, so from what I could see at the time, they seemed like completely separate things to me
If we had to lose, I'd at least have wanted us to lose to 'Manatsu no Kousen' (Midsummer's Ray)
5th place
That was the least popular type of song for that whole era
Background and Discussion Points
Around 1998 was a period when Hikaru Utada’s “First Love,” Ayumi Hamasaki’s debut, and Morning Musume’s rise all overlapped, with Ami Suzuki making her debut in almost the same stretch of time. Within the thread, posters recalled the era’s mood in terms like “produced by Tetsuya Komuro = the real deal” versus “produced by Tsunku = a novelty act,” and quite a few noted that Ami Suzuki was often lumped together and compared with Ayumi Hamasaki as being on the more “idol” side of things. Opinions on her singing lined up along “she wasn’t great, but her cuteness made it forgivable” versus “she got better once she grew up” — notably, many posters separated singing ability from idol appeal rather than framing it as simple like-or-dislike. Meanwhile, anecdotes like the “Furusato showdown” mentioned in reply 16, where release dates supposedly overlapped, are based on individual memories, and even within the thread the exact rankings and dates don’t fully line up. It’s worth keeping in mind while reading that some of this may involve misremembered sales figures mixed with rose-tinted nostalgia.
*This article was excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Back then, I honestly liked Ami Suzuki more than Ayumi Hamasaki, more than Hikaru Utada, more than Morning Musume lolololololololololol.”
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