Team Ayu

Team Ayu

The pop star it’s cool to paint on your car

By

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2010

Pop fandom knows many guises, but few singers have followers so rabid—and blind to the constraints of good taste—that they adorn their cars with images of their idol. Sure, Ayumi Hamasaki has fallen a long way from her early-noughties commercial peak, but her ardent supporters haven’t given up hope—and they’ve got the rides to prove it. The singer’s year-end concerts at Yoyogi Stadium provided a good excuse for the more lunatic fringe of her fan club, Team Ayu, to show off their Hamasakied vehicles: Cadillacs, kei cars and custom vans adorned with stickers and airbrushed portraits of the star. Trunks were converted into ad hoc shrines, with multiple TV screens blaring out concert footage, while the real diehards—read: just about everyone—proudly sported 1002 license plates, a reference to Ayu-chan’s birthday. Note to Lady Gaga: you’ve got a way to go yet.

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